Installing and Configuring Citrix

XenApp/XenDesktop 7.6
Introduction
With the first release within the 7th version, Citrix announced that the XenApp product was
at end of life and the functionality was integrated into XenDesktop 7.0. Unfortunate for Citrix
the customers did not understand this message and there was lots of confusion around this.
Citrix responded by re-introducing XenApp again in version 7.5. Actually it was bringing back
the original product name and will be based on the new FMA architecture. There are only
two different license models available; one for XenApp and one for XenDesktop. The Citrix
XenDesktop/XenApp matrix provides a good insight of what the differences between the
licenses are. With the release of XenApp/XenDesktop 7.6, many features that were available
in XenApp 6.5 but not in previous 7.x releases have been introduced again, so the version 7
release is a real XenApp comparable product.
To explain what XenApp and XenDesktop are becames a bit more complicated, especially
because, from a technical standpoint, its the same product. In this article Im going to
describe the installation and basic configuration steps for XenApp/XenDesktop 7.6. I try to
use the name XenDesktop 7.6 through the article, but hopefully you understand that you
can read XenApp here as well (and if I use XenApp by accident, you can also read
XenDesktop).

Installation of Delivery Controller

The installation starts with a screen where you need to choose whether you would like to
install XenApp or XenDesktop. As described in the introduction you are actually installing the
same product, only a different name is shown in the installation window.

Figure 1: Choose between XenApp or XenDesktop

After choosing which product you would like to install, the available options are shown.
Each XenDesktop infrastructure requires at least one Delivery Controller. For the XenApp 6.x
people this is comparable with a XenApp Controller Host (aka Data Collector). The
server/desktop that will host the desktop and/or applications is now called a Virtual Delivery
Agent (VDA), but I will dive deeper into that later on in this article series.
As we are setting up a new XenApp 7.6 infrastructure, we start with installing a Delivery
Controller via the Deliver Controller button. You could also browse the DVD ISO and pick
the installer yourselves. However keep in mind that you are responsible for installing the
required supporting components. Using the installation wizard those prerequisites are
installed automatically.

Figure 2: The installation options offered by the XenDesktop installation wizard.

The installation wizard continues with the installation steps for the Delivery Controller. The
first step is accepting the license agreement.

Figure 3: Accepting the license agreement.

The next step is to choose which component of the XenDesktop Suite you would like to
install on the Delivery Controller server. You can install all components offered on the same
server; however in (larger) production environments you would separate some of these
components. Lets do a quick walk through to the offered options and my recommandations.

Delivery Controller

This is the core functionality which assigns users to a server/desktop hosting the chosen
Desktop or Published Application(s). This is a required component for a Delivery Controller.

Studio

Studio is the Management Console of XenDesktop 7.x. Within this console the whole
configuration is executed. This can be installed on the Delivery Controller and/or on a
separate Admin Server. I always install the Studio on the Delivery Controller also, but it is not
required.

Director

Director is the second (Management) Console of XenDesktop 7.x. This console is available
for monitoring and troubleshooting purposes and is built on top of Internet Information

Services. In production environment I do not install this component on the Delivery

Controller, but on a separate server (often combined with StoreFront).

License Server

Each Citrix product requires a License Server. The license server is often already available in
the environment (an upgrade of the license software may be required). I normally install this
on a separated server, most times together with the RDS License Server.

StoreFront

StoreFront is the access point for the end-user connecting to the XenDesktop infrastructure.
StoreFront is the successor of Citrix Web Interface. StoreFront is also built-on IIS and I
normally install this on a different server(s).

Figure 4: Selecting the core components to install on the Delivery Controller.

For this article series I will install all components on the Delivery Controller, except the
License Server as I have this one already running. You see in Figure 4 that Citrix shows a nice
warning when de-selecting an option that you need to have the component installed at least
once. When you decide to separate the components you can find them as a separated
installer in the screen shown in Figure 2.

After selecting the core components you need to select the features you would like to install.
Citrix XenDesktop requires an SQL database. I would recommend using a specific SQL
server, but for Proof of Concept you could use the SQL express on the first Delivery
Controller. If you install the Director you should also install the Windows Remote Assistance
feature so you can shadow the end-users out of the Director console. I have an SQL server
available, so I dont need the SQL Express edition.

Figure 5: Selecting the core components to install on the Delivery Controller.

The Delivery Controller uses a few ports for communication (80 or 443). The installation
wizard offers to automatically configure the Windows Firewall to allow these ports. You can
also decide to configure those manually (but why would you?).

Figure 6: Let the installation configure the Windows firewall rules.

Figure 7: Let the installation configure the Windows firewall rules.

As Citrix nowadays separates the installation and initial set-up, the wizard is completed to
start the installation. In the summary window the selected components, features and firewall
are shown. Also the installation directory is mentioned as the supporting components
(prerequisites) which will be installed automatically.

Figure 8: Summary of the installation wizard including the prerequisites that will be
installed.
During the actually installation a nice progress overview is shown including the time
remaining before the installation is finished.

Figure 9: The installation progress.

After the actual installation phase the wizard will show that all components are installed and
offers to start the Studio console to start the initial set-up.

Figure 10: Installation phase finished.

The XenDesktop Delivery can be installed on Windows 2012 or Windows 2012 R2 operating
systems. As all communications are executed through the Delivery Controller, in
a production environment you would install at least two Delivery Controllers. As the
installation does not contain any configuration anymore, the installation steps are exactly
the same for the second (and other if more than two are installed) Delivery Controller. In the
next article I will describe the initial setup and show the differences in the set-up of the first
Delivery Controller and the next Delivery Controllers.

Initial Set-up for first Delivery Controller

In part one of the article series I installed the Delivery Controller software. As shown in part
one you can start Studio for this initial setup directly. When you unchecked that option, you
can just use the Studio Console to start the initial set-up.
When Studio starts it offers three options: Site Setup, Remote PC Access and Scale your
deployment. I wont discuss Remote PC Access in this article series and as this is our first
Delivery Controller we need to choose Site Setup by selecting the option Deliver Applications
and Desktops to your users.

Figure 1: Initial start-up of Citrix Studio, choosing Deliver application and desktop to your
users to set-up the XenDesktop infrastructure
The Site Setup wizard starts by asking you to either create an empty configured Site or to
create a fully configured site. For this article I will use an empty, unconfigured site as this
makes is easier to explain the configuration out of the console in this article series.

Figure 2: Site Setup Introduction: empty site or a fully configured site

The next step is specifying the databaseserver and databasename. As this is the first
Delivery Controller, a database will not be available. You can specify a name for the
database (the wizard will suggest one based on the Site Name filled in the previous screen).
There are two options to create the database, you can continue the wizard or create a
database script. The database script can be used to provide it to the database administrator
if you dont have (enough) rights on the database server to create the database via the
installation wizard. I have enough rights, so for this article I will use the option to create
the database via the installation wizard.

