Citrix

SiteDiag v1.2 for XD7

Posted on by Kenny Baldwin

I think I’ve gotten SiteDiag working pretty well for XD7 now, and feel comfortable to share it as a stable release. I also did some basic testing on XD5, and there doesn’t appear to be any noticeable regressions. As of version 1.2 (10/2/13) I added application icons into the tool using the Get-BrokerIcon cmdlet to convert the Base64 strings to images in the TreeView.

I’ll continue working to build out the functionality of the tool on XD7, so stay tuned for updates as progress is made.

Click here to download the latest stable build.

SiteDiagXD7

XenDesktop 7 Service Instances – What’s New?

Posted on by Kenny Baldwin

Since XenDesktop 7 was built using the same service framework architecture as XenDesktop 5 (aka the ‘FlexCast Management Architecture’), the additional functionality introduced in XD7 was added as services, each with multiple service instances. These services are handled much in the same way as XenDesktop 5, and XenDesktop 7 sites use version 2 of the Citrix.Broker.Admin PowerShell SDK to return information on registered service instances using the cmdlets of the same name as XD5 (Get-ConfigRegisteredServiceInstance, Register-ConfigServiceInstance, etc.).

In XenDesktop 5, each DDC in a site has 5 services, with 12 total service instances that correspond to the various WCF endpoints used by each service. If the DDC is also running the Citrix License Server, there would be a total of 13 instances. For this reason, it’s a fairly straightforward process to find and register missing service instances.

XenDesktop 7 is quite different in this regard. Since it has optional FMA services, such as StoreFront, the number of service instances in any given site depends on which components are installed, and whether or not SSL-is in use.

For example, my single-DDC site running StoreFront 2.0 with SSL encryption has 10 services with 43 total service instances:

XenDesktop 7 Services

If StoreFront wasn’t installed, for example, there would be at least three less services (some of the Broker services would likely not be registered). There are also duplicate service instances for SSL encrypted services, such as the virtual STA service. Here’s a quick PoSH script to tell you what service instances are registered in your site (for XD5 & XD7):

asnp citrix.Broker*
Get-ConfigRegisteredServiceInstance -AdminAddress na-xd-01 | %{ 
"ServiceType: " + $_.ServiceType + " Address: " + $_.Address; $count++}
"Total Instances: " + $count

You could take this a step further to see how many instances are in each of the 10 possible service types:

New-Alias grsi Get-ConfigRegisteredserviceInstance
 $acct = grsi -AdminAddress na-xd-01 -serviceType Acct; "$($acct.Count) ADIdentity service instances"
 $admin = grsi -serviceType Admin ; "$($admin.count) Delegated Admin service instances"
 $broker = grsi -serviceType Broker; "$($broker.count) Broker service instances"
 $config = grsi -serviceType Config; "$($config.count) Configuration service instances"
 $envtest = grsi -serviceType EnvTest; "$($envtest.count) Environment Test service instances"
 $hyp = grsi -serviceType Hyp; "$($hyp.count) Hosting Unit service instances"
 $log = grsi -serviceType Log; "$($log.count) Configuration Logging service instances"
 $monitor = grsi -serviceType Monitor; "$($monitor.count) Monitor service instances"
 $prov = grsi -serviceType Prov; "$($prov.count) Machine Creation service instances"
 $sf = grsi -serviceType Sf; "$($sf.count) StoreFront service instances"
 "$($acct.Count + $admin.Count + $broker.Count + $config.Count + $envtest.Count + $hyp.Count + $log.Count + $monitor.Count + $prov.Count + $sf.Count) Total service instances"
XenDesktop 7 Service Instance Count

XenDesktop 7 Service Instance Count

Because of this nuance, I’m working on a more intelligent way of enumerating and validating service instance registrations in SiteDiag for XD7. Hopefully these scripts are helpful in illustrating the difference between XD5 & XD7. Also, here’s the latest nightly build of SiteDiag that has the beginnings of the additional logic needed to properly count, and fix, registered service instances in a XenDesktop 7 site.

XenDesktop 7 – Environment Test Service

Posted on by Kenny Baldwin

If you’ve had a chance to review the XenDesktop 7 PowerShell SDK documentation, you might have noticed a few new snap-ins that provide the site interactions for the new services included with XenDesktop 7 (as part of the FlexCast Management Architecture). These new snapins are the designated as V1 on the cmdlet help site, and include StoreFront, Delegated Admin, Configuration Logging, Environment Tests, and Monitoring.

Out of these new services, the Environment Test Service sounds the most appealing to me, as it provides a framework to run pre-defined tests and test suites against a XenDesktop 7 site. However, I found that the SDK documentation didn’t provide much/any guidance on using this snap-in, so I thought I’d share a quick rundown on the meat of this new service, along with some sample scripts using the main cmdlets.

