Absolutely thrilled and amazed that I have the opportunity to join some of the best professionals out there in the Citrix world by being accepted into the ranks of Citrix Technology Advocates! Excited for what is to come with this! Make sure to welcome and congratulate all the new members and the returning members! Here is the link to check them all out!
You ever get an email from a user that just has their name in it and my VDI isn’t working? You ever go to Citrix Studio and look for the user and sort to find them? Well…. How about a better, faster, more streamlined way!? (Might be some powershell involved)
Look no further! Below is a fast and easy way to find that machine that the user just may have happened to forget to include in said email!
If you happen to do the above, you get this:
And so you can do that sweet, sweet copy / paste, code snippet below.
I’m sure many of you out there like ArcGIS and all that it can do for you! Well, maybe you have it in Citrix. Maybe you have custom SearchOptions.cfg’s. Maybe you have style sheets. Maybe you even like to have viewer and professional license versions available to all your users. Well….. In the long long ago, batch was the thing to power all things like this. What if. Just what if I told you, that powershell works too!? How awesome would that be?! You can upgrade your script from batch and stroll down PoSH street! How about see below and you too, for the low low price of free, can enjoy this method too!
**Fixed an issue with the ESRI_SOFTWARE_CLASS not respecting the Viewer / Professional option. This was tested and the issue is corrected.Change has been made below.** **Made an edit to reduce the number of changes you have to make and make it easier to switch between ArcGIS Desktop versions.**
# This is to launch ESRI ArcGIS in Citrix. This is using PowerShell version 5.1.17763.1971, on Server 2019 hosts, with Citrix UPM, and with ArcGIS 10.8.1 and with Seach Options. You can comment out
# the Search Options if you are not using them.
# Date: 08182021
# This sets the $username variable which will be used to map drives.
$UserName = [Environment]::UserName
# Sets profile server name for Citrix UPM. Enter profile server FQDN.
$profsrv = "profileservername.fqdn"
# Sets ArcGIS Version to be used in the script. There are several references to the version in the script. Enter version in format below.
$arcver = "Desktop10.8"
# Sets license server location. Enter license server FQDN.
$licsrv = "licenserver.fqdn"
# This section is to set the locations for _master if hosting on profile server (You can use whereever the _master location is as long as permissions are set and it is accessible
# from the network the Citrix hosting VDA's are located.You can use other drive letters, just make the change to the variables below and the section on removing drives and remapping.# This is location of "SearchOptions.cfg" files.
# This is location of "SearchOptions.cfg" files.
$Master= "\\$profsrv\GIS\_master"
# Location of ArcCatalog.gx, GxDBFactCache.dat, and GxObjFactCache.dat files.
$Desk= "\\$profsrv\GIS\_desk"
# Location of ArcMap Toolbox and styles.
$Desk1= "\\$profsrv\GIS\_desk1"
# Location of drives for GISDATA.
$QDest = "\\$licsrv\GISDATADRIVE"
$SDest = "\\$licsrv\GISDATADRIVE"
$NDest = "\\nas.fqdn\dfs\sharename"
# This tests to see if the location for the Search Options have previously been created for the user, and creating them if it is not present.
If (!(Test-Path "\\$profsrv\CITRIXUPM\$UserName\UPM_Profile\AppData\Local\ESRI\$arcver\ArcCatalog\SearchIndex\Configs\searchoptions.cfg")) {
Write-Host "Please wait while your Search Options are created..."
robocopy $Master "C:\Users\$UserName\AppData\Local\ESRI\$arcver\ArcCatalog\SearchIndex\Configs" /e /S
}
# This tests to see if the ArcCatalog options have previously been created, and create them if not.
If (!(Test-Path "\\$profsrv\CITRIXUPM\$UserName\UPM_Profile\AppData\Local\ESRI\$arcver\")){
Write-Host "Please wait while your ArcCatalog Options are created..."
robocopy $Desk "C:\Users\$UserName\AppData\Roaming\ESRI\$arcver\ArcCatalog\" /e /S /Y
}
# This tests to see if the ArcCatalog options have previously been created, and create them if not.
If (!(Test-Path "\\$profsrv\CITRIXUPM\$UserName\UPM_Profile\AppData\Local\ESRI\$arcver\")){
Write-Host "Please wait while your ArcCatalog Options are created..."
robocopy $Desk1 "C:\Users\$UserName\AppData\Roaming\ESRI\$arcver\" /e /S /Y
}
# This removes any mapped drives that might previously have been mapped.
Remove-PSDrive Q,S,N –Force -Verbose
# This maps the drives to the locations for ArcGIS data and files.
New-PSDrive -Name Q -PSProvider FileSystem –Root "$QDest"
New-PSDrive -Name S -PSProvider FileSystem –Root "$SDest"
New-PSDrive -Name N -PSProvider FileSystem –Root "$NDest"
# Sets the Class version to "Professional" license use. Comment out the Professional and uncomment the Viewer to change version.
set ESRI_SOFTWARE_CLASS="Professional"
#set ESRI_SOFTWARE_CLASS="Viewer"
# This sets the location of the executable for the ArcGIS files and starts the process.
$dir = "C:\Program Files (x86)\ArcGis\$arcver\bin"
Start-Process $dir\ArcMap.exe
Now this above will get the script for you. But… You have to publish it as well! So, how about them settings!? This is the screenshot of the settings to use to publish it. You will need to go back and change the icon if you want to have it show the ArcGIS icon instead of the powershell icon. For the copy / pasters out there:
Publishing Citrix app settings:
Path to the executable file: C:\WINDOWS\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe
Command line arguments: -ExecutionPolicy Bypass c:\appscripts\ArcMapAdv-PS.ps1
Working directory: C:\WINDOWS\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\
So there you have it! A way to launch ArcGIS in Citrix with powershell instead of batch!