Figure 3: Providing database server and database name information

Continue with the wizard. A message will be shown that the database is not available and
that via the OK button the database can be created.

Figure 4: No database was found, create the database automatically?

Providing the license information is the next step. If you already have a license server
running, you will probably have to update your current license server software with a new
version. As shown in part 1 you could have also installed the license server on the same
machine. You can also use the 30-day trial (you dont have to specify a license server at all
using this option).

Figure 5: Providing license information

After the licensing information a summary is shown before the actual configuration starts. In
this screen Citrix also asks if you dont mind sending statistics and usage information.

Figure 6: VDA Installation Summary

During the configuration phase a progress bar is shown.

Figure 7: Studio Configuration progress bar

When the progress bar disappears the site is created. In the Studio Console all kind of
options are available. We will come back to this part later in this article series. First we will
add a second delivery controller.

Figure 8: XenDesktop Side created on the first Delivery Controller

Initial setup following Delivery Controller(s)

As mentioned in part one, the Delivery Controller is the heart of the XenDesktop
infrastructure, so logically you want this component highly available and fault tolerant. This
can be done pretty easily; just add one or more Delivery Controllers to the infrastructure.
Also for these Delivery Controllers this is done by starting the Studio console. For adding a
Delivery Controller to the just created site we need to choose the obvious button: Connect
this Delivery Controller to an existing Site.

Figure 9: Connect this Delivery Controller to an existing Site

The first step is to specify a Delivery Controller in the site this Delivery Controller should be
joining.

Figure 10: Select Site

After the Delivery Controller made a connection with the specified Delivery Controller, Studio
asks if you would like to update the database automatically. If you choose No the wizard
generates an SQL script, which can be used to add the Delivery Controller information into
the database. When you chooses Yes the database will be updated automatically.

Figure 11: Update the database automatically or manually

When the database is updated the server is added as a controller within Citrix Studio and
also the Studio on the added Delivery Controller will show the site information. Again for now
we will leave the Studio console and execute the basic configuration of the StoreFront
component, so users can connect to the environment at the end of the article series.

Figure 12: Update the database automatically or manually

Also to configure the StoreFront component you need to start the corresponding console
called Citrix StoreFront. As this is the initial set-up the easiest way to set-up is to use the
Create a Store button in the main window.

Figure 13: Citrix StoreFront console first start-up

With this button the Create Store wizard will be started. The first step is providing a name for
the Store, this name will be shown to the end users and will be part of the URL.

Figure 14: Citrix StoreFront Store Name

The second step is providing the earlier installed and configured Delivery Controllers. With
the StoreFront 2.6 release Citrix finally made it more clear which type you have to choose as
StoreFront also supports older XenApp releases. For XenApp/XenDesktop 7.6 you logically
need to choose XenApp 7.5 (or later), or XenDesktop. Also remember that the Delivery
Controller without additional configuration communicates over HTTP.

Figure 15: Providing the Delivery Controllers

Finally you need to provide the way StoreFront provides access to the environment. Three
options are available below Remote Access: None, No VPN Tunnel and Full VPN Tunnel. You
will choose None if you would like to use the StoreFront without a Citrix NetScaler Gateway,
in other words the end-user will directly type in the URL of the StoreFront server for example
for internal access. When using the Citrix NetScaler Gateway you will choose between No
VPN Tunnel or Full VPN Tunnel, where No VPN Tunnel will be used providing access to the
XenDesktop infrastructure only and a Full VPN, as the name applies, will set-up a standard
VPN connection tunnel.

Figure 16: StoreFront (Remote) Access

After pushing the Create button the Store and Corresponding website is created. In the
window mentioning the successful creation of these, the URL to be used for WebAccess is
also shown. Its worth mentioning that during the initial set-up of the Delivery Controller, a
StoreFront configuration is alsoexecuted. I guess the wizard noticed that StoreFront is also
installed locally and is automatically configured. So if you install StoreFront on the same
server, you dont have to execute the above shown steps.

Summary
In the first part of the article series, the installation of the Desktop Delivery Controllers was
discussed, in this part we executed the initial setup of the first and following Desktop
Delivery Controllers. The last topic was the basic configuration of the Citrix StoreFront
component, so that at the end of the article series users cannot connect to the XenDesktop
infrastructure. In the upcoming part we will continue with the installation of the VDA agent,
followed by the creation of a basic XenDesktop environment.

Figure 17: StoreFront Store created

Installation of the Virtual Desktop Agent

There are two VDA installations available: One installer for Windows Server OS and one
installer for Windows Desktop OS. The installation wizard checks the OS and only shows the
available VDA option. The Windows Server OS VDA is supported on Windows 2008R2 SP1,
Windows 2012 and Windows 2012R2. The VDA Agent for Desktop OS can be installed on
Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1. In this article I will also show the installation
steps for the Windows Desktop OS, but I will use the Window Server OS VDA for the purpose
of this article (almost all license editions support the Server OS features). The set-ups are
pretty similar, so it also does not make a big difference. I will mention which part is Desktop
OS only.

Figure 1: XenDesktop Installation Wizard start-up screen

The first question in the installation wizard is about the way the VDA will be provisioned.
When using Citrix deployment techniques like MCS (Machine Creation Services) or PVS
(Provisioning Services) you will install the VDA in the master image only and the Citrix
should take care that the machine is unique. When you dont have such a deployment you
choose that the machine connects directly to a server machine itself. I dont want to make
this article series too complex, so I wont use MCS or PVS so we only focus on XenDesktop
7.6.

Figure 2: Create a Master Image or Connect Directly to a server machine

In the Desktop OS installation wizard one additional step is shown; do you want to use VDA
for HDX 3D Pro. If you do want HDX 3DPro logically, you need to select this option, but also
ensure that the required (hardware and software) components are in place. As already
mentioned, I actually use the Server OS installation for this article so I dont have to actually
choose an option.

Figure 3: HDX 3D Pro in the Desktop OS VDA installation

The following step is again available in both installers, where you choose which core
components need to be installed. The Virtual Delivery Agent is logically required; you can
choose if you would like to install the Citrix Receiver also. Be careful with this one as it
installs a Receiver 4.x version (which does not support the PNAgent functionality anymore).

Figure 4: Choosing the Core Components to be installed

Next we need to provide the Delivery Controllers. The wizard offers four options:

Do it later

Do not provide a delivery controller at this moment. You need to use one of the other
possibilities after the installation of the VDA agent.

Do it manually

Provide the Delivery Controllers during the wizard, actually now. This is the easiest method,
but less flexible. When you provide the role Delivery Controller to other servers, you need to
change the settings locally on each VDA agent.