The most basic function of this service is to run predefined tests against various site components, configurations, and workflows. As of XD7 RTM, there are 201 individual TestID’s, which can be returned by running the Get-EnvTestDefinition cmdlet:

TestId 
------ 
Host_CdfEnabled 
Host_FileBasedLogging 
Host_DatabaseCanBeReached 
Host_DatabaseVersionIsRequiredVersion 
Host_XdusPresentInDatabase 
Host_RecentDatabaseBackup 
Host_SchemaNotModified 
Host_SnapshotIsolationState 
Host_SqlServerVersion 
Host_FirewallPortsOpen 
Host_UrlAclsCorrect 
Host_CheckBootstrapState 
Host_ValidateStoredCsServiceInstances 
Host_RegisteredWithConfigurationService 
Host_CoreServiceConnectivity 
Host_PeersConnectivity 
Host_Host_Connection_HypervisorConnected 
Host_Host_Connection_MaintenanceMode...

The tests are broken down into several functional groups that align with the various broker services, including Host, Configuration, MachineCreation, etc, and are named as such. For example, the test to verify that the site database can be connected to by the Configuration service is called Configuration_DatabaseCanBeReached.

Each test has a description of it’s function, and a test scope that dictates what type of object(s) can be tested. Tests can be executed against components and objects in the site according to the TestScope and/or TargetObjectType, and are executed by the service Synchronously or Aynchronously, depending on their InteractionModel. You can view all of the details about a test by passing the TestID to the Get-EnvTestDefinition cmdlet; for example:

PS C:> Get-EnvTestDefinition -TestId Configuration_DatabaseCanBeReached

Description : Test the connection details can be used to 
 connect successfully to the database.
DisplayName : Test the database can be reached.
InteractionModel : Synchronous
TargetObjectType : 
TestId : Configuration_DatabaseCanBeReached
TestScope : ServiceInstance
TestSuiteIds : {Infrastructure}

TestSuites are groups of tests executed in succession to validate groups of component, as well as their interactions and workflows. The Get-EnvTestSuite cmdlet returns a list of test suite definitions, and can be used to find out what tests a suite is comprised of. To get a list of TestSuiteIDs, for example, you can run a Get-EnvTestSuite | Select TestSuiteID, which returns all of the available test suites:

TestSuiteId 
----------- 
Infrastructure 
DesktopGroup 
Catalog 
HypervisorConnection 
HostingUnit 
MachineCreation_ProvisioningScheme_Basic 
MachineCreation_ProvisioningScheme_Collaboration 
MachineCreation_Availability 
MachineCreation_Identity_State 
MachineCreation_VirtualMachine_State 
ADIdentity_IdentityPool_Basic 
ADIdentity_IdentityPool_Provisioning 
ADIdentity_WhatIf 
ADIdentity_Identity_Available 
ADIdentity_Identity_State

Each of these suites can be queried using the same cmdlet, and passing the -TestSuiteID of the suite in question. Let’s take DesktopGroup as an example:

PS C:\> Get-EnvTestSuiteDefinition -TestSuiteId DesktopGroup

TestSuiteId         Tests 
-----------                  ----- 
DesktopGroup   Check hypervisor connection, Check connection maintenance mode, Ch...

One thing you’ll notice with the results of this cmdlet is that the list of tests are truncated, which is a result of the default stdout formatting in the PowerShell console. For that reason, my preferred method of looking at objects with large strings (ie descriptions) in PowerShell, is to view them in a graphical ISE (PowerGUI is my preference) and explore the objects in the ‘Variables’ pane.

For example, if you store the results of  Get-EnvTestSuiteDefinition -TestSuiteId DesktopGroup into a variable ($dgtest) in PowerGUI, each Test object that comprises the test suite can be inspected individually:

The DesktopGroup EnvTestSuite object

The DesktopGroup EnvTestSuite object

To start a test task, use the Start-EnvTestTask, passing the TestID or, alternatively, the TestSuiteID, and a target object (as needed). For example:

PS C:> Start-EnvTestTask -TestId Configuration_DatabaseCanBeReached

Active : False
ActiveElapsedTime : 11
CompletedTests : 1
CompletedWorkItems : 11
CurrentOperation : 
DateFinished : 9/16/2013 11:33:31 PM
DateStarted : 9/16/2013 11:33:20 PM
DiscoverRelatedObjects : True
DiscoveredObjects : {}
ExtendedProperties : {}
Host : 
LastUpdateTime : 9/16/2013 11:33:31 PM
Metadata : {}
MetadataMap : {}
Status : Finished
TaskExpectedCompletion : 
TaskId : 03f5480d-68e8-410a-9da4-5e65d96ac393
TaskProgress : 100
TerminatingError : 
TestIds : {Configuration_DatabaseCanBeReached}
TestResults : {Configuration_DatabaseCanBeReached}
TestSuiteIds : {}
TotalPendingTests : 1
TotalPendingWorkItems : 11
Type : EnvironmentTestRun

Once you know what tests there are, what they do, and what types of results to expect, health check scripts can easily be created using this service. Combinations of tests and test suites can, and should, be leveraged as needed to systematically validate XenDesktop 7 site components and functionality.

