Virtualization - Cloud

Category: Xen Desktop

Step by Step to install Linux Virtual Delivery Agent Installation for RHEL

Unfortunately, citrix has not provided detailed step by step procedure to install VDA on Linux distributions. There are so many articles published to install VDA on windows machines whereas not for Linux distributions.

In one of my recent project, I spent lot of time to install VDA on Red Hat Enterprise Linux due to lack of detailed documentation hence I am publishing below step by step procedure to install VDA on Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

This articles covers below components installation & configuration

• RHEL 8.2 Linux Workstation VM Installation on Nutanix AHV
• XenDesktop VDA 2203 Agent Installation & configuration
• NVIDIA Graphics Drivers Installation
• NVDIA vGPU licensing

The Linux Virtual Delivery Agent (VDA) enables access to the Linux virtual apps and desktops anywhere from any device where Citrix Workspace app is installed. Install the VDA software on your Linux virtual machines, configure the Delivery Controller, and then use Citrix Studio to make the apps and desktops available to users.

Supported Linux distributions
System requirements | Linux Virtual Delivery Agent 2203 LTSR (citrix.com)

RHEL 8.2 Linux Workstation VM Installation

Mount the RHEL 8.2 ISO and boot the VM with ISO

Select “Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2”

In above options, modify each installation setting based on requirement

As my requirement is Linux “Workstation”, I chosen “Base Environment” , choose options based on your requirement

For VDA, choosing GNOME Applications & GRAPHICS Administration tools is sufficient. Choose based on your requirement

Select Automatic unless you have a specific requirements of partitions

Enable Network to get IP from DHCP and Provide Hostname correctly at this page

Post Selection of all options, you will see below output

Reboot VM post installation

Note:

My Citrix VDI setup do not have proxy connectivity hence to install packages and dependencies, I need to mount YUM repository from locally mounted ISO which avoids internet connectivity for any RPM installations. Ignore YUM repository steps if VM able to connect internet

Steps to mount YUM repository locally

Mount the RHEL installation ISO to a directory like /mnt/disc, e.g.:
mkdir -p /mnt/disc
mount /dev/sr0 /mnt/disc

Create below directories to copy repositories

mkdir /home/BaseOS
mkdir /home/AppStream

Copy the media.repo file from the root of the mounted directory

cp -ivr /mnt/disc/BaseOS/* /home/BaseOS/

cp -ivr /mnt/disc/AppStream/* /home/AppStream/

Unmount /mnt/disc -> do after copying files

Delete files if any found under directory /etc/yum.repos.d/ and create the file vi /etc/yum.repos.d/local.repo

Note: you should have only local.repo file under /etc/yum.repos.d/
Copy and Paste the below text in local.repo

[BaseOS]
name = BaseOS
enabled = 1
gpgcheck = 0
baseurl = file:///home/BaseOS/
gpgkey = file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-redhat-release
[AppStream]
name = AppStream
enabled = 1
gpgcheck = 0
baseurl = file:///home/AppStream/
gpgkey = file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-redhat-release

Save the changes by typing wq!


Clear the cache and check whether you can get the packages list from the DVD repo with below commands

yum clean all
yum repolist enabled

You should get below output

To disable Red Hat Subscription Management warning , edit below file and change enabled value to 0
vi /etc/yum/pluginconf.d/subscription-manager.conf

Install & Configure Linux Virtual Delivery Agent

Prerequisite for VDA: Dotnet runtime is required for VDA installation

URL:
https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet/thank-you/runtime-aspnetcore-6.0.3-linux-x64-binaries

Upload aspnetcore-runtime file to /root directory and execute below command to extract dotnet runtime
cd /root
mkdir dotnet
chmod 777 dotnet ( Note : command to change directory permissions)

Extract runtime to /root/dotnet with below comand


tar -xf aspnetcore-runtime-6.0.3-linux-x64.tar.gz -C /root/dotnet

Download “XenDesktopVDA-22.03.0.18-1.el8_x.x86_64” and upload XenDesktop VDA file to /tmp directory
Note: The version used is Linux Virtual Delivery Agent 2203 an DDC version is 2112

Run below command to install VDA


sudo yum -y localinstall XenDesktopVDA-22.03.0.18-1.el8_x.x86_64.rpm

Post installation of VDA, configure the VDA with below command

/opt/Citrix/VDA/sbin/ctxinstall.sh

Input below values during configuration
• Host name of the machine on which the Linux VDA is to be installed
• IP address of DNA
• IP address of NTP Server
• Domain name – The NetBIOS name of the domain
• Realm name – The Kerberos realm name (Note: Name should be in CAPITAL LETTERS)
• Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) of the domain controller

While configuring VDA, it prompts for dotnet core runtime path, set the dotnet Core Runtime path as “/root/dotnet”

