CTX: Configure Citrix XenApp6 using a Oracle database

The first step before the setup of XenApp 6 on the server is install the Oracle Client 32-bit on the server.

Download the file win32_11gR2_client.zip (Oracle Database 11g Release 2 Client for Microsoft Windows (32-bit)) available at

http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/products/database/oracle11g/112010_win32soft.html

Descompress the .zip file and run the Setup file.

Then run the XenApp setup and you will see the Oracle option is available.

My book Getting Started with Citrix XenApp 6 is available!!

My new book "Getting Started with Citrix XenApp 6" by Packt Publishing is now available. You can order it at Packtpub.com


XenApp 6 is the leader in application hosting and virtualization delivery, allowing users from different platforms such Windows, Mac, Linux, and mobile devices to connect to their business applications. It reduces resources and costs for application distribution and management. Using Citrix XenApp 6, you can deploy secure applications quickly to thousands of users.

Getting Started with Citrix XenApp 6 provides comprehensive details on how to design, implement, and maintain Citrix farms based on XenApp 6. Additionally, you will learn to use management tools and scripts for daily tasks such as managing servers, published resources, printers, and connections.

Getting Started with Citrix XenApp 6 starts by introducing the basics of XenApp such as installing servers and configuring components, and then teaches you how to publish applications and resources on the client device before moving on to configuring content redirection.

Author Guillermo Musumeci includes a use case throughout the book to explain advanced topics like creating management scripts and deploying and optimizing XenApp for Citrix XenServer, VMware ESX, and Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machines. It will guide you through an unattended installation of XenApp and components on physical servers. By the end of this book you will have enough knowledge to successfully design and manage your own XenApp 6 Farms.

A complete guide to managing a virtualized application environment using XenApp

What you will learn from this book :

• New features and system requirements of XenApp 6



• The XenApp Architecture and designing XenApp 6 Farms



• Install XenApp 6 and configure XenApp 6 components



• Manage XenApp components and Citrix Administrators using the new Citrix Delivery Services Console and other Management tools



• Publish and manage applications and resources, including application streaming



• Create and apply Citrix Policies to control connections, security, and bandwidth settings using the Group Policy Management Console, Citrix Delivery Services Console, and Local Group Policy Editor.



• Optimize multimedia content on XenApp using Citrix HDX technologies



• Manage session environments and connections



• Create PowerShell Scripts to manage the farm and call scripts from VB.NET and C#.NET



• Deploy XenApp 6 on Citrix XenServer, Microsoft Hyper-V, and VMware ESX virtual machines
  Unattended installation of XenApp 6 on physical servers.

Approach

This book has a tutorial style with step-by-step instructions and adequate screenshots for carrying out each task.

Working on a big company with thousands of Citrix servers around the world running multiples version of XenApp and Presentation server is the perfect scenario to found removing MFCOM can be one of the big mistakes of Citrix on years.

In very distributed and secure environments with multiples domains PowerShell is just not working to manage remote servers as well MFCOM can do it.

I hope Citrix will release a Future Pack to provide full access to MFCOM soon, or adoption level of XA6 will keep low…. And companies will keep running old versions or migrate to XA5!!!

Nobody will rewrite hundred of scripts and tools to Powershell, because NOBODY are using PowerShell, maybe in a few years...

MS: Events 1085 and 8194 on Windows 2008 - Group Policy Issues

A full hard disk caused the following errors to appears on event viewer in a Windows Server 2008 running Terminal Server and Citrix XenApp. The lack of space caused a GPO corruption on the server.


Log Name: System
Source: Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy
Event ID: 1085
Level: Warning
Description:Windows failed to apply the Group Policy "MyPolicy" settings. Group Policy "MyPolicy" settings might have its own log file. Please click on the "More information" link.


Log Name: Application
Source: Group Policy Start Menu Settings
Event ID: 8194
Level: Error
Description: The client-side extension could not remove user policy settings for 'MyPolicy' because it failed with error code '0x8007000d The data is invalid.' See trace file for more details.

SOLUTION: Delete the content of folder C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Group Policy\History, run GPUPDATE /FORCE and reboot server.

