Virtualization, technology, and random rantings with a focus on Citrix and VMware.

Author: Kris Davis

First Thoughts on Workspace-ed Out!

Just started using the new Workspace / Receiver. I still am partial to using just the web portion of it. I connect to multiple sites and I like to have browser separation on them. I have played around with the Workspace “proper” as well. I’m noticing things are launching faster either way with this new client. I’m pleasantly surprised to see it. I’m looking forward to checking more of it out and comparing performance to my previous client. I’ll update after I have had more time with it!

SQL Requirements for XenApp 7.15LTSR

Here are the requirements I ran across needing for the SQL backend portion for XenApp 7.15LTSR. I had to initially get full sa permission so that XenApp could setup it’s 3 databases. We couldn’t get it to work otherwise. After that, we were able to step down the permission as listed below.

 

SQL Requirements

  1. SQL server (stand alone or cluster/AG. If cluster/AG, then additional setup is needed.
  2. Five total drives. Two drives for OS and SQL install and one for each DATA, TEMP, and LOG.
  3. Service account to run SQL.
  4. Service account for XenApp server for adds to the farm.
  5. Service account for PVS if using PVS.
  6. Permissions for account: dbowner and securityadmin. Securityadmin is needed to create the machine account access to the database.
  7. SQL Database for Site, ConfigurationLogging, and Monitoring for XenApp.
  8. If you are using Session Recording, you will also need CitrixSessionRecording and CitrixSessionRecordingLogging.

Overview subject to change

Good afternoon and stuff! As promised, I’m going to begin to post the stuff for building a XenApp 7.15 LTSR Enterprise environment. This is subject to change as I run into different issues, requirements, or angry wombats. Below is a skeleton of the requirements I ran into in setting up and Enterprise Citrix environment. I did run into an interesting issue with the Netscaler management interface being on the same VLAN as the data traffic, but that is for another post soon to come. I’ll be addressing the individual components as well as the specifics / issues and resolutions I ran across as well. But for now, here you go!

 

  1. IP range for the Citrix servers.
  2. Dedicated storage LUN(s) / storage cluster.
  3. Dedicated hardware / Vmware cluster.
  4. One license server.
  5. Two – three PVS servers.
  6. One SQL server and instance.
  7. Two – three storefront servers.
  8. Two – three director servers.
  9. Two – three profile servers.
  10. DHCP server.
  11. Two netscalers in HA to support user connections.
  12. SSL certificate for main site.
  13. SSL certificate for StoreFront.
  14. VLAN for Citrix.
  15. AppLayering OVA 4.11.
  16. MAS OVA for netscaler.
  17. Sizing of 3:1 or 4:1 for Citrix on over provisioning of hardware. Some articles list as 2:1, but 3:1 or even 4:1 may be attainable depending on applications.
  18. Four service accounts.

PoSh Spice Be Here!

I want to take a moment… Ok, that moment’s over. Bringing to you from the world of powershell, powercli, and power scripting….. Stuart Yerdon, and the webmaster of https://notesofascripter.com. He has been featured as a vExpert, a connoisseur of all things M:TG (If you have to ask….), and a colleague and friend of mine. Check out his site and all things powershell. If you got a problem, and you can find him (you can at https://notesofascripter.com), you’ll find what you seek.

Linux Receiver for Fedora

So you want to connect to Citrix on Fedora 28 to a Citrix site that uses Entrust certificates? Well, the receiver has a few issues with that idea. So to take care of that, there are some workarounds you need to do. I have a link on the bottom of the screen for what I had to do to get it working. You will need to download the tarball files. I used the 13.8 client. You can do it with the newer 13.9 as well, I had just backtracked to get it working. So below is what I had to do.

  1. Download the tarball to install https://www.citrix.com/downloads/citrix-receiver/linux/receiver-for-linux-latest.html. You will need to sign up for a Citrix account.
  2. Copy the file to /opt.
  3. Switch to the privileged user install.
  4. Follow the install through.
  5. When you are done, go to https://www.entrust.com and download the Entrust root 2048, Entrust root G2, and in my case, the Entrust L1K certificate. You may have a different intermediate certificate depending on what you are using. You will need to save these to /opt/Citrix/ICAClient/keystore/cacerts. I didn’t need the PEM, I only had to download the .cer files.
  6. You should be able to connect and launch now!

From I was finding, this is also what you will need to do if you are using newer versions of Ubuntu such as 18.04.

https://discussions.citrix.com/topic/393904-cannot-connect-to-0002-streetsmart-edge/

SUBST for the substitute win!

Welcome all to the world of an older application that was never meant to be multi-user. The application was designed for a desktop OS and for a single user. One way you can get around application work/temp folders is an old DOS command called subst. You can use it to map a folder location as a drive. An example is subst x: c:\users\%username%. You will need to create a folder in the user folder location. Then you can potentially point the INI file for the application to the x: location and now you have a separated workspace for each user. This has helped with more than one application in the past. Sometimes with terminal services and Citrix you have to get a little creative. With the big push of Windows 10, many older applications are being pushed off the desktop and into a virtualized environment as these antiquated applications are usually mission critical and haven’t been re-architected. Hope this brings some help to you!

Virtually into the world of virtualizing!

Do you want to build a snowman? I mean….. Maybe that’s the wrong place. Oh well. My name is Kris Davis and I’m a techaholic. Wrong meeting. Back to topic. I’ve been working in the tech world for 18 years ish. My primary focus for the past 12 years or so has been in Citrix and related technologies. I’ve worked with Windows, Linux, Citrix, VMware, scripting, networking, and more. I’ll be working to have weekly-ish posts to put things I’ve found that have been helpful and some walk-throughs. Maybe some rantings or musings on a variety of topics. I do aim to release in pieces at first, a document set that encompasses taking a small to medium scale Citrix installation to a full scale, enterprise solution. I’m in process of deploying a large scale installation as we speak, so I have a lot of content to share from what I have weeded through to find the pieces most useful. The current iteration includes XenApp 7.15LTSR-CU2, PVS 7.15, Netscalers, and some more epic tech. I’ll be posting my failings as well as my success so you can learn and grow with me!

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