I plan on using these cmdlets to some extent in SiteDiag, and expect to get some good use out of this new service in the field. I’m interested to hear from anyone else who’s started using this snap-in, and if they’ve come up with any useful scripts.

Exploring ShareFile’s ‘StorageZones’ Services

Posted on by Kenny Baldwin

I was looking for more information on what makes a ShareFile StorageZone ‘tick’, and couldn’t find much that got into the nuts and bolts of this great feature. This post is intended to share some general information about the various StorageZones controller services, including their basic functionality, and some hidden configuration settings.

For the scope of this post, I’m going to focus on the three Windows services that are installed as part of a StorageZone v2.1 Controller. Each service is installed off the root of the IIS site as follows:

  • File Cleanup Service – Citrix\StorageCenter\SCFileCleanSvc\FileDeleteService.exe
  • File Copy Service – Citrix\StorageCenter\SCFileCopySvc\FileCopyService.exe
  • Management Service – Citrix\StorageCenter\s3uploader\S3UploaderService.exe

In each of these directories are the service’s .NET .config file, which can be modified to enable logging, and adjust hidden configuration settings. For example, if you open FileDeleteService.exe.config, you’ll see the following XML by default:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<configuration>
   <appSettings>
       <add key="ProducerTimer" value="24"/> <!--Time interval in hours-->
       <add key="DeleteTimer" value="24"/> <!--Time interval in hours-->
       <add key="DeleteTimer" value="24"/> <!--Time interval in hours-->
       <add key="Period" value="7"/> <!--No. of days to keep data blob in active storage after deletion-->
       <add key="logFile" value="C:\inetpub\wwwroot\Citrix\StorageCenter\SC\logs\delete_YYYYMM.log"/>
       <add key="enable-extended-logging" value="0"/>
       <add key="BatchSize" value="5000"/></appSettings>
<startup><supportedRuntime version="v4.0" sku=".NETFramework,Version=v4.0"/></startup></configuration>

As you might have guessed, setting enable-extended-logging  to 1 will enable verbose logging after the service is restarted, writing to the specified logFile path. This setting is the same for the other services, and can come in handy when troubleshooting issues with a StorageZone.

In order to really understand what these services were doing, I decided to poke through the source code by decompiling the services’ assemblies using a free utility called DotPeek. Here’s a summary of what I found for each service’s functionality within a StorageZone Controller.

File Cleanup Service (FileDeleteService)

The name says it all here, as this service’s sole responsibility is managing data deletion from the storagezone storage repository. Since all of the data stored by ShareFile is in BLOB format, deleting a file through the ShareFile front-end doesn’t actually delete it from the storage; it simply ‘de-references’ the data, and marks it as ‘expired’.

This ‘expired’ data will remain in the storage repository until it’s ‘cleaned up’ by the File Cleanup Service. This is why if you look at a folder’s recycle bin, you’ll see the files are still listed and available for recovery until the configurable cleanup period lapses (7 days by default).

Citrix recommends configuring this cleanup period to match the backup schedule of your storage device so that data is removed shortly before or after they’re backed up. This design also allows for data to be recovered even if it’s not in the recycle bin, by using the “Recover Files” function in the StorageZone section of ShareFile’s Admin page.

Here are the .config extended settings for this service, along with their default values:

  • ProducerTimer = 24 Time interval in hours 
  • DeleteTimer = 24  Time interval in hours
  • Period = 7 Number of days to keep data in active storage after deletion

File Copy Service (SCFileCopySvc)

This service is what allows the StorageZones controller to communicate with ShareFile’s cloud infrastructure (by way of the ShareFile API), and allows users to upload and download files directly to and from a customer’s on-premise storage.

When a file is uploaded, ShareFile’s servers connect to the controller through this service to initiate an HTTP(S) POST request, allowing the data to be stored directly to the StorageZone. The service also converts files to and from the ShareFile’s proprietary format, converting files to BLOB data for uploads, and converting BLOB data back to the original file for downloads.

The service also has a configurable timer value (the default is 10 seconds key=”CopyTimer” value=”10000″ ) that controls how often retries are attempted for jobs that previously failed due to connectivity issues.

Management Service (S3Uploader)

Last but not least, the poorly named Management Service, which only really ‘manages’ transferring files to and from Amazon’s S3 cloud storage service. This service uses Amazon’s AWS SDK for .NET to take care of the data transfer, and is what allows you to migrate data to and from ShareFile’s storage, and the StorageZone.