Choose locations from Active Directory

You can add a Service Connection Point (CSP) and a security group to Active Directory, so
the VDA can get the Delivery Controller more dynamically. I would suggest using this option
in large production environments.

Let Machine Creation Services do it automatically

Machine Creation Services (MCS) can provide the Delivery Controller information, you can
only use this option if you use MSC to deploy the VDA agents.

Figure 5: Providing the Delivery Controllers information

The next step is providing which features should be installed/enabled. Really consider the
option Optimize performance and read the corresponding knowledgebase article
(http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX125874) in advance. Its possible that the optimization
conflicts with requirements in your organization, as its fully focused on the best
performance not about offered visuals and/or functionalities. I would normally enable the
other options by default.

Figure 6: Deciding to enable which features

To communicate with the Delivery Controller to offer the Remote Assistance feature and to
use Real Time Audio, several communication ports are required. Just as with the Delivery
Controller installation you can set those Firewall Exceptions manually or automatically during
the installation process.

Figure 7: Configuring the Firewall

A summary is shown with the installation settings provided including the destination location
of the actual installation.

Figure 8: Summary of the VDA installation wizard

Just like the Delivery Controller wizard, a nice process window will be shown during the
actual installation phase.

Figure 9: Finish installation VDA

When not using PVS or MSC technology you will install the VDA on more servers or desktops
to create a pool of available machines. When the VDAs are installed we can start
configuring the XenDesktop environment. As shown earlier you can do that via the initial setup, which creates the basic configuration. I have chosen to create it manually to provide a
better insight of what needs to be configured.

Creating a Machine Catalog

The first step is to create a Machine Catalog. You should see a Machine Catalog as a group of
VDA which will be pulled out this Catalog during further configurations. During this further
configuration those machines will be picked automatically (you cannot select which VDA you
would like to use), therefore its a best practice to create a Machine Catalog which holds
VDAs offering the same configuration. Creating a Machine Catalog is done through the
Studio Console, where both the Actions menu in the right pane, as well as the rightmouse
menu can be used to start this task.

Figure 10: Starting tthe Create Machine Catalog

The first screen of the Machine Catalog Setup describes pretty well what you should have
done before starting this wizard. However if you have done this before you probably dont
want to see this information anymore, happily you have the option available not to show this
screen anymore.

Figure 11: Introduction Machine Catalog Setup

Secondly you need to choose if the Machine Catalog exists of Server OS VDAs of Desktop OS
VDAs. Its not possible to mix and match those types of OS together in one Machine Catalog.
As I installed the VDA on a Server OS I will check Windows Server OS.

Figure 12: Selecting Operating System VDAs

After selecting the Operating System you need to provide information about machine
management. As seen in the VDA agent XenDesktop 7.6 can be combined with Citrix
technologies MCS and PVS and XenDesktop should know which technique (if any) you are
using. When you select one of these technologies you can also choose to use Power
Management. As in this article I dont use MCS or PVS, I need to select another service or
technology.

Figure 13: Machine Management options

Next step is to add the VDAs in this Machine Catalog. This screen really depends on the
Machine Management option you are using. For example: within a PVS machine
management you will see your PVS infrastructure Device Collections and you need to pick a
device collection. Because Im not using any machine management technique I have to
select the machines based on Active Directory. Also you need to provide the version of the
VDAs. Preferable you will use the VDA 7.6 version, but you can also use VDA that still have
the older VDA running (in an upgrade scenario).

Figure 14: Adding machines to the Machine Catalog

Although the last screen is called Summary you still need to provide information. The first
part indeed shows a summary of the earlier configured settings, however you also need to
provide a Machine Catalog Name and an optional description for recognition of the Machine
Catalog.

Figure 15: Summary and providing the Machine Catalog name

The summary page also mentions that a next step is required to complete the deployment
by assigning this Machine Catalog to a Delivery Groups. Thats exactly the next step we are
going to execute in the next part of this article series.

Creating a Delivery Group

When a Machine Group is available it is possible to create a Delivery Group. A Delivery
Group is a collection of Desktops and/or Applications, which can be used on the machines
added to the Delivery Group out of a Machine Catalog. Just as with the Machine Group you
can use the option within the actions pane or the right mouse button menu.

Figure 1: Create a Delivery Group

The wizard also starts with an explanation of the Delivery Group option, you can check the
option 'Dont show this again' so that his information is not shown next time.

Figure 2: Getting started with Delivery Groups

The first step is to select the Machine Catalog that will be used for this Delivery Group. All
available Machine Catalogs will be shown and you select which one you would like to use.
Next you need to provide the amount of machines from the Machine Catalog that will be
added to this Delivery Group. I advise to assign all machines in the Machine Catalog to one
Delivery Group to keep the infrastructure simple and understandable.

Figure 3: Assigning a Machine Catalog to a Delivery Group

Secondly we need to select if this Delivery Group will be used to provide Desktops,
Applications or both.

Figure 4: Delivery Group Delivery Type

The next step is to assign users to this Delivery Group. Those users will be able to access the
selected delivery types. During this installation wizard the users will be added to all selected
Applications. Later on, you can change this assignment. In this window we also see one of
the new options in XenDesktop 7.6: the possibility to allow access to anonymous users to
the Delivery Group (as mentioned you also need to configure your StoreFront correctly for
this feature).

Figure 5: Assigning users to the Delivery Group

When you have selected Applications during the Delivery Type the next step is to select
which applications should be published. The wizard tries to determine which applications are
available, but you can provide an application manually. When you have App-V Publishing
configured, App-V packages can also be selected (I will discuss the App-V Publishing later in
this article series).

Figure 6: Selecting applications for publishing

When you are using silos (nowadays different Delivery Groups) you can configure a
StoreFront Store, this Store will be configured within the Receiver on the machines in the
Machine Catalog automatically.

Figure 7: Configure StoreFront automatically within Receiver

The last step is to provide a Delivery Group Name, Display Name and a Delivery Group
description (optional). The Display Name is shown to the end user, while the Deliver Group
Name is used for the administrator view within the Studio Console.

Figure 8: Delivery Group Summary

The wizard will create the Delivery Group and when this process is finished the Delivery
Group will be shown within the Studio Console. Within the console additional settings can be
configured on the Delivery Group. You need to select the Delivery Group and select Edit
Delivery Group (available in the Actions pane or again the right mouse button menu).

