Published Application Launches Not In Seamless Mode

One of my new user was having this problem, whereas whenever he launched Citrix applications, the application launched within another window (Windowception???). This issue was only occurred to him, but not to other users. Hence, it was safely said the issue is user-related, and not farm-wide.

Issues :
Application did not launch in Seamless mode, but inside another window session (in this case, the published application was Notepad).

Troubleshooting 
** Note that these steps are to be taken from User ends, not the infra**

1.  Ask the user to access Citrix Web Interface as usual.
   
   
   
   
2.  Go to Preference > Session Settings
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
3.  Take note on 'Window size:' column
   

Resolution :

• Change current Window size to Seamless, and press Save.
  
  
  
  
  
• This is some Help notes provided by Citrix 
  

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How To Configure Pass-Through on Citrix Web Interface

I received a request by my clients to enable pass-through to their Citrix Web Interface site. Not more than a few minutes after completion, they made a few complaints, saying that they needed to supply their credentials every time they launched published applications, which defeats the Single Sign-On (SSO) purposes. After a few minutes of troubleshooting, I realized that, in order to enable pass-through, there are more steps need to be taken, not simply enabling the feature.

Description :

Properly enabling Pass-Through, so users wot have to supply credentials every time they launched Citrix published applications, as below :

How To Do :

1.  Uninstall current installed Citrix Receiver
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Once un-installation completed, open command prompt, and type CMD
   
   
   
   
3.  Browse to the installer location, and run command ( CitrixReceiver.exe /includeSSON )to install Receiver with SSON enabled
   
   
   
4. Proceed with installation
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. When you can see this in Programs and Features, it means the installation is already completed.
   
   
   
    
6. Go to start > run and type GPEDIT.MSC
   
   
   
   
7.  Add new ADM template for this purpose, by choosing Add/Remove Templates...
   
   
   
   
   
8. Press Add.
   
   
   
    
9. Add the template which can be located at this path ( %SystemDrive%\Program Files (x86)\ICA Client\Configuration ). The file name is icaclient.adm
   
   
   
   
   
10.  Template added. Press Close
    
    
    
    
      
11.  Browse to this path ( Local Computer Policy > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Classic Administrative Templates (ADM) > Citrix Components > Citrix Receiver > User authentication ) 
    
    
    
    
    
12. Right click at setting ( Local user and password ), and choose Edit
    
    
    
    
13. Enable the setting
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
14. Enable the first 2 options ( Enable pass-through authentication & Allow pass-trough authentication for all ICA connection)
    
    
    
    
    
15.  This is the outcome, press Apply and OK
    
    
    
    
    
    
16.  Reboot the machine (or use GPUPDATE /FORCE) , once up access your CWI.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

p/s : if it happened that users still unable to utilizing SSO, please refer to here in order to use Citrix Receiver Clean Up Utility.

Reference :

• http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX133982

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How To Put Citrix Servers Out Of Citrix Load

So a couple weeks ago I had been asked by my colleague to put some of my servers out of load for maintenance. Then I was like,  "okay, just disable logon then!". Then, he made some weird face to me while saying "Fool, if you disable logon, how am I suppose to login, then? I don't want to trouble myself with console... go figure it out!".. aaaaaannd yes, I figured it out (or was I?? :D)

Description :
Put Citrix servers out of Citrix load (some sort of private mode / maintenance mode).



How To Do :

1. From the Citrix server (or from your local machine of you has it installed), launch XenApp Advanced Configuration Console.
   
   
   
2. Right click at Load Evaluator, and click at New Load Evaluator.
   
   
   
3.  You will see this screen. Put a name of your Load Evaluator (ie. Out of Loads), and at the Available Rules section, click at Scheduling.
   
   
   
4.  Add Scheduling Rule (you will see it moved from left section to right.
   
   
   
5.  Now, at every single day, press Remove Interval.
   
   
   
6.  This is the outcomes. Press OK.
   
   
   
7. Now you will see another Load Evaluator created.
   
   
   
8. From Citrix Delivery Console, right click at desired server, go to All Tasks > and choose Assign load evaluator.
   
   
   
9. Change current Load Evaluator to the newly created Load Evaluator.
   
   
   
10.  Press OK.
    
    
    
11.  Now, whenever users want to access applications resides in that server, users will see this. Therefore, it is best to configured other servers to host the applications, so it won't interrupt users' experiences.
    

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Enable or Disable Logon for Citrix XenApp Servers via Citrix Console

After we talked on how to disable logon using command, this post will show on how to disable logon using Citrix Console.

Note that :-

• Users are not able to remote to the server, no RDP, no ICA, nothing.
• Once logon disabled, users only able access the server via virtualization Console like VMware Client or XenCenter (Virtual server). For physical server, it is either physically sitting before the server, KVM or Remote Access Card (DRAC, or HP iLO)
• For Command Line, it only can be used locally. I haven't try using PSTOOL yet, but I will update this post whether I can access the server using PSTOOL after logon disabled.
• For GUI, as we will use Citrix Console, hence it can be done remotely from other Citrix XenApp servers, within the same farm. Hence, if the farm only has one Citrix XenApp server, then you need to get in the box via physically there or virtualization client.