There are a couple of configurable settings for this service as well; here they are with their default values:

  • httpMethod = https Transport method; secure or non-secure
  • HeartBeat-Interval = 5 Interval in minutes
  • Recovery-Interval = 3600 Interval in seconds

Well, I hope this post is useful for anyone who is using, or planning on using, ShareFile’s StorageZones feature. Feel free to share any other insights or thoughts in the comments!

ShareFile StorageZones Connector 2.0 Install Woes

Posted on by Kenny Baldwin

I was recently tasked with implementing ShareFile Enterprise, and am executing on a design that entails the use of the StorageZones feature. In case you’re not familiar, StorageZones allows organizations to provide access to on-premise (private cloud) storage via ShareFile’s web portal, enterprise sync tool, the Citrix Receiver, and mobile access applications. In order to enable this feature, the ‘StorageZones Controller’ service (an ASP.NET web application) needed to be installed on an IIS7 server running .NET 4.5.

This sounds pretty simple, right? Wrong. The installation did not work out of the box, and I spent many more cycles than I should have troubleshooting it. In this post I want to explain how I got from start to finish with a seemingly simple process that became a complex ordeal due to lack of specific steps in the product’s documentation. Hopefully this post helps others running into this issue, which I hope I’m not the only one! 🙂

When I pulled up the installation instructions on Citrix eDocs for the StorageZones Controller 2.0 web service, I found them to be sparse on details. Here’s what’s currently published at http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/sharefile-storagezones-20/sf-install-storagezones.html:

  1. Download and install the StorageZones Controller software:
    1. From the ShareFile download page at http://www.citrix.com/downloads/sharefile.html, log on and download the StorageZones Controller 2.0 installer.
      Note: Installing StorageZones Controller changes the Default Web Site on the server to the installation path of the controller.
    2. On the server where you want to install StorageZones Controller, run StorageCenter.msi. The ShareFile StorageZones Controller Setup wizard starts.
    3. Respond to the prompts and then click Finish. The StorageZones Controller console opens.

After following these ‘3 easy steps’, I quickly ran into several missing pre-requisites which required manual intervention; before being able to move past step 2, I had to:

  • Install Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5 (download link)
  • Add the Web Server (IIS7) Role Service

Following a reboot I was able to run the StorageZones Controller (SZC) installer, which required another reboot after it finished. After THAT reboot, the login page came up with a BIG RED error when I opened the SZC login page:

HTTP Error 500.19 – Internal Server Error

The requested page cannot be accessed because the related configuration data for the page is invalid.

Confounded, I turned to Google to hunt any known issues that might have been seen elsewhere, and couldn’t find any. There was a generic ASP.NET post on StackOverflow where someone found a mis-configured side-by-side, but I assumed mine was fine since it was a clean install. I then looked further into the following error details:

This configuration section cannot be used at this path. This happens when the section is locked at a parent level. Locking is either set by default (overrideModeDefault=”Deny”), or set explicitly by a location tag with overrideMode=”Deny” or the legacy allowOverride=”false”.

I tried playing with some .configs per other suggestions on MSDN (changing allowOverride=”false” to “true”), nothing of which yielded anything different from the 500.19 error. After getting nowhere fast for about 20-30 minutes I called support to see if they had seen this problem and/or knew what I was doing wrong.

The first number I dialed (800-4CITRIX) took triage almost 10 minutes to tell me that I needed to call another number (8004413453). I called the other number and was quickly connected to a customer service rep. However, the rep had no technical knowledge about the product I was installing, took down some details on the error message, and told me that an escalation resource would reach out soon.

With it already being late in the day, I decided to just move on to something else while I waited to hear back. The next day I was contacted by the escalation resource, and hopped on a GoToAssist for them to help me get to the console. They ensured me that we’d get it resolved, and proceeded to validate my installation, and do some basic break/fix tasks (re-install, reboot, etc.).

I started to become frustrated after what should have taken minutes quickly turned into many minutes, and eventually close to two hours of re-installing, rebooting (two times, every time), and various other poking and prodding. For example, after adding the ASP.NET role service, we started getting a totally different error message (404.17 Not Found), and started modifying .configs and adding/removing role services.

Near the end of the call (and the subsequent reason for the end of the call) the support representative insisted that the problem was being caused by installing the service with a user account other than localhost\administrator. This was after I already humored him and created, and installed with, a local administrator account (localhost\sharefile) because he stated that a Domain Admin account wouldn’t work even though it was part of the Local Administrators group, and wasn’t supported for this installation (which I eventually determined is not at all true). He also stated that ‘a lot of the steps aren’t documented’, which was beyond frustrating.

