Uncategorized – Carl Webster https://www.carlwebster.com The Accidental Citrix Admin - The site for those who find themselves supporting Citrix involuntarily or accidentally Thu, 19 Jun 2025 09:57:32 +0000 en hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.2 42228915 Time to Say Goodbye to the EUC Community https://www.carlwebster.com/time-to-say-goodbye-to-the-euc-community/ https://www.carlwebster.com/time-to-say-goodbye-to-the-euc-community/#comments Fri, 30 Jun 2023 17:03:05 +0000 https://www.carlwebster.com/?p=62623 Thanks for allowing me to serve you for 34 years since my days with the Citrix MULTIUser.

I do a presentation for the Lions Clubs titled An Autopsy of a Deceased Lions Club (Why Lions Clubs Die). There are several famous people I quote in that presentation. I would like to leave you with this quote from Dave Ramsey. I hope I have left an impact on the EUC community.

When you are gone, will people say you left an impact? That you left a mark?

I love you all.

It has been my honor and privilege to serve you all these years.

At 00:00:01 on July 1, 2023, I become the 2nd Vice District Governor for District 12-S in the Great State of Tennessee.

My new website LionWebster.com, hosted by fellow ex-CTP Neil Spellings, should be up and running this weekend.

Later

Webster

]]> https://www.carlwebster.com/time-to-say-goodbye-to-the-euc-community/feed/ 6 62623 25 Building Webster’s Lab V2 – Update ESXi Hosts using VMware Lifecycle Manager https://www.carlwebster.com/25-building-websters-lab-v2-update-esxi-hosts-using-vmware-lifecycle-manager/ Fri, 25 Jun 2021 09:43:16 +0000 https://www.carlwebster.com/?p=32337 [Updated 29-Aug-2021]

Previous to vCenter 7, VMware used Update Manager to enable centralized patch management for ESXi hosts. In vCenter, VMware introduced Lifecycle Manager. Lifecycle Manager offers many features beyond what we need for this article series. We use only the basic patch management capability.

In your internet browser, browse to vCenter. For me, that is https://vcenter.labaddomain.com. Click LAUNCH VSPHERE CLIENT (HTML5), as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1
Figure 1

Enter the required credentials and click LOGIN, as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2
Figure 2

Click Menu and click Hosts and Clusters, as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3
Figure 3

Expand the Datacenter in the left pane, click on the Cluster, click on Updates in the right pane, and click on Baselines, as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4
Figure 4

Under Attached Baselines, click ATTACH, and from the dropdown list, click Create and Attach Baseline, as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5
Figure 5

Enter a Name, an optional Description, select Patch, and click Next, as shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6
Figure 6

As shown in Figure 7:

  • Verify that Automatically update this Baseline with patches the match the following criteria is selected
  • Under Patch vendor, select VMware
  • Under Product, scroll down and select embeddedEsx 7.0.*
  • Under Severity, verify Any is selected
  • Under Category, verify Any is selected

After you make all selections, click Next.

Figure 7
Figure 7

We are not installing patches manually. Who wants to sift through 700+ patches to determine what applies?

Click Next, as shown in Figure 8.

Figure 8
Figure 8

Verify that all the information is correct. If the information is correct, click FINISH, as shown in Figure 9. If any information is not correct, click Back, correct the information and continue.

Figure 9
Figure 9

Click CHECK COMPLIANCE, as shown in Figure 10.

Figure 10
Figure 10

After the compliance check completes, as shown in Figure 11, all the hosts are out of compliance. There are patches in the just created Baseline that do not exist on any of the ESXi hosts.

Figure 11
Figure 11

Select the just created Baseline and click REMEDIATE, as shown in Figure 12.

Figure 12
Figure 12

Verify that all six hosts are selected and click REMEDIATE, as shown in Figure 13.

Figure 13
Figure 13

The remediation process begins, as shown in Figure 14.

Figure 14
Figure 14

Depending on the patches’ requirements and whether any running virtual machines must move to another host or hosts require rebooting, it can take a few minutes to an hour or longer to remediate every host in a cluster. Figure 15 shows the process for patching the hosts.

