“Failed to launch the resource ‘XenDesktop 7.6 $S1-1’as it was not found.” After upgrade to StoreFront 3.5

This weekend I was upgrading Citrix StoreFront 2.6 to Citrix StoreFront 3.5. The in-place-upgrade was working out of the box and finishes successfully at once! When testing the upgrade by logging in with ThinClients, we cannot connect to any XenApp 7.6 resource (PubApps and PubDesktops). All the XenApp servers are in a Registerd state to the Desktop Delivery Controller. When investigating the eventviewer of the StoreFront servers I found the following Warning message: “Failed to launch the resource ‘XenDesktop 7.6 $1-1’ as it was not found”

After some investigation I’ve found out that Citrix StoreFront 3.5 cannot handle spaces and dot characters in the Display Name of Controllers. My customer has XenDesktop 7.6 as display name containing spaces and a dot:

Renaming the Delivery Controller Display name to XenDesktop solved the problem:

Attention is needed for users which have added resources in their Citrix Receiver. After renaming the Delivery Group Display name, they should add the resource again to their receiver.

Avoid 1603 errors when upgrading Citrix StoreFront 2.x to Citrix StoreFront 3.5

In the last months I’ve upgraded some customers from StoreFront 2.x installations toward StoreFront 3.0, 3.0.1. Today I was facing a StoreFront 2.1 to 3.5 upgrade. My experience with upgrading StoreFront is that it will fail most times (1603 error). So I’ve learned some fixes that I want to share with you to make the upgrade of StoreFront easier.

Log files of StoreFront upgrade are located in %windir%\temp\StoreFront

Customer load balanced StoreFront set-up

• KEMP Network load balancer for http, https round robin load balancing between StoreFront servers
• StoreFront Server Group
• pbo-sf01: Windows 2012, StoreFront 2.1
• pbo-sf02: Windows 2012, StoreFront 2.1

The upgrade plan

The upgrade plan looks straight forward, VMware snapshots are used as fallback scenario:
1. Disable pbo-sf02 from load balancing
2. Shutdown pbo-sf02
3. Take snapshots of both StoreFront servers (online quiesce snapshot of pbo-sf01)
4. Start pbo-sf02 and upgrade pbo-sf02 to StoreFront 3.5

5. Test StoreFront upgrade by connecting (thin)clients directly to upgraded pbo-sf02 StoreFront server
6. Enable pbo-sf02 in load balancing and disable load balancing for pbo-sf01
7. Shutdown pbo-sf01
8. Take snapshots of both StoreFront servers (online quiesce snapshot of pbo-sf02)
9. Start pbo-sf01 and upgrade pbo-sf01 to StoreFront 3.5

10. Test StoreFront upgrade by connecting (thin)clients directly to upgraded pbo-sf01 StoreFront server
11. Test StoreFront synchronization by clicking "Propagate changes"
12. Restore load balancing

Locked StoreFront files are causing StoreFront upgrade to fail

During upgrade to StoreFront 3.5 you must ensure that the existing StoreFront files are not in use or the upgrade will fail:

• Make sure there are no client connections to the StoreFront server before and during upgrade
• Disable all monitoring services on the StoreFront server, periodically monitoring checks can lock files during upgrade
• Microsoft Monitoring Agent (HealthService)
• Comtrade service
• Nagios NSClient++
• Temporary disable all agentless remote monitoring checks to the StoreFront server:
• SCOM: Put server in maintenance mode
• Nagios: Disable checks for during upgrade period
• Temporary disable virus scan on the StoreFront server
• On access scanner
• Web reputation
• Reboot server before upgrade to ensure all active sessions are closed

Virtual path /Citrix/StoreWeb is already in use

During upgrades I also faced the following error:

An error occurred configuring the installation: System.InvalidOperationException: Physical path: C:\inetpub\wwwroot\Citrix\StoreWeb associated with Virtual path: /Citrix/StoreWeb is already in use.
 