Description

• Disable / enable logon for Citrix XenApp servers via Command Line.

How To Do :

1.  From Citrix Console, you can easily spot whether the server is having the session login disabled, or enabled. If it shows Disable Logon, it means current status is Enabled, and vice versa.

   

   Currently Disabled

   
   
   

   

   
   

   Currently Enabled

   
   
   
2. To disable logon, from Citrix Console, right click at the server name, go to All Tasks, and choose Disable logon.
   
   
   
   
   
   
3.  Hence, when users try to RDP the server, they will see this. For ICA connections, this server will not be used. If one published application was published only to that server, then users will not be able to access that application.
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. To enable the logon back, from Citrix Console, right click at the server name, go to All Tasks, and choose Enable logon.
   

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Enable or Disable Logon for Citrix XenApp Servers via Command Line

Well, as a Citrix Admin, you are able to prevent any users from accessing your Citrix XenApp servers, especially when the server is under maintenance mode, or you purposely want to put the server out-of-loads. there are 2 ways to do this; GUI or command. 

But bear in mind that :-

• Users are not able to remote to the server, no RDP, no ICA, nothing.
• Once logon disabled, users only able access the server via virtualization Console like VMware Client or XenCenter (Virtual server). For physical server, it is either physically sitting before the server, KVM or Remote Access Card (DRAC, or HP iLO)
• For Command Line, it only can be used locally. I haven't try using PSTOOL yet, but I will update this post whether I can access the server using PSTOOL after logon disabled.
• For GUI, as we will use Citrix Console, hence it can be done remotely from other Citrix XenApp servers, within the same farm. Hence, if the farm only has one Citrix XenApp server, then you need to get in the box via physically there or virtualization client.

Description

• Disable / enable logon for Citrix XenApp servers via Command Line.

How To Do :

1. RDP to the Citrix XenApp server, and open Command prompt. firstly, you may want to type Change Logon in order to know what commands can be used.
   
   
   These are commands that can be used :
   CHANGE LOGON {/QUERY | /ENABLE | /DISABLE)
   /QUERY     Query current session login mode
   /ENABLE    Enable user login from sessions
   /DISABLE   Disable user login from sessions
   

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What Is Local Host Cache?

In previous post I wrote about what will happen if the Citrix XenApp farm lost connection with its datastore. Well, because of Local Host Cache, users will still be able to access the applications without too much issue. But, what is Local Host Cache (LHC)?

LHC is like a mini-DB of the farm, and created on all Citrix XenApp servers. Why I said mini-DB? It is because it contains a portion (subset) of Data Store information. 


There are 4 main information stored in the LHC :

• All servers in the farm, and their basic information.
• All applications published within the farm and their properties.
• All Windows network domain trust relationships within the farm.
• All information specific to itself. (Product code, SNMP settings, licensing information)

There are 2 primary functions of LHC :

• Redundancy - a Citrix XenApp still function as normal if connection to datastore losts.
• Performance - LHC cache information used by ICA clients for enumeration and application resolution. By having this, a faster response to ICA client request is provided, as the server does not need to contact other member servers about published applications.

LHC info is stored in Imalhc.mdb (an Access database). By default, it is stored in %ProgramFiles%\Citrix\Independent Management Architecture folder.

IMA service is heavily related to LHC. IMA service is responsible to get LHC synchronzied with the data store. Hence, restarting IMA service during DB server outage will cause the service can't be started.



Reference :

• http://careerride.com/view.aspx?id=2774
• http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX759510

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Change Farm Utility ( CHFARM) Has Stopped Working

Well, this issue was occurred to me last weekend, when I was busying myself changing my Citrix XenApp servers from farm A to farm B, using GUI. Why? because I have nothing to do (on weekend? seriously??). Please put my forever alone life aside, shall we? Well, this issue occurred to my XenApp 5 for Server 2008 farm. Hmm, Server 2008 is the keyword there... :)

Issues :

• Citrix Admins received below screen after putting the credential for ODBC Driver Access.
  
• Citrix Admins can't move forward, as the GIU will froze just after putting the credential.
  

Troubleshooting 

1. Go to Start > Run, and type SecPol.msc
   
   
    
2. You will be prompted with all UAC permission, so just proceed accordingly

   

   Click at I want to complete this task

   
   

   

   Press Ctrl + Alt + End

   

   Press Continue

   
   
   
3. After that, you will see this console. Our focus is on Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options
   
   
   
4. On the right column, find this configuration, and check the setting configured
   

Resolution :

• Right click at the configuration item, and choose Properties
  
  
• From this box, change the option from Enabled to Disabled
  
  

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