How to install Lotus SameTime 8.5.1 on Citrix PVS Streamed pooled desktop (VDI)

IBM Lotus Sametime is the enterprise communicator similar to OCS. It has similar feature as Microsoft OCA along with , it has ability to take screenshot and share over chat . Some of the cool feature liked by end users to  have his/her  own emotions on chat.

While installation is easy but it does not launch in PVS streamed VM's . PVS streamed VM  uses roaming profile because of pooled environment . This can only be achieved via storing user's profile data on shared storage.

IBM Sametime does not like it because it has tendency to store it locally . Below screenshot shows that  value called rcp.data store it locally. This setting does not allow the sametime to launch when desktop is access via ICA session.

To make it work , mount the roaming app data GPO by updating registry

And now make change to the file rcplauncher.properties by updating the field called rcp.data as shown below .

With this you would be able to launch IBM same time on streamed pooled VM.

How to Publish Google Chrome 13.0 with XenApp 6

To publish Google Chrome , we need to download standalone msi package from google

12/29/2008-13:42:29 http://dl.google.com/update2/1.2.131.27/GoogleUpdateSetup.exe
12/29/2008-13:42:29 http://dl.google.com/update2/1.2.131.27/clickonce_bootstrap.exe
12/29/2008-13:42:35 http://cache.pack.google.com/chrome/install/154.36/chrome_installer.exe

Or from following url https://www.google.com/chrome/eula.html?standalone=1

Install the standalone package and this will get installed under the user profile whoever is logged in. In this example Administrator is logged in hence the shown path . We need to copy Chrome.exe under 13.0.782.112 folder as shown below. Administrator folder should be given Modify permission for all the users.

Now create googleChorme.cmd file under program folder with shown entry.

Publish this CMD as usual using Citrix Delivery Console.

You can launch and safely ignore the message   and use google chorm

How to install Desktop Director and configure for MultiSite in XenDesktop 5.0

When you have multiple site running XD 5.0 Farm and Help Desk want to use single desktop director to manage both farm . We need to update desktop director with other farm controller name

To install standalone desktop director you can run DDC 5.0 ISO and choose following . Update DDC FQDN in the given format and hit test

This will finish Desktop Director  installation

Once installation done we need to open IIS management . Drill down to DesktopDirector and highlight Application setting.

This will bring all the setting related to Desktop Director . There are two setting which we need to modify in order to manage multiple site.

We need to change from 'false' to 'true'

Update here with all the controller FQDN to manage all the site.

Restart the IIS here and then browse to the page . This webpage will be different and here you wont get dashboard. Only thing can be done here is search users and then address the issue pertaining to the user. So it would be very important to decide if you like to make these changes and use it . This is with Desktop Director 1.0 . There are few changes which has been made to Desktop Director 2.0 which will allow you to manage XD 5.5 and XA 6.5 farm as well . Source is here

How to remove XenDesktop DDC5 gracefully from the XD5 farm

In my previous blog I mention hard way to remove stale DDC from XD database.

Launch the Desktop Studio and highlight controllers as shown below. Select the controller you want to remove and choose "Remove Controller"

This will prompt for action to update Database . Choose "NO " here

This will prompt for generating SQL script which needs to be run on SQL server database

Script looks like this . Copy this script

And then choose DDC database on SQL manager . Right click and select new script . Paste  it from previous step and run "Execute"

Once the script is ran then it will give following message

Once Desktop Studio is update , controller will be removed

Run powershell command Get-BrokerController and confirm that other controller is out completely.

How to remove stale DDC from XenDesktop 5 Farm

Stale DDC inside XenDesk 5 Farm may get created because of various reason and this does not get removed unless database is cleaned.

1. If you run Get-brokercontroller from PS console of Desktop Studio then you see the stale entry. Below two stale entry for SID

S-1-5-21-1757981266-413027322-725345543-64627 and  other one ending with 64712 

2. Same thing will be shown via Desktop Studio

 

3. Following script needs to be run in same order from desktop studio PS console with XD database name

Get-ConfigDBSchema -DatabaseName <XD database name> -ScriptType Evict -SID $sid > EvictDDC.sql  (Here we are creating EvictDDC.sql)
Get-AcctDBSchema -DatabaseName <XD database name> -ScriptType Evict -SID $sid >> EvictDDC.sql(Here we are appending to  EvictDDC.sql)
Get-HypDBSchema -DatabaseName <XD database name> -ScriptType Evict -SID $sid >> EvictDDC.sql
Get-ProvDBSchema -DatabaseName <XD database name> -ScriptType Evict -SID $sid >> EvictDDC.sql
Get-PvsVmDBSchema -DatabaseName <XD database name> -ScriptType Evict -SID $sid >> EvictDDC.sql
Get-BrokerDBSchema -DatabaseName <XD database name> -ScriptType Evict -SID $sid >> EvictDDC.sql

4. This is how Script needs to be run in following order . First SID variable needs to be set and then rest of the commands need to be run. Here we are creating EvictDDC.sql file which is nothing but a stored procedure

5.  This file can be found under following

6. Now when we open this file with notepad  following entry can be found.

 

7.   Open SQL server management studio and select the database and then open new script. Select the content from EvictDDC.sql  and paste as shown. Execute as shown below

8.   Last command Get-BrokerDBSchema -DatabaseName <XD database name> -ScriptType Evict -SID $sid >> EvictDDC.sql  need to run as follows.