It was at that point I decided that I was getting nowhere even faster with support, and told him that I needed to end the call. After arguing that it would be fixed by simply installing with the localhost\administrator user account, I finally convinced him that I would figure it out offline since I wasn’t close to buying his unfounded assertion. After the call was over, I went back to eDocs to review the ‘System Requirements‘ section of the documentation and make sure I wasn’t missing something. Here’s what was listed for the web server pre-requisites:

  • Windows Server 2008 Standard/Datacenter R2, SP1
  • Install on a dedicated server or virtual machine. A high availability production environment requires a minimum of two servers with StorageZones installed.
  • Use a publicly-resolvable Internet hostname (not an IP address).
  • Enable the Web Server (IIS) role.
  • Install ASP.NET 4.5.
  • In the IIS Manager ISAPI and CGI Restrictions, verify that the ASP.NET 4.5 Restrictions value is Allow.
  • Enable SSL for communications with ShareFile.
  • If you are not using DMZ proxy servers, install a public SSL certificate on the IIS service.
  • Recommended as a best practice: Remove or disable the HTTP binding to the StorageZone controller.
  • Allow inbound TCP requests on port 443 through the Windows firewall.
  • Open port 80 on localhost (for the server health check).

The steps that I was stuck on were surely related to the items in this list that aren’t very specific. Take Install ASP.NET 4.5 for example; To someone that has never installed ASP.NET 4.5, this step is unspecific, and lacks any semblance of detail. While searching for clues on what was causing the 500.19 issue, I recalled seeing the following command to ‘Register’ ASP.NET 4.5 (4.0.30319) on this Stack Overflow thread:

%WINDIR%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\aspnet_regiis.exe -i

I decided to run this command and refresh the login page, at which point I got a new BIG RED error on what should have been the login page. This time it was a 404.2 Not Found error. Based on the error message, I started investigating the other pre-requisite that wasn’t very clear in terms of steps, and isn’t even relevant if the ASP.NET v4 extensions weren’t properly registered:

In the IIS Manager ISAPI and CGI Restrictions, verify that the ASP.NET 4.5 Restrictions value is Allow.

I found and opened the ISAPI and CGI Restrictions feature in the IIS management console, which can be found in the IIS section of the server-level node. I then found that while the ASP.NET v2 extensions were set to ‘Allow’, the v4 extensions were set to ‘Deny’. I set both 32-bit and 64-bit extensions to ‘Allow’, and was then able to get to the login page (great success!); whew..

And so, something that should have taken a couple of minutes ended up taking a couple of hours. Hopefully I saved somebody somewhere a headache (or a couple of hours) by doing the ShareFile product and support team a solid, and sharing clear steps that should have either been handled by the installer, or at least the technical writer who published this lackluster, detail lacking, setup guide.

XenDesktop 7 – First Thoughts

Posted on by Kenny Baldwin

Citrix hosted an amazing event last week, and outlined a distinct roadmap of their 2013 strategy. They placed a strong emphasis on mobility with some updates to their Zenprise acquisition (XenMobile, aka Worx), and announced the first implementation of Project Avalon in the form of ‘XenDesktop 7’. Since I’ve spent a lot of time with XenDesktop (both IMA and Storm based) and XenApp, I thought I’d share my general impression of XenDesktop 7 as it relates to achieving the goals set forth by Avalon.

First off, the unification of XenDesktop and XenApp was a necessary evil based on Citrix’s decision to combine the management and provisioning of  ‘desktops’ & ‘servers’ (SBC and VDI) within the same console. Through what Citrix is calling the ‘FlexCast Management Architecture’ (Storm+RDS), they are replacing ‘IMA’, which was used for all versions of XenApp, as well as XenDesktop versions prior to Rhone (Barossa, Sonoma, Rioja, Bordeaux, Medoc, etc.).

This change is a great move in terms of farm design, scalability, and stability. In my opinion, the Storm framework is easier to install, troubleshoot, and support than IMA (written in .NET, readable database, excellent SDK, better logging, etc), and should be familiar to anyone who has worked with XenDesktop 5.x. The site is just as dependent on availability of the central database as in XD5 (no local host cache), which means no zones, data collectors, or any other sort of ‘master’ server (the database is the master). All of the same ICA/HDX functionality is still there (plus any new additions), as is the policy engine and brokering functionality.

I’m not too fond of the licensing model which provides published Windows client OS in the least expensive edition, whereas Windows server OS requires a more expensive license. I suppose that’s representative of Citrix choosing to call Excalibur XenDesktop instead of XenApp, though I never really thought of this distinction since I assumed it was called XenDesktop because they used the Storm site architecture (now called FMA). I’m also concerned about feature parity with XenApp, and am sure there will be more than a few features that either don’t live up to XenApp, or just aren’t there yet.

At the end of the day I’m excited about XenDesktop 7, as it provides an easier product to sell. There’s no more worrying about whether or not you need to publish apps from Windows client or server OS (besides the licensing), and all of the management and provisioning (except for Provisioning Services :)) is done in a central console. The new Director looks fantastic, and the refreshed Studio is much more responsive and elegant than that of XenDesktop 5. Also, my SiteDiag tool (Site Checker v2.0) was designed to run on the Excalibur tech preview, and I’ll be sure to get it working for XenDesktop 7 once its released.