MS: Terminal Server issue - Error 4105

Error:

Log Name: System
Source: Microsoft-Windows-TerminalServices-Licensing
Event ID: 4105
Level: Warning
Description:
The Remote Desktop license server cannot update the license attributes for user "user" in the Active Directory Domain "domain.com". Ensure that the computer account for the license server is a member of Terminal Server License Servers group in Active Directory domain "domain.com".If the license server is installed on a domain controller, the Network Service account also needs to be a member of the Terminal Server License Servers group.If the license server is installed on a domain controller, after you have added the appropriate accounts to the Terminal Server License Servers group, you must restart the Remote Desktop Licensing service to track or report the usage of RDS Per User CALs.Win32 error code: 0x80070005

This issue is caused by missing Terminal server attributes on Windows 2008 R2 Active Directory Domains. This issue can cause issues on Citrix logins.

Solution:

Run the following powershell script. The script MUST run on PowerShell 2.0 and with administrator permissions (right click on the powershell icon and select Run as Administrator. Modify the domain name in the script.

$URL = ldap://DC=mydomain,DC=com/;

cls
$root = New-Object DirectoryServices.DirectoryEntry
$URL$ds = New-Object DirectoryServices.DirectorySearcher
$ds.SearchRoot = $root
$ds.filter = "objectCategory=Person"
$src = $ds.findall()
write-host "Found" $src.count "user objects.`n"
$src %{
$de = $_.getdirectoryentry()
$accessrules = $de.get_objectsecurity().getaccessrules($true, $false,[System.Security.Principal.SecurityIdentifier]) ?{$_.ObjectType -eq "5805bc62-bdc9-4428-a5e2-856a0f4c185e"}
if ((measure-object -inputobject $accessrules).count -eq 0)
{
$ar = new-object System.DirectoryServices.ActiveDirectoryAccessRule([System.Security.Principal.SecurityIdentifier]"S-1-5-32-561", 48, "Allow", [guid]"5805bc62-bdc9-4428-a5e2-856a0f4c185e")
$de.get_objectsecurity().addaccessrule($ar)
$de.commitchanges()
write-host -f yellow ("Added:`t" + $de.properties["sAMAccountName"])
start-sleep -m 200
}
else
{
write-host -f green ("OK:`t" + $de.properties["sAMAccountName"])
}
}

CTX: Windows 7 and Office 2010 running XenDesktop 5 @iPad

I'm working on a XenDesktop 5 PoC (Proof of concept).

This is a iPad running Windows 7 and Office 2o1o! How amazing is this!


Right-Click and Audio are two issues I found on the pilot.

CTX: Exchange is unavailable error on Citrix or Terminal Server

When a user opens Outlook on Citrix XenApp (or Terminal Server) running on Windows 2008, he received an error: “Exchange is unavailable”.

They are several reasons for this issue:

1) Network issues:

Check network connection. Check if network gateway is ok. Reset the network connection.

2) Cached Profiles:

• Check the date of cached profile folder for the user on the C:\Users folder. If the date is from previous days, ask user to log off and delete the cached profile. Also delete any temp folder, they are corrupted profiles.
• Check Profile List and delete key with .bak at the end in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList. Compare users in task manager and delete profiles from not connected users too.

Note: you can enable a GPO to delete profiles when users log off from a session.

Open Group Policies Management console. Expand Computer Configuration, expand Administrative Templates, expand System, and then expand User Profiles.
Double-click Delete cached copies of roaming profiles, click Enabled

This GPO not always is working properly. A process lock the profile and some pieces of the profile still on folder. You can enable a GPO to delete profiles older than XX days when server is rebooted, to delete these profiles.

Open Group Policies Management console. Expand Computer Configuration, expand Administrative Templates, expand System, and then expand User Profiles. Double-click Delete user profiles older than a specified number of days on system restart and type amount of days.

