Citrix Xenapp 6.0

Installing and Configuring Citrix XenApp 6

With the recent release of Citrix XenApp 6 I’ve begun testing this version as we prepare to upgrade our Windows terminal server environment.  Probably the biggest reason for upgrading is that XenApp 6 offers support for Windows Server 2008 R2.  There are also a number of changes in the tools used to administer your Citrix farm.  In the recent past you had to use multiple tools for administration as Citrix migrated functionality into the MMC.  This seems to now be mostly complete.  The updates to the tools are welcome, but include a bit of relearning to find all the new methods and places to make configuration changes.

If you are evaluating and testing XenApp 6, Citrix has a developer license available that allows you to test with a single user for 1 year.  Search the internet for “citrix developer license” for details.  There is also a 99 user evaluation license available that is valid for 90 days.

Installing XenApp Server

Before starting the installation I disabled the IE Enhanced Security Configuration.  Generally it is a good idea to leave this on, but in this situation we’ll need access to the Licensing Server Web Console and IE ESC make this more difficult.  Start the Server Manager.

Select “Configure IE ESC” on the right side.

Select Off for both Administrators and Users, then click OK.

Insert the XenApp 6 install DVD.  I encountered difficulty running the install from a shared folder on another server so my recommendation would be to run directly from the DVD or extract the files to a local drive on the server.  If the Citrix XenApp install window does not automatically start run autorun.exe from the base directory.

Select Install XenApp Server.

If you have not yet installed .Net 3.5 SP1 it will prompt that it will be installed, click OK.

Now at the Role Manager screen click “Add server roles” on the right.

Select your XenApp edition.

Read the license agreement, select the check box to accept the license agreement, and click Next.

Select the role(s) you would like to install.  I will choose the License Server, XenApp, and Web Interface.  In a production environment you may want to install the License Server on a separate non-XenApp server.  The same goes for your Web Interface servers.  Click Next.

Click Next.

The installation will include a bunch of prerequisites that need to be installed.  The first is the activation of the Remote Desktop Session Host role/Terminal Services application mode which will require the server to reboot mid-install.  One of the nice things about XenApp 6 is that the installation of prerequisites has been simplified.  Click Next.

Last chance to bail.  Click Install.

Click Finish.

Back at the Role Manager window it tells us the XenApp configuration has a reboot pending because of the Remote Desktop Server role installed earlier.  Select Reboot or manually proceed to reboot the server.

Once we’ve logged back on after the reboot the Role Manager screen should pop back up.  Click Resume Install under the XenApp configuration task.

Click Install.

If the install was successful you will see the above.  Click Finish.

Configuring XenApp Server

Now we will configure the different components of our XenApp installation.  If the Role Manager window does not appear click Start > All Programs > Citrix > XenApp Server Role Manager > XenApp Server Role Manager.

Click Configure under XenApp.

Select “Create a new server farm”.

Type a name for the new XenApp Server farm, then click Next.

We can specify the license server info later through a XenApp policy, click Next.

We now have the option to install a new database locally on the XenApp server or on an existing SQL Server in our environment.  For simplicity here I will choose the New Database option.  The installation will automatically install a copy of SQL Server Express 2008 on the XenApp server and configure the data store database for our new Citrix farm.

For larger environments it is recommended that you use an existing SQL Server.  I have tested the XenApp 6 installation using an existing SQL Server 2005 SP3 database server instance.  If you choose to use a separate SQL Server you’ll want to create a new database for the Citrix farm on that server, assign a new SQL login and user for that database, and add the db owner role on the new database for that SQL user.  Perform these steps first if using an existing SQL server, then come back to the XenApp installation.

Enter a user and password for a database administrator for the new database.  For simplicity I used the local administrator account.  You may be able to use a more restricted standard user account for better security, but I have not tested this.  Click OK.

Click Next.

Unless you want to configure restrictions on session shadowing, accept the default and click Next.

Zones are typically geographically based groupings of XenApp servers that share a common data collector, which contains certain information on the status and availability of the XenApp servers in that zone.  I kept the default zone name.  Don’t click Next yet.

On the left select “XML Service”.  I generally choose to “Use a custom XML Service TCP/IP Port” and change this to 8080, but you can keep the default if you want.  Make a note of which port you use because you’ll need it when configuring components like the Web Interface.

Select “Remote Desktop Users” on the left.  I unselected the two checked options on the right and selected “Add the Authenticated Users” to limit logons to authenticated users.  Click Next.

Click Apply to configure with the settings selected.

XenApp configuration successful, click Finish.

Under XenApp task is displays a reboot pending, click Reboot and proceed to reboot the server.

Configuring Web Interface

After you’ve rebooted log back on and go back into the Role Manager if it doesn’t start automatically.

Click “Configure” under “Web Interface”.

Now the Web Interface Management console should start.  Select XenApp Services Sites on the left pane, then click Create Site on the right.  We need to create a site that will allow the Citrix Online Plugin on our clients to gather connection information about our Citrix farm.

