• Conversant Group: On average SMBs lose $141,000 per ransomware incident. We keep the bad guys away.

    Adding Machines to a Personal vDisk Citrix XenDesktop 7.x Machine Catalog

    December 24, 2014

    PVS, XenDesktop, XenServer

    This year I have written three articles on using Citrix XenDesktop 7.x, Provisioning Services (PVS) 7.x and the XenDesktop Setup Wizard with Write Cache and Personal vDisk (PvD) Drives.  In those articles I show how to use the XenDesktop Setup Wizard to create three virtual machines, create a Machine Catalog with the three machines and then create a Delivery Group to deliver the three machines.  One reader asked what the process was to add additional machines to a Machine Catalog and a Delivery Group that are based on using PvD.  In this article, I will document that process.

    Since I had just completed the XenDesktop and PVS 7.6 article, that lab was still completely configured and running.

    In PVS 7.6, the lab had a vDisk already created, configured, updated and running as shown in Figure 1.

    Figure 1
    Figure 1

    A Device Collection with the three Target Devices as shown in Figure 2.

    Figure 2
    Figure 2

    In XenDesktop 7.6 Studio, the lab already had a Machine Catalog created with the three machines and all three machines had been allocated to the machine catalog as shown in Figure 3.

    Figure 3
    Figure 3

    A Delivery Group to deliver the three machines to users as shown in Figure 4.

    Figure 4
    Figure 4

    Adding Additional Machines

    From the PVS console, right-click the Site and select XenDesktop Setup Wizard… as shown in Figure 5.

    Figure 5
    Figure 5

    Click Next as shown in Figure 6.

    Figure 6
    Figure 6

    If it is not already there, enter the name of the XenDesktop Controller and click Next as shown in Figure 7.

    Figure 7
    Figure 7

    Select the XenDesktop Host Resources and click Next as shown in Figure 8.

    Make sure the host resources are the same as used for the original machines.

    Figure 8
    Figure 8

    Enter the credential and click OK as shown in Figure 9.

    Figure 9
    Figure 9

    Select the same Template and VDA version as used for the original machines and click Next as shown in Figure 10.

    Figure 10
    Figure 10

    Select the same vDisk as used for the original machines and click Next as shown in Figure 11.

    Figure 11
    Figure 11

    Select Use an existing catalog, select Catalog name of the existing PvD Machine Catalog and click Next as shown in Figure 12.

    Figure 12
    Figure 12

    Enter the Number of virtual machines to create and use the same settings for the write cache drive, PvD drive and PvD driver letter are the same as the original machines and click Next as shown in Figure 13.

    Figure 13
    Figure 13

    Select Create new accounts and click Next as shown in Figure 14.

    Figure 14
    Figure 14

    Select the Domain, the same OU as the original machines, the same Account naming scheme (if it is not already there) as the original machines and click Next as shown in Figure 15.

    Note: Do not worry about the sample account name shown.  The wizard “know” where and how to increment the new account names in Active Directory.

    Figure 15
    Figure 15

    Verify the Summary information, click Finish, as shown in Figure 16, and the wizard will begin creating the following:

    • Additional Virtual Machines
    • Additional AD computer accounts
    • Additional Target Devices
    Figure 16
    Figure 16

    When the wizard is complete, click Done as shown in Figure 17.

    Figure 17
    Figure 17

    Looking at the Device Collection in the PVS console (you may need to right-click the Site and select Refresh) shows the three additional target devices as seen in Figure 18.

    Note: The target devices will reboot two or three times.  This is normal.

    Figure 18
    Figure 18

    Looking in Active Directory Users and Computers shows the new computer accounts as seen in Figure 19.

    Figure 19
    Figure 19

    In the XenDesktop Studio console, refresh the Machine Catalogs and the Machine Catalog now shows 6 machines but only 3 allocated machines as shown in Figure 20.

    Figure 20
    Figure 20

    Click Add Machines in the right Actions pane as shown in Figure 21.

    Figure 21
    Figure 21

    Enter the IP address of the PVS 7.6 server (if it is not already there), Active Directory domain and click Connect as shown in Figure 22.