Figure 9: Edit Delivery Group

Within the Edit window several new options are available and logically also settings that we
already configured during the wizard.
For example, Users and Delivery Type were already showing in the wizard. Out of this
configuration screen you can change the users or the Delivery Type. From the Delivery Type
you can also change the Display Name (for the end-users) of the Delivery Group. A new
configurable option is Application Prelaunch, which was not shown in the previous wizard.
This is a new functionality in XenDesktop 7.6, which was also available in XenApp 6.5. With
Prelaunch, a session is alreadystarted for the user, while the user did not select any
applications. When the user selects an application later, from an end-user perspective, the
application starts directly.
By default Prelaunch is not configured, here you can change that behavior. I must say that I
really like the implementation of this feature. You can configure it for all users configured to
the Delivery Group or a specific group (of users). You can also specify the time a session will
stay active when pre-launched. By default its configured for 2 hours, personally I think that
is a pretty long period. Optionally you can also specify additional rules to end the
prelaunched (unused) session if the load on the machine is getting too high.

Figure 10: Configure Application Prelaunch

The same applies to Application Lingering. This is also a new feature in XenDesktop 7.6,
which was also available in XenApp 6.5. With Session Linger the session of the user wont be
closed directly when the user closes the application on the machine. In the case of using
Published Application the user does not have to wait to create a full new session when
switching between Published Applications. Just like the Application Prelaunch the option is
disabled by default. When you enable Application Lingering you can specify the time interval
the session should be kept alive. Again the default time interval is pretty long (8 hours). The
session can also be closed by specifying maximum load values allowed, before lingered
session will be shutdown.

Figure 11: Configure Application Lingering

The next option is called User Settings. Here you can edit/set-up the description of the
Delivery Group, but also other settings we could not configure during the wizard like the
amount of Desktops available per user and securing the ICA traffic.

Figure 12: User Settings

The StoreFront tab shows the same options as during the Delivery Group creation wizard,
while Access Policy offers new settings. Within Access Policy you can configure how the
Delivery Group may be accessed. Only via the Citrix NetScaler Gateway or also other
possibilities like directly through Citrix StoreFront.

Figure 13: User Settings

The last configurable item is configuring a Restart Schedule. You can create a pretty flexible
reboot schema based on a start time and an interval time. You can send users a message
that the machine will be restarted within the specified timeframe.

Figure 14: Restart Schedule

On the Applications tab of the delivery group (available when you selected as Delivery Type
Applications or Desktops and Applications). Out of the Actions pane you can add additional
applications to the Delivery Group. Also just like the Delivery Group per Application, you can
configure additional options via the properties of the application.

Figure 15: Application view within the Delivery Group

Within the first configurable item called Identification we can change the Application Name
(both from an end-user or administrator perspective). Here we can also add a description or
keywords. Those keywords are useful when connecting via StoreFront and users can search
for applications.

Figure 16: Application view within the Delivery Group

Within Delivery the application icon can be changed, an optional application category can be
filled in and we can add a shortcut to the users desktop.

Figure 17: Delivery application properties

At the location tab we can specify the exact location of the application including the
command line argument and working directory.

Figure 18: Application Location configuration

Already discussed during the Delivery Group Wizard, by default the Published Applications
are assigned to the user group selected during the wizard. Happily Citrix currently offers the
option to assign an application to a specific group or users. This can be done in the Limit
Visibility part, where you can configure which user could use this application.

Figure 19: Application Location configuration

The last configurable option is the File Type Associations. Here you can configure which file
type extensions should be configured for the Published Application.

Figure 20
We have now configured the Delivered Group completely. It is now possible for a user to
connect to the XenDesktop infrastructure and can start a Desktop and/or Published
Applications.

Connecting to the XenDesktop Infrastructure

In the previous articles we configured XenDesktop in such a way that its ready to allow
users to start-up a session on the VDA. Connections are set-up via the Citrix StoreFront
component. This can be done by configuring the Citrix Receiver to contact the StoreFront
server or entering the URL of the Receiver for Web. For this article Im using the last option,
so I open a browser and enter the URL. A page will be shown where you need to enter the
credentials and password.

Figure 1: The start site of the Receiver for Web connection option
After logging on, the user will be presented with the Desktop and/or Published Applications
which were assigned to his account. When the user has a Desktop assigned to his account,
an icon on the Desktop tab will be shown (by default this is shown first, but this can be
adjusted in the StoreFront configuration).

Figure 2: Desktop tab of the Receiver for Web

When the user has (also) Applications assigned, those will be shown on the App tab.
Different from the Desktop tab the icon(s) are not shown directly. The user (by default)
needs to add the application to this tab. The user needs to choose the + sign at the left part
of the site.

Figure 3: Apps tab of Receiver for Web

After choosing the plus sign a new pane is shown, where the user can select the applications
he would like to be shown on the Apps tab so he can start those applications.

Figure 4: Selecting applications to be shown on the Apps tab.

By clicking the icon on the Desktop of the Application the session will be set-up. In figure 5
you will see the full Desktop of the end-user connected.

Figure 5: Citrix XenDesktop desktop session

While we have a user connected to our XenDesktop infrastructure, the basic installation and
configuration is finished. Its out of scope of this article to describe all the possible
configurations options in a real detailed level, however I would like to go one step further
than the basic configuration we have done up till now to touch some additional configuration
steps.

Citrix Policies
Since XenApp 6.x you can configure Citrix policies via two methodologies and these options
are still available in XenDesktop 7.x. You can configure policies via the management console
or via Group Policy Object in Active Directory. Again there is no good or bad way; it depends
on the infrastructure and the organization which makes more sense. The settings are exactly
the same and also the way they are applied is the same. Settings are available in two
flavors: user settings and machine settings. In previous version those were shown
separately, however in XenDesktop 7.6 they are both shown and you define later if only one
flavor should be applied. I see both advantages (you are not searching between the two
policy flavors for a specific setting) as disadvantages (configuring the filters for the policies
will need more attention). One last tip is to only select the version and VDA type you have in
your environment, so not applying policies are not shown anymore. As mentioned earlier its
too much to discuss the policies in more depth. If this is of interest to you let us know so we
can write an article about policies as I did in the past for one the previous Citrix products.

Figure 6: Citrix XenDesktop policies

Logging
In XenApp 6.x version logging was introduced. In those versions the option was disabled and
you need toed enable and configure it manually. In XenDesktop 7.x the option is enabled by
default. However you may want to adjust the default configuration. This can be done on the
Logging component in the Studio Console like changing the database (specify a specific

logging database), the actions which can be executed when the database is not available or
completely disable logging. In the same windows the logged actions are shown and reports
can be created.

Figure 7: Citrix Logging

Delegation of Control
Citrix products are well known of their advanced delegation of control. XenDesktop 7.6
shows that this it still the case. Within the product, already 6 different roles are created but
you can add additional roles. The role can be fully adjusted to your organization needs.
Secondly you can create scopes. Per scope you can configure which Machine Catalogs
and/or Delivery Groups belong to this scope. Via scopes you can divide the XenDesktop
infrastructure in multiple instances for administration purposes. The roles and scope come
together at the administrator tab. Here you specify which AD user or group will be assigned
to which scope with which role. In other words you can really create a very detailed
delegation of control within XenDesktop.

