How to install and configure PVS 6.1 with XenDesktop 5.6–Part 2

 Preparation of Golden image (vDisk) for Citrix Provisioning Server

 

Since you now create one base image, and after creating the vDisk you start to make it “private” or as you want to publish it.That will speed up the process of creating new Vdisk’s for new users

Step-1 Create a Golden Image

A golden image is the image that is going to be streamed to the various VMs that the end users connect to.

1. Install the host operating system to the virtual machine (VM).
2. Add all the various applications that required by the end-user.
3. Do not install the VDA Agent.
4. Once the image is created with VMTools and installed minus the VDA agent, install the Provisioning Server Target Device Software. Once installed, shut down the VM and proceed to Creating the vDisk File.

Step-2 Creating the vDisk File in the Console

To create a new vDisk file in the Console.

1. In the Console tree, right-click on the vDisk Pool in the site where you want to add those vDisks, then select the Create vDisk menu option. The Create vDisk dialog appears.

2. If you accessed this dialog from the site’s vDisk pool, in the drop-down menu, select the store where this vDisk should reside. If you accessed this dialog from the store, from the drop-down menu, select the site where this vDisk should be added.

3. In the Server used to create the vDisk drop-down menu, select the Provisioning Server to create the vDisk.

4. Type a filename for the vDisk. Optionally, type a description for this new vDisk in the description textbox.

5. In the Size text box, scroll to select the appropriate size to allocate for this vDisk file.

6. In the VHD Format text box, select the format as either Fixed or Dynamic .( Set the size for the vDisk. Normally I have enough of 30 to 50 gb, depending on the installed applications on the server. Set VHD type to Dynamic which means that only the space that is really needed will be used for storing the vDisk)

7. Click Create vDisk, a progress dialog opens. Depending on the disk size and other factors, it might take several minutes to create the vDisk. After the vDisk is successfully created, it displays in the Console’s details pane and is ready for formatting.

8. Right-click on the vDisk in the Console, then select Mount vDisk. The vDisk icon appears with an orange arrow, if mounted properly.

Step-3 Formatting a vDisk

For a target device to access the new vDisk, after you have created and allocated space for the vDisk file on the Provisioning Server, you must format the vDisk.

To format a mounted vDisk from the Console

In the Console, the vDisk should appear as a removable disk to the operating system.

1. Open a Windows Explorer window (click My Computer on the Desktop or on the Start Menu).

2. Right-click on the vDisk, then select Format.

3. Create a descriptive name for the volume label for the vDisk.

4. Click Start. Then click OK on the warning message that appears.

5. After formatting, close Windows Explorer and unmount the vDisk.

To unmount a vDisk

To unmount a vDisk and make it available to target devices, in the Console, right-click on the vDisk, and then select the Unmount vDisk option.

Step 4 – Create Target Device within PVS for the “Master Server”

1. Within the Provisioning Services Console, under Device Collections, create a Device Collection with the name Masters (or anything you like). This is not a required step but is recommended because it is easier to manage later.

2.Right click the “Masters” Device Collection and click on Create Device.

3.On the General tab, enter the name of the Master server. 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).

4.On the vDisk tab, Add the vDisk created in step 2 and click OK

Installation of Provisioning Server Target Device Software and VDA on Golden Image

1. Go to Vsphere and start the base machine and make the required changes in the machine and then install the Provisioning Services using Provisioning Services installation media and select Install Target Device for 64 bit Platform

2. Click Install

3. Finish

4. Select Yes to restart the Master Image

5. Start the Provisioning Services Imaging Wizard

6. Click Next

7. Enter the server name of the Provisioning Services server where you stored the vDisk and click Next

8. Select Use existing vDisk and select the vDisk created in step 2

(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”)

9. click Next

10.Click Autofit and then Next

The errors in this dialog means that the target vDisk is smaller than the local hard disk in the Master Server. If you get this errors you have to click on Autofit.

11. Click Next

12. Click Next

13. Select Finish

14. Click on Optimize for Provisioning Services

What to optimize depends on your environment, for example in most cases the Windows Auto-update services can be disabled (also recommended sins the vDisk is read-only). But if System Center 2012 Endpoint Protection is used in the environment, the Windows Auto-update services is needed for the anti-virus updates. Apply what is applicable for your environment and click OK.

15. Click Finish

16. Click Yes to reboot the server.

17. After the reboot, log on with the same user account. Vmware Esx will automatically start to convert the files from the local hard drive to the vDisk.