    Figure 22
    Figure 22

    Select the correct Device Collection, VDA version and or features as used for the original machines and click Next as shown in Figure 23.

    Figure 23
    Figure 23

    Verify the Summary information and click Finish as shown in Figure 24.

    Figure 24
    Figure 24

    Click the Machines tab to see that the machines have been added added to the Machine Catalog as shown in Figure 25.  The machines have not been allocated to a Delivery Group yet.

    Figure 25
    Figure 25

    Select the Delivery Group in Studio and then click Add Machines in the right Actions pane as shown in Figure 26.

    Figure 26
    Figure 26

    Enter the number of machines to be allocated to this Delivery Group and click Next as shown in Figure 27.

    Figure 27
    Figure 27

    Verify the Summary information and click Finish as shown in Figure 28.

    Figure 28
    Figure 28

    The Delivery Group now shows that it has 6 machines as shown in Figure 29.

    Figure 29
    Figure 29

    The Machine Catalog now shows 6 allocated machines as shown in Figure 30.

    Figure 30
    Figure 30

    Because of the  following PowerShell command used in the original article, the 3 newly allocated machines will power on in a few seconds.

    Get-brokerdesktopgroup | set-brokerdesktopgroup -PeakBufferSizePercent 100

     

    Refresh the Delivery Group and as shown in Figure 31, all 6 machines are now registered and ready for use.  Look back in Figure 29 and only 3 of the machines were registered as they had not powered on at that time.

    Figure 31
    Figure 31

    Logging in to one of the new desktops, Figure 32 shows the desktop has the settings from the original master template and the application that was added when the master vDisk was in Maintenance mode.

     

    Figure 32
    Figure 32

    And there you have it.  Adding additional machines to a Machine Catalog and Delivery Group using PvD is not that hard.

    Let me know if you have any additional questions.

    Thanks

     

    Webster

     

     

     

     

     

     

     
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    Conversant Group: On average SMBs lose $141,000 per ransomware incident. We keep the bad guys away.

    About Carl Webster

    Webster is a Sr. Solutions Architect for Choice Solutions, LLC and specializes in Citrix, Active Directory and Technical Documentation. Webster has been working with Citrix products for many years starting with Multi-User OS/2 in 1990.

    View all posts by Carl Webster →

    7 Responses to “Adding Machines to a Personal vDisk Citrix XenDesktop 7.x Machine Catalog”

    1. Daniel Says:
      July 31, 2019 at 11:29 pm

      Hi Carl,

      maybe you have an idea
      I’m trying to add one device with personal vDisk to existing Device Collection .

      Image Wizard starts.

      I can see the VM being created in VMware

      Image wizard finishes , disappears from screen then display pop-up

      “No items match the supplied pattern”

      VM is listed in the collection, VMware and AD.

      No entries in the event log of the PVS server

      Citrix Studio list the machine in the machine catalog but only with its SID , not by name.

      If i create a new device collection (catalog), all works fine, without an issue.
      I have the issue only if i want to add machines to existing catalog. (only with PvD)

      With random pooled devices all is working fine. I can add machines to a catalog without any issue.
      Environment (Xendesktop and PVS 7.15 CU4)

      Thanks
      Daniel

      Reply

    2. Serge Says:
      June 5, 2017 at 4:07 pm

      I removed a single pvd machine from delivery group and machine catalog in studio. How do I add the machine back to the catalog?

      Reply

      • Carl Webster Says:
        June 8, 2017 at 2:37 pm

        If you removed it and did not delete it, you can just add it back in by selecting Add Machine.

        Webster

        Reply

    3. senthil Says:
      December 26, 2014 at 4:02 am

      Hi Carl,

      If collection already have 100 machine and create 100 more machine which I placed in same device collections. when I use pvs in xd studio and if I want to add only 100 new machines in new catalog.

      Is it possible or I need to move all new machine to new device collection and add the vm to new catalog.

      Reply

      • Carl Webster Says:
        December 26, 2014 at 7:51 am

        Personally, I would use a new device collection to make sure the machines/target devices are kept separate.

        Webster

        Reply

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