Load Balance A Citrix Web Interface

Please check out www.kaztechsolutions.co.uk for more of my technical posts, alternately please call us on 01932 268289. 

To me if you don't configure all of your Citrix Web Interfaces (WI) to use a network load balance (NLB) setup you are asking for trouble as you have now created a single point of failure within your environment!

NLB is available in Windows Server 2008 standard and enterprise so you should now have no excuses to implement this in to your environment.

First thing First lets configure 2 Windows 2008 R2 server with NLB, in my test environment the two servers are XenApp.ctxlab.com (192.168.219.129) and XenApp2.ctxlab.com (192.168.219.131) and the NLB address will be XANLB.ctxlab.com (192.168.219.135).


1.  Install the Network Load Balancing feature on both servers that will be hosting both the WI.

2.  Once NLB is installed start the NLB manager and right click to create new cluster.

3.  Enter the first member in the NLB cluster and click Connect and the Next

4.  Check that the IP address is correct and put a tick in the retain suspended state (to help avoid a webserver kicking in after rebooting during controlled maintenance) and click next.

5.  Enter the clusters IP address and Subnet Mask and click on OK.

6.  Add in the FQDN of the cluster and change the Cluster mode to Multicast.

7.  Click on edit to the current port.

8.  Change the port range to 80-80 and the protocol to TCP

9.  Once the port is changed click on finish.

10.  You should now see the first member of the cluster added correctly and add the other member of the cluster.  I wont give a description of each point here as this is done in nearly the exact same way as above I'd add the screenshots to help if anyone gets stuck.

11.  Once you have added the second member to the cluster you should now see both members working correctly.

I Have Moved......

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to let you know that i'll no longer be updating this blog as I've finally pulled my finger out and started up my own business - www.kaztechsolutions.co.uk!

All the information on this blog is on the new website so don't hesitate to have a look at all the new content.

CHECK US OUT....!

www.kaztechsolutions.co.uk

An error occurred while making the requested connection

Please check out www.kaztechsolutions.co.uk for more of my technical posts, alternately please call us on 01932 268289. 

Recently I had an issue where I was getting the following error when trying to launch a Virtual Desktop via a CAG.

Upon looking closer at the issue I noticed that the Web Interface config had not been setup right and the URL for the STA was actually missing the correct path (http://IPAddressOfDDC/scripts/ctxsta.dll) to the STA and once it was changes to the correct format the Virtual Desktops could launch successfully.

If you have the same issue check the event logs of the Web Interface and see if event ID's 30016 and 30205 are being logged.

Hope this helps someone out.

How to delete License's on XenDesktop

Please check out www.kaztechsolutions.co.uk for more of my technical posts, alternately please call us on 01932 268289. 

Every now and then you'll find that you might need to delete a few licenses on your XenDesktop installation generally due to over usage, bit of a pain when a user gets this error as it displays an error about not enough licenses available.

First from where you have installed the license server run the following commands from C:\Program Files (x86)\Citrix\Licensing\LS

udadmin -list

This will display who is currently using a license and when it is due to expire.


siobhan.andrews XDT_ENT_UD 2013.0815
stephen.dunn XDT_ENT_UD 2013.0815
steve.jerome XDT_ENT_UD 2013.0731
suzanne.ballantine XDT_ENT_UD 2013.0815
sylvia.munn XDT_ENT_UD 2013.0815
teena.omara XDT_ENT_UD 2013.0815

Next find the user who you want to delete and then type the following command.

udadmin -f XDT_ENT_UD -user teena.omara -delete

you have now released a license


Examples
udadmin -list
Displays all the users and devices.

udadmin -list -a
Lists all features, versions, counts of licenses, and the users and devices for each feature.

udadmin -f XDT_ENT_UD -user u8.08 -delete
Releases one user from one feature.

udadmin -f XDT_ENT_UD -device dn01.88 -delete
Releases one device from one feature.

This operation cannot be performed because the specified virtual disk could not be found.

Please check out www.kaztechsolutions.co.uk for more of my technical posts, alternately please call us on 01932 268289. 

Just had a customer who got the following error when booting a VM

"This operation cannot be performed because the specified virtual disk could not be found."

Turns out that sometimes if you have an ISO mounted in the DVD drive this can sometimes cause the above error.

Hope this helps someone out.

Poor performance with AMD

Please check out www.kaztechsolutions.co.uk for more of my technical posts, alternately please call us on 01932 268289. 

Had some fun recently with some Dell server’s and getting any type of respectable performance from the VM’s on each Xenserver host.

Turns out that if you have a AMD Opteron 62** it is only support on 6.0.2 XenServer (this is all it should require) and even after running the upgrade to 6.0.2 it also then required HOTFIX XS602E016 and to also change the power settings in the BIOS to max power and then upgrade the XenTools of each VM.

Just thought that this might help someone if they are experiencing this type of issue.

Sluggish Windows 7/2008 - XenServer 6.1

Please check out www.kaztechsolutions.co.uk for more of my technical posts, alternately please call us on 01932 268289. 

If you get any issues with sluggish Windows 7 VM’s on XenServer 6.1 ensure you have the following hotfixes applied to the XenHost and then upgrade the XenTools on all VM’s after the Hotfixes have been applied.

XS61E003

XS61E004

XS61E006

XS61E008

XS61E009

XS61E010

Also other possible MS issue could be related to the following - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2617858

KMS with VDI

Please check out www.kaztechsolutions.co.uk for more of my technical posts, alternately please call us on 01932 268289. 