I get the feeling that the rest of the Citrix community is generally as excited about XenDesktop 7 as I am, but I guess we’ll see how it plays out once we start implementing it!

PVS Write Cache Monitor

Posted on by Kenny Baldwin

I was recently working on a PVS deployment where we wanted to monitor and alert on target devices that were exceeding 70% write cache utilization. Since there wasn’t a way to do this in the PVS console, I dug into the PVS PoSH SDK to find a way to do this programatically.

After some research I came up with the following script that will check all target devices in a PVS farm, and send an email alert listing any machines that are using 70%+ of their write cache (adjustable via the $threshold variable):

$pass = cat .\securestring.txt | ConvertTo-SecureString
$mycred = New-Object -TypeName System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -ArgumentList "domain\admin",$pass
$message = @()
$threshold = 70

function get-value{
param([string]$strText="",[string]$strDelimiter="")
return $strText.SubString($strText.IndexOf($strDelimiter)+2)
}
function get-name{
param([string]$strText="",[string]$strDelimiter="")
return $strText.SubString(0,$strText.IndexOf($strDelimiter))
}
Add-PSSnapin McliPS* -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
$all = @()
$obj = New-Object System.Collections.ArrayList
$lines = Mcli-Get DeviceInfo -f ServerName,ServerIpConnection,DeviceName,SiteName,CollectionName,Active,Status,diskLocatorName
for($i=0;$i -lt $lines.length;$i++){
	if(($lines[$i].length -gt 0) -and ($lines[$i].contains(":")) -and -not ($lines[$i] -match "Executing: Get "))
	{
		$name = get-name -strText $lines[$i] -strDelimiter ":"
		$value = get-value -strText $lines[$i] -strDelimiter ":"
		if ($name -eq "status" -and $value.Length -le 0)
		{
			$value = "0"
		}
		if ($value.Contains(",") -and $name -eq "status")
		{
		$obj | Add-Member -membertype noteproperty -name $name -Value $value.Split(",")[1]
		}else{
		$obj | Add-Member -membertype noteproperty -name $name -Value $value
		}
		}
		if($lines[$i].contains("#") -or (($i+1) -eq $lines.length)){
		$all += $obj
		$obj = New-Object psObject
		}
	}

foreach ($item in $all)
{
	if ([int] $item.status -gt $threshold)
	{
		$message += $item
	}
}
$message = $message | Where-Object -FilterScript { ([int] $_.status -gt 0) -and ([int]$_.status -le 100) } | Sort-Object {[int] $_.status} -descending | Format-Table @{Expression={$_.deviceName};Label="Device"}, @{Expression={$_.status};Label="RAM Cache Used (%)"}
function sendMail{

     Write-Host "Sending Email"

     #SMTP server name
     $smtpServer = "mail.domain.com"

     #Creating a Mail object
     $msg = new-object Net.Mail.MailMessage

     #Creating SMTP server object
     $smtp = new-object Net.Mail.SmtpClient($smtpServer)
	 $smtp.Credentials = $mycred

     #Email structure 
     $msg.From = "[email protected]"
     $msg.ReplyTo = "[email protected]"
     $msg.To.Add("[email protected]")
     $msg.subject = "PVS Write Cache $($threshold)%+ Utilization: " + $summary
	 $msg.body = Out-String -InputObject $message
	 $msg.priority = "High"

     #Sending email 
     $smtp.Send($msg)

}
if ($message.Count -gt 0)
{
	sendMail
}

XML Broker Health Check

Posted on by Kenny Baldwin

I saw an interesting question in the Citrix support forum today, and thought I’d share. Scott Curtsinger asked the following:

Does anyone know what the easiest way is to check the health of the XML service on XenDesktop 5.6? I’m seeing a lot of information on the web for XenApp but not very much for XenDesktop beyond leveraging devices like a NetScaler.

My first instinct is that this could easily be done via PowerShell, so I did a quick search and found this blog post by Jason Pettys. I also found this great article on working with the Citrix XML service, and quickly put together the following script which I tested against my XenDesktop 5.6 XML broker:

$url = "http://localhost/scripts/wpnbr.dll"
$parameters = '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><!DOCTYPE NFuseProtocol SYSTEM "NFuse.dtd"><NFuseProtocol version="5.1"><RequestCapabilities></RequestCapabilities></NFuseProtocol>'
$http_request = New-Object -ComObject Msxml2.XMLHTTP
$http_request.open('POST', $url, $false)
$http_request.setRequestHeader("Content-type", "text/xml")
$http_request.setRequestHeader("Content-length", $parameters.Length)
$http_request.setRequestHeader("Connection", "close")
$http_request.send($parameters)
$http_request.statusText
$http_request.responseText