Figure 15
Figure 15

A post-compliance is automatically run. Figure 16 shows that all hosts are now in compliance.

Figure 16
Figure 16

At the top of the vCenter page, we see a message that an update for vCenter is available. Click VIEW UPDATES, as shown in Figure 17.

Figure 17
Figure 17

As shown in Figure 18, this takes us to the Update Planner. We can’t update the vCenter appliance from here, but this allows us to see the available vCenter update information.

Figure 18
Figure 18

Select the available update and click Pre-Update Checks from the GENERATE REPORT dropdown list, as shown in Figure 19.

Figure 19
Figure 19

The Pre-Update Checks report if there are any issues we must resolve before updating the vCenter appliance. As shown in Figure 20, there are no issues to resolve. Click OPEN APPLIANCE MANAGEMENT.

Figure 20
Figure 20

As shown in Figure 21, we are at the log-in screen for the vCenter appliance. Follow the process covered earlier to backup, snapshot, and update the appliance.

Figure 21
Figure 21

Up next: Advice, Conclusions, and Lessons Learned.

Landing page for the article series

]]> 32337 Bart Jacobs’s Toolbox Inventory https://www.carlwebster.com/bart-jacobss-toolbox-inventory/ Thu, 08 Oct 2020 13:52:58 +0000 https://www.carlwebster.com/?p=21031 Back in March 2020, just before things got really weird, I finally started my own blog: https://www.cloudsparkle.be/.

My very first post was also published on this very site here: https://www.carlwebster.com/bart-jacobss-toolbox-copyadgroupmembers/). For the posts that followed, I didn’t do that anymore.

No regrets, but I feel it’s about time to revisit this site and to publish an overview of what I’ve been up to.

To kick things off, let’s get this out of the way. Every script/tool I’ve published on this here is now also present on Github:

I’m not really planning anything for them; I just want them out there to make my GitHub “complete” in a certain way.

That’s it for my “legacy” tools. Let’s continue with the new stuff already.

Toolbox #001: CopyADGroupMembers

Toolbox #002: PrinterMonitor

Toolbox #003: PSProfileCleaner

Toolbox #004: GetIISLogEndpoints

Toolbox #005: CountCTXAppUsers

Toolbox #006: CleanADGroupMembers

That’s it for now. Stay tuned for more and above all: stay safe.

Thank you

Bart Jacobs

CTA

 

]]> 21031 New Script: Get Offline Scout Data https://www.carlwebster.com/new-script-get-offline-scout-data/ Tue, 02 Apr 2019 12:55:08 +0000 https://www.carlwebster.com/?p=14349 Imagine you are in a Citrix environment where Internet and online access is forbidden. Where it is forbidden by company policy to enable PowerShell Remoting or Windows Remote Management or the Remote Registry service. How do you run diagnostics for the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Site using the GUI version of Scout? You don’t or can’t. This new script helps work around this issue.

Before I begin to say more about this script, I want to thank four people who helped test,  provide feedback, and find flaws in the script.

  • Carl Behrent (CTA)
  • Rene Bigler (CTP)
  • Sam Jacobs (CTP)
  • Stuart Donnelson

Without their constant testing and feedback, this script wouldn’t be as complete as it is. Thank you four for your patience, feedback, and testing. I would really like to thank fellow CTP Rene Bigler who did a (for him) late-night debugging session over Zoom to help find a bad logic flaw in the script.

The Citrix Community Rocks!!!

While researching how to automate gathering Scout data for a project, I came across this page. Towards the bottom of the page is an explanation of how to gather Scout data offline. This uses a PowerShell cmdlet, Start-CitrixCallHomeUpload. While I am glad this cmdlet is available, it is pretty dumb cmdlet. There is no option to specify an -AdminAddress parameter to specify a Delivery Controller for a connection. The help text for the cmdlet shows various parameters, of which I could only find one that worked (-OutPath).

