How to: Citrix Machine Creation Services and Microsoft Azure Resource Manager

In January of this year I wrote a how-to blog about Machine Creation Services and Microsoft Azure Classic. Citrix has updated their Machine Creation Services to support Microsoft Azure Resource manager. At the time of writing this MCS update is only available for customers who are using “Citrix Cloud | XenDesktop and XenApp Services”. Those who have a traditional on-prem XenDesktop 7.7, 7.8 or 7.9 set-up only have the option for Microsoft Azure Classic at the moment.

This blog is a step-by-step guide about how to provision machines in Microsoft Azure using Machine Creation Services. This blog describes the creation of a hosting connection to Microsoft Azure and making a new Machine Catalog with three new Windows 2012 R2 Session Host machines based on the Golden Master.

Citrix XenDesktop configuration

For this guide I have setup a basic Citrix Cloud setup with IaaS VMs in Microsoft Azure (Resource manager):

• Citrix Cloud | XenDesktop and XenApp Services
• Citrix Cloud Connector Virtual Machine
• Established connection between Citrix Cloud and Citrix Cloud Connection (Resource location and Domain connection)

 

Master Image Configuration

The Master image, used in this guide, is configured as follows:

• Azure Resource Manager Virtual Machine A2
• Azure virtual network name "VN_172.16.0.0-24"and Subnet name "SN_172.16.1.0-24"
• Windows 2012 R2 Session Host
• Citrix XenDesktop 7.9 VDA
• LibreOffice 5.2
• Notepad++
• VLC Media player

Creating Azure Hosting connection in Citrix Cloud | XenDesktop and XenApp Services

 

1. Browse to https://portal.azure.com and click Subscriptions. Write down your Azure Subscription ID


2. Browse to https://citrix.cloud.com and go to XenApp and XenDesktop Services


3. Click Manage and go to Hosting. Click Add Connection and Resources

4. Select connection type Microsoft Azure

5. Enter your Azure subscription ID (step 1) and give the connection a name. Then click Create new..

6. Login with your Microsoft Account which has access to your Microsoft Azure subscription

7. Verify the login. If you have a problem (like me) sending a security code, edit your Microsoft account for mobile app “Microsoft Account” verification (https://account.live.com/proofs/Manage)

8. Accept Citrix XenDesktop permissions

9. Click Next


10. Select the Azure region for this hosting connection and click Next


11. Select your virtual network and subnet, click Next


12. Click Finish


13. The hosting connection to Microsoft Azure Resource Manager is completed


Create new Machine Catalog
Like using Citrix Machine Creation Services with on-premises Hypervisor we need to install a master VM and shut it down. There is no need to create a snapshot (hypervisor) or capture (azure classic). In this example I’ve used master virtual machine AzureCTXGM.
1. Install your Golden Master VM with software and Citrix VDA. When finished shut the machine down and power off (deallocated)


2. Browse to Citrix Cloud | XenApp and XenDesktop Services and go to Machine Catalogs. Click Create Machine Catalog


3. Select type of Operating System (in this example Server OS) and click Next

4. Select Machines that are power managed and select Citrix Machine Creation Services, click Next

5. Select the VHD of the Golden Master VM and click Next

6. Select the destination storage type for your provisioned virtual machines and click Next

7. Select the amount of machines (i.e. 3) to create and select the Microsoft Azure Machine size (i.e. Standard_A2). Click Next

8. Select the network card and associate it with the Azure Subnet name for your Citrix Machines (i.e. SN_172.16.1.0-24), click Next

9. Select Create new Active Directory accounts. Then select the OU for the new machines. And fill in an Account naming scheme for the new machines (use ## for auto increment numbers)

10. Enter your domain account credentials, and click next (this account is used to create the computer accounts)

11. A summary is displayed. Fill in a Machine Catalog name and a Machine Catalog description for administrators and click Finish

12. The Machine Catalog is copying the master image to a base disk

13. The Virtual Machines are created

14. A new storage account is created on Azure
15. While MCS is deploying the virtual machines, a preparation VM with VHD is temporary created on Azure

16. When MCS finishes, the following VHDs are created for 3 VMs (ARM-XDSH-##)

 

You are now able to create a Delivery Group.

• For on-premisses Delivery Controller, read this blog http://patrickvandenborn.blogspot.nl/2016/01/citrix-xendesktop-77-machine-creation_76.html
• For Citrix Cloud | XenDesktop and XenApp Services, read this blog http://patrickvandenborn.blogspot.nl/2016/03/how-to-citrix-workspace-cloud-apps-and.html

 

In-place-upgrade and installation of Citrix XenDesktop/XenApp 7.8 VDA on Windows 2012 R2 fails “Ica_TS.msi”

Today I unexpectedly had a challenge upgrading a Citrix XenApp 7.6 VDA to Citrix XenDesktop 7.8 VDA on Windows 2012 R2. During the in-place-upgrade of the 7.8 VDA or a reinstallation of the 7.8 VDA, the installation fails at the section Virtual Delivery Agent:

The XenDesktop Installation log (opened if Show error log is enabled) is showing the following error:

13:20:54.8513 $ERR$ : XenDesktopSetup:Installation of MSI File 'IcaTS_x64.msi' failed with code 'InstallFailure' (1603).