9.  Sometime Get-BrokerDBSchema -DatabaseName <XD database name> -ScriptType Evict -SID $sid >> EvictDDC.sql will fail with following message. Create new store procedure using working XD SID and then replace host name and SID with non working SID.

10.  Once all the above store procedure ran it will remove the stale entry from DDC

Even Desktop Studio will update the entry

 

Citrix SmartAuditor Policy Console is Unable to Load Farm Configuration

We were getting below mention error while installing SmartAuditor on SQL 2008 cluster . Tried following CTX123288 but looks like some changes is required from SQL 2008 cluster prospective.

Symptoms

When opening the Citrix SmartAuditor Policy Console, the following error message appears:

“Unable to connect to the SmartAuditor Server. Ensure that the SmartAuditor Server is running.
Unable to load farm configuration.
An error occurred while accessing the SmartAuditor Database. More details about the error have been logged on the server.”

Citrix SmartAuditor Events like the one below appear:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Citrix SmartAuditor Broker
Event Category: None
Event ID: 0
Date: 11/4/2009
Time: 6:52:51 PM
User: N/A
Computer: SMARTAUDITOR01
Description:
Exception caught while loading SmartAuditor Policy Console configuration file.
--- Exception Details ---
Type: System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException
Message: Cannot open database "CitrixSmartAuditor" requested by the login. The login failed.
Login failed for user ‘CITRIX\SMARTAUDITOR01$'.
Stack trace:
   at SmAudDatabaseProxy.DatabaseProxy.get_DatabaseConnection()
   at SmAudDatabaseProxy.DatabaseProxy.LoadPolicyConsoleConfigurationFile(Int16 policyType, Int64& configFileModifiedTimeUtcTicks, Int32& configFileFormatMajorVersion, Int32& configFileFormatMinorVersion, Byte[]& configFile)
   at SmAudBroker.PolicyAdministration.LoadPolicyConsoleConfigurationFile(PolicyType policyType, Int64& configFileModifiedTimeUtcTicks, Int32& configFileFormatMajorVersion, Int32& configFileFormatMinorVersion, Byte[]& configFile)

After installing Citrix SmartAuditor, the following events are seen (usually at 30-second intervals) in the Application Event Logs.:

Event Type: Warning
Event Source: Citrix SmartAuditor Storage Manager
Event Category: None
Event ID: 0
Date: 11/4/2009
Time: 6:35:32 PM
User: N/A
Computer: SMARTAUDITOR01
Description:
Exception caught while establishing database connection.
--- Exception Details ---
Type: System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException
Message: Cannot open database "CitrixSmartAuditor" requested by the login. The login failed.
Login failed for user 'CITRIX\SMARTAUDITOR01$'.
Stack trace:
   at SmAudDatabaseProxy.DatabaseProxy.get_DatabaseConnection()
   at SmAudDatabaseProxy.DatabaseProxy.CheckSupportedSchemaVersion()
   at SmAudDatabaseProxy.DatabaseProxy.TestConnection()
   at SmAudStorageManager.DataQueueConsumer.WaitConnectDatabase()

ICA sessions are not being recorded and ICL files only appear for a short time and then disappear.

Cause

Probable causes can include the following:

• The computer account for the Citrix SmartAuditor Server does not exist in the SmartAuditor Database.

• The computer account has been deleted and re-created using the same name resulting in a new Security Identifier being issued by Windows Active Directory.

Resolution

The computer account for the Citrix SmartAuditor server must be created in the Citrix SmartAuditor Database.

1. Go to the Microsoft SQL Server and launch the Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio.

2. Under Object Explorer in the console, go to Databases\CitrixSmartAuditor\Schemas right-click and select New Schema.

2. A) Under Object Explorer in the console, go to Databases\CitrixSmartAuditor\Security\Schemas right-click and select New Schema.

3. In the Schema name: field enter the computer name of the Citrix SmartAuditor Server in this format Domain\Machine-Name$. For example, if the domain is Citrix and the hostname of the Citrix SmartAuditor server is SMARTAUDITOR01, then the entry should be: CITRIX\SMARTAUDITOR01$. Note that this entry is not case-sensitive.

4. Leave the entry for Schema Owner field blank. This will be taken care of later when the user account is created. Click OK to continue.

5. Back in the SQL Server Management Studio console, under Object Explorer, go to Databases\CitrixSmartAuditor\Users right-click and select New User.

5. A) Back in the SQL Server Management Studio console, under Object Explorer, go to Security\Logins right-click and select New Login...