There are many Citrix environments that have strict security policies and protocols where access to the Internet is forbidden and any online/Cloud access is prohibited. The only way to gather diagnostic data and have it analyzed it to gather the Scout data, copy the Zip file to a secure computer where Internet access is allowed but monitored and controlled, upload the Zip file to https://cis.citrix.com, wait for the analysis to complete, and download the Scout report.

I hope Citrix is listening and never kills cis.citrix.com. Not every customer allows online access from their Citrix infrastructure or VDAs. If Scout is killed, access to cis.citrix.com is killed, and the only diagnostics available is to use Smart Tools/Smart Check, well I fear there are many Citrix customers who will never gather diagnostics or health data on their Citrix environment(s).

On to the script. The link for gather Scout data lists three prereqs:

Prerequisites

  • The machine must be running PowerShell 3.0 or later.
  • The Citrix Telemetry Service must be running on the machine.
  • The system variable PSModulePath must be set to Telemetry’s install path, for example, C:\Program Files\Citrix\Telemetry Service\.

The script verifies all three prereqs are met.

If you run the script on a Delivery Controller: creates a zip file named:
Site Name_DDC_DDC Name_yyyy-MM-dd_HHmm_ScoutData.zip

If you run the script on a VDA, attempts to find the VDA’s registered delivery controller and then attempts to find the Site Name.

If the Site name is found, creates a zip file named:
Site Name_VDA_VDA Name_yyyy-MM-dd_HHmm_ScoutData.zip

If the Site name is not found, creates a zip file named:
VDA_VDA_VDA Name_yyyy-MM-dd_HHmm_ScoutData.zip

If there are registry access issues on the VDA, creates a zip file named:
Unable to Determine_VDA_VDA Name_yyyy-MM-dd_HHmm_ScoutData.zip

This script must be run on a Delivery Controller, or a VDA with either Call Home enabled or the Broker_PowerShell_SnapIn_x64 installed. That snapin’s installer is located on the installation media at
\x64\Citrix Desktop Delivery Controller\Broker_PowerShell_SnapIn_x64.msi

This script does not require an elevated PowerShell session.

This script can be run by a Read-Only Site Administrator.

For full health information, you should run this script on every Delivery
Controller in a Site and at least one of each VDA in a Machine Catalog.

The Start-CitrixCallHomeUpload cmdlet does not have a parameter to run
against a remote Delivery Controller or VDA. The cmdlet will also not overwrite
a Zip file if it exists which is why the time is added to the Zip file name.

Once the script has created the Zip file, the file can be copied to another
computer and then uploaded to https://cis.citrix.com as “Upload for self-diagnostics”

There is one issue with the script. If you originally installed the VDA and manually entered the Delivery Controller(s), then uninstalled the VDA, and then reinstalled the VDA with the option “Let Machine Creation Services do it automatically”, the ListOfDDCs registry key still exists but is now empty. If ListOfDDCs is found, the script uses that empty value and assumes the VDA has not received the Group Policy to set that value. If ListOfDDCs does not exist, then the script looks for the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Citrix\MachineIdentityServiceAgent\VdaStateMirror\RegisteredDdcFqdn key and uses that value.

Figure 1 - Running the script on a DDC
Figure 1 – Running the script on a DDC
Figure 2 - Running the script on a XenApp VDA
Figure 2 – Running the script on a XenApp VDA
Figure 3 - Running the script on a Windows 10 VDA without the Broker PowerShell snapin installed
Figure 3 – Running the script on a Windows 10 VDA without the Broker PowerShell snapin installed
Figure 4 - Location of Broker PowerShell snapin installer
Figure 4 – Location of Broker PowerShell snapin installer
Figure 5 - Installing the Broker PowerShell snapin
Figure 5 – Installing the Broker PowerShell snapin
Figure 6 - Rerunning the script on the Windows 10 VDA
Figure 6 – Rerunning the script on the Windows 10 VDA
Figure 7 - Files created by the script
Figure 7 – Files created by the script

Only the Zip file is uploaded. The two json files are not used, that I am aware of.

I hope you find the script useful.

