But if System Center 2012 Endpoint Protection is used in the environment, the Windows Autoupdate services is needed for the anti-virus updates. What to optimize depends on your environment, for example in most cases the Windows Autoupdate services can be disabled (also recommended sins the vDisk is read-only). If you get this errors you have to click on Autofit.Ĭlick on Optimize for Provisioning Services The errors in this dialog means that the target vDisk is smaller than the local hard disk in the Master Server. (When receiving the error “There are no vDisks available that are in Private mode and not locked accessible by the Server specified” make sure there is no Lock on the vDisk, you can remove the Lock in the PVS console by right click the vDisk and click on the option “Manage Locks”) Select Use existing vDisk and select the vDisk created in step 2 Installing the Citrix Provisioning Services Target Device ( as described here) and start the Provisioning Services Imaging Wizard.Įnter the server name of the Provisioning Services server where you stored the vDisk and click Next Step 4 – Running the Provisioning Services Imaging Wizard on the Master Server On the vDisk tab, Add the vDisk created in step 2 and click OK.
Select to Boot from Hard Desk and fill in the MAC address of the primary NIC of the Master Server (the NIC the Master server boots from). On the General tab, enter the name of the Master server. Right click the “Masters” Device Collection and click on Create Device. This is not a required step but is recommended because it is easier to manage later. Within the Provisioning Services Console, under Device Collections, create a Device Collection with the name Masters (or anything you like). Step 3 – Create Target Device within PVS for the “Master Server” With older versions of Provisioning Services, Dynamic vDisks could give performance problems, this is no longer the case with Provisioning Services version 6.1.Ĭlick on Create vDisk. Set VHD type to Dynamic which means that only the space that is really needed will be used for storing the vDisk. Normally I have enough of 30 to 50 gb, depending on the installed applications on the server. Select the Store where the vDisk will reside, select a specific server for the vDisk (later you can change this to load balancing) and enter a Filename for the vDisk (anything you like). Right click vDisk Pool and click Create vDisk. Open the Provisioning Services Console and go to Sites > “sitename” > vDisk Pool Step 2 – Create the vDisk within Provisioning Services It’s recommended to automate the installations, for example with Microsoft SCCM.
Install the necessary Citrix XenApp 6.5 updates and install the applications that must be available in the Citrix XenApp farm. While configuring the XenApp installation, keep in mind to select Enable Session-host mode only as shown below. Install Citrix XenApp 6.5 and join the server to the current XenApp Farm.
Place the server in an Active Directory OU with little or no policies applied to it (keep the vDisk as clean as possible). Install Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 with all necessary updates and patches and join the server to the domain. Configure this server to boot from network first. Step 1 – Creating and installing the “Master server”Ĭreate a XenApp Master server, this is a server that have equivalent hardware specs with the other servers and will be used to create the Citrix XenApp vDisk. For this case I will use XenApp servers which have a local hard disk for the PVS cache files and some redirections (like the Windows paging file).
In this step-by-step guide I will create and configure a Citrix XenApp 6.5 vDisk and I’ll give you some tips which you should be aware of.
Additional steps should be taken for some software, for example software that’s need a unique ID or GUID. With that in mind, consider well what you install or configure in the vDisk because it will be present on each XenApp server booting from that vDisk. Booting all the XenApp servers from the same vDisk ensures that they all are equal, and since the vDisk is read only, all servers will be in “original clean state” after a reboot. With Citrix Provisioning Services you can provide a single vDisk for all your XenApp servers.
It is highly recommended to use Citrix Provisioning Services when deploying multiple XenApp servers in your farm (hardware must be equal). After installing and configuring Citrix Provisioning Services Server ( as described here) and the Citrix XenApp 6.5 Controller ( as described here) it’s time to create the Citrix XenApp vDisk, also known as the “Golden disk”, for the Citrix XenApp 6.5 running in Session-host mode only.