6. The Database User – New dialog opens. Enter the computer account name (in the same format as used to create the Schema in step 3) for the User name, for the Login name, and for the Default Schema.

6. A) The Login – New dialog opens. Enter the computer account name (in the same format as used to create the Schema in step 3) for the Login name.

7. Under Owned Schemas, click on the check-box for the schema created for this computer account.

7. A) Now go to the CitrixSmartAuditor Database and expand to go to Security –> Users and Right click on the CITRIX\SMARTAUDITOR01$ which you have created and go to Properties. Under Owned Schemas, click on the check-box for the schema created for this computer account.

8. Under Role Members, click on the db_owner role.

The picture below shows the result of steps 6 through 8.

9. Click OK to continue.

10. Go back to the Citrix SmartAuditor Server and restart the Citrix SmartAuditor Storage Manager Service.

11. Test by opening the Citrix SmartAuditor Policy Console and by launching ICA sessions that are known to fit the criteria set in the Citrix SmartAuditor Policy Console for a recorded session.

How to enable DesktopViewer for Citrix Webinterface and PNA site.

Sometime desktop viewer is not available when it is launch via WebInterface . This can be made enabled via changing WebInterface.conf

This file will exist under each of the site which is created under IIS

Edit the file and remove the # and make it Off to ON

How to hide SEP (Symantec) notification for published XenApp application

When application is published from windows 2008 R2 machine having Symantec Endpoint Protection running , it shows up under connection center .

If you have multiple application there would be many such notification under connection center . In order to suppress it , GPO can be used to populate . These value can be found under  CTX101644

After a registry deployment these notification will be disappear .

How to Hide selective drive for XenApp 6 or XenDesktop

There are many ways people go for hiding selective drives and hiding drives. I have tried creating ADM but does not looks to be a viable option .

The "NoDrives" value uses a 32-bit word to define local and network drive visibility for each logical drive in the computer. The lower 26 bits of the 32-bit word correspond to drive letters A through Z. Drives are visible when set to 0 and hidden when set to 1.

There are two registry entry which can make this happen

User Key: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
System Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
Value Name: NoDrives
Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)

To determine the value, you need to do some little math

The "NoDrives" value uses a 32-bit word to define local and network drive visibility for each logical drive in the computer. The lower 26 bits of the 32-bit word correspond to drive letters A through Z. Drives are visible when set to 0 and hidden when set to 1.

If you are not happy working in Hex, add these decimal numbers to hide the drive(s):

A: 1, B: 2, C: 4, D: 8, E: 16, F: 32, G: 64, H: 128, I: 256, J: 512, K: 1024, L: 2048, M: 4096, N: 8192, O: 16384, P: 32768, Q: 65536, R: 131072, S: 262144, T: 524288, U: 1048576, V: 2097152, W: 4194304, X: 8388608, Y: 16777216, Z: 33554432, ALL: 67108863

For example to hide drive A and drive D, you would add 1 (A) + 8 (D) which means the value should be set to "9".

To disable all the drives set the value to "67108863".

Now say you just want to show H drives to the user and hide rest of them then

All value =67108863 H: = 128 . Just to show H drive =67108863-128=67108735

The value for "NoDrives"= 67108735

To deploy this using GPO you need to do following setting under GPO,

This example is to show all except H: drive on XA box.

How to pre-populate domain name on Desktop Director web page

When you try to access desktop director web page , domain name needs to be typed every time.

So in order to pre populate with the domain name open Logon.aspx from following location using  elevated command prompt

And made changes at following location

And then restart default IIS website

 

You will be doing this all on server where you have installed desktop director and then final result will be something like this

Citrix Provisioning Server and Active Directory password management

 Most of you know when we provision vDisk using Citrix PVS (Provisioning Services ), PVS should be allowed to manage the machine account password . The reason in nutshell  : vDisk is created using one master image with machine account in domain . Same image is streamed across multiple machine.

How we do this ? This setting is on PVS server setting

But problem start when you have following default Domain policy

 

Problem : When machine try to negotiate password after 30 days because of PVS setting AD does not allow to do so. Result of which machine goes out of password synch. This kicks machine out domain and Virtual desktop got unregistered from Desktop Delivery controller

This policy as per Citrix PVS eDocs and also one more eDocs suggest to set this to "Enabled". So how you would like to tackle this situation.

1.  If above setting is not followed with password age then you can define  password age policy and apply to OU which is meant for Virtual Desktop.  As shown below for 999 days PVS will enjoy managing provisioned machine password.

2. Windows following Netlogon service tried to negotiate machine password when it expires. This is stored under

3.  If the value is set to "0 " then AD will not allow PVS to negotiate password. Remember this is managed by default  domain controller policy but registry can be overwritten by deploying new registry value. How check this out

If this policy is applied on OU containing VDI then even default domain policy for password can be overwritten. Citrix has also release fix which address similar issue but not exactly the same issue CTX130273.