Running this script in PowerShell on my XML broker returned the following list of capabilities, which is a good indication that the XML broker is up and running:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE NFuseProtocol SYSTEM "NFuse.dtd"> <NFuseProtocol version="5.1"> <ResponseCapabilities> <CapabilityId>separate-credentials-validation</CapabilityId> <CapabilityId>multi-image-icons</CapabilityId> <CapabilityId>launch-reference</CapabilityId> <CapabilityId>user-identity</CapabilityId> <CapabilityId>full-icon-data</CapabilityId> <CapabilityId>full-icon-hash</CapabilityId> <CapabilityId>accepts-client-identity-for-power-off</CapabilityId> <CapabilityId>session-sharing</CapabilityId> </ResponseCapabilities> </NFuseProtocol>

This simple script lays a nice foundation to perform XML broker health checks via PoSH. I then took the script a little bit further to test some other XML requests:

param($server, $port)
if ($port){$port = 80}
$creds = Get-Credential
$domainuser= $creds.UserName.Split('\')
$domain = $domainuser[0]
$user = $domainuser[1]
[String]$pw = [Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::PtrToStringAuto([Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::SecureStringToBSTR($creds.Password))
$nwINFO = Get-WmiObject -ComputerName $env:COMPUTERNAME Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration | Where-Object { $_.IPAddress -ne $null }
$ip = $nwINFO.IPAddress
$fqdn = $nwINFO.DNSHostName
$xmlcreds = '<Credentials><UserName>' + $user + '</UserName><Password encoding="cleartext">' + $pw + '</Password><Domain Type="NT">' + $domain + '</Domain></Credentials>'
$envelope = '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><!DOCTYPE NFuseProtocol SYSTEM "NFuse.dtd"><NFuseProtocol version="5.1">'
$clienttype = '<ClientType>ica30</ClientType>'
$clientdetails = '<ClientName>' + $env:COMPUTERNAME + '</ClientName><ClientAddress addresstype="dot">' + $ip[0] + '</ClientAddress>'
function request ($parameters)
{
 $http_request = New-Object -ComObject Msxml2.XMLHTTP
 $http_request.open('POST', $url, $false)
 $http_request.setRequestHeader("Content-type", "text/xml")
 $http_request.setRequestHeader("Content-length", $parameters.Length)
 $http_request.setRequestHeader("Connection", "close")
 $http_request.send($parameters)
 $http_request.statusText
 $http_request.responseText
}
$url = "http://" + $server + ":" + $port + "/scripts/wpnbr.dll"
$capabilities = request ($envelope + '<RequestCapabilities></RequestCapabilities></NFuseProtocol>')
if (!$capabilities[1].contains('error'))
{
 $testcreds = request ($envelope + '<RequestValidateCredentials>' + $xmlcreds + '</RequestValidateCredentials></NFuseProtocol>')
 if (!$testcreds[1].contains('bad'))
 {
 $appdatareq = request ($envelope + '<RequestAppData><Scope traverse="subtree"></Scope><DesiredDetails>rade-offline-mode</DesiredDetails><ServerType>all</ServerType>' + $clienttype + '<ClientType>content</ClientType>' + $xmlcreds + $clientdetails + '</RequestAppData></NFuseProtocol>')
 $app = $appdatareq[1] -split "<FName>"
 $app = $app[1] -split "</FName>"
 $launchreq = request ($envelope + '<RequestAddress><Name><AppName>' + $app[0] + '</AppName></Name>' + $clientdetails + '<ServerAddress addresstype="dns-port"></ServerAddress>' + $xmlcreds + $clienttype + '</RequestAddress></NFuseProtocol>')
 $launchreq
 }
}

This script takes the server and port, prompts for the credentials that you’re testing (password is sent in clear text), and sends a RequestCapabilities request, followed by RequestValidateCredentials, RequestAppData, and RequestAddress requests. To avoid dependencies on NFuse.dtd, I used a -split on the XML results of the RequestAppData results to get the ‘friendly name’ of the first application returned by RequestAppData, which I used for the RequestAddress post.

From here I’m going to develop a C# service that can monitor the XML service, though I’d like to figure out how to encode the password into the ‘ctx1’ format so that I’m not sending it in clear text.

Citrix ‘Local App Access’ Explained

Posted on by Kenny Baldwin

I wanted to share some details on this feature that was introduced in XenApp 6.5 that I don’t think many people are aware of, even though the changes that were introduced to support it affect anyone using Reciever 3.X, XenDesktop 5.5+, and XenApp 6.5. In this post I’m going to attempt to explain the basic functionality that ‘Local App Access’ (LAA) provides, and the basics of how it works.

