This article documents the steps I go through when updating a vDisk with new software,

configuration changes, etc. The environment being referenced is using a distributed store. This
means that there are multiple Provisioning Servers and each has a local copy of the vDisks. Once
the image is created or updated, the vDisk must be copied to the other Provisioning Servers.
Step 20 shows a warning about completing certain steps before proceeding. It is critical that
these steps are complete before moving to step 21. I have seen issues where keeping a vDisk in
Private mode, then copying, then setting it to Private mode does not set that flag properly on the
servers where the vDisk was copied too. It becomes very interesting where one server thinks it’s
a Private mode image and the other server thinks it’s a Standard mode image.
In Explorer
1) Copy current vDisk (.vhd and .pvp) files. Do not copy .lok file.
2) Rename files
In Provisioning Services Console
3) Right click on vDisk Pool, select Add Existing vDisk
4) Click Search and uncheck Enable Load balancing on these vDisks
5) Click Add
6) Double click on new vDisk, click on Edit File Properties, click on Mode tab and put vDisk in
private image mode.
7) Go to the proper device collection, double click on target device, click on vDisk and attach new
vDisk to target device
On Target Device
8) Boot the target device
9) Log on at the console as Administrator
10) Make changes
11) (Optional) Run PVS Optimizer (Optional if changing an image, a must if you are creating a
brand new image).
12) Stop, delete and reinstall XenAppPrep (assuming XenAppPrep is being used). - I use the lines
below and created a batch file to run for ease of use. Please see Jarian Gibson’s article here for
more information on XenAppPrep and ways to control it.
a. c:
b. cd program files\citrix\xenappprep
c. net stop xenappprep
d. sc delete xenappprep
e. xenappprep /pvs
f. pause
13) Clear Event Logs – I always clear the event logs when updating an image. You should seriously
consider redirecting event logs to a static drive as well.
14) Shutdown server
In Provisioning Services Console
15) On the Provisioning Server, double click vDisk and click Edit File Properties
16) Go to Identification Tab and increment version of vDisk – This is only necessary if you are
using Automatic updates.
17) Go to Mode tab and put Access Mode to Standard Image mode
18) Change Cache Type to Cache on device’s HD or whatever caching mode you are using.
19) Hit OK
20) IT IS CRITICAL THAT STEPS 15 – 19 HAPPEN BEFORE STEP 21 BEGINS
In Explorer
21) Copy vDisk (pvp and vhd files) to other Provisioning Server
22) On the vDisk Properties page change the Load Balancing to Use the load balancing algorithm
23) Right click on vDisk Pool and Check for updates/automatic
24) Reboot servers and they should come up with the new rev of disk automatically – Assuming of
course you have automatic updates configured correctly and the vDisk and target device setup
correctly.