CTX: Edgesight is reporting Device Model as [Unknown]

Error: When you check the Edgesight console, you will found Device Model shows [Unknown]

Solution: This issue is caused by WMI on Citrix server. Verify WMI service is running. Rebuild the WMI using following article http://musumeci.blogspot.com/2010/11/ms-windows-management-instrumentation.html

CTX: How to Import ICAClient.adm file into Active Directory to modify Citrix Plug-in client settings using GPO

How to Import ICAClient.adm file into Active Directory to modify Citrix Plug-in (formerly known as ICA Client) client settings using GPO.
http://xenapp6.musumeci.com.ar/TechnicalNotes/How_to_Import_ICAClient.adm_file.html

MS: Windows Management Instrumentation ADAP failed to connect to namespace \\.\root\cimv2

Issue:

WMI is not reporting hardware information to some applications (like Citrix EdgeSight or HP Proliant Support Pack, for example). Event Viewer will show the following error:

Windows Management Instrumentation ADAP failed to connect to namespace \\.\root\cimv2 with the following error 0x80041002

Solution:

Rebuild WMI. Create a script with following lines and run on affected server:

cd /d %windir%\system32\wbem
for %i in (*.dll) do RegSvr32 -s %i
for %i in (*.exe) do %i /RegServer

Run %windir%\system32\wbem\wbemtest and click Connect button. And connect to root\cimv2 namespace, to verify is working.

If still not working, run following command to reset WMI to initial state:

%windir%\system32\wbem\winmgmt /resetrepository

CTX: SMB Tuning for XenApp and File Servers on Windows Server 2008

SMB Tuning for XenApp and File Servers on Windows Server 2008
http://community.citrix.com/display/ocb/2010/10/21/SMB+Tuning+for+XenApp+and+File+Servers+on+Windows+Server+2008

CTX: Publish FireFox 3.6 on Citrix or Terminal Server

When we publish FireFox on a Citrix Server or Terminal Server, we want to avoid the default check box:

On a Windows 2008 64-bit edit following file:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\defaults\pref\firefox.js

On a Windows 2008 32-bit edit following file:
C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\defaults\pref\firefox.js

and replace following file:

pref("browser.shell.checkDefaultBrowser", true);

with this one

("browser.shell.checkDefaultBrowser", false);

Error: The processing of Group Policy failed. Windows attempted to read the file \\\SYSVOL\\Policies\\gpt.ini

I found several XenApp servers (physical and virtual machines) affected by this issue. This issue cause Windows profile load and Windows profile redirection errors.

The error is The processing of Group Policy failed. Windows attempted to read the file \\\SYSVOL\\Policies\\gpt.ini where is the name of the domain controller, is the name of the domain, and is the GUID of the policy folder.

Solution: run the following command: dfsutil /spcflush

CtxAdmTools: CtxCertifiedPrinters v1.2 released!

I was working on last weeks with a few 64-bit Citrix farms and I was reading about XenApp 6 Printing this morning on the metro to Downtown DC, so I decided to create a new tool called CtxCertifiedPrinters to list all certified, native, non-native and manufacturer 64-bit print drivers. The tool can export results to a Excel file.

If you are looking for 32-bit print driver tool, I created a tool called PrintCert, on July 2008 (in fact this is one of my first CtxAdmTools).

This Free tool is available at http://ctxadmtools.musumeci.com.ar/CtxCertifiedPrinters

MS: How to Setup a KMS Server for Office 2010

This technical note included:

• How to Install a Windows Server 2008 / 2008 R2 KMS Server
• Install Office 2010 licenses in the KMS Server

We need to deploy a KMS Server for Office 2010 if we planning to deploy Office 2010 as streaming application in Citrix or App-V.

http://xenapp6.musumeci.com.ar/TechnicalNotes/How_to_Setup_a_KMS_Server_for_Office_2010.html

CTX: Unable to save the target. Compacting target files into a container file failed.

When we are going to build the Profile on the Citrix Streaming Profiler, we receive the error: Unable to save the target. Compacting target files into a container file failed.

To fix this issue,we need to reset the permissions of all files inside the profile, using the following process:

• Open the Windows Explorer, select the CtxPackager folder.
• Right click over this folder and select Properties.
• Click on Security tab and then in Advanced button.
• Click on the Owner tab, then in the Edit button.
• Enable the Replace owner on subcontainers and objects checkbox.

Create a mobile Hyper-V R2 server on a laptop

How to Create a mobile Hyper-V R2 server on a laptop.

My consulting job requires test lots of applications or builds demos or servers to study new certifications. I download and tested the 30 days VMware Workstation on a Windows 7 Enterprise and then I installed a Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V R2 in a second partition and compared run both environments for a few days in my old Dell laptop. The winner was Hyper-V.

