Best Practices for Implementing, Administering,

and Troubleshooting XenDesktop 7.5

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Architecture and design considerations

for a successful deployment

Agenda

Administration habits to help maintain

and support a XenDesktop 7.5 site
Troubleshooting tips and the top three
problem types
Resources discussed, Q&A

2014 Citrix. Confidential.

Best Practices for Implementing

The XenDesktop 7.5 architecture and considerations for
successful deployment

XenDesktop 7.5 architecture

Virtual Desktop
Agent

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Delivery
Controller

SQL Database

XenDesktop 7.5 architecture

The XenDesktop Delivery Controller

Facilitates distribution of applications and desktops

Coordinates with hypervisor
Manages the desktop states
Authenticates and manages user access
Brokers connections between users and target resources
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XenDesktop 7.5 architecture

The XenDesktop Delivery Controller
AD Identity
Service

Delivery Controller Services

NEW
(

Machine
Creation
Service
NEW

Citrix
Environment
Test Service
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Host
Service
(7.x)

NEW

Monitoring
Service

Broker
Service
(7.x)

7.x)

NEW
(

Configuration
Logging
Service

7.x)

Configuration
Service
NEW
(

Delegated
Admin Service

7.x)

XenDesktop 7.5 architecture

The XenDesktop Database

Stores Site configuration, Configuration Logging, and

Monitoring data
Persistent DB availability is required
High-Availability and Fault Tolerance options
Mirroring
Clustering
Leveraging hypervisor H/A features
Support for SQL 2012 AlwaysOn Availability Groups
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XenDesktop 7.5 architecture

The XenDesktop Database

Security
Each controller has its own SQL login to
the database
- Machine account DOMAIN\MACHINE$

Controller permissions are restricted

No rights to change the schemas
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Use this box as a guideline

for proper image placement.
Place your image on top and
align to box.

XenDesktop 7.5 architecture

The XenDesktop Database

Support for assigning your site, configuration logging, and

monitoring schemas into separate databases

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XenDesktop 7.5 architecture

The XenDesktop Virtual Desktop Agents

Performs controller registration and manages the HDX

connection
VDA types
Workstation VDA
- Single-user

Server VDA
- Multi-user
- Remote Desktop Services (RDS) coordinates connections
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Dedicated?

Users?

How frequently?

Bandwidth?

Internal access

Pooled?
Hypervisor?
ItSites?
depends

es?

External access?

aintenance?
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From where?

Mobile devices?

Random or static?
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How many images?

Thin clients? Storage?

Updates?

urces?

PvD?

Security res

Which users?

CGP?

Design Best Practices

Understand the product design and basic how-tos
XenDesktop 7.5 eDocs

Understand the factors within your environment that

influence the design
Citrix Virtual Desktop Handbook 7.x
Citrix XenDesktop 7.5 Blueprint Whitepaper

Leverage Citrix design resources

Project Accelerator
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Project Accelerator
http://project.citrix.com
Assess

Design

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Administration Best Practices

Habits and pointers for maintaining a
XenDesktop 7.5 environment

Administrative Best Practices

Take care of your XenDesktop database!
Establish a regular backup schedule
Occasionally review the size XenDesktop
database transaction logs
DB growth due to VDA communication CTX139508
May be preferable to use Simple recovery mode

Do a dry run of a failover scenario

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Administrative Best Practices

Manual failover

Manually redirecting your XenDesktop site to a failover

database location
XenDesktop SDK PowerShell cmdlets:

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1. Load XenDesktop snap-ins.

Add-PSSnapin Citrix*

2. Get the existing database

connection strings.

Get-LogDataStore
Get-MonitorDataStore

2014 Citrix. Confidential.

Administrative Best Practices

Manual failover

Manually redirecting your XenDesktop site to a failover

database location
XenDesktop SDK PowerShell cmdlets:

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3. Set a variable for the new

connection string.

$cs = "Server=sqlsrvr2012b;Initial
Catalog=XD75Site;Integrated
Security=True

4. Disable configuration logging.

Set-LogSite -State Disabled

2014 Citrix. Confidential.

Administrative Best Practices

Manual failover

Manually redirecting your XenDesktop site to a failover

database location
XenDesktop SDK PowerShell cmdlets:
5. Remove all the current
database connections

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Administrative Best Practices

Removing current database connections
Set-LogDBConnection -DataStore Logging -DBConnection $null
Set-MonitorDBConnection -DataStore Monitor -DBConnection $null
Set-MonitorDBConnection -DBConnection $null
Set-AcctDBConnection -DBConnection $null
Set-ProvDBConnection -DBConnection $null
Set-BrokerDBConnection -DBConnection $null
Set-EnvTestDBConnection -DBConnection $null
Set-SfDBConnection -DBConnection $null
Set-HypDBConnection -DBConnection $null
Set-ConfigDBConnection -DBConnection $null -force
Set-LogDBConnection -DBConnection $null -force
Set-AdminDBConnection -DBConnection $null -force
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Administrative Best Practices

Manual failover

Manually redirecting your XenDesktop site to a failover

database location
XenDesktop SDK PowerShell cmdlets:
5. Remove all the current
database connections
6. Set all the database
connections to the new
connection string
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Administrative Best Practices

Setting the database connections
Set-ConfigDBconnection -DBConnection $cs
Set-AdminDBconnection -DBConnection $cs
Set-LogDBconnection -DBConnection $cs
Set-AcctDBconnection -DBConnection $cs
Set-BrokerDBconnection -DBConnection $cs
Set-EnvTestDBconnection -DBConnection $cs
Set-HypDBconnection -DBConnection $cs
Set-MonitorDBconnection -DBConnection $cs
Set-ProvDBconnection -DBConnection $cs
Set-SfDBconnection -DBConnection $cs
Set-LogDBConnection -DataStore Logging -DBConnection $cs
Set-MonitorDBConnection -DataStore Monitor -DBConnection $cs
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Administrative Best Practices