Figure 8: Citrix XenDesktop Delegation of Control

Controllers
In this part of the Studio console you can check if the Controllers are updated and in the
case a controller has failed you can remove the Delivery Controller out of the XenDesktop
database.

Figure 9: Citrix XenDesktop Controllers

Hosting
Within Hosting you can configure your hypervisor platform. In most cases you will configure
this component when you are using the Machine Creation Services (MCS) feature. MSC uses
the information specified at this component to create and maintain the virtual machines.
XenDesktop support all important hypervisor platforms including the corresponding
management tooling. Logically you need to specify a user account that has the required
permissions to execute the actions on the hypervisor layer and you need to specify the
corresponding network and storage requirements. It will also be used if you enable Power
Management options within the Citrix Policies. If you dont use MCS or Power Management
you do not need to configure this component even if your environment is running on a

virtualized infrastructure. For example when using PVS (Provisioning Services) and do not
want Power Management you can leave this part empty.

Figure 10: Citrix XenDesktop Hosting

Licensing
The Citrix Licensing component is a separate installation. As mentioned in the first part you
can install this also on a Delivery Controller. Whether you have installed it separately or on
the same server in previous (XenApp) versions you need to start the specific Citrix License
Server console to see licensing information. In XenDesktop 7 this kind of information is also
shown in the Studio Console. You can also add licensing, change the license server or
change the product version out of this part. I personally really like that this information is
shown in the same console.

Figure 11: Citrix XenDesktop Licensing

StoreFront
Maybe you would expect that at this part you can configure the StoreFront configuration, but
you should use the StoreFront Console for this. Within the Citrix Studio console you can
only specify StoreFront Stores. The configured Store can be used to assign to a Delivery
Group. At this Delivery Group the Citrix Receiver will automatically be configured based on
the selected StoreFront URL. The actual StoreFront URL is stored within the StoreFront
component. Assigning a StoreFront URL is useful in scenarios where there are more Machine
Groups or an old environment which host another (set of) application(s).

App-V Publishing

Figure 12: Citrix XenDesktop App-V Publishing

The last component in the Studio Console is App-V Publishing. I already touched it quickly
earlier. Here you can specify your App-V infrastructure (Management and Publishing server).
If you have configured your App-V infrastructure, XenDesktop can contact the App-V
infrastructure to automatically create Published Applications based on App-V 5 packages. If
using Published Applications in combination with App-V this is a real nice feature. It does not
configure an App-V client installed in the XenDesktop VDAs, this needs to be done via the
App-V 5 PowerShell scripts.

Figure 13: Adding App-V applications using App-V Publishing

Citrix Director
For those that are familiar with earlier releases of XenApp, notice that the Citrix Studio
console does not contain any administration actions (think of user sessions, remote
assistance and so on). For this kind of task Citrix created the Citrix Director. The Citrix
Directory is based on a website, so you dont need to install a client to use this. Just type the
URL http://FQDN/Directory into a browser. After entering the user information the daily
activities can be executed out of this console. On the Citrix blog a very good article series
about the Directory is published, so please check that article series for all the details about
Citrix Directory.

Figure 14: Citrix Directory

Conclusion
With this fifth part we are finalizing the article series about Installing and Configuring
XenApp 7.6. We started a session as a user to show that the basic configuration was
completed. Secondly we briefly touched some more advanced configuration options
available within XenDesktop. Some of those configuration options can be discussed in much
more detail, but that was the scope of this article series. If you are interested in more
detailed information let us know, so we know what interests you to write more in-depth
articles about XenDesktop.

Free Fault Tolerant Load Balancing using Citrix

NetScaler Express
Introduction
Citrix offers a NetScaler VPX Express edition. This is a full functioning freeware virtual
appliance with advanced Load Balancing features. The NetScaler VPX Express is not the only
freeware load balance appliance, but unlike most competitors the NetScaler VPX Express
edition supports a High Available/Fault Tolerant configuration. The VPX Express is limited to
10Mbit throughput, but this is more than enough for lots of load balancing set-ups. Good
examples are the Citrix StoreFront/Web Interface component, the Citrix DDC functionality,
Microsoft RD Web Access and MS RD Connection Broker. In this article I will describe the setup and configuration of the NetScaler VPX including High Availability/Fault Tolerance. In
upcoming articles we are going to use this configuration of load balance services based on
this set-up.

Importing the NetScaler VPX Express

First step is downloading the NetScaler VPX Express appliance. The download can be found
on the Citrix website. To access this page you need to have a MyCitrix account, which can be
created without any costs. The virtual appliance is available for XenServer, KVM, Hyper-V
and ESX. Pick the download for your virtualization platform.

Figure 1: Download NetScaler VPX

After downloading the virtual appliance its time to import the appliance into your virtual
infrastructure. The import is pretty easy for most of the hypervisors and Citrix describes the
steps in their e-Docs:

ESX

XenServer

Hyper-V

I will use Hyper-V, but Im running on a higher version of Hyper-V (2012R2) where the
procedure via Import Virtual Machine does not work. With the latest releases of NetScaler
VPX, the platform is officially supported, but there is a different way to add the NetScaler
VPX appliance on the hypervisor platform.
To add the NetScaler Appliance to your Hyper-V 2012R2 (or Windows 8.1) infrastructure first
create the directory where you would like to store the VM data into and copy the
dynamic.vhd file out of the NetScaler VPX Express and download into this directory.

Figure 2: Copy the dynamic.vhd into the directory

Next we start the creation of a new Virtual Machine. In my case Im using the Hyper-V
Manager and start the New Virtual Machine Wizard. I will label my NetScaler VMs NS01 and
NS02 and will enter the store location to the just created directory (which stores the
NetScaler VHD file).

Figure 3: Specify Name and Location within the Virtual Machine Wizard
In the wizard select the Generation 1 type VM, at least 2048 MB memory, configure the
correct VLAN into your infrastructure, followed by selecting Use an existing virtual hard
disk and specify the just copied VHD file.

Figure 4: Use an existing virtual hard disk

After the creation, open the Virtual Machine Settings and change the number of virtual
processors to 2.

Figure 5: Change the number of virtual processors

When the NetScaler VPX import is completed its time to start up the VM. For the first part
you need to have a connection to the VM itself. When started you need to enter the basic
network information. You need to provide an IPv4 address, a subnet mask and the default
gateway. This IP address is being used as the IP address to manage/configure the NetScaler.