18. Click on Finish

Step 5 – Configure the Master Server to boot from vDisk

1. Within the Provisioning Services Console open the properties of the Master Server.

2. On the General tab and change “Boot from” to vDisk. Click OK

Step 8 – Deploying the vDisk

Within the Provisioning Services console, open the properties of the vDisk.

Change “Access mode” to Standard Image (multi-device, read-only access) and select the place where you want to store the cache files. Enable Active Directory machine account password management.

If you have more Citrix Provisioning Services servers in your environment, right-click the vDisk and click on Load Balancing

Select Use the load balancing algorithm and Rebalance Enabled. Click OK

Open Windows Explorer and copy the vDisk to the other servers

How to install and configure PVS 6.1 with XenDesktop 5.6

Once a company has a XenDesktop or XenApp environment that is pretty mature, they often turn to Citrix Provisioning Services (PVS) to help scale the environment. The main purpose of this blog post is to get you familiar with this technology and have the complete idea of how to implement it.

In this step-by-step installation guide I will install the Citrix Provisioning Services 6.1.16. I will use hotfix CPVS61016 as source for this installation, as this hotfix contains the complete installation.

In this scenario, Installation of PVS 6.1 server takes place on Windows server 2008 R2 server, as it does not officially support windows server 2012 for this installation yet.

Before Installation, following server and prerequisites needs to be there on the place. There must be a Citrix License server available with the proper licenses. For the vDisk Store there should be a drive created (local on the PVS server or on the network like ISCSI drive) and a service account must be created.

Service account permissions

An Active Directory account is needed as service account for the streaming service. Always use this account for the installation of Citrix PVS sever

The service account needs the following permissions;

Database:

-        DB_Datareader;
-        DB_Datawriter;
-        Execute permissions on stored procedures;

System:

-        Run as service
-        Registry read access
-        Program Files\Citrix\Provisioning Services (Full Control)
-        Read/write access to any vDisk location
-        If using Personal vDisks with XenDesktop, XenDesktop Full administrator privileges.

Active Directory:

-        Domain User ( Make sure Password Never Expires)
-        Create, Reset, and Delete computer object permissions on relating OU’s
-        Reset password permissions on relating OU’s

 Prerequisites

Citrix Provisioning Services has the following prerequisites;

Provisioning Services Console Requirements

-         Microsoft Management Console 3.0
-         Windows PowerShell 2.0
-         Microsoft .NET 3.5 SP1

Windows Target Device

-         Microsoft .NET 3.5 SP1

DHCP Scoop options

If PXE is not an option in your environment, you can use your existing DHCP server to provide the location of the TFTP server and the name of the bootstrap file to the target devices. You can do this with the following DHCP scoop options;

-      Port 66: Boot Server Host Name
-      Port 67: Bootfile Name (ARDBP32.BIN)

Providing the bootstrap information by using DHCP options 66 and 67 is best practice, use this when possible.

- Open DHCP manager – Right click Scope Options and choose Configure Scope Options – Select option 66: Fill in the ip-address of the TFTP server – Select option 67: Fill in ARDBP32.BIN – Click OK

SQL Server

SQL server is necessary for hosting the Provisioning Server database. This can either be SQL 2005 Express, Workgroup, Standard and Enterprise. The Provisioning Server installation media provides a SQL Express installation, use this for small implementations like for test and POC environments. The Provisioning Server database will be created during the Provisioning Server installation process. Also the permissions for the service account on the database will be automatically set. Make sure the account used for installing Provisioning Server has enough permission on the SQL server to create and configure the database.

But in this Scenario, I am going to use the Microsoft SQL 2008 server

Installing the Citrix Provisioning Services Console (step-by-step)

Insert the media and choose Install Server for 32bit/64bit Platform (depending on your OS)

Start the Citrix Provisioning Services Console setup (PVS_Console_x64.exe) and click “Install”.

click next to begin installation

Click on the “Next” button.

Select “I accept the terms in the license agreement” and click on “Next”.

Click on the “Next” button.

Click on the “Next” button.

Select “Custom” and click on the “Next” button.

Click on the “Next” button.

Click on the “Install” button.

 

Click on the “Finish” button.

Installing the Citrix Provisioning Services Server (step-by-step)

Start the Citrix Provisioning Services Console setup (PVS_Server_x64.exe) and click on the “Install” button.

For the Database Mirroring feature, the SQL native client is required on the server. If you want to use this feature, press the “Yes” button.

Click on the “Next” button.

Select “I accept the terms in the license agreement” and click on “Next”.

Fill in the requested information and click “Next”.

Click on the “Next” button.

Select “Custom” and click on the “Next” button.

Click on the “Next” button.