When troubleshooting this error I did not have the path C:\inetpub\wwwroot\Citrix\StoreWeb on StoreFront server pbo-sf02, the upgrade process moved it successfully to C:\ProgramData\Citrix. So why I’m facing this error? The answer is quite simple. At the end of the upgrade process, the Citrix StoreFront website folders/applications (i.e. WebReceiver) are copied back to Internet Information Services website. I figured out that the upgrade process is using the StoreFront Server Group base URL for this. The base URL is configured to desktop.pbo.local which is the DNS A-record of the KEMP load balancer. Because the load balancing is disabled to the server pbo-sf02 I‘m upgrading, the upgrade process is contacting the other pbo-sf01 StoreFront server through the load balancer desktop.pbo.local. On the pbo-sf01 the virtual path /Citrix/StoreWeb exist so the error is legitimate. I can also imagine that if you get load balanced (i.e. by round robin) to the wrong server during upgrade, the same error occurs.

To bypass this error you can add a record for the load balanced address to the local hosts file of the StoreFront server to force traffic to the local IPv4 address. This registration should be removed after the upgrade completes. Windows host file can be found: C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts, add line (example upgrade pbo-sf02):
 
10.175.201.118    desktop.pbo.local

Thumbs up

If you have had other issues upgrading StoreFront, please share the fixes with me.

How to: Citrix Workspace Cloud | Apps and Desktops

This blog is a technical step-by-step guide for configuring and using Citrix Workspace Cloud - Apps and Desktops (CWC-AD). In this blog:

• What is Citrix Workspace Cloud - Apps and Desktop
• Installation of Citrix Workspace Cloud Connector
• Install a VDA and connect it to the Citrix Workspace Cloud Connector
• Create a Machine Catalog on Citrix Workspace Cloud Apps and Desktops
• Create a Delivery Group on Citrix Workspace Cloud Apps and Desktops
• Configure a Citrix Workspace Cloud Workspace with Apps and Desktops
• Citrix Workspace Cloud - StoreFront
• Connect your on-premises StoreFront to Citrix Workspace Cloud
• Citrix Workspace Cloud Apps and Desktops – Monitor (Director)

What is Citrix Workspace Cloud - Apps and Desktop

Citrix has built an online cloud platform called “Citrix Workpace Cloud” (CWC). With CWC it is possible to move your on-premises Citrix core components towards the cloud (workspace.cloud.com). The great advantage of this is that you don’t need to install, configure and maintain these core components, Citrix is doing this for you! I.e. for Apps and Desktops you don’t need the following components on-premises:

• Citrix License Server
• Citrix Desktop Delivery Controllers
• Citrix Datastore
• Microsoft SQL mirror or AllwaysOn database needs
• Citrix Datastore
• Citrix StoreFront

To connect your existing environment to CWC you only need to install the CWC Connector on a server. Citrix recommends to install at least two CWC Connectors for redundancy. The CWC Connectors are acting as a proxy between CWC and your environment. After installation of the CWC Connector you only need to point your Virtual Desktop Agents to the CWC Connector and you’re ready to go. Besides CWC-AD the Citrix Workspace cloud also has the following components: Workspaces, Identity and Access Managent, Resource Locations, Lifecycle management, Secure Documents and Mobility Management. This blog only describes the Apps and Desktop part.

Installation of Citrix Workspace Cloud Connector

The first thing to do is to connect your environment to CWC by installing the CWC Connector on a server.

1. Goto workspace.cloud.com and login with your CWC account:

2. Goto Identity and Access Management

3. Click Domains and click plus sign for adding a new domain

4. Klik Download to download the CWC Connector:

5. Save the cwcconnector.exe on the server and execute it

6. A login popup appears, login with your CWC credentials

7. Within two minutes, the installation box disappears and the following services are installed and started on the CWC Connector server:

8. Your domain will appear on Identity and Access Management at CWC

Install a VDA and connect it to the Citrix Workspace Cloud Connector

When the CWC Connector is in place and connected to CWC, you need to install a VDA and point it to the CWC Connector. In this example I will use a Microsoft Azure Windows 2012 R2 Session Host and install the VDA manually on it. You can also use On-premises MCS and PVS, Azure MCS or Amazon EC2.

