How To Hide Windows Local Disk Drives From Users

In some organizations, Management may want to hide certain server local drives from being accessed by Citrix users. There are a few methods to do so, but in this post, we will be using GPP. 

Note that this step will only HIDE but not prevent users from acecssing to it. The configured drive will only be hide from WIndows Explorer. Thus, users still can access to the drive via Command prompt, Run command etc.

Description :
Hide certain drives from being accessed by users.



How To Do :

1.  Launch Group Policy Management Console. Depending on how your AD is structured, right click at the OU, and choose " Create a GPO in this domain, and Link it here... "
   
   
   
2.  Give it a name, and press OK.
   
   
   
3.  Then you can see the GPO created.
   
   
   
4.  Right click at the GPO, and choose Edit.
   
   
   
5.   Expand to User Configuration > Preference > Windows Settings, click at Drive Maps
   
   
   
6.  Right click at Drive Maps, hover to New and click at Mapped Drive
   
   
   
7.  In here, follow below instructions:
   Action : Update
   Drive Letter : Existing, and choose desired drive (in this example, it is D: drive
   
   Press Apply and OK.
   
   
   
   
   

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How To Set up Configuration Logging for XenApp 5 for Server 2003

In this Kb, Citrix explains on how to set up a Configuration Logging for XenApp 6.5. In this 
post, I will show on how to set up the same for XenApp 5 for Server 2003.

Description :
Set up Configuration Logging for XenApp 5 for Server 2003.



How To Do :

1.  Launch Citrix Console, right click at <FarmName>, and choose Properties.
   
   
   
   
   
   
2.  Browse to Farm-Wide > Configuration Logging.
   
   
   
   
   
   
3.  Click at Configure Database.
   
   
   
   
   
4.  Choose connection type (in this case, it is SQL Server), DB Server name, and credential (in this case, I used Windows Integrated security). Press Next
   
   
   
5.   Speficy the database name, and press Next
   
   
   
6.  Leave all settings as default, but change "Use encryption" to No. Press Next
   
   
   
7.  Press Test Database Connection in order to test the connection
   
   
   
   
   
   
8.  You will see this screen if the testing is successful. Press OK
   
   
   
   
9. Now we are good, Configuration Logging properly set up. press OK.
   

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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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Cannot Find a Valid Terminal Services License Server for Server 2003

Previous post explained on how to configure Terminal Services License server for server 2008. For this time around I will show on how to configure Terminal Services License server for server 2003. Basically, it is more or less the same, just the interface is different.

Note that this is for Windows Server 2003. For Windows Server 2008, please go to here.

Description :

• You want to specify Terminal Services License server, so Terminal Services role can be used by servers.

How To Do :

1.  RDP to the server, and go to Start > Administrative Tools > Terminal Services Configuration. Or, go to Start > Run, and type tscc.msc
   
2. On the left pane, click at Server Settings option. At the right pane, right click at License Server Discovery Mode, and choose Properties. 
   
3.  From this screen, put the TS CAL server name, and press Check Names button.

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Cannot Find a Valid Terminal Services License Server

After installing Terminal Services Role to a server, you may want to specify the license server. The Terminal Server will make an attempt to locate the Terminal Service License servers first, before make an attempt to follow automatic license server discovery process. You may see below balloon :

Note that this is for Windows Server 2008. For Windows Server 2003, please go to here.

Description :

• You want to specify Terminal Services License server, so Terminal Services role can be used by servers.

How To Do :

1. Go to Start > Administrative Tools > Terminal Services > Terminal Services Configuration. Or you can type tscc.msc in Run box.
   
   
   
2. Right click at License server discovery mode, and click at Properties.
   
   
   

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How To Auto-Create and Configure ctx_cpsvcuser

As mentioned in previous post,  ctx_cpsvcuser can be created and configured with a tool, but it is limited to certain Citrix XenApp versions only :

• Feature Pack 1 for Presentation Server 4.5
• Presentation Server 4.5 for Windows Server 2003
• Presentation Server 4.5 for Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition
• XenApp 5.0 for Windows Server 2003 x64
• XenApp 5.0 for Windows Server 2003 x86

Description :

• Using tool to create Service ID ctx_cpsvcuser in Citrix XenApp servers.

How To Do :

1. Download the re-creation tool here.
2. Upload the files to Citrix server.
3. Run command prompt, browse to the uploaded folder, and run below command.

   

   32-bit : CtxCpsvc10.exe –install | 64-bit : CtxCpsvc10_x64.exe –install

   
   
4. once done, double check the Citrix Print Management service. Ensure it can be started and set to Automatic.

Reference :

• http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX113554/

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Removing Citrix Online Plugin Message Box

This is not really impacting to customers though, but it annoys me much whenever I login to my workstation ( or any workstation installed with this plugin).


Issue :

• Received below error after installing Citrix Online Plugin
  

Troubleshooting : 

• It is because this plugin is automatically launched every time user login.

Resolution :

1. After login to workstation / server, click OK.
   
   
   
2. Browse to Start > All Program > Startup >
   
   
   
   
   
3. Right click at Online plug-in, and choose Delete
   
   
   
   
   
4. Click at Delete Shortcut. The message box will no longer appeared on next logon.
   
   
   
   
   

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Connect Two Computers Using a Normal, Not-Crossover LAN Cable

Note : This is for old-school users who still using Windows XP / Windows Server 2003. If possible, I will update with the steps for Windows 7 / Windows 8  / Windows Server 2008 / Windows Server 2012 (if I am not lazy enough).

Description :

• How to connect two (2) different computers using a single Normal (Nor Crossover) LAN cable.

How To Do :

1. Connect those computers using the LAN cable (we named it as Computer 01 and Computer 02.)
2. From Computer 01, go to Start > Control Panel > Network Connection, right click and choose Properties.
   
   
   

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