In NetScaler terms this is the NetScaler IP Address (NSIP). After entering the information you
need to save the entered information. The NetScaler will reboot and after that we can
manage the NetScaler via an Internet browser. Again to set-up a high available/fault tolerant
NetScaler infrastructure you need to execute this step on both NetScaler, where both require
a unique NetScaler IP address logically. In my environment Im using 192.168.21.100 and
192.168.21.101.

Figure 6: Providing the basic network information

Open an Internet Browser and enter the configured IP address. The logon page is shown. The
default logon is username nsroot with the same password (nsroot).

Figure 7: NetScaler logon page

The intial configuration wizard of the NetScaler will automatically be started.

Figure 8: initial configuration of your NetScaler

The wizard starts with the second step where you need to provide the Subnet IP address
(SNIP). This IP address is being used for communicating with the back-end infrastructure
components that are configured as connections within the virtual servers. Im using
192.168.21.110 and 192.168.21.111 for this article.

Figure 9: Configure Subnet IP Address

The third step is to configure the hostname, a DNS server and the timezone.

Figure 10: Configure Host Name, DNS and Time Zone

After this step the NetScaler needs to be rebooted.

Figure 11: Reboot NetScaler

Although the NetScaler VPX Express is free, a license needs to be added. The free license file
can be grabbed from the same page as the NetScaler VPX download. For the license part
you need to have the hostID of the NetScaler VPX. This is actually the MAC address of the
NIC. You find this within the hypervisor management console or skip the initial configuration
wizard (choose license and specify Do it later) and find the host ID within Configuration
System within Hardware Information.

Figure 12: Determine the Host Id

When you choose configuration again the initial wizard is shown again to add the license file.
The first step is to get the license file. This is accomplished via the same URL as you
download the appliance and browse to the end of the page, where you find the License part
and choose Get License.

Figure 13: Determine the Host Id

First you need to accept the license agreement as shown in Figure 14.

Figure 14: Accept the license agreement.

When you haven't downloaded a license you will have a button Get License, the next time
the button is called Retrieve More licenses. Whichever option you have the button will
generate a new serial number (see Date Issued). Choose the Serial Number for the next
step.

Figure 15: Retrieve more licenses, followed by selecting the generated serial number.
A warning appears that you need to have the license server host name or host ID. As
described earlier we need the host ID for the NetScaler Express.

Figure 16: License Server Name or Host ID required.

When we continue we can enter the hostID, all other parts are default. In the following
screen we need to confirm that we entered the correct information.

Figure 17: Entering and confirming the hostID.

A message appears that the allocation was successful and a question if you want to
download the license file.

Figure 18: Allocation completed, downloading the license file.

At this time we successfully acquired and downloaded a license file for the NetScaler VPX
Express, which we can add to the NetScaler Express configuration. You need to acquire a
license file for both NetScaler Express appliances.

Figure 19: License file downloaded.

Now we have a license we can continue with step 4 of the initial configuration. By choosing
the configuration tab we will continue with this wizard.

Figure 20: License file downloaded.

Choose the option Upload license from a local computer, followed by Browse. Browse to
the location where you just downloaded the license file.

Figure 21: Licenses in the initial wizard.

When the file is added into the appliance an Updated Successfully message will appear. To
use the added license the appliance needs to be rebooted.

Figure 22: License uploaded

When the appliance is started again and you logon to the management console, the license
information is shown. This information acknowledges that the license uploading is actually
successfully and the NetScaler VPX Express is ready to use.

Figure 23: License successfully configured

When on both appliances the license file is uploaded and applied its time to configure the
appliance in a high available/fault tolerance set-up. This is accomplished via the
Configuration tab, within System High Availability. Within this component an Add button is
available to add a node for high availability.

Figure 24: High Availability

In the next window the IP address of the other NetScaler VPX Express needs to be entered
including the username and password of that NetScaler.

Figure 25: Add node to HA

The node is added and one of the NetScaler VPX Express appliances will become the Primary
node and the other one the secondary.

Figure 26: High Availability configured

Dont forget to save the configuration otherwise after a reboot the set-up is not available
anymore. Use the disk icon on the right side of the management console and choose Yes to
confirm to save the running configuration.

Figure 27: Saving current configuration

Citrix StoreFront/Web Interface

Lets start with the configuration of the Citrix StoreFront load balancing. Logically we need
two Citrix StoreFront servers for this set-up and a free IP address in the range of the
NetScaler VPX Express appliances. I prefer to have the Citrix StoreFront servers running into
Server Group to guarantee that the StoreFront configuration is identical.

Figure 1: Citrix StoreFront Server Group

Within the NetScaler GUI the first step is to go the Configuration Tab, followed by Traffic
Management Load Balancing Servers.

Figure 2: NetScaler Load Balancing

In this part we need to specify the actual servers hosting the StoreFront role. In my case
these are the SRV-VBN007 and SRV-VBN014. Add each node by specifying the servername
and the IP address.

Figure 3: Create Server Node

When both servers are added they will be shown in the servers overview.

Figure 4: StoreFront Servers added

The next step is to create Monitors for these StoreFront servers. NetScaler has specific
StoreFront servers monitoring included that actually check if the Storefront is available.
Therefore we need to go to Traffic Management Load Balancing Monitors within the
Configuration tab. Again choose the Add button.

Figure 5: Configure Monitors

First you need to enter a name for the monitor. You can use whatever you want (but keep
the name logical). Select type as StoreFront, so the specific StoreFront monitor functionality
will be applied. Addtionally you can specify the Destination IP at the standard parameters.
However you are not required to do that, as if this value is empty the IP address of the
server will be used. If you enter a destination IP address you need to create a monitor for
each StoreFront server, when leaving this value empty one monitor can be applied to more
servers.

Figure 6: Create Monitor

At the special parameters tab the Store Name of the StoreFront configuration needs to be
entered. Also ensure that the StoreFront Account Service box is checked.

Figure 7: Configure Store Name of the StoreFront monitor

After we created the monitor we are ready for creating the service. This can be found at
Traffic Management Load Balancing Services again within the Configuration tab. Choose
the Add button once again.

Figure 8: Load Balancing Services

First we need to provide a service name. Again you can type in what you like, but again use
a logical naming convention. Im using SFSRV_<<SERVERNAME>> as an example. As we

already created the servers earlier, we now can select Existing Server and choose the
corresponding server. Select the protocol and port number. In my example I dont have
certificates, so Im using port 80 and HTTP. However for production environment I advise to
use SSL with port 443.

Figure 9: Load Balancing Service set-up

The service will be created and shown in the next window. By default the standard HTTP
monitor is applied, but we would like to add our created StoreFront monitor. Scroll down to
Monitors and choose the > symbol behind 1 Service to Load Balancing Monitor Binding.