You can always find the most current script by going to https://www.carlwebster.com/where-to-get-copies-of-the-documentation-scripts/

Thanks

Webster

]]> 14349 Setting the Playing Field Right for Citrix Cloud https://www.carlwebster.com/setting-the-playing-field-right-for-citrix-cloud/ https://www.carlwebster.com/setting-the-playing-field-right-for-citrix-cloud/#comments Fri, 26 Oct 2018 06:00:13 +0000 https://www.carlwebster.com/?p=13905 Let’s get this one out there first: Citrix Cloud has enormous potential. But is it living up to that potential? To put it as a football metaphor: I wouldn’t want to be feeding all the “next Messi’s” or “next Ronaldo’s” out there.

A series of events triggered this blog post. Or rather: my observations of Citrix Sales pitching Citrix Cloud to C-level execs.

Let’s start with the very basics: what is Citrix Cloud? And equally important what it isn’t.

Definition:
Citrix Cloud is a workspace management platform for IT administrators to design, deliver, and manage virtual desktops and applications and other services, such as file sharing, on any device.

In layman’s terms: the Citrix servers needed for the management of a Citrix environment, such as Delivery controllers, license servers, the SQL database, are provided to you by Citrix. Citrix takes care of the VMs running underneath, Citrix updates the platform and looks out for high availability of the platform. To put it very bluntly: Citrix provides you with a working, hosted version of Citrix Studio and then it’s up to you, the admin.

So, now that we’ve set the stage let’s discuss what Citrix Cloud is not. And this is the part where a lot of misconceptions start to show.

1) Is Citrix Cloud a managed service?
No. Citrix provides the management tools, not the management activities carried out by using those tools. Citrix will not publish any resources to any of your users.

2) Does Citrix Cloud host your apps and desktops?
No. This is about where your beloved users are doing their work, meaning: run those (pesky) apps. That “location” is completely up to you: public, private or hybrid cloud, or even just your good “old” on-premises resources. Any resource ties into Citrix Cloud through Citrix Cloud Connectors.

3) What about the “Service” naming then?
Citrix has a very rich history of name changes. XenApp Service is now Virtual Apps Service. This may set you on the wrong foot there. The “service” piece is not Citrix servicing your environment. It’s about Citrix providing/hosting the tools to you to maintain your environment from the cloud.

So, the question may arise: should you consider Citrix Cloud, and why?
It’s always a good idea to keep an open mindset and to be aware of all the possibilities out there. That’s a genuine challenge in today’s rapidly evolving world, I know.

The obvious answer is: it depends. A new company, starting with a green field deployment? Or an enterprise with custom, legacy apps? It all depends. Maybe I’ll turn the answer into another article someday.

Does Citrix Cloud have a “killer feature”?
Maybe it was a bit lacking in that department until recently with the Workspace App. Unification has always been a “thing” but presenting it “as a service” now is an entirely different ball game. Again, Citrix is providing you with the capabilities to create a unified Workspace. Citrix is not managing that workspace for you. But don’t dismiss that Workspace idea just yet. If anything, this may very well be your entry point to Citrix Cloud.

So, the future for Citrix Cloud looks all bright and shiny then?

Not so fast. Workspace (App) is evolving rapidly and will change. As will the entire platform. You need to be able to cope with that.

Just think about your endpoints for a second. They need to be able to connect. This means that you’ll have to keep them updated, just to keep up with the changing demands from Citrix Cloud. If sometime in the future Citrix requires a certain level of encryption, your endpoints need to be able to establish that encrypted connection.

There are other challenges too. Citrix requires that you purchase a minimum number of Cloud seats. This means that a lot of small businesses will not meet those numbers and have the option to pay too much or to look elsewhere. It’s not the first time I’ve hit on that topic.

Equally, even in a cloud world, there’s nothing like “seeing is believing”. Therefore, it’s a real shame there are no NFR or internal use licenses of Citrix Cloud for Partners. Partners that have built relationships with their customers will have to pay to show those customers their way to the cloud. Another missed chance, one that will drive adoption forward.

Thanks

Bart Jacobs

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