Note

• As my requirement is for graphics (GPU), here I selected “Y” HDX 3D pro. Select “N” if VDI do not require Graphics
• Linux multisession does not support “HDX 3D PRO” select “NO” if requirement is for multi session and no graphics card required.
• If HDX3D pro enabled then mandatorily NIVIDIA graphics drivers are to be installed else, while launching VDA grey screen appears because Linux by default search for graphics drivers

Cross verify the below Inputs before proceed further

Post VDA Installation and configuration. Need to check the below 2 services status
systemctl status ctxvda
systemctl status ctxhdx

NVIDIA Graphics Drivers installation & vGPU license assignment

Follow below steps, if VDI has requirement to enable Graphics else ignore the steps

Prerequisite for NVIDIA Guest drivers installation: Assign GPU or vGPU to VM

Upload the NVIDIA drivers (highlighted) to /root folder

Note: Upload 2 NVIDIA guest drivers(highlighted above) into /root folder

Install the below dependencies one by one before install of NVIDIA drivers
yum install elfutils-libelf-devel libglvnd-devel
yum install gcc
yum install gcc kernel-devel
yum install gcc kernel-headers

Once successfully installed. Install NVIDIA Package with below command

bash ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-450.102.04-grid.run

Note: Without NVIDIA license server assignment, VDI functionality will be minimum hence map NVIDIA license server for complete functionality.

vGPU License Server Assignment on Linux

run below command to check license status

nvidia-smi –q

Ouptut before License server assignment

To provide NVIDIA License Server on Linux workstation, edit the file gridd.conf with below steps


cd /etc/nvidia/

Create new file “gridd.conf ” by using “gridd.conf.template” file
cp gridd.conf.template gridd.conf

Edit the /etc/nvidia/gridd.conf by vi editor with below highlighted values

ServerAddress=IP Address
ServerPort=7070
FeatureType=0
EnableUI=TRUE ( uncomment by removing #)

Stop & start nvidia service for license reflection

sudo nvidia-gridd stop
sudo nvidia-gridd start

Run command nvidia-smi –q to check license status and verify logs /var/logs/messages
If license not applied then restart VM.

Post License server assignment, you should get below output

Note: My use case is to create Machine Catalog with Unmanaged hence I created catalog and assigned VM’s directly to catalog. If your use case is to create Master Image and rollout VDI with MCS, follow below Citrix KB.

URL:https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/linux-virtual-delivery-agent/current-release/installation-overview/use-mcs-to-create-linux-vms.html

KB References

Quick installation by using easy install
XD Collect Traces
Streaming Linux target devices

XenApp/XenDesktop/Netscaler Gateway Communication Workflow

SSL Connection

This is the first step when user type the NetScaler Gateway vServer’s address into browser. We need to focus on the SSL handshake between client and server if any issue happens.

User-added image


Authentication

Commonly, customer uses LDAP domain authentication. In this article, I will use dual factor authentication as an example (LDAP+Radius).

User-added image

Get the App/Desktop List.

User-added image

 Get the ica file.

User-added image

ClienLaunch App/Desktop

User-added image

Ref: https://support.citrix.com/article/CTX227054

PVS Streaming Service Abrupt Termination – Cache Change Mode Procedure for production vdisk

Issue:

PVS stream service abrupt termination  intermittently (approx. once in month) which causing user sessions freeze and user unable to launch HSD’s.

Environment :

2 Citrix PVS Servers (VM’s) with version 7.6
2000-3000 concurrent  Users
86 HSD’s & 6 Golden Images
Microsoft Hypervisor 2012R2 ( 15 Node) – CICSO UCS

Observations:

  • Issue occurring once or twice in a month and there is no common pattern in days or hours,issue recurring in both PVS servers at a time
  • No changes in environment
  • Onsite engineer informed that issue existed since 3 months and issue getting resolved post restart of PVS servers.
  • One day,  same issue repeated but issue not sorted out post restarting of PVS servers -> Issue escalated to support team (Me)
  • Observed  Event Id 11 :”Detected one or more hung threads , DbAccess error: <Record was not found> <-31754> (in ServerStatusSetDeviceCount() called from SSProtocolLogin.cpp:2903” -> Indicates “Thread hangs under the stream service” & DB Access errors
  • Observed multiple vDisk retries on the problematic target devices. 11 at boot time and approximately 611 per hour during session
  • Observed recommended MacAfee exclusions are not in place -> Stopped MacAfee service and restarted PVS server -> PVS Streaming service stable for some time on one PVS server  and again terminated ->Due to time constraint, logged a call with vendor(Citrix).
  • After 2 hrs, Citrix support joined the call and started collecting CDF races and procdump collection for the terminating stream service
  • After few hours , issue resolved automatically and Citrix support unable to find root cause with collected logs
  • In 2 months , issue repeated 2 times and customer frustrated as root cause was not found for abrupt streaming service termination intermittently.
  • Support Team (Myself) analyzed the environment and observed the Cache mode is configured as “ Cache on Server”  which is not recommended for Production environment , Best practice to use “Cache on RAM overflow to HDD”  which is a best practice to reduce load on PVS server & optimal performance ->Taken the same observation Citrix support and requested their observations

