XenApplePie

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

Category: XenApp Page 6 of 7

You’ll Take It to the Edge and You Will Like IT!

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On January 7, 2021

In Citrix, XenApp

Looks like some fun for the new 20H2 of das Windows 10.

https://www.pcmag.com/news/microsoft-confirms-windows-10-users-cant-uninstall-the-edge-browser?utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A%20Manual&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR2Gx8eKL40c404SOI7WE_NnXkxxEP5Nu-fAC0Qafo8u8V0LwTJgZSUX9RY

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.

More Power From The Warp Cores!

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On November 6, 2020

In Citrix, Linux, Uncategorized, XenApp

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!

Symantechnical Issues

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On October 15, 2020

In Citrix, XenApp

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.

https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article?articleId=169917

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!

What’s In A Name Change?

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On October 14, 2020

In Citrix, XenApp

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!

Surviving Healthy @HOME

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On May 15, 2020

In Citrix, Gateway formerly known as Netscaler, XenApp

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!)

https://www.citrix.com/blogs/2020/05/13/citrix-virtual-apps-and-desktops-7-1912-ltsr-cumulative-update-1-is-here/

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!

Looks Like A Storm In The Cloud

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On March 27, 2020

In Citrix, Workspace, XenApp

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

By

On March 27, 2020

In Citrix, Workspace, XenApp

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

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On March 24, 2020

In Citrix, VMware, Workspace, XenApp

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!

EndGame. Oh Snap!

By

On December 13, 2019

In Citrix, XenApp

So much fun has been found in the world of next-gen tools. For those out there that are having some oddities with your profiles acting wonky if you happen to have EndGame, well, I have some information for you! Looks like the issue appears in either case of using profile streaming or active write-back. It causes parts of the profile to get file locked that won’t release on a VDI for about 1 min or so and on a server, sometimes until reboot. If a user tries to log back into a server after logging off, it will try and create a new user profile that doesn’t work well because the user profile already exists. When you reboot the server, all returns to normal for a short time until users start logging in again. So at this time, there are known issues with using EndGame with CVAD.

Versions in use are 1906.2 VDA on Server 2012R2 and 2016. The same issue is seen on the 1909 VDA. Just wanted to send out a heads up that this appears to be an issue without a current resolution. I’ll update as we find out more.

LinuxVDA’s Excellent Adventure!

By

On July 11, 2019

In Citrix, Linux, XenApp

There’s something afoot at the Circle K… So I’m sure you’ve had some fun getting the Linux VDA to work on XenApp 7.15LTSR or the newer 1906.2 pr 1909. Well…… it is a bit of a challenge. I have had some difficulties myself. It kind of felt like nailing Jell-O to a tree or lighting a flameproof candle. But…. I did manage to get it working. There are some caveats to this though. I have only been able to get it to work with Winbind and if there isn’t a define UPN set in the AD profile for the user. I’m working to resolve the issues with SSSD, then it would support the UPNs.

However, on with the show!

First off, you need to get a base install of CentOS 7.6 with Server GUI option ticked on the install. After the base install, you will have to get some files downloaded and ready to install.

(https://drive.google.com/open?id=1IFqZKOstw_mxKiSD5hcrS_uhZp2UOMGa)

I just happened to upload the files that you need to get it all sorted and working.

After you have the base install finished, you will need to do the needful with the steps below. The order matters as there are dependencies. You can follow the step-by-step in the Citrix Easy Install for the start of the setup and make sure to select Winbind for this one. As soon as I get SSSD working, then I will post the update to this.(https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/linux-virtual-delivery-agent/current-release/installation-overview/easy-install.html)

Here are the steps!

  1. Install LinuxVDA with (sudo yum localinstall -y LinuxVDA-1903.el7_x.rpm).
  2. Run the install script from /opt/Citrix/VDA/sbin/ (sudo ./opt/Citrix/VDA/sbin/ctxinstall.sh) *if you run into issue, use cd /opt/Citrix/VDA/sbin/ and then enter sudo ./ctxinstall.sh*
  3. Install webkitgtk with (sudo yum localinstall -y webkitgtk-2.4.9-1.2.x86_64.rpm)
  4. Install ICA client with (sudo yum localinstall -y ICAClient-rhel-19.3.0.5-0.x86_64.rpm).
  5. Copy over .pem files to /opt/Citrix/ICAClient/keystore/cacerts (sudo cp /home/user/Downloads/entrust_g2_ca.pem /opt/Citrix/ICAClient/keystore/cacerts) and /opt/Citrix/ICAClient/keystore/intcerts (sudo cp /home/user/Downloads/entrust_l1k.pem /opt/Citrix/ICAClient/keystore/intcerts). *only if you are using Entrust certs*
  6. Run (sudo ./opt/Citrix/ICAClient/util/ctx_rehash) to apply cert. * if you run into issue, use cd /opt/Citrix/VDA/ICAClient/util and then enter sudo ./ctx_rehash*
  7. Copy over color.pkla to /etc/polkit-1/localauthority/50-local.d/ (sudo cp /home/user/Downloads/color.pkla /etc/polkit-1/localauthority/50-local.d/)
  8. Setup machine catalog and delivery group on Citrix Studio.
  9. Go back to Linux machine and enter sudo shutdown -r now to reboot.

With that, you now have the words of Rufus and the code for time travel plugged in. Be excellent to each other!

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