Click on the “Install” button.

Click on the “Finish” button.

Click on the “Next” button.

In my PoC environment the DHCP Services runs on another server.
Select what is applicable and click “Next”.

Choose to use PXE on another computer

This is the first PVS server so choose the option “Create farm” and click “Next”

Fill in the requested information and click “Next”.

New Farm

a.) Fill in the name of the database

b.) Fill in the Farm name

c.) Fill in the name of the first Site, e.g. LocalSite(additional sites can be configured after the installation) d.)    Fill in the name of the first device collection, e.g. XenApp Servers (additional collections can   be configured after the installation)

e.)    Choose Use Active Directory groups for security

Fill in the vDisk Store folder created during the preparations and click “Next”.

Fill in the requested information for the License Server and click “Next”.

Fill in the Service account information created during the preparations of this installation and click “Next”.

Select “Automate computer account password updates” and click on the “Next” button.

Click on the “Next” button.

Select “Use the Provisioning Services TFTP service” and click the Next button.

Click on the “Next” button.

Click on the “Finish” button.

Click on the “Done” button.

The vDisk is Locked with Error: 0xffff8017

There are couples of issues tht arise in the Provisioning servers and this is one of them . So anyone who is facing this issue letz have a quick view and might be this fix will help to kick off your problem .

In PVS 6.1 Environment, after having latest updates on your vDisk and VM starts attempting to boot from this vdisk , it throws this Error Message  "Vdisk is locked. 0xffff8017" . 

Reason -"This error normally arise because of having lock on the vdisk in the vDisk Store which won't allow Virtual Machines(VM) to boot with this vDisk"

There are two method to resolve this issue , First one is quite risky which might corrupt your vDisk (but chances are little) so do it at your own risk and second one is Lenghty and require Downtime to resolve this Issue .

So,I am going to start with former one.  Solution is mentioned below :-

1. Directly delete the .lok File i.e. vDisk.lok file on all the provisioning Services (PVS)

2. Restart all the VM's functioning with this vDisk.

3. It will allow all the VM's to boot with this vDisk . Once successfully booted , you are ready to go and use these VM's as a VDI's and assign it to the Users.

Definitely this will save your time, and can have a cup of Tea/Coffee (Whatever you Like) in this time . but still think about it before going through these steps in Production Environment.

Now Comes with the Second Solution.So there is an outage involved in this procedure for people that use that image.

Follow the below mentioned Steps sequentially :-

1. If the users are using that Particular image, ask all of them  that are still connected to save their work and log off.

2. Go to your DDC(XenDesktop Controller) and put the Desktop Group in maintenance mode with whom this vDisk is associated. This will prevent the DDC from attempting to start up VMs . Then Force Shutdown on all the VMs. Verify on the Host(Esxi,XenCenter) that they are all shutdown

3. Login to the PVS server and go to the vDisk Store Hub(If locally or on Network) and Verify there is no gold lock next to the vDisk.If there is clear all the locks otherwise it won't allow you to delete the vDsik from vDisk Pool. Then click “Unassign from Selected Devices.”

4. Open the PVS console,check mark all the Vm's and click Unassign which allows you to free up the vDisk.

5. Now go back to your Store view and right click on your vDisk. You should now see an option to Delete. Click it.

6. MAKE SURE you DO NOT check the Delete the associated VHD files check box. Just hit Yes only. If you check mark this option, this will delete your .vhd file from the vDisk Store.

7. Now right click on “Store” and click “Add or Import Existing vDisk.”

8. Click Search to search your Store for vDisks. It will show all the vDisk which are not there in the vDisk pool but present in the vDisk Store Hub. Select and then click Add once it stops being greyed out.

9. It will be imported in Private mode every time. Go ahead and switch it to Standard mode. You might also want to check Cache type, Enable Active Directory machine account password management, and KMS/MAK on the Microsoft Volume Licensing tab .

10. Now go to your Device Collection and select the devices that need this particular vDisk golden image. I’m not going to sit here and click and modify each one. So I will set the vDisk on the first VM only.

11.Now right click that VM you just set and click “Copy Device Properties.”

12. Hit “Clear All”, then check “vDisk Assignment” only, then hit Copy.

13. Now just highlight all your other VMs where you want to add this vDisk, right click in the highlighted area, and click Paste. Instantly all your VMs will be assigned that vDisk.

14. Now just boot up a couple of VMs and verify the “Vdisk is locked. 0xffff8017″ error is gone. Then disable Maintenance mode on your DDC and you’re back in business.

15. Don’t forget to tell your users to log back in.