Yep…. The Chromium based Edge browser, of which I have actually came to enjoy using, is going to replace the OLD Edge browser in the new 20H2. But…… There’s a catch! Wanna guess!? That’s right… Survey says…… You can’t uninstall it. It is now a part of the collective. AND…. It is the default browser! Whodathunkit!? So something to think about when you be rolling out nice, new and shiny 20H2 on your CVAD VDI. Ok. Now nothing to see here. Move along.
We need more power from the warp core! Captain, I’m givin her all she’s got! Ran across something interesting. Something that I should have thought of before but for some reason, I did not. Windows default power management usually is set for balance even on servers. Didn’t think about it being something similar on Linux distros. It appears that is the case! So…… What I found in an issue with some lag and latency, is that Ubuntu and some other distros use ondemand as a CPU scaling governor as the default power scheme. There are a lot of write-ups on the various scaling governor settings available, so I won’t go into all of those. I will show how to set it to performance. I found that CentOS has this as well, but I am working on how to get it set to performance and will add that here as soon as I get the howto on that. This becomes applicable for your Linux VDI that you could be supporting in your Citrix VDI environment and could run into audio issues or are experience lag with multi-core systems.
So here is the way to set the scaling governor to performance on Ubuntu systems. There are two ways depending on if you are running older than 18.04 or newer than 18.04.
For 18.04 Ubuntu and newer:
Open console and type “cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_governor” to see what it is set to. If it is set to “ondeman,” it is governing the procs. To change to “performance,” type “echo performance > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor.” To confirm the change, type “cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_governor” to make sure it is showing performance.
For earlier than 18.04 Ubuntu: (from https://itectec.com/ubuntu/ubuntu-how-to-set-performance-instead-of-powersave-as-default/)
Open nano or vi and edit /etc/rc.local and insert these lines before the last line containing exit 0:
sleep 120 # Give CPU startup routines time to settle.
cpupower frequency-set --governor performance
Happy computing with thy VDI! I’ll post the change for CentOS / RedHat when I have the settings available!
So we have found an interesting issue with CVAD 1912LTSRCU1 and SEP 14.3. Profiles no likey. There is a telemetry service that even if it is not used, it will lock a certain file or two in the C:\users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive and ReportQueue and will freeze the profile and won’t allow you to complete the logoff and profile sync. The files are locked by the system and you can’t delete them. This will clear AFTER you reboot the server, but it will prevent the user from accessing again until the reboot occurs as Citrix still sees it logged on.
This is what you need to fix it. It has a good walkthrough of the requirements to fix it! They are working on a solution and should be later this year for it to be available. Stay safe with thy AV software!
Something interested that we found in our environment. We were having to do some reporting and ran into an issue where a username wasn’t being found in the reporting from Director. We had to do some looking and checking profile stores to check the user we thought it might have been and had to compare SIDs to confirm the user was the same. But wait, there is hope! And a fix! https://support.citrix.com/article/CTX279446
We found that there is a known issue with the Monitor Database not updating in the MonitorDate.User table. It appears to be in 1909 and newer (ref- CVADHELP-14700). Shout out to the person that found this! It saved use some searching and diggin! Reach out to your Citrix contact and request that private fix if you need it!
Good afternoon champions of remote making work possible peoples! Welcome to April 99th! Hope that everyone is staying safe and secure in this tumultuous time. Had some fun with a NSSSL bug. If there is a bug, I will find it. Had some more fun with another one. Somehow, someway, some method the IISU_IUSRS group got removed from C:\Windows\Temp and one of the really long folder names that was .NET. Anyone else have that fun? Causes things to not work as intended with StoreFront. I think there may be gremlins hiding out and strategically targetting. I’m prepping my anti-gremlin weapons. Looks like the new CU1 is out for 1912LTSR. Get on over and be checking that out! (psst… I’ll leave a link below for you. Really. You need to do it. I’ll wait. No seriously. JUST DO IT!)
There are some things you need to pay attention to. StoreFront upgrade. READ AND FOLLOW the directions. It will only help you.
Let’s see… I did get a nice Google Nest thermostat. Somehow, on a relatively new house (built in the early 2000s), I had a mercury thermostat. A real live mercury one. It wasn’t working like it should have been. I may have inadvertently knocked the panel across the room and damaged the thermister. I am seeing a nice reduction in power use. 15-20% ish. Not too shabby. I also got a Razer BlackWidow Elite keyboard with the orange switches. Really enjoying typing a keyboard that doesn’t cause the wrist and hands to feel like they are on fire.
Everyone here has been staying healthy and COVID free. You stay safe as well!
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!