XenApp shadowing does not logoff user session

When helpdesk team close the shadowing session ICA shadowing session does not logoff from the server. Because of this reason no more shadowing will be allowed on this server by same users. Let's find out how does it happen . I am shadowing "citrix.test" using user "citrix.test" . This is what shown under App control center

When this session is terminated via Ctrl+ *

This will still be shown under App Center as disconnected

This disconnected session does not logoff  shadowing session gracefully. After looking at task manager it has been found that couple of process which was still running with PID

we were not able to kill Symantec Service Framework service even using local admin or domain admin

Created GPO and deliver following key using "Create" option

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Citrix\wfshell\TWI

Value Name:LogoffCheckSysModules
Type:REG_SZ
String: ccSvcHst.exe

as explained in CTX891671. After this registry changes Ctrl + * use to close the shadowing session.

How to set alias for Desktop Director URL

When desktop director is installed , it can be accessed via http://<server name >/Desktopdirector  . But DNS will not allow you to create alias , so you will be always need to type http://<server name >/Desktopdirector  . In order to get access via just server ie.  http://<Servername> we need to make change in IIS or create Default.htm file under wwwroot folder. Content of Default.htm will be  
Other way of doing is to redirect http request from http://<servername>/desktopdirector to http://<servername> from IIS

ClientName variable as hostname via Citrix AGEE

When hosted desktop is launch via AGEE it display the host name with something like WI_  . This makes some of the application behave weird which uses this variable. Mainly some CRM application which uses this hostname . This can be verified via running set command.

 

To fix this small change on WI can help . Uncheck the below options

And after that when application like hosted shared desktop is launched it display the correct CLIENTNAME="workstationname"

How to manage XenApp 6.5 and XenDesktop 5.x using Desktop Director 2.1

Last time I wrote a blog and refer to blog by Dane Yong  http://blog.itvce.com/?p=408  for installing  DD which can integrate both XA and XD.  After that I tried following again and it never worked. There are several other blogs which says how to integrate XA6.5 and XD5.6 together. They also mention to use different ISO but here is what you need to do

1. In this example we are using dedicated DD which does not have any other component.
2. Mount XenDesktop 5.6 ISO image to the machine  and run Autorun.exe -> Install XenDesktop option -> deselect all options except Desktop Director
3. On the bottom of the page where Desktop Director is selected, an input box will appear asking you to enter a controller in the XenDesktop site commence installation

                    

     4.   Open Internet Explorer – open the Desktop Director site, confirm XenDesktop site is enumerated successfully

     5.      Run IIS Manager, open the Application Settings for the DesktopDirector folder. Add the

                Service.AutoDiscoveryAddressesXA option with relevant XA server

6.  Open Internet Explorer and log in to the Desktop Director site again. Confirm that XenDesktop is enumerated successfully

      on the main landing page and that searching for a user shows their XenApp sessions too

You can reach out incase you are not able to make it work :P

How to capture memory dump of Windows 2003 PVS Streamed VMs

Prep XenApp vm to enable COM port debugging.

1. Logon to XenApp vm and run “msconfig” from command line.

2. Select “Boot.ini” tab, then click “Advanced Options” button and check to enable the following checkbox and selected values.

“/DEBUG”

“/DEBUGPORT=COM1:”

“/BAUDRATE=115200”

3. Reboot server to take effect

Attach a Virtual Serial Port to VM

While the target XenApp vm is running on Xenserver console command line issue the following command to enable virtual COM port redirection to a separate machine running sockpipe tool and Windbg:

#xe vm-param-set uuid=<UUID of the VM> other-config:hvm_serial="tcp:<<IP-of-the-Windbg-machine>>:7001"  

(can use any open ports beside port 7001 on the machine running sockpipe/Windbg) .  This command can be run even if the VM is not running.

Configure Debug session

1. From sockpipe/windbg machine disable Windows firewall or 3^rd party Anti-virus/firewall, etc.

2. Start sockpipe via command line (run in administrator mode for the command line if it’s Win7 or Win2K8), and run command “sockpipe mypipe 7001”

"mypipe" is name given to the pipe being used to connect to the VM. This needs to be  unique for all the Debug Session and so should be the port number.

Start Windbg and select “File > Kernel Debug” and enter the following on the first COM tab:

· Baud Rate=115200

· Port=\\.\pipe\mypipe

· Check the “Pipe” check box

· Click OK button

If the VM is running then reboot the XenApp VM so the virtual COM port of the VM will be redirected to sockpipe/windbg machine IP address. If the VM is not running, just start the VM

How to Capture

When XenApp vm experience hang or freeze, on Windbg machine select “Debug > Break” within Windbg to enter break point.  On bottom of Windbg you can type the command

“.dump /f c:\temp\fulldump.dmp” (or whatever location you have enough free disk space to hold the entire memorydump of same size as the vm’s physical memory)

Now wait for the full memory to copy out of the VM thru it’s virtual COM port.

Download Dump Configurator from CTX129575  

Download Sockpipe

Source : Based on input provided by my colleague Vipul Tripathi