Before getting to work adding Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops (CVAD), and VMware Horizon to the lab, there are a few additional items on the vCenter to-do list. Join vCenter to the lab’s Active Directory (AD) domain Add the lab’s AD to the SSO Create a Citrix related service account with minimum vCenter permissions for […]

ControlUp: Digital Employee Experience Management for the Work-from-Anywhere Era Observe, analyze & optimize the digital employee experience, end to end, from applications and VDI to physical endpoints. What is Digital Employee Experience (DEX)? Digital Employee Experience (DEX) is the quality of users’ interactions with te […]

With the domain controllers built, Active Directory (AD) configured, and the Certificate Authority Server configured, the next step is to create the initial settings within Group Policy Objects (GPOs). The primary purpose of the Group Policy engine is to apply policy settings to computers and users in an AD domain, enabling administr […]

With the Server 2019 VM built for the certificate authority, the next step is to create the Certificate Authority (CA).  To make sure you understand what I cover in this article, you should understand a few terms. Microsoft provides a document that explains all the terms used in a Microsoft CA. You should take a few minutes to revie […]

With the two Server 2019 VMs built for domain controllers, the next step is to create Active Directory (AD).  To make sure you understand what I cover in this article, you should understand a few terms. Definitions What is Active Directory? A directory is a hierarchical structure that stores information about objects on the network […]

With the Server 2019 template created, the next step is to create VMs from the template. We use the VMs built in this article for the first three Microsoft infrastructure servers: two domain controllers and a certificate authority. This article covers creating the VMs from a template in both VMware vCenter and Citrix XenCenter. My la […]

With both VMware vSphere and vCenter and Citrix XenServer and XenCenter installed and basic configuration completed, the next step is to create a Windows Server 2019 master image. After we build the Server 2019 master, we can start building the Microsoft infrastructure servers. For this article, I used Windows Server 2019 Standard Ed […]

Now that you have installed the XenServer host, the host’s configuration can begin. As stated in the Introduction article, Citrix uses XenCenter to manage one or more XenServer hosts. The first thing needed is to download XenCenter from Citrix or browse to the IP address of the XenServer host and download either the XenCenter C […]

Installing Citrix Hypervisor (XenServer) 8.2 is easy as there are not many options. It is almost a “Next, Next, Install, Finish, Reboot” process. The first thing is to download the latest XenServer 8.2 ISO and the Citrix VM Tools for Windows from Citrix. I saved the Citrix VM Tools for Windows to a shared location for use […]

The vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA), like all software, receives updates. The VCSA makes it drop-dead simple to update. Before you start: Clear your browser’s cookies and cache. I recommend this to keep from getting the spinning wheel of nothing after the VCSA update. Backup the VCSA. Take a snapshot of the vCenter VM. Note: […]

It is essential to have a backup of all critical data, servers, and Virtual Machines, whether in a lab or production environment. Before making significant changes to the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA), it is vital to make a backup first. This article covers backing up the VCSA using NFS. I use my Synology 1817+ Storage Unit for vCe […]

Before creating a vSphere Distributed Switch (vDS), we need to create a Datacenter. Verify you are connected and logged in to the vCenter console. Click Menu and click VMs and Templates, as shown in Figure 1. Figure 1 Right-click the vCenter VM and click New Datacenter…, as shown in Figure 2. Figure 2 Enter a Name for the Datacente […]

Now that the host has local storage for a Virtual Machine (VM), we can install the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA). To make the installation more manageable, I downloaded the VCSA 7.0 U2 ISO, mounted it, and extracted all the files to a VCSA70U2 folder, as shown in Figure 1. Figure 1 I am installing the VCSA from my Windows 10 comput […]

Now that the host has a static IP address, you can begin more of the host’s configuration. You do the minimal configuration for now. Just enough to allow the installation of the vCenter Server Appliance in the following article. To continue, start an Internet browser and browse to your host’s IP address. For me, that is e […]

Now that the ESXi 7.0 host installation is complete, it is time for the initial host configuration. In this article, you complete the following steps: Give the Host a Static IPv4 address Configure DNS Give the Host a unique hostname Enable SSH Enable VMware vSphere Storage APIs Array Integration (VAAI) support for NFS on the Synolog […]

Installing VMware ESXi 7.0 is easy as there are not many installation options. It is almost a “Next, Next, Install, Finish, Reboot” process. The first thing is to download the latest ESXi 7.0 ISO from VMware. After I downloaded the ISO, I used Rufus to create a bootable 32GB thumb drive from my laptop, as shown in Figure […]

In the “Introduction” article, I made the following statements: I decided to go with Network File System (NFS) instead of Internet Small Computer Systems Interface (iSCSI) for storage. Gregory Thompson was the first to tell me to use NFS instead of iSCSI. If you Google “VMware NFS iSCSI”, you find many article […]

On September 9, 2019, I published the Building Webster’s Lab article series that used vSphere/vCenter 6.7 U3 and XenServer 8.0. This is a follow-up series on building the lab with vSphere/vCenter 7.0 and XenServer 8.2. I want to rebuild the lab as I’m not too fond of upgrades. Building new allows for learning new stuff an […]

I believe I have documented everything I can find or figure out how to find using the Parallels Remote Application Server (RAS) Version 18.0 PowerShell implementation. The 2.10 update is 99% cosmetic changes to have the wording and capitalization in the script’s output match what is in the RAS Management Console. Note: The V1 […]

Parallels Remote Application Server (RAS) Version 18 is an amazing product. It has an abundance of capabilities, features, options, and numerous enhancements from V17.  One of the nice things about the Parallels RAS product team is that they not only listen to their community, but they actually hear and understand what the community […]