Citrix TechEdge 2014 - Best Practices for Implementing, Administering, and Troubleshooting XenDesktop 7.5

Best Practices for Implementing, Administering, and Troubleshooting XenDesktop 7.5

Shaun Wendland, Senior Escalation EngineerMay 6, 2014

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Architecture and design considerations for a successful deployment

Administration habits to help maintain and support a XenDesktop 7.5 site

Troubleshooting tips and the top three problem types

Resources discussed, Q&A

Agenda

Best Practices for ImplementingThe XenDesktop 7.5 architecture and considerations for successful deployment


XenDesktop 7.5 architecture

Virtual DesktopAgent

Delivery Controller

SQL Database


XenDesktop 7.5 architectureThe 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


XenDesktop 7.5 architectureThe XenDesktop Delivery Controller

Delivery Controller ServicesAD Identity Service

Machine Creation Service

Configuration Service

BrokerService

Host Service

Delegated Admin Service

Configuration Logging Service

Citrix Environment Test Service

Monitoring Service

NEW (7.x)NEW (7.x)

NEW (7.x)NEW (7.x)

NEW (7.x)


XenDesktop 7.5 architectureThe 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



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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Support for assigning your site, configuration logging, and monitoring schemas into separate databases


XenDesktop 7.5 architectureThe 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


Sites?

Users?

From where?External access?

Internal access?

Resources? Hypervisor?

Storage? Bandwidth?

How many images?Dedicated?

Pooled?

PvD?

Updates?

Images?

Maintenance?

Thin clients?

How frequently?

Mobile devices?

Random or static?

Security restrictions?

Which users?

“It depends…”

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


Project Accelerator http://project.citrix.com

Design

Assess

Administration Best PracticesHabits 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


Manually redirecting your XenDesktop site to a failover database location• XenDesktop SDK PowerShell cmdlets:

Administrative Best PracticesManual failover

1. Load XenDesktop snap-ins.

2. Get the existing database connection strings.

Add-PSSnapin Citrix*

Get-LogDataStoreGet-MonitorDataStore




3. Set a variable for the new connection string.

4. Disable configuration logging.

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

Set-LogSite -State Disabled




5. Remove all the current database connections


Set-LogDBConnection -DataStore Logging -DBConnection $nullSet-MonitorDBConnection -DataStore Monitor -DBConnection $nullSet-MonitorDBConnection -DBConnection $nullSet-AcctDBConnection -DBConnection $nullSet-ProvDBConnection -DBConnection $nullSet-BrokerDBConnection -DBConnection $nullSet-EnvTestDBConnection -DBConnection $nullSet-SfDBConnection -DBConnection $null Set-HypDBConnection -DBConnection $nullSet-ConfigDBConnection -DBConnection $null -forceSet-LogDBConnection -DBConnection $null -forceSet-AdminDBConnection -DBConnection $null -force

Administrative Best PracticesRemoving current database connections




5. Remove all the current database connections

6. Set all the database connections to the new connection string


Set-ConfigDBconnection -DBConnection $csSet-AdminDBconnection -DBConnection $csSet-LogDBconnection -DBConnection $csSet-AcctDBconnection -DBConnection $csSet-BrokerDBconnection -DBConnection $csSet-EnvTestDBconnection -DBConnection $csSet-HypDBconnection -DBConnection $csSet-MonitorDBconnection -DBConnection $csSet-ProvDBconnection -DBConnection $csSet-SfDBconnection -DBConnection $csSet-LogDBConnection -DataStore Logging -DBConnection $csSet-MonitorDBConnection -DataStore Monitor -DBConnection $cs

Administrative Best PracticesSetting the database connections




7. Re-enable configuration logging

8. For confirmation, test Broker Service connectivity

Set-LogSite -State Enabled

Test-BrokerDBConnection $(Get-BrokerDBConnection)


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


Administrative Best PracticesPerformance Monitoring Using Director

Infrastructure health overview• Hosting alerts• Delivery Controller service,

database, & license statuses

VDA health• Failed start-ups and boots• Unregistered machines• Current load (Server OS)• Connected systems• Logon times





Session and connection health• Activity manager• Session details• Machine details

Troubleshooting Best PracticesTechniques for troubleshooting XenDesktop 7.5 and the top three problem types


Troubleshooting Best PracticesWhen bad things happen to good environments

This is the first I’ve tried this and it’s not working.

Something changed and I didn’t do it.

Something changed and I’m the one that caused it.


Troubleshooting Best PracticesMethodology

Investigate

Analyze

Implement


Troubleshooting Best PracticesGathering 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


Troubleshooting – Machine creationCase 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




Troubleshooting – RegistrationCase 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



Verify ListOfDDCs value in the registry



Verify ListOfDDCs value in the registry

Use Scout / XDPing to identify issues between the VDA and Controller

Enable VDA logging / Capture CDF traces


Troubleshooting – ConnectionCase 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





Dynamic memory settings• Hyper-V Startup memory

- 32-bit: ≥1.5 GB- 64-bit: ≥2.5 GB

Next StepsBest 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/

http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/xenapp-xendesktop/cds-xenapp-xendesktop-75-landing.html

http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/xenapp-xendesktop/cds-xenapp-xendesktop-75-landing.html

http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX139331


http://www.citrix.com/content/dam/citrix/en_us/documents/products-solutions/xendesktop-deployment-blueprint.pdf



http://project.citrix.com/

http://project.citrix.com/



http://blogs.citrix.com/2014/01/02/new-citrix-best-practices/

Q&ABest Practices for Implementing, Administering, and Troubleshooting XenDesktop 7.5


WORK BETTER. LIVE BETTER.

Technology

Citrix TechEdge 2014 - Best Practices for Implementing, Administering, and Troubleshooting XenDesktop 7.5