Anyone doing VDI at somepoint will have to deal with MS licensing and the joys of KMS!  Now if you haven't done it before and you start to read about it on the Technet and what not apparently its really easy to setup and all you need is 25 unique connections to the KMS host to start activating Windows 7 and 5 unique connections for office 2010.  RUBBISH - there's loads of little "gotcha's" that both MS and Citrix don't make you aware of.  

Hopefully this will help a few people out with the pain that is KMS...!

Setting up the KMS Host

NOTE: Always run a CMD in elevated mode.

• Designate a KMS host – has to be 2008 R2 or Windows 7. (You can use 2003... If you have too.)
• Get KMS host key from your MS volume licensing site. DO NOT USE THE KMS CLIENT KEY!
• Run a cscript slmgr.vbs /dlv and you'll see that the KMS Host is currently using a KMS Client key.
• Run cscript slmgr.vbs /ipk XXXXX-KMS-host-key-XXXXX.  This changes the licensing mode to be a KMS Host instead of a KMS Client.
• cscript slmgr.vbs /ato to activate your KMS Host against your MS volume licensing.
• After activating the KMS key, restart the Software Protection Service.
• Re-run a cscript slmgr.vbs /dlv to see the current KMS count is 0 and you'll also notice that the licensing has changes to a KMS Host.

Setting up a KMS Client

• On the golden image if you have changed the license key to a MAK change back to a KMS client key.  Windows automatically comes using a KMS client Key but if you need to change it back use the key from the KMS Client Key website.  DO NOT ENTER THE KMS HOST KEY IN TO A CLIENT!
• On the golden image type the following command to verify the DNS SRV Record: nslookup –type= srv_vlmcs._tcp
• Check that you can ping the KMS host.
• Attempt Windows 7 KMS Client activation using the following command: slmgr.vbs /ato
• The activation attempt will fail with an error that the activation count is insufficient, this is fine but check on the KMS Host that it has received the request by running a cscript slmgr.vbs /dlv on the designated KMKS Host and the count should be 1.
• Since KMS requires 25 unique activation requests to activate the clients spin up 25 desktops.
• VDI-in-a-Box ensure that the activation timer is enabled within the template and for XenDesktop PVS install ensure that the vDisk is set to KMS.

• Now a KMS client will automatically try to register against the KMS host using the DNS SRV record but you can speed this process up by using the VAMT 2.0 to force the activation.   Select 25 or more VM’s and choose to active via KMS.

• Run a cscript slmgr.vbs /dlv to see the current KMS count should be above 25, all other windows 7 VM’s will now rergister.

Setting up Office 2010

• For office make sure that the KMS host has the Microsoft Office 2010 KMS Host License Pack installed along with the KMS Host Office 2010 key from the your MS volume licensing site.
• On the golden image make sure that the Office 2010 installation have the KMS client key and like Windows 7 Office 2010 comes with a KMS Client key.
• From a CMD run a cscript ospp.vbs /dcmid from C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14 to see the CMID.
• Start a new CMD and run the following command to allow access to run the Office rearm correctly - icacls C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\OfficeSoftwareProtectionPlatform /grant "Network Service:(OI)(CI)(R,W,D)" /t.
• Start a CMD and run a OSPPREARM.EXE from C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\microsoft shared\OfficeSoftwareProtectionPlatform and this will clear the CMID.
• Rerun a cscript ospp.vbs /dcmid and you'll see the CMID is now cleared.
• Save and/or publish image so that it is now live, if you are using VDI-in-a-Box make sure you tick the "reset activation timer" in the template.
• Activate Office 2010 on 5 desktops by running a CMD from  %programfiles(x86)%\microsoft office\office14\cscript ospp.vbs /act (note: activation will fail for the first 5 desktops and you can also use VAMT 2.0 to do this.)
• Veryify that unique CMIDs are created for each desktop by running %programfiles(x86)%\microsoft office\office14\cscript ospp.vbs /dcmid
• On desktop number 6, KMS activation should work without errors.

I hope this help a few people out and if i get some time I'll put some screenshots of the commands being run just to give a little bit more help.

Troubleshooting Tips
if you have to re-enter a office KMS key as you are currently using a MAK use the following command from %programfiles%\Microsoft Office\Office14.

 cscript ospp.vbs /inpkey:

Thanks

Citrix Access Gateway - Recovery Mode

Please check out www.kaztechsolutions.co.uk for more of my technical posts, alternately please call us on 01932 268289. 

I had an issue this week where I'd setup a XenDesktop environment and everything was looking good and internal testing showed everything was working as it should be.  I moved on to the configuration of the CAG VPX and after configuring just the hostname, Licensing, STA, Access List, Logon Points and the Date and time the CAG would restart it self over and over again until it went in to Recovery Mode.

Upon troubleshooting I started to configure the CAG bit by bit and I found that once I configured the STA the CAG would then restart - very strange.

So I enabled logging on the DDC using the Log EnablerV3 and I could see that I was getting STA error's logged in the broker log, so i started to think that this must have been a dodgy install even though XD installer didn't highlight anything once it had finshed.

So I had a quick peek in the registry and i could see under the following key that the STA identifier wasn't created correctly.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Citrix\DesktopServer

So I re-ran the Broker_Service_x64.msi from the XD iso and then refreshed the registry and I could now see that the STA identifier was now correctly configured in the registry.

Hope this helps someone out.