Troubleshooting Citrix XenDesktop®

Troubleshooting Citrix XenDesktop®

by Gurpinder Singh
Released October 2015
Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
ISBN: 9781785280139

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Book description

The ultimate troubleshooting guide for clear, concise, and real-world solutions to a wide range of common Citrix XenDesktop problems

About This Book

  • Explore the XenDesktop architecture and work with various troubleshooting tools that every Citrix admin should know about
  • Discover how to troubleshoot performance, VDA registration, and NetScaler integration issues
  • A fast-paced troubleshooting guide to help you identify and resolve any kind of problem you might face while working with Citrix XenDesktop

Who This Book Is For

Troubleshooting Citrix XenDesktop is targeted at Citrix Administrators or Citrix Engineers who are working on Xendesktop and want to learn tips and techniques required to deal with the issues they face in their day-to-day life. A working knowledge of core elements and concepts of Xendesktop would be an added advantage.

What You Will Learn

  • Solve VDA registration problems and Citrix session launch difficulties
  • Identify and resolve XenDesktop service issues
  • Troubleshoot performance issues related to the XenDesktop architecture
  • Work around common printing issues
  • Understand the Citrix XenDesktop HDX policies and deal with the HDX MediaStream challenges
  • Resolve the common MCS and PVS configuration issues in your XenDesktop environment
  • Find solutions to some general issues that have been identified and recorded by Citrix in their database that every administrator must be aware of

In Detail

In today's world, many organizations have decided to move to secure and stable VDI platforms to benefit their organization to meet their security needs. To meet an organization's requirements, Citrix XenDesktop serves as the best desktop virtualization solution available, providing the optimum user experience.

Troubleshooting Citrix XenDesktop is a single resource guide that will help you dig deep into all the technical issues you encounter to resolve them using an autonomous and well-defined approach.

The book starts by walking you through the XenDesktop architecture and the troubleshooting toolkit for Citrix XenDesktop. The subsequent chapters will help you identify possible causes of various types of Citrix XenDesktop problems that may arise while installing, configuring, or troubleshooting day-to-day problems. You will also be dealing with the most common and important VDA registration problems that you might often face while working with the XenDesktop product suite. Additionally, you will resolve issues that arise while launching Citrix sessions, troubleshoot performance issues, and learn how to integrate Citrix NetScaler with your XenDesktop environment.

Style and approach

This book is an easy-to-follow troubleshooting guide with real-world examples of resolving XenDesktop issues. Each chapter is focused on a specific troubleshooting area, giving you the time to learn about and apply relevant tools and practices to troubleshoot the problems using a systematic approach.

