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Adding Machines to a Personal vDisk Citrix XenDesktop 7.x Machine Catalog
December 24, 2014
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 A Device Collection with the three Target Devices as shown in 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 A Delivery Group to deliver the three machines to users as shown in 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 Click Next as shown in 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 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 Enter the credential and click OK as shown in 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 Select the same vDisk as used for the original machines and click Next as shown in 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 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 Select Create new accounts and click Next as shown in 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 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 When the wizard is complete, click Done as shown in 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 Looking in Active Directory Users and Computers shows the new computer accounts as seen in 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 Click Add Machines in the right Actions pane as shown in 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 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 Verify the Summary information and click Finish as shown in 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 Select the Delivery Group in Studio and then click Add Machines in the right Actions pane as shown in 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 Verify the Summary information and click Finish as shown in Figure 28.
Figure 28 The Delivery Group now shows that it has 6 machines as shown in Figure 29.
Figure 29 The Machine Catalog now shows 6 allocated machines as shown in 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 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 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
7 Responses to “Adding Machines to a Personal vDisk Citrix XenDesktop 7.x Machine Catalog”
Leave a Reply
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
August 1, 2019 at 6:44 am
Unfortunately, I have no answer for you. Now that PvD is deprecated and should soon be removed from CVAD and PVS, I no longer have PvD in my lab to test this for you.
Have you asked on the Citrix Support Forums or opened a support case?
Sorry
Webster
August 1, 2019 at 6:45 am
https://discussions.citrix.com/topic/382354-imaging-wizard-no-items-match-the-supplied-pattern/
Webster
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?
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
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.
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