Installing,Configuring Citrix XenApp 6.5 And Publishing Applications

                                          Citrix XenApp is a product that extends Microsoft Remote Desktop Session Host desktop sessions and applications to users through the Citrix HDX protocol.Citrix XenApp and Remote Desktop Services allow Windows applications and computing resources to be centrally managed in a secure data center. Users can access the applications from anywhere and from non-Windows clients

                                           Before I begin the install of XenApp 6.5 I've configured the following first

• A Windows 2008 domain (ictops.org).
• 2 Windows 2008 R2 64bit servers for the XenApp servers and the web interface.
• A Windows 2008 R2 server for the license server.
• A Windows 7/8 Machine                                                                        The XenApp Installation-Configurations includes the following

1. Prepare the Media - (Download XenApp 6.5 ISO)
2. Install License Server Role
3. Install XenApp Server Role
4. Install Web Interface Role
5. Configure License Server Role
6. Configure XenApp Server Role - (Create New Farm/ SQL Express DB Installation)
7. Configure Web Interface Role - ( Create Sites / Configure Sites)
8. Publishing An Application on XenApp Server- (Install  Citrix Receiver)

                                    Mean while i don't want to Setup AD and we configure all the Services (XenApp-DB / License Server / Web Interface) on A Single Windows 2008 Server

(Machine Name :-  WIN-85CLBN5A8QJ)

1. Download the XenApp 6.5 ISO from Citrix Sites and burn into a Disk or USB storage
2. Insert the Media into the Windows 2008 Server and Select Install XenApp Server

                ( It's ask for installing Dotnet frame work 3.5 on the server)

3.  Once the install of .Net 3.5 has finished and the Citrix XenApp Server Role Manager starts click on Add Server Roles.

4.  You will be prompted to select your edition of XenApp. (Me Select Platinum Edition) and Agree the License

5. Here, I'm going to install the XenApp and Web Interface And License Server role on the same server but if this is a production environment have a look here to see how you can split the roles out.

                                   I also have added the XML integration as this let the Citrix XML port and IIS share port 80, if you have a requirement to separate these do not select it.

6. Review what is going to be installed and click next.The installation requires a restart.

7. After rebooting will get the Prompt Like “Resume Install” . Otherwise Open

                   “Citrix XenApp Server Role Manager “  ( Start ---> Administrative Tools ---> Citrix --->Citrix XenApp Server Role Manager )

8. After Completing the Installation, need to configure roles (License ,XenApp)

9.  Configuring License Server Role

      (Start ---> Administrative Tools ---> Citrix ---> Citrix XenApp Server Role Manager )

10. Need to Specify the Licensing (Click On Specify Licensing)

11. You will get an error like below .Ignore it and continue

Note :- We have not uploaded any license, this is bz we will get this error

12. Configure XenApp Server Role On Server

                                   To Configure XenApp server, we need to create a Citrix Farm

             Citrix Farm is a Connection of Citrix XenApp Server. So this is new server installation so we need to select “ Create a New Server farm “

                       

13. Create a Database For Citrix Farm.

                      It contains all static informations like Farm Configuration, Published application configuration and Server Configuration

              

               Click on DB, this will instal SQL Express DB on the server.

              Enter User Credentials ---> Configure Shadowing --->Advanced Server setting-(Data Collection/XML Service/Receiver/RDp users)

After Installation of SQL DB , Restart the server

14. Configure Web Interface On Server

           I already installed web interface Role on server, so need to configure Web Interface on the server

  (Start ---> Administrative Tools ---> Citrix ---> Management Console ---> Citrix Web Interface Management)

                                     In the Citrix Web Interface Management Console, there have two Option

XenApp Web Sites  and XenApp Services Sites

 15. Create XenApp Websites

 (Start ---> Administrative Tools ---> Citrix ---> Management Console ---> Citrix Web Interface Management --->XenApp Website ---> Create sites

16. Configure Sites

                     After successfully create the Web site, then configure the sites

To Configure sites, we need to specify Server Farm (We already created a Server Farm during the XenApp role installation).So specify that name.(here Eg :- New Farm)

Specify the Server / Servers (Multiple XenApp Servers) in failover order

               Specify Authentication method ---> Domain Restrictions → Specify Logon Screen Appearance ---> Select Published Resource Type

17. Publishing  An Application on Citrix XenApp Server

• Logon to the XenApp Server
• Open Citrix AppCenter

            ( Start ----> Administrative Tools ---> Citrix ----> Management Consoles ---> Citrix AppCenter)

• Get a Console “ Configure And Run Discovery “
• Uncheck the option “ Single Sign-On “
• Add Citrix Server   (Add Local Computer) - Eg :- WIN-85CLBN5A8QJ

Application Publishing.