Table of contents

  1. Troubleshooting Citrix XenDesktop®
    1. Table of Contents
    2. Troubleshooting Citrix XenDesktop®
    3. Notice
    4. Credits
    5. About the Author
    6. About the Reviewers
    7. www.PacktPub.com
      1. Support files, eBooks, discount offers, and more
        1. Why subscribe?
        2. Free access for Packt account holders
        3. Instant updates on new Packt books
    8. Preface
      1. What this book covers
      2. What you need for this book
      3. Who this book is for
      4. Conventions
      5. Reader feedback
      6. Customer support
        1. Downloading the example code
        2. Errata
        3. Piracy
        4. Questions
    9. 1. Getting Started – Understanding Citrix XenDesktop® and its Architecture
      1. Desktop virtualization
      2. Hosted Shared Desktops (HSD) versus Hosted Virtual Desktops (HVD)
      3. The Citrix FlexCast® delivery technology
      4. The modular framework architecture
      5. XenDesktop® and its architectural components
      6. MCS versus PVS™
      7. What's new in XenDesktop® 7.x?
      8. Summary
    10. 2. Troubleshooting Toolkit for Citrix XenDesktop®
      1. Citrix Studio (Desktop Studio)
      2. The Director console (Desktop Director)
        1. The Filters view
        2. The Trends view
      3. CDFControl
      4. Configuring logging for XenDesktop®
      5. Perfmon and Procmon
        1. Configuring Perfmon
        2. Configuring Procmon
          1. Procmon log data
          2. Case study – troubleshooting slow logons with Procmon
      6. HDX™ Monitor
      7. Citrix Scout
        1. Configuring and running Citrix Scout
      8. Citrix Quick Launch
      9. Print Detective
      10. StressPrinters
        1. Using StressPrinters
      11. XenDesktop® Site Checker
      12. XDPing
      13. XDDBDiag
      14. Xperf or Windows Performance Recorder
        1. Using Windows Performance Recorder (WPR)
        2. Advanced recording
        3. Reading a trace
        4. The System Activity graph
        5. The Computation graph
        6. The Storage graph
        7. The Memory graph
      15. Wireshark
      16. The PowerShell SDK for XenDesktop®
        1. Checking controller services
        2. Checking the DB version
      17. Checking the desktop machine details
        1. Managing identity pools
        2. Disconnect/logoff settings for desktops
      18. Summary
    11. 3. Getting Around Installation Issues
      1. Prerequisites
        1. Dealing with prerequisite issues
      2. Overcoming database service account issues
      3. Taming licensing issues
      4. Site creation issues
        1. Insufficient database permissions
        2. Hypervisor connection permissions
        3. Domain permissions
        4. Incorrect configuration for storage pools
      5. Summary
    12. 4. Overcoming VDA Registration Problems
      1. Getting familiar with the VDA registration process
      2. Starting with the basics – the event viewer
      3. Firewall configuration
      4. Troubleshooting DNS resolution issues
        1. Scenario – VDA is not able to reach the Delivery Controller
      5. Overcoming time synchronization issues
      6. Conquering domain membership problems
      7. Multiple network adapters
      8. Service principal name
      9. Surpassing DDC FQDN issues
      10. Local group policies and VDA communication
      11. Solving .NET framework exceptions
      12. A basic troubleshooting flowchart
      13. Troubleshooting using the VDA and Broker Service logs and other tools
      14. Summary
    13. 5. Conquering Citrix Session Launch Difficulties
      1. Getting familiar with the VDA launch process
      2. Basic troubleshooting with Citrix Director
      3. Common XenDesktop® launch issues
      4. Overcoming Citrix StoreFront™ port mapping issues
        1. Analyzing logs
      5. Summary
    14. 6. Surpassing XenDesktop® Service Issues
      1. Understanding the XenDesktop® service architecture
      2. Enabling service logs
      3. Surpassing database account credential issues
      4. Active Directory integration
      5. Using PowerShell to check the status of services
      6. Summary
    15. 7. Troubleshooting Performance
      1. Getting a grip on the performance parameters
      2. Understanding sizing requirements
        1. The assessment phase
        2. The design phase
        3. The deployment phase
      3. Capturing performance data
        1. Performance Monitor
        2. QSlice or Process Monitor
        3. Xperf or Windows Performance Analyzer
        4. Case study – troubleshooting a slow logon
      4. Summary
    16. 8. Solving Printing Issues
      1. Understanding the printing setup
        1. Provisioning printers
        2. Session printers
        3. Print driver management
          1. Automatic installation
          2. Manual installation
          3. Citrix Universal Print Driver
          4. Vendor-specific print drivers
          5. Citrix Universal Print Server
      2. Citrix printing policies
        1. Auto-create client printers
        2. Auto-create generic universal printer
        3. Client printer names
        4. Direct connections to print servers
        5. Printer mapping and driver compatibility
        6. Printer properties retention
        7. Retain and restore client printers
        8. Automatic installation of in-box drivers
        9. Universal driver preference
        10. Universal Print Driver usage
        11. Universal printing EMF processing mode
        12. Universal printing image compression limit
        13. Universal printer optimization defaults
        14. Universal printing preview preference
      3. Exploring the XenDesktop® printing registry settings
      4. Using Print Detective and StressPrinters
      5. Summary
    17. 9. Getting the Better of HDX™ MediaStream Challenges
      1. Understanding the HDX™ display modes
        1. Desktop Composition Redirection
        2. H.264-enhanced SuperCodec
        3. The legacy graphics mode
      2. HDX™ policies and their impact on user experience
        1. Desktop Composition graphics quality
        2. Desktop Composition Redirection
        3. Enhanced Desktop Experience
        4. Display memory limit
        5. Dynamic windows preview
        6. Image caching
        7. Legacy graphics mode
        8. Maximum allowed color depth
        9. Notify user when display mode is degraded
        10. Persistent cache threshold
        11. Queuing and tossing
        12. Extra color compression
        13. Extra color compression threshold
        14. Heavyweight compression
        15. Lossy compression level
        16. Lossy compression threshold value
        17. Minimum image quality
        18. Moving image compression
        19. Progressive compression level
        20. Progressive compression threshold value
        21. Target frame rate
        22. Target minimum frame rate
        23. Visual quality
      3. Using Flash Redirection for a smooth HDX™ experience
      4. Working with HDX™ RealTime audio/video and the HDX™ plugin for Microsoft Lync 2010
      5. Summary
    18. 10. Taming MCS and PVS™ Setbacks Gracefully
      1. Enabling logging for MCS and PVS™
      2. Using MCS service logging for troubleshooting common issues
        1. Case study – Machine Creation Services fail while creating a catalog
      3. Troubleshooting PVS™ Streaming Service and console issues
        1. Case study – the connection to the database failed, network connection may be down
      4. Overcoming common PVS™ issues
        1. Target devices hang at Windows startup
        2. Target devices fail to boot and display error "No entry found in Database"
        3. Target devices halt at boot screen waiting for Provisioning Services™ to respond
        4. Target devices give a BSOD
        5. Target device failed to load BNIstack drivers
      5. Summary
    19. 11. Troubleshooting NetScaler® Integration Issues
      1. Integrating Citrix NetScaler® and Citrix StoreFront™
      2. Configuring NetScaler®
      3. Citrix StoreFront™ configuration for enabling remote access
      4. Challenges with NetScaler® integration
        1. NATing and firewall configuration challenges
        2. SSL certificates and challenges
          1. The server certificate received is not trusted – SSL Error 61
          2. An underlying problem when establishing the SSL/TLS trust relationship
      5. NetScaler® callback URL configuration
      6. Securing XenApp®/XenDesktop® communication
      7. Summary
    20. 12. Dealing with Known Issues in Citrix XenDesktop®
      1. Known Citrix XenDesktop® general issues
      2. Summary
    21. Index

Product information

  • Title: Troubleshooting Citrix XenDesktop®
  • Author(s): Gurpinder Singh
  • Release date: October 2015
  • Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
  • ISBN: 9781785280139