13:20:54.8513 $ERR$ : XenDesktopSetup:InstallComponent: Failed to install component 'ICA for Remote Desktop Services'. Installation of MSI File 'IcaTS_x64.msi' failed with code 'InstallFailure' (1603).

13:20:54.8523 $ERR$ : XenDesktopSetup:Recording installation failure. Installation of MSI File 'IcaTS_x64.msi' failed with code 'InstallFailure' (1603).

 

The following error is in the Application log of the Windows Eventviewer:

 

Product: Citrix HDX TS (retail) -- Error 1911. Could not register type library for file C:\Program Files\Citrix\Euem\Service\SemsComLibrary.tlb. Contact your support personnel.

 

 

To solve this issue, uninstall the following Windows updates prior updating or installing the Citrix XenDesktop 7.8 VDA:

• KB3139923, https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3139923
• KB3072630, https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3072630

After the VDA upgrade/installation it is save to reinstall the KB updates again!

“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.

How to: Citrix Workspace Cloud | Secure Browser

Citrix introduced Citrix Workspace Cloud – Secure Browser, this blog describes how to publish a website with it. Secure Browser enables you to open websites with an experience of Google Chrome, Internet Explorer 11 and Internet Explorer 11 x64 in HTML5 supported browsers like FireFox, Safari, Internet Explorer 11, Google Chorme, Opera, etc.
 
Result:

How – to: Publish a Secure Website

Publish a website using Citrix Secure Brower as follows:
1.Goto https://workspace.cloud.com and login with your Citrix Workspace Cloud credentials
2.On the Citrix Workspace Cloud mainpage click Manage button for Secure Browser

3.On the Secure Browser manage page, click Manage

4.Click Publish a Web App:

5.Provide App Name, URL and Browser version for the website you want to publish:

6.Then click Publish

7.The website is Published, click Launch to test the published website

8.The HTML5 receiver is starting:

9.Confirm if the correct website is opened and confirm if the website behavior is the same as Google Chrome:

10.Go back to the Secure Browser management page and click Copy to Clipboard

 

11.Copy the URL and provide them to your end users:
 

Whatsmybrowser.org information

Publishing an IE11 experience to www.whatsmybrowser.org is resulting in the following user experience in Mozilla Firefox:

 

 

Geographical location of Secure Browser

The location of the Secure Browser session I started is originating from servers is in California in the United States.

Download files using Secure Browser

When testing downloading of files from the internet, I’ve got this error message as expected:

 

End user browser experience

Secure Browser is an nice new feature added to the Citrix Workspace Cloud suite. When testing Secure Browser I was thinking of the experience end users get and expect when using a web browser. I think the following things will raise some questions of end users and you need to communicate when implementing Secure Browser:

• Website navigation buttons (like back/forward) are working for the local browser and not for the HTML5 published website. You can only use backspace to go back to the previous page.
• Website cookies are not remembered, so banners will pop-up on session start (keep this in mind when implementing Secure Browser)
   

AutoColorization: Pink taskbar and title bar when using Hybrid profile and Active Setup (Windows 2012 R2 and Windows 8.1)

A customer, which has a red and white color logo, got a pink taskbar and title bars after applying a new background on their Windows 2012 R2 Session Hosts. This pink color is generated by default due to the Auto Color in the users taskbar and title bar color personalization setting. In the registry this is called AutoColorization. AutoColorization pics an average color of you background image. In case of this customer red and white makes pink. The customer doesn’t like a pink taskbar for 500+ users, so they decided that it needs to be blue. When using Local Profiles with RES One Workpace Zero Profile mode, this doesn’t work out of the box. Because we are using Local Profiles combined with RES One Workspace Zero profile mode, every time the user logs in the Active Setup is started for themes. The Active Setup is resetting the registry settings for AutoColorization and the color we’ve picked (DWM). We need this active setup at login!
 
The registry keys for setting the taskbar and title bars to blue:
---------------------------------------------------------
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
 
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop]
"AutoColorization"=dword:00000000
 
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM]
"ColorizationAfterglow"=dword:c484c6ff
"ColorizationAfterglowBalance"=dword:0000000a
"ColorizationBlurBalance"=dword:00000001
"ColorizationColor"=dword:c484c6ff
"ColorizationColorBalance"=dword:00000059
"ColorizationGlassAttribute"=dword:00000000
"Composition"=dword:00000001
"EnableWindowColorization"=dword:00000001
---------------------------------------------------------
 
With RES One Workspace it is impossible to set the color behavior properly by using the “User Registry” settings. When applying the correct keys to RES User Registry Settings only, the color of the taskbar and titlebar is changing every session (white, gray, black, etc.) I’ve figured out that the workspace composer isn’t messing these registry keys, but the enabled Active Setup is.

To set a solid color properly, please configure the registry keys as follows:

1. Open your Active Directory Session Host User Policy and add the registry keys to the Group Policy Preference (this applies the registry keys before the RES Composer and Active Setup)

 2. Apply the registry keys again with RES One Workspace User Registry (this applies the registry keys after the Active Setup)

 
3. Bam, solid blue for every user!

If you want another color like orange. Just configure orange in and Admin session and capture the right DWM values for orange.