If any of you are familiar with RES software, they’ve been providing a platform agnostic ‘Reverse Seamless’ functionality for some time via their Virtual Desktop Extender product. Here’s a short video that gives you a good idea of what the challenges reverse seamless aims to solve:

As you can see, the purpose of a ‘reverse seamless’ window is to give users the ability to run local application windows within a remote desktop session. In XenApp 6.5 and XenDesktop 5.5+, this functionality is built-in by way of processes running on the client (redirector.exe) AND server (revseamlesslauncher.exe & vdaredirector.exe) that enumerate, launch, and handle local windows within a published desktop session.

The easiest way to see this functionality in action is to follow the steps listed in the Quick Start Guide for Local App Access and Integrating Local User Applications in XenApp 6.5. The gist of it is that published desktops that are presented using the Citrix ‘Desktop Viewer’, can be ‘Local App Access’ enabled by setting an ICA parameter, and allowing the virtual channel on the client side, which is disabled by default.

Once everything is configured and the ‘Local App’ shortcut is available on the desktop, you should be able to double click the LAA application to run it seamlessly within the published desktop session. The reason that the ‘Desktop Viewer’ is required is that it’s responsible for managing the Z-order of the LAA app within the seamless published desktop window.

The way that Citrix is able to present ‘reverse seamless’ windows is not that different from how they present regular ‘seamless’ windows, which is by injecting API hooks into all client side processes, which allows them to inject the necessary identifiers for Desktop Viewer to be able to detect and handle the window within the ICA session.

Another major feature included with LAA is the ability to redirect URLs to the local internet browser which is automatically launched as a reverse seamless window by way of an IE browser helper object that’s installed on both the client and server. This is useful for instances where a local browser can overcome challenges of screen painting, such as rich media that can’t otherwise be redirected, or security/location nuances that require the browser to be running on the client endpoint device.

I hope this brief rundown of LAA was useful, definitely let me know if you have any trouble getting it to work in your environment.

XenDesktop SiteDiag (aka Site Checker v2.0)

Posted on by Kenny Baldwin

Introduction to XenDesktop SiteDiag featuring WorkerDiag

Latest stable build available for download here

SiteDiag is my reworking of the original Site Checker tool that I developed while I was working on the XenDesktop Global Escalation team at Citrix. The purpose of this tool is to provide administrators and consultants with a utility to help diagnose issues with, and configure advanced/PoSH-only settings of a XenDesktop 5.x Site.

SiteDiag

SiteDiag was designed to have a look and feel similar to that of Desktop Studio, though it lacks certain functionality such as provisioning or assigning cloned vms. Since its a multi threaded winform that runs powershell scripts in a pipeline runspace, it’s pretty quick to use, and certainly more responsive than Studio. The main purpose of this tool is to view and modify site settings that aren’t otherwise displayed in Desktop Studio.

SiteDiagXD7

Some of the advanced settings that aren’t available in Desktop Studio are:

  • Check and fix issues with XenDesktop Site Services on all DDCs in a site
  • Enable service logging for each service on every DDC
  • Delete VM & PVD Storage
  • View & Cancel power actions
  • Edit advanced desktop group settings (all idle pool settings, logoff/disconnect power actions, WillShutDownAfterUse, etc.)
  • Display all details about almost any object clicked in the TreeView (ADIdentity pools, provisioning schemes, etc.)
  • View active/disconnected sessions by state
  • Enumerate a site to text file
  • Search for any element in a site

The tool also provides the following functionality as Desktop Studio, but is a MUCH faster alternative to the XD5.x MMC snapin:

  • Execute power actions
  • Enable/disable maintenance mode
  • Cancel/clear provisioning tasks (can run bulk actions)
  • Disconnect active sessions, logoff disconnected sessions

I’m currently working with Carl Webster to finish up the XenDesktop 5.x PowerShell documentation script, after which I plan to include in this tool. Also, I recently added remote connect functionality, though it’s only been tested by myself to this point, and requires the PowerShell SDK and required domain rights to access the DDC server.

WorkerDiag

I came up with this tool for a specific environment I was working on where the customer was experiencing intermittent registration issues among 10000+ static-assigned VMs spanning four XenDesktop ‘hosts’. The main purpose of this utility is to display key data points about VMs, or ‘workers’, that are unregistered from the XenDesktop site.

WorkerDiag
XenDesktop WorkerDiag

The biggest advantage of using this tool over Desktop Director is that it queries up to date WMI data points that are combined with XenDesktop PowerShell SDK results. For example, being able to see why certain machines were powered off, and comparing that to the WMI uptime can help to characterize power issues in a larger environment. I also added items such as displaying the VM’s ‘ListOfDDCs’ registry value, and check to see if the perfmon counter library is corrupt. All of the colums are movable, sortable, and hideable, and the results can be exported to CSV for reporting.

I’ll continue to update this page as I modify & expand this tool’s features and add compatibility with the next version of XenDesktop. Please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or concerns about these utilities.

-Kenny