• Learning the Basics of Citrix Provisioning Services and XenApp 5 for Windows Server 2003 Part 2 of 3

    August 4, 2011

    PVS, XenApp, XenApp 5 for Windows Server 2003

    Creating the Master Image

    In Part 1, you learned how to:

    • Prepare to install PVS,
    • Install PVS 5.6 SP1, and
    • Perform basic configuration of PVS 5.6 SP1.

    In this Part, you will learn how to:

    • Create a master image,
    • Create a vDisk in PVS for the master image,
    • Install Target Device software,
    • Use XenAppPrep,
    • Download XenConvert,
    • Optimize a master image,
    • Use XenConvert, and
    • Test streaming a new image.

    Citrix does not recommend or support cloning the first server in a XenApp farm.

    “Provisioning Farm Servers: After you install XenApp on the second server in your farm, you can provision other servers in the farm.” (This is from eDocs but Citrix keeps changing the URL so I am just quoting it here)

    Prepare the Master Image server with all Microsoft, Citrix, third-party programs and updates required for your environment.  Any applications that modify the network stack, such as firewalls, should be installed before the PVS Target Device Software is installed.  If the server is a virtual machine, make sure the appropriate virtualization tools are installed.  For example:

    • XenServer XenTools
    • VMware Tools
    • Hyper-V Integration Services

    It is recommended for XenApp that the Citrix Management Consoles not be installed into the Master Image.

    The Master Image server needs the following registry keys (Figure 42 and Figure 43).

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\BNNS\Parameters\
    DWORD = “EnableOffload”
    Value “0”

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\TCPIP\Parameters\
    DWORD: “DisableTaskOffload”
    Value: “1”

    Figure 42
    Figure 43

    If you are using XenServer, you will also want to disable all the offload properties for the Citrix PV Ethernet Adapter (Figure 44 – Figure 47).

    Figure 44
    Figure 45
    Figure 46
    Figure 47

    PVS Target Device requires automount to be enabled in order to image the Master Image server’s local hard disk drive(s) to the vDisk. Click Start and click Command prompt (Figure 48).

    Figure 48

    Enter the following commands (Figure 49):

    diskpart
automount enable
exit
    Figure 49
    , , ,

    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 →

    10 Responses to “Learning the Basics of Citrix Provisioning Services and XenApp 5 for Windows Server 2003 Part 2 of 3”

    1. Deyner López Says:
      November 4, 2014 at 2:27 pm

      Sorry but i need to resize a PVS 4.5 vdisk which is not a .vhd file…could you tell me how to do that. I´ve not found any info about it. Thanks

      Reply

      • Carl Webster Says:
        November 4, 2014 at 2:34 pm

        I didn’t start working with PVS until version 5.1. In PVS 4.5 is there a method to reverse image the vDisk? If so, reverse image the vDisk, make a new vDisk with the correct size and then reimage.

        Webster

        Reply

    2. Arun Says:
      June 2, 2014 at 4:31 pm

      Hi Webster,

      I am having issues with Target device software upgrade from 5.6 to 7.1.

      After upgrading the Target device software to 7.1 the target device drive assignments are getting swapped by itself upon reboot. where if I assign the old vdisk which has Target device software 5.6, the drive letter assignments are looking good.

      configuration on the Vmware virtual machine
      Xenapp 5.0
      C: – Streamed via PVS
      D: – Write Cache
      E: – Pagefile

      Is there any specific configuration do I need to do for 2003 server.

      Thanks in advance.

      Reply

    3. Raphael Says:
      December 26, 2013 at 6:34 am

      Hi Carl
      I have a question here in my lab Citrix XenApp 5 enter into different areas of my Data Collector.
      You know what can be?
      It is a Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition SP2 32bit
      Have rebooked the Target Device several times, and always the same error occurs.
      He enters a Default (10.0.27.x) zone

      Thank you
      and sorry for my english.

      Reply

      • Carl Webster Says:
        December 26, 2013 at 7:03 am

        That happens by design.

        http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/xenapp5fp-w2k3/ps-install-config-cloning-v2.html

        Configuring Servers after Cloning
        Zone settings are not retained when cloning a server. When the Citrix Independent Management Architecture service on the cloned server starts for the first time, the cloned server joins the Setup default zone. When deploying images to servers in multiple zones, assign zone information for each server after the cloning process.

        After imaging your servers, join these servers to your farm by using the CHFARM command.

        Thanks

        Webster

        Reply

        • Raphael Says:
          December 26, 2013 at 7:17 am

          If I understand, all XenApp 5 server that is provisioned will enter the zone (10.0.27.x)
          and not in Zone I specify the Target Device? I have to manually change?
          That’s what I did.
          Grateful.

          Reply

        • Raphael Says:
          December 26, 2013 at 7:58 am

          Got it, will be that at XenAppPrep I can make a script or something to that every time I create a virtual machine or Inice it between “automatically” in the zone I wanted?
          You have seen or done something like that?
          Need to provision a 30 ~ 50 XenApp 5

          Thank you so much for everything Webster

          Reply

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