1. Mount the XenDesktop ISO (or download the VDAServerSetup_78.exe / VDAWorkstationSetup_7.8.exe from download.citrix.com) and select Virtual Delivery Agent for Windows Server OS

2. Select Enable connections to a server machine and click Next

3. Click Next

4. At the Controller address field, fill in the server names of the CWC Connector (in this example Domain Controller AZ-DC-01.azureworkspace.pqrlab.local)

5. Select your components and click Next

6. Click Next

7. Click Install

8. Once the installation has finished, click Finish to restart the Session Host

Create a Machine Catalog on Citrix Workspace Cloud Apps and Desktops

1. On CWC go to Apps and Desktops

2. Click Manage, a HTML5 based PubApp with a Microsoft MMC of Citrix Studio will open for you.

3. Goto Machine Catalogs and click Create Machine Catalog

4. Click Next

5. Select Server OS and click Next

6. Select Machines that are not powered on (we’re using manually provisioned Citrix VDA on Azure) and click Next

7. Click Add Computer… and search for your ServerVDA machine (AZ-XA-01.azureworkspace.pqrlab.local)

8. Click Next

9. Give your Machine Catalog a name and a description, click Finish

10. Your Machine Catalog on CWC is created

Create a Delivery Group on Citrix Workspace Cloud Apps and Desktops

1. On CWC go to Apps and Desktops

2. Click Manage, a HTML5 based PubApp with a Microsoft MMC of Citrix Studio will open for you.

3. Go to Delivery Groups and click Create Delivery Group

4. Click Next

5. Add machines from Machine Catalog and click Next

6. Select Leave user management to Citrix Workspace Cloud and click Next

7. Click Add to add applications

8. Select the ServerVDA installed applications you want to publish in CWC Workspaces

9. Click Next

10. Give the Delivery group a name and description, click Finish

11. The delivery group is created

Configure a Citrix Workspace Cloud Workspace with Apps and Desktops

1. On CWC go to Workspaces

2. Click plus Workspaces to create a new CWC workspace

3. Give the Workspace a name and click Applications and Desktops

4. At this page the Delivery groups with CWC user management are displayed. Add Apps and Desktops from delivery group Man – Azure – XenApp

5. Than click Create Workspace

6. Click the Workspace Azure XenApp to manage the new workspace

7. If you want to manage services, you can do it over here.

8. Click Subscribers and add the domain users you want to give access to the workspace. Click Publish to publish the Workspace.

Citrix Workspace Cloud - StoreFront

By default you will get an CWC managed StoreFront address. You can access this by https://%customername%.xendesktop.net. Keep in mind that you can only use this page for internal access of the Apps and Desktops. You need a NetScaler Gateway for remote access over the internet.
 
1. Goto https://%customername%.xendesktop.net and login with you credentials

2. You can see the CWC Workspace Published Apps here, click Notepad

3. The PubApp Notepad is started on the Azure ServerVDA

4. Goto Desktops to see you CWC Workspace Published Desktops, click Azure XenApp to start the PubDesktop

Connect your on-premises StoreFront to Citrix Workspace Cloud

It is also possible to connect an on-premises storefront to CWC. 

1. Open StoreFront Console on your StoreFront server, go to Stores and click Create Store

2. Give you StoreFront store a name and click Next

3. Point your Delivery controllers to the CWC Cloud connector

4. Click create

5. Click Finish

6. Your on-premises StoreFront is connected to CWC

Citrix Workspace Cloud Apps and Desktops – Monitor (Director)

The Citrix Director is also implemented on CWC. Director is working the same as an on-premises installation, except you cannot configure any role based access. I.e. you cannot limit helpdesk employees in the console.

1. On CWC go to Apps and Desktops

2. Then click Monitor, you will see the familiar Citrix Director dashboard

3. Click Trends to view the historical trends of your Citrix environment

4. Click Search to search and manage a user

5. You can manage Applications and Processes opened by the user on the ServerVDA

6. Or see more details about the user session (like server load evaluator index, ICA RTT, user connection latency):