• Open Citrix AppCenter

( Start ----> Administrative Tools ---> Citrix ----> Management Consoles ---> Citrix AppCenter )

• Expand Farm Name   (Eg :- New Farm)  
• Select Applications ---> Click On Publish Application ---->Enter Name ----> Location ----> Configure Server (On Which Published Application will run) --- > Users --->Finish

18. Testing From A Client Machine / Access Published Application

• Logon to the Client Windows 7 /8 Machine
• Open Browser and Type XenApp Server IP / Domain Name
• Select Skip To Logon

                                 

                                We can see the Published application but we are not able to Open the applications, because we have not install the Citrix Receiver on this client machine

19. Citrix Receiver On Client Machine

• Insert the XenApp Server ISO burned Media
• Install/Run Program from the Media
• Click On Manual Install Components  ----> Common Components ---->
• Select “ Plugins And Streaming Profiler “ ----> Select Citrix Receiver
                           After the installation. Try to access the Published application. 

Cloning a VM Using VMware vSphere Client

                VMware vSphere is the most robust virtualization solution. Cloning a Virtual Machine in ESxi 5.x is a feature of vCenter server. Out of the box vSphere free edition hypervisor does not support cloning. But there is an alternative way to clone a VM.

1. First connect to the ESXi using the vSphere client and power off the source VM.
2. In vSphere client User Interface.Select the Configuration tab and Storage settings on the left menu. The Datastores list will come up on the right pane.

     3. Right click on the datastore of the source VM and select Browse.

     4. Right click on the root folder on the left tree and Create a new folder.

     5. Select the source folder of the VM,which one we want to clone

     6  Copy the configuration file (.vmx) and the virtual disk file (.vmdk)

 7. Paste the copied files into the destination folder,new folder

 8. In the destination folder select .vmx file and Add to Inventory.

 9. Enter the name of the cloned VM and finish the wizard.

Clone A VMware’s VM Without vCenter in ESXi 5.x-Using VMKFS

                                           I herewith show the procedure by cloning a VM Server/snapshot of a VM.We have already option for taking Snapshots of a VM in VSphere client.

For taking snapshot via VSphere client :- Right click the vVM ---> Make a snapshot

For taking Clone follow the steps

1. Shutdown the VM otherwise the files will be locked.
2. Connect the ESXi host via Putty and Browse the Datastore and check the VM Server location

#cd /vmfs/volumes/datstore name

     3.   List the items in the location

/vmfs/volumes/50e7090a-87ed9a0d-9b18-0026b95833b7#ls

     4.   Enter in to the location, which is allocated for the VM and list the items

/vmfs/volumes/50e7090a-87ed9a0d-9b18-0026b95833b7/SVR-1#ls

                                       As you can see now, there are more than one vmdk disk files, the flat vmdk, the delta vmdk and the vmdk descriptor file (the Xp3-000001.vmdk file in our example), along with the memory snapshot and various control and log files.

    For taking Clone Via vmkfstool command line Syntax :-

vmkfstools -i source_path destination_path -d disk_format -a adapter_type

If you didn’t have a snapshot, the source file would be the vmdk descriptor file of your vm

     5.   Create the destination folder in datastore folder

/vmfs/volumes/50e7090a-87ed9a0d-9b18-0026b95833b7/SVR-1 # mkdir SVR-2

     6.   Clone the disk file - In the case of Snapshot

vmkfstools -i /vmfs/volumes/220/SVR-1/vmsvr-1-000001.vmdk /vmfs/volumes/220/SVR-2/vmsvr-2.vmdk -d thin

     7.   Clone the disk file - No snapshot-take direct machine clone

vmkfstools -i /vmfs/volumes/220/SVR-1/vmsvr-1.vmdk /vmfs/volumes/220/SVR-2/vmsvr-2.vmdk -d thin

    8. Create a new vm and force the use of an existing disk file via VSphere client

Eg:-

Based i have a VM machine named “vmsvr-1” located in datastore.Datastore name is 220

Here i have clone my vmsvr-1 machine to a new vmsvr-2 VM and loaded into SVR-2 folder

1. Login into the ESXi host and check the item in machine placed location                                    

                      #cd /vmfs/volumes/220/

                     /vmfs/volumes/50e7090a-87ed9a0d-9b18-0026b95833b7/SVR-1#ls

vmsvr-1-flat.vmdk  vmware-11.log

vmsvr-1.nvram      vmware-12.log

vmsvr-1.vmdk       vmware-13.log

vmsvr-1.vmsd       vmware-8.log

vmsvr-1.vmx        vmware-9.log

vmsvr-1.vmxf       vmware.log

vmware-10.log

2. Clone the disk file - No snapshot-take direct machine clone

vmkfstools -i /vmfs/volumes/220/SVR-1/vmsvr-1.vmdk /vmfs/volumes/220/SVR-2/vmsvr-2.vmdk -d thin

After you enter the above command it shows a message to start the cloning process

Destination disk format: VMFS thin-provisioned

Cloning disk '/vmfs/volumes/220/SVR-1/vmsvr-1.vmdk'...

Clone: 10% done.

Clone: 100% done.

3. Check the SVR-2 folder location after the cloning process

                    /vmfs/volumes/50e7090a-87ed9a0d-9b18-0026b95833b7/SVR-2 #ls

vmsvr2-flat.vmdk  vmsvr2.vmdk

4. Create a new vm and force the use of an existing disk file (vmsvr-2.vmdk) via VSphere client