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

Category: Workspace

Want To Update That HTML5 Workspace App? How About A Script! : Scripted Update HTML5 Workspace App

So you see that the HTML5 Workspace App updates pretty regularly. That’s a great thing! How about you may have several StoreFront servers. You want to do that manually EVERY time? Of course not! Here is a script that will do that for you! You will also need to go get this function from github that makes this work. The piece of resistance one could say! It lets you get the file version details metadata.

While trying to figure out how to target the HTML5 Workspace App version, I did not see it in registry or in Add/Remove Programs. So I was checking the location of the files to see what I could find. I ended up checking C:\Program Files\Citrix\Receiver StoreFront\HTML5Client and found a file SRI.js that had citrixHTML5Launcher version. I figured I could just check that file and get the version number as it reflected the correct version I had installed previously. I did an upgrade to check if that showed the correct version after the upgrade, and it did. Also found out that once you install it, you cannot go to an earlier version, so be sure to snapshot if you want to do some testing with versions.

Here is the link to the function by Lukas Wohrl that allowed me to get the file version from install file. Get-FileMetaData

Below is the script to do the upgrade:

# Script to check version of CitrixHTML5Client on StoreFront servers, copy upgrade file to upgrade folder, install upgrade, based on version detected.
# You will need the function Get-FileMetaData from https://gist.github.com/woehrl01/5f50cb311f3ec711f6c776b2cb09c34e. This allows you to get the file version and convert to
# [System.Version] type to compare. You will also need to have access to the StoreFront servers as admin to be able run invoke commands and if you need to snapshot, access to your hypervisor. Format for txt file is server.fqdn.

$creds                         = Get-Credential
$storeFronts                   = Get-Content "C:\scripts\logs\storefronts.txt"
$date                          = Get-Date -Format MMddyyyy
$sourceWorkspaceAppLocation    = "fileserver\HTML5Client\upgrade"
$targetFileName                = "CitrixHTML5Client-x64.exe"
$fileInfo                      = Get-FileMetaData "\\$sourceWorkspaceAppLocation\$targetFileName"
$pathToCheckStoreFront         = "C$\Program Files\Citrix\Receiver StoreFront\HTML5Client\"
[System.Version]$targetVersion =  $fileInfo.'File version'
$storeFrontDestinationLocation = "C$\software\html5"
$totalItems                    = $storeFronts.Count
$vCenterAddress                = "vCenter.fqdn"
$storeFrontUpgradeReport       = [PSCustomObject]@{}
$currentItem                   = 0
$percentComplete               = 0

if($global:defaultviserver -eq $null){

  Connect-VIServer $vcenter

}

foreach($store in $storeFronts){
  $storeFrontUpgradeReport | Add-Member -NotePropertyName "StoreFrontName" -NotePropertyValue "$store"
  Write-Progress -Activity "Checking StoreFront Server $store and upgrading if applicable" -Status "$percentComplete% Complete:" -PercentComplete $percentComplete
  if (!(Test-Path -Path "\\$store\$pathToCheckStoreFront")){

    Write-Host "Path not found on $store. HTML5 Client does not appear to be installed." -BackgroundColor Yellow -ForegroundColor Black
   
  }

  $html5Version = Invoke-Command -ComputerName $store -ScriptBlock {Get-Content 'C:\Program Files\Citrix\Receiver StoreFront\HTML5Client\SRI.js' | Select-String -Pattern "citrixHTML5Launcher\.([0-9]+(\.[0-9]+)+)" | foreach {$_.Matches[0].Groups[1].Value} }
  [System.Version]$testVersion = $html5Version
  
  if($testVersion -lt $targetVersion){
      $storeFrontUpgradeReport | Add-Member -NotePropertyName "VersionBeforeUpgrade" -NotePropertyValue "$html5Version"
      Write-Host "Working on $store"
      if (!(Test-Path -Path \\$store\$storeFrontDestinationLocation)) {
        New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path \\$store\c$\software -Name html5
        Copy-Item "\\$sourceWorkspaceAppLocation\$targetFileName" -Destination \\$store\$storeFrontDestinationLocation -Force
        
      }
      else {
        Copy-Item "\\$sourceWorkspaceAppLocation\$targetFileName" -Destination \\$store\$storeFrontDestinationLocation -Force
    
      }    

      $shortName = $store.Split('.')[0]
      Get-VM $shortName | New-Snapshot -Name "$date-$shortName"

      $session       = New-PsSession -ComputerName $store -Credential $creds
      $remoteSession = Invoke-Command -ScriptBlock {Start-Process -FilePath "C:\software\html5\CitrixHTML5Client-x64.exe" -Verb RunAs} -Session $session
      Start-Sleep -Seconds 30
            
      $remoteSession2 = Invoke-Command -ComputerName $store -ScriptBlock {Get-Content 'C:\Program Files\Citrix\Receiver StoreFront\HTML5Client\SRI.js' | Select-String -Pattern "citrixHTML5Launcher\.([0-9]+(\.[0-9]+)+)" |foreach {$_.Matches[0].Groups[1].Value} }
      
      $storeFrontUpgradeReport | Add-Member -NotePropertyName "VersionAfterUpgrade" -NotePropertyValue "$remoteSession2"

      }
  
  $currentItem++
  $percentComplete = [int](($currentItem / $totalItems) * 100)
  Start-Sleep -Milliseconds 1000
  
 }
 Get-PSSession | Remove-PSSession

 $storeFrontUpgradeReport | Export-Csv -Path "C:\scripts\logs\storefront-HTML5-upgrade.csv" -Append -NoTypeInformation

New HTML5 Workspace App 2111.1

https://www.citrix.com/downloads/workspace-app/html5/workspace-app-for-html5-latest.html

For the low low price of free, you too, can get the latest HTML5 Workspace App!!! ACT NOW! Supplies UNLIMITED!

Looks Like A Storm In The Cloud

https://support.citrix.com/article/CTX270373

CTX270373

Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops: Deprecation of public cloud support from on-premises Current Releases

This is important for customers to review. This will impact several businesses that have switched over to using the CR version instead of LTSR. Make sure and check the article, reach out to your reps to get your voice heard, and prepare for the change that this will spawn. And remember, be excellent to each other!

Content Required….Batteries Not Included

Good evening and salutations! So ran into a bit of an issue. I was trying to published video content via Citrix. Typically powershell for the win on that one. For some reason, the 1909, 1907, and 1903 WorkspaceApp was trying to launch the content as HTTP when it was file type associated to launch via media player. This was running on a 2012R2 Server with 1906.2 VDA for CVAD. Not exactly sure what was going on with that. We have a case opened and once we get the results, hopefully we will have a better answer as to what was happening. So, for the old skool method of publishing, went with publishing media player with a path to the video file. Worked flawlessly. Pictures below in case you run into the same issue! You will also want a GPO to make sure the first run pop-up from Media Player doesn’t show. That setting is below as well! You will want to scope the policy to the server hosting media player. Now publish that video!

The Creature of Covid-19

Everything is running wild regarding Covid. Lots of remote work coming from this. Big thing to remember is that there are excellent options for remote access. Citrix offers wonderful solutions of Workspace, CVAD, SSL VPN via Citrix Gateway, VDI, and RemotePC. VMware is offering a good solution with View and Workspace ONE. Azure is offering Windows Virtual Desktop. Utilize these resources and stay safe!

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