Click Next.  The IIS role and the Default Web Site should have been installed when we installed the Web Interface.

Click Next.

Click Next and the site configuration will start.

Type the name of your Citrix farm and click Add.

Type the fully qualified domain name of your XenApp server or its IP address and click OK.

If you changed the port the XML Service runs on update it like I have above.  Add any additional servers you may have in your environment, then click Next.

For now we’ll use only Online applications, click Next.

Click Finish to wrap up the XenApp Services Site configuration.  Then close the Citrix Web Interface Management console.

Configuring License Server and Installing Licenses

Back at the Role Manager window click Configure under License Server.

Enter a password for the “admin” user on the license server web console.  Click OK.  When I installed the License Server on the same server as the XenApp server, it gave me an error about the Management Console Web Port already being in use.

If this happens to you, change the Management Console Web Port to something like 8081 to get past the License Server Configuration screen.

Go to Start > All Programs > Citrix > Management Consoles > License Administration Console.

Select Administration on the upper right side of the page.

Logon with the “admin” user and password specified earlier.  Optionally check Remember Me so you don’t have to log on in the future.  Click Submit.

Scroll down and select “Vendor Daemon Configuration” on the left side of the screen.  Then click “Import License” at the top.

Click the Browse button to find your license file.  The import of the license file is kind of tricky, it may give you an error that the license does not have a consistent server host ID.  Rest assured, it is.  Go to Start > Administrative Tools > Services.

On the right side scroll down to the Citrix Licensing service, right click and select restart.  Close the Services MMC.  Now if you go back to the License Server Console, click Dashboard on the top right and the license should be registered.  Now close Internet Explorer.

You are now returned to the Role Manager screen.  Click Close.

Go to Start > All Programs > Citrix > Management Consoles > Citrix Delivery Services Console.

It will ask about disabled authenticode signature check, I selected Disable.

It will run a discovery process to find your new Citrix farm.  Click Next.  At least I think that’s next, my screen resolution is set too small!

When presented with product selections leave the XenApp option checked and uncheck Single Sign On.  Click Next.

Click the Add Local Computer button to allow the console to browse it for available services.  Click Next.

Click Next.

Once discovery has completed click Finish, or at least I think that is finish!  Click the middle button.  You should now be presented with the Delivery Services Console.

In the left tree go to Citrix Resources > XenApp > Policies.  Then on the right pane select the Computer tab.  Select the Unfiltered policy under Citrix Computer Policies, then click Edit.

Click Next.

On the Left side select Licensing.  Then on the right select Add next to “License server host name”.

Type the name of your license server, then click OK.

Click Add next to “License server port”.

Make sure the value says 27000, then click OK.

Click Save.  Now we’ll be returned to the Delivery Services Console window.

Publishing a Citrix XenApp Application

Now it’s time to publish our first application to our clients.  Go into the Citrix Delivery Services Console if it is not already running.

On the left side of the window drill down to Citrix Resources > XenApp > Applications.  In the right actions pane click Publish Applications.

Click Next.

I’ll publish the Calculator, so enter a Display Name and click Next.

This is a simple application published from the XenApp server.  Click Next.

Browse for the Calc.exe of enter the information as above and click Next.

Click Add to select the server that this application is published from.

Double click Servers in the top box.  Then double click the XenApp server to add and it will appear in the bottom.  Then click OK.

Make sure a server appears, then click Next.

Click Add to select users for this application.

Double click this server, then double click the user group you’d like to publish this application to.  I’ll choose the local standard “Users” group.  If the XenApp server is in a windows domain it will also publish to members of the Domain Users group.  Click OK.

Click Next.

Click Next.

Click Finish.

The published application should now appear in the Delivery Console.

Installing the Citrix Online Plugin

Now let’s configure a client computer for XenApp 6.  One important thing to note is that you should be running the latest version of the Citrix XenApp Online Plugin client version 12.  You can download it here.  I had issues getting previous versions of the Plugin to connect to the XenApp 6 server, but with version 12 all is well.  Also since Program Neighborhood is no longer included with the current Plugin client that functionality appears to no longer be supported.  Instead we’ll use the XenApp Services Site we set up earlier (formerly Program Neighborhood Agent) to provide the settings for our client to connect with.

Now we need to install the Online Plugin client on a workstation.  There are two clients bundled in the Plugin client download, I will install the Full Plugin client, CitrixOnlinePluginFull.exe.  It will proceed with the installation.  Once completed it should prompt you for the server.

Enter your server name and click Update.  It should now ask for your logon credentials.  If it doesn’t, right click the Citrix icon in the system tray and select Log On.

Enter your user, password, and domain if this is an Active Directory environment.  To specify a local user account to the XenApp server type the computer name in the domain field.  Click OK.

Now left click the Citrix icon and select your application that you published earlier.  You should now be running your first XenApp 6 published application!