Figure 10: Load Balancing Service created and change monitors

The Service Load Balancing Monitor Binding window opens. To add our monitor, we need to
choose the option Add Binding.

Figure 11: Service Load Balancing Monitor Binding

Again we already created the Monitor so choose the > symbol again and pick the created
service out of the list. Leave the other values in their default state.

Figure 12: Selecting Load Balancing Monitor Binding

The binding is replaced by the just selected monitor. Close this window via the Close button
(it can take some time for the Current State changes). Choose Done to close the service
window as well.

Figure 13: Changes Load Balancing Monitor Binding

Repeat these steps for the second StoreFront Server. At the end you have two services
defined, where the state should be Up (based on the StoreFront Monitor we have bind to the
service).

Figure 14: Services created

The last step within the NetScaler management console is to create the actual virtual server,
which will be the entry point for the end-user to access the StoreFront infrastructure. Go to
Traffic Management Load Balancing Virtual Servers (under Configuration) and use the
Add button again.

Figure 15: Create Virtual Server

Provide a name for the virtual server. Again you can provide whatever you want. Specify the
protocol the virtual server should respond to. In my case I will use port 80, when using
certificated use SSL. Last enter the IP address for this virtual server.

Figure 16: Add servers

Just as for the StoreFront servers the next step is to set-up the monitor part. Go to Traffic
Management Load Balancing Monitors. Add a Monitor .

Figure 17: Basic Settings Virtual Server

The Virtual Server will be created, next we need to assign the created services to this virtual
server as resources. Choose the > Symbol behind No Load Balancing Virtual Server Service
Binding.

Figure 18: Load Balancing Virtual Server configuration

In the Service Binding window choose the > Symbol again to select the services.

Figure 19: Service Binding

Select the corresponding services to add those to the virtual server configuration.

Figure 20: Selecting corresponding services.

The services are shown in the Select Service field, leave the other values default and choose
the Bind button.

Figure 21: Service Binding

Finally we need to specify the Persistence options. These can be found under Advanced in
the right pane. For StoreFront we can use several methodologies. One of the best practices
is to use COOKIEINSERT, with as back-up persistence SOURCEIP. Leave the other settings as
default.

Figure 22: Persistence configuration

Choose Done once more to finalize the configuration. The status will turn green in a short
moment and the StoreFront services are now load balancing using a Citrix NetScaler.

Figure 23: Load Balancing Virtual Server configuration finalized

The last step is to create a pointer to the virtual server. I created an A record in DNS with the
name vbn-sf pointing to the 192.168.21.110 IP address. Now the users can connect via this
load balance service to the StoreFront. Dont forget to save the configuration using the
floppy icon.

If you are still using a Citrix Web Interface, you can also use the same set-up. The only
difference is that at the monitoring configuration you select Citrix-Web-Interface as the type
and specify the site path at the special parameters.

Figure 24: Web Interface Monitor

Citrix Delivery Controller

Also the Citrix Delivery Controller component can be load balanced using the Citrix
NetScaler VPX Express. In all configuration settings within Citrix XenDesktop/XenApp you can
configure more Delivery Controllers including a load balancing mechanism. However using
the NetScaler Load Balancing has one big advantage, you only need to specify the Delivery
Controller actual server names once in the NetScaler. On the other configuration options you
specify the Virtual Server name, so when there are changes to the Desktop Delivery
Controller you only need to change this in the NetScaler configuration.
The first step is to specify the server which runs the Delivery Controller component within
Traffic Management Load Balancing Servers as we have also done for the Citrix

StoreFront Servers. In this article Im using the same servers, if you have others check about
how to add the server exactly.
The next step is to create the monitor for the Delivery Controller. Again give the monitor the
name, specify as type Citrix-XD-DDC. Optionally specify a destination IP, if none specified the
IP of the server applied to the monitor will be used. This makes the monitor usable for more
services.

Figure 25: DDC Monitor

After the monitor is created, we can start to set-up the services within Traffic Management
Load Balancing Services. Just as with the StoreFront a service name should be provided. As
we already created the server, we can select an existing server. Specify HTTP as the protocol
used and fill in the port where the XML Broker traffic is set-to. The default for this is port 80
with XenDesktop/XenApp 7.x, in my case its running on port 8080.

Figure 26: DDC Service

Follow the same procedure to change the monitor of this service to the just created monitor.
Press the > symbol and change the monitor binding to the just created monitor. Repeat the
creation of the service and change the monitor binding for the second (and more) Desktop
Delivery Controllers.

Figure 27: Changing service Load Balancing Monitor Binding

After creating the services for all available Delivery Controllers, we can finalize the set-up by
creating the virtual server via Traffic Management Load Balancing Virtual Servers by
using the Add Button. The same procedure used at creating the StoreFront virtual server is
applicable. So first a name, unique IP address, protocol and port number should be specified.
Secondly we need to bind the just created services to the virtual server. Third step is to
configure the persistence based on SOURCEIP.

Figure 28: Virtual Server DDC

Dont forget to save the configuration using the floppy icon. Now we are ready to use the
DDC Load Balancing Virtual Server for example into the StoreFront configuration.

Figure 29: Using the DDC Virtual Server into the StoreFront configuration
If you are still using a Citrix XenApp 6.x infrastructure the same steps can be used to load
balance the XML service. Within the monitor the type should be changed to CITRIX-XMLSERVICE, the other steps and configuration is exactly the same.

Microsoft Remote Desktop Web Access

The first component we will set-up as fault tolerant load balancing infrastructure is the
Microsoft Remote Desktop Web Access. This component is actually based on IIS, so we need
to load balance this based on an HTTP/HTTPS protocol. The first step is to enter the service
within the Citrix NetScaler configuration via Traffic Management Load Balancing Server
under the Configuration tab. Choose the Add button. In the below image there are already
servers available from my second article .

Figure 1: Adding Servers

Within the Create Server window we need to specify the server name and the corresponding
IP address. Logically you need to redo this step for all the servers that will be part of the load
balance group. For this article I will add two servers, VBN-SRV016 (192.168.21.216) and
VBN-SRV017 (192.168.21.217).

Figure 2: Create Server window

In another scenario we would set-up a monitor to check if the service is still responding.
However the RD Web Access is just plain HTTP/HTTPS traffic. Within NetScaler these
monitors are already available by default so we dont need to create one and we can directly
continue with creating the services. The services are created at Traffic Management Load
Balancing Service again within the Configuration tab. Again use the Add button to set-up
the service.

Figure 3: Create Services

Provide a logical name for the Service Name. I use RDWASRV_<<SERVERNAME>> as a
naming convention. Because we already added the server ealier, we can select existing
server and select the server in the drop-down box. Choose the corresponding protocol. As I
used HTTP in the previous article, I will now use a secured connection. For HTTPS you select
SSL_BRIDGE and the corresponding port (by default 443).