Manual failover

Manually redirecting your XenDesktop site to a failover

database location
XenDesktop SDK PowerShell cmdlets:
7. Re-enable configuration
logging
8. For confirmation, test Broker
Service connectivity
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Set-LogSite -State Enabled

Test-BrokerDBConnection $(GetBrokerDBConnection)

Administrative Best Practices

Director offers real-time
assessment of a XenDesktop
environment
Provides details regarding the
health of the various XenDesktop
components
Offers functionality for
troubleshooting machines,
sessions, and connections
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Administrative Best Practices

Performance Monitoring Using Director
Infrastructure health overview
Hosting alerts
Delivery Controller service,
database, & license statuses

VDA health

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Failed start-ups and boots

Unregistered machines
Current load (Server OS)
Connected systems
Logon times

2014 Citrix. Confidential.

Administrative Best Practices

Performance Monitoring Using Director

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Administrative Best Practices

Performance Monitoring Using Director

Session and connection health

Activity manager
Session details
Machine details

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Troubleshooting Best Practices

Techniques for troubleshooting XenDesktop 7.5 and the top
three problem types

Troubleshooting Best Practices

When bad things happen to good environments
This is the first Ive
tried this and its not
working.

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Something changed
and I didnt do it.

Something changed
and Im the one that
caused it.

Troubleshooting Best Practices

Methodology

Investigate
Analyze
Implement

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Troubleshooting Best Practices

Gathering data
XenDesktop data collection
Deliver Controller Logging
- Event logs
- Controller service logging

VDA Logging
- Event logs
- BrokerAgent logging
- PortICA logging

Scout
- Environmental data
- XDPing
- CDF Tracing
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Troubleshooting Machine creation

Case study: Catalog creation fails with an unknown error exception

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Troubleshooting Machine creation

Case study: Catalog creation fails with an unknown error exception

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Troubleshooting Machine creation

Case study: Catalog creation fails with an unknown error exception
New-ProvScheme -AdminAddress 'sw-xd75-ddc-01.get.services.citrite.net:80' -HostingUnitName 'Synergy Demo
Resources' -IdentityPoolName 'Synergy Demo' -LoggingId 85ed5a85-28a4-48f6-80b9-816a6585ef45 -MasterImageVM
'XDHyp:\HostingUnits\Synergy Demo Resources\SW-VDA-W7x64-01.vm\Old Base.snapshot\Base.snapshot\VDA 7.1
RTM (Build 4033).snapshot\Citrix_XD_Synergy Demo.snapshot' -NetworkMapping @{'0'='XDHyp:\HostingUnits\Synergy
Demo Resources\Happy Little VDA Network.network'} -ProvisioningSchemeName 'Synergy Demo' -RunAsynchronously
-Scope @() -VMCpuCount 2 -VMMemoryMB 2048

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Troubleshooting Machine creation

Case study: Catalog creation fails with an unknown error exception

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Troubleshooting Registration
Case study: Recently-booted pooled VDAs are intermittently not
registering
Test VDA -> Controller communication
Ping the FQDN of the Controller
Telnet to the IP address of the Controller on port 80
Review port usage on the Controller using Netstat

Test Controller -> VDA communication

Ping the FQDN of the VDA
Telnet to the IP address of the VDA on port 80
Review port usage on the VDA using Netstat

Confirm the time on both the Controller and the VDA

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Troubleshooting Registration
Case study: Recently-booted pooled VDAs are intermittently not
registering
Verify ListOfDDCs value in the registry

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2014 Citrix. Confidential.

Troubleshooting Registration
Case study: Recently-booted pooled VDAs are intermittently not
registering
Verify ListOfDDCs value in the registry
Use Scout / XDPing to identify issues between the
VDA and Controller
Enable VDA logging / Capture CDF traces

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Troubleshooting Connection
Case study: Workstation VDA connection fails with no error

Desktop Viewer is loading

Request is made to the Delivery Controller
ICA file is received
Connection attempt to the VDA is being made

Gathered VDA CDF traces to review for

potential cause

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Troubleshooting Connection
Case study: Workstation VDA connection fails with no error

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Troubleshooting Connection
Case study: Workstation VDA connection fails with no error

Dynamic memory settings

Hyper-V Startup memory
- 32-bit: 1.5 GB
- 64-bit: 2.5 GB

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2014 Citrix. Confidential.

Next Steps
Best Practices for Implementing, Administering, and
Troubleshooting XenDesktop 7.5

Resources
XenDesktop 7.5 eDocs http://
support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/xenapp-xendesktop/cds-xenapp-xendesktop-75-landing.html
Virtual Desktop Handbook 7.x http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX139331
XenDesktop 7.5 Blueprint Whitepaper http://
www.citrix.com/content/dam/citrix/en_us/documents/products-solutions/xendesktop-deployment-blueprint
.pdf
Project Accelerator http://project.citrix.com/
XenDesktop 7.x Database Sizing http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX139508
Citrix Blog: New Citrix Best Practices http://blogs.citrix.com/2014/01/02/new-citrix-best-practices/

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2014 Citrix. Confidential.

Q&A
Best Practices for Implementing, Administering, and
Troubleshooting XenDesktop 7.5

WORK BETTER. LIVE BETTER.

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2014 Citrix. Confidential.