I found the CPU is the real problem when you run multiples VMs in my old laptop and not the memory, so at least a Quad Core with HT is a required.

The next step was to choose a laptop to run it.

I review dozens and dozens of laptops with a price tag between $1000 to $1500.

I was looking for several features:

- Intel Core i7 Quad Core CPU (720QM or up)
- The machine will support 8GB or more of memory (2 or 4 slots)
- Screen resolution of 1600 x 900 or similar. 15” or 17”
- Will be nice to have 2 hard drives
- 9 cell batteries

Last runners:

- HP Pavilion dv7-4080us $1199 – i7 720QM with 6GB (8GB Max), 1TB (2x500 GB HDD 7200rpm), 17” (1600x900), 9 cell battery, Blu-ray device
- HP ENVY 17-1011NR $1599 - i7 720QM with 8GB (8GB Max), 640GB (2x320GB HDD 7200rpm), 17” (1600x900), 9 cell battery, Blu-ray device
- Acer Aspire AS7745G-6572 $999, i7 720QM with 4GB (16GB Max) 500GB HDD 5400rpm , 17” (1600x900), 6 cell battery, DVD
- Lenovo IdeaPad Y560 $999, i7 720QM with 8GB (8GB Max), 500GB HDD (7200RPM), 15.6” (1366x768), 6 cell Battery, DVD
- Dell Studio 15, $1200, i7 720QM with 8GB (8GB Max), 500GB HDD (7200RPM), 15.6” (1920x1080), 6 cell Battery, DVD

And the winner is HP Pavilion dv7-4080us!

I love this machine. It arrived with Win7 Ultimate and I formatted the hard drive and installed Windows 7 Enterprise and Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V R2.

Below is a screenshot of current state of my machine:

You can see 6 VMs running on it and I have the CPU at 0% and 4GB of RAM used (I have 2 extra GB of RAM available and can replace the 2GB memory module for 4GB for around $100).

VMs running are:

• BrickDB01 - Windows 2008 R2 and SQL 2008 R2 DB Citrix Datastore
• BrickDC01 - Windows 2008 R2 Domain Controller
• BrickProfiler - Windows 7 Enterprise to profile Citrix Streamed applications
• BrickXA01 - Windows 2008 R2 and Citrix XenApp 6 server
• BrickXA02 - Windows 2008 R2 and Citrix XenApp 6 server
• CONVERG - Windows 7 Enterprise with Office 2010 machin

The only thing I don't like about this machine is the touchpad (you can disable it) and this machine doesn’t include a TPM chip.

CTX: TechEdge 2010 Presentations List

Citrix TechEdge is a free event hosted by top Citrix Technical Support engineers at Citrix Summit and Synergy, where you gain in-depth knowledge on the latest troubleshooting tools, methodologies and fixes for your Citrix Application Delivery Infrastructure. TechEdge 2010 was held on Tuesday, May 11th at the Moscone West Convention Center, San Francisco, California.

This article lists the presentations and videos from TechEdge 2010 that are available on the Citrix Knowledge Center.


CTX125175 - TechEdge 2010 - Debugging a Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop Environment
CTX125177 - TechEdge 2010 - Troubleshooting XenDesktop Deployments
CTX125178 - TechEdge 2010 - XenServer Storage Management and Troubleshooting
CTX125180 - Troubleshooting XenDesktop, Provisioning Services & XenServer Integration
CTX125181 - TechEdge 2010 - Troubleshooting Performance Issues in a Virtualized Environment
CTX125182 - TechEdge 2010 - Provisioning Services Stream Process Architecture and Advanced Troubleshooting
CTX125183 - TechEdge 2010 - Netscaler VPX Implementation and Troubleshooting
CTX125184 - TechEdge 2010 - Optimizing NetScaler for Enterprise Web Applications

CTX: How to Setup Remote Desktop Licensing in Windows Server 2008

How to Setup Remote Desktop Licensing in Windows Server 2008

This procedure explains how to setup the Remote Desktop Licensing (formerly know as Terminal Server license server) in Windows Server 2008.

The technical note is available here

CTX: How to Create a Citrix Data store in SQL Server 2008 R2

How to Create a Citrix Data store in SQL Server 2008 R2

This procedure explains how to create a Citrix Data Store in SQL Server 2008 step by step.

The technical note is available Here