Figure 4: Basic Settings Load Balancing Service

After pressing OK the service is created. After that we are changing the monitor binding.
Select the > symbol at the end of 1 Service to Load Balancing Monitor Binding.

Figure 5: Load Balance Service created, changing monitors

By default the tcp-default monitor is bind to a service, to change this default behavior
choose Add Binding.

Figure 6: Service Load Balancing Monitor Binding

Click the > symbol at the Select Monitor option.

Figure 7: Selecting Monitor Binding

A list of available monitors will be shown. Select the monitor HTTPS.

Figure 8: Select https monitor

Leave the other settings default and choose the Bind button.

Figure 9: https monitor selected

Now the Load Balancing Service is fully configured. Repeat these steps for the other servers
that will be part of the load balancing infrastructure.

Figure 10: https monitor selected

After the creation of the services, we are ready to set-up the actual virtual server which will
be the access point of the RD Web Access users. To set-up the virtual server go to
Configuration then Traffic Management Load Balancing Virtual Servers and start the
process via the Add button.

Figure 11: Virtual Servers

Provide a name for the virtual server. Again you name it whatever you like, but a name that
explains the functionality makes sense over time. Select protocol SSL_BRIDGE as Protocol
and IP Address as IP Address type. Next you need to enter the IP address for the virtual
server, followed by providing the port number the virtual server will be accessed.

Figure 12: Create Virtual Server

When the OK button is pressed, the virtual server will be created. After, the creation services
should be assigned to this virtual server. Choose the > symbol after No Load Balancing
Virtual Service Binding.

Figure 13: Add services after virtual server creation

Press the > symbol at Select Service to add services to the virtual server.

Figure 14: Select Service Binding

A list of configure services is shown. Pick the services you have just configured for this
virtual server. In my case these are VBN-SRV016 and VBN-SRV017.

Figure 15: Select the required services

The services are now selected and can be connect to the virtual server using the Bind
button.

Figure 16: Service Binding selected

After binding the services persistance is automatically configured on SSLSESSION. If required
you can change the persistance setting using the pencil icon, but this is optional.

Figure 17: Virtual Server configuration finished

The last step is to create a DNS record to the Virtual Server IP address. For this article I
created this for internal access, so I can add it to my local DNS.

Figure 18: Creating DNS record for the virtual server

Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection Broker

Another component within the Remote Desktop infrastructure that is a real good candidate
for load balancing through the free NetScaler Express edition is the Remote Desktop
Connection Broker. In this paragraph I will describe the steps to set-up a load balanced RD
Connection Broker via the NetScaler VPX Express.
The first step is to add the servers running the RD Connection Broker role into the NetScaler
configuration. For this article Im using the same servers as I used for the RD Web Access
set-up, so I can skip this step. See the RD Web Access steps on how to add a server in the
NetScaler Express via Traffic Management Load Balancing Servers under Configuration.
Unfortunately there is no special monitor available within the NetScaler for monitoring the
RD Connection Broker component. The NetScaler has a specific RDP script available, but that
is only functioning for machines that are hosting the RD Session Host.

Figure 19: RDP monitoring available within the NetScaler, but cannot be used for the RD
Connection Broker
So we can skip the monitor part for this component and directly start creating the services
for the RD Connection Broker role. Go to Traffic Management Load Balancing Services
within Configuration followed by the Add button.

Figure 20: Load Balancing - Services

Provide a logical name for the service. Im using the convention
RDCBSRV_<<SERVERNAME>>, but you can fill in whatever you need. As we already added
the servers earlier we now can choose the existing server option and select the
corresponding server. Next select RDP as the protocol with port 3389.

Figure 21: Add Load Balancing Service

When the service is created we normally add a specific monitor, but as just mentioned there
is no monitor available. The only option available is using the default tcp-default monitor,
which checks that port 3389 is responding. Repeat this step for the other servers hosting the
RD Connection Broker role.

Figure 22: No specific monitor needs to be added

After pressing the Done button the service is fully created and is available for the next step creating the virtual server.

Figure 23: Services created

Creating the Virtual Server is done via Traffic Management Load Balancing Virtual Servers
again within the Configuration tab.

Figure 24: Creating Virtual Servers

Creating the Virtual Server starts with providing a name for the virtual server. This name is
just for administrative purposes, so fill in a logical name. Secondly the protocol needs to be
set to RDP and use IP address as IP Address type. Fill in the IP address the virtual server will
be accessed to. At last check if the port number is port 3389.

Figure 25: Create Load Balancing Virtual Server

After the basic settings we need to assign the corresponding services to the virtual server.
Choose the > symbol at No Load Balancing Virtual Service Binding.

Figure 26: Basic Settings Virtual Server, add services

The Service Binding window will open. Select the > symbol to select the services.

Figure 27: Select Service

Select the services that are hosting the role.

Figure 28: Select the services

The services are now selected and available to bind to the virtual server.

Figure 29: Services to bind to the virtual server

After adding the services, we need to use the OK button to continue with the next step.

Figure 30: Service binded, press OK for the next step

After pressing OK the Traffic Settings appear, just accept the default values by pressing
Done.

Figure 31: Traffic Settings are set

After some time the Virtual Server will be changed to green and is load balancing service
available.

Figure 32: Virtual Server is up and running

To make sure that settings are retained when a NetScaler is reboot, dont forget to save your
configuration using the floppy disk icon.

Figure 33: Saving the configuration

The last step is to create a DNS record so the service can be reached on a FQDN. Choose a
logical name and assign it to the IP address of the Virtual Server. Remember that this FQDN
needs to be configured within the RD Connection Broker configuration, so use the same
name you are already using (that will probably change the DNS records) or write down the
FQDN and use this in the RDCB wizard.

Figure 34: Creating a DNS record

Remote Desktop Gateway

The last component that should be load balanced is the RD Gateway component. However
for this component all communication will flow via the load balancer. While the NetScaler
VPX Express is limited to 10 Mbit its not a good idea to use the free version of the NetScaler
VPX Express for this functionality as you will run out of the bandwidth restrictions pretty
quickly. However if you upgrade to official versions you can use the NetScaler to load
balance the RD Gateway. For this article this component is not suitable, so I won't go into
details about this set-up.

Summary
In the first part I described the step to install and configure a Citrix NetScaler VPX Express,
a high available and fault tolerant infrastructure. In the second part we described how to use
the NetScaler infrastructure to load balance Citrix StoreFront/Web Interface and the Citrix
Delivery Controller components. In this third and last article we built a load balance
environment for Remote Desktop Web Access and Remote Desktop Connection Broker. The
NetScaler VPX series offers lots of possibilities, where I showed some examples of
configuration that can be arranged with the free VPX express edition.