Explained to customer that missing of best practices will lead to these type of intermittent issues , since  there is no root cause found  and it is not a best practice to keep cache on server in production environment , prepared a plan to change cache configuration to” Cache on RAM overflow to HDD”.

Current PVS Storage configuration for cache as below

PVS1 (VM)->1700 GB allocated  through Virtual HBA ( Total golden Image Sizes is 440 Gb & Remaining for Write Cache)

PVS2 (VM) -> 1700 GB allocated through Virtual HBA ( Total golden Image Sizes is 440 Gb & Remaining for Write Cache)

Proposed Storage change Configuration as below:

Post referring multiple blogs, Write Cache proposed to all images(profiles) is 20 GB -> Therefore , for 86 HSD, 1820 GB required and it should present to complete Hyper-v cluster as HSD hosted on cluster.

XenDesktop Controller Hotfix Update Procedure

Implementation Plan

  • Take a Full backup of Citrix Databases on server locally and tapes.
  • Take a snapshot of DDC01 (Controller 1)
  • Download and Install Hotfix update 1(CTX135207) on DDC01(Controller 1)
  • Reboot DDC01
  • Test VDI by stopping the services in DDC02 so that session will be established to DDC01.
  • Take a snapshot of DDC02 (Controller 2)
  • Install Hotfix update 1 on DDC02(Controller 2) – Similar procedure of DDC01
  • Reboot DDC02
  • Test VDI by stopping the services in DDC01 so that session will be established to DDC02
  • Observe for 1 week and remove snapshots.

Roll Back

  • Uninstall the component from ARP/Programs and Features.
  • Restore the data store as described in Knowledge Center article CTX135207.
  • Install the desired level of the component (base or other hotfix).
  • Restart the Controller even if not prompted to do so

OR

Revert the snapshot which was taken before installation

Find the document with screenshot in attachment

Document – Xen Desktop7.5 Hotfix Update Installation Procedure

Additional Information

Hotfix Name Changes for XenApp/XenDesktop 7.5

Information

This article explains the changes for Citrix hotfix naming conventions in XenDesktop 7.1/7.5 with the introduction of XenApp 7.5.

 

Hotfix Name Changes

 

With the reintroduction of XenApp in version 7.5, the same underlying components are used for XenApp and XenDesktop. As a result, the ‘XA’ and ‘XD’ designation will not appear in the hotfix name. Instead, the component name is prepended to the hotfix name.

 

Example 1

A hotfix previously named XD750DStudioWX86001 will now be DStudio750WX86001.

 

Hotfix Version Number Association

The following components did not change between version 7.1 and 7.5. From now on, updates to these components will only contain the 7.5 association in the name. The hotfixes will be available and compatible with both the 7.1 and 7.5 component versions.

  • Broker Agent
  • Desktop OS VDA
  • Director VDA Plugin
  • Enhanced Desktop Experience
  • Personalization AppV – Studio
  • Personalization AppV – VDA
  • Server OS VDA
  • StoreFront Privilege Service
  • Universal Print Client
  • Universal Print Server
  • WMI Proxy Plugin

 

Example 2

A hotfix previously named XD710ICAWSWX86006 will now be ICAWS750WX86006.

 

VDA Core Services Hotfixes and Machine Type Association

For the VDA core services hotfixes, the OS type is designated in the hotfix name. ‘TS’ for Terminal Server, the hotfix would apply to a Windows Server operating system. ‘WS’ for workstation, the hotfix would apply to a desktop Windows operating system. There is no correlation between the hotfix numbering for the Server OS (TS) and Desktop OS (WS) hotfixes. The ICATS hotfix ending in 007 might not have the same fixed issues as the ICAWS hotfix ending in 007.

 

Example 3

A hotfix named ICAWS750WX86007 is a VDA core services hotfix for a Windows 7, 8, or 8.1 operating system (32-bit).

A hotfix named ICATS750WX64007 is a VDA core services hotfix for a Windows Server 2008R2 , 2012, or 2012R2 operating system (64-bit).

 

Note: The previously released version 7.1 hotfixes will not be rebuilt with the new version identification, but the hotfix readme documents will reflect their support for versions 7.1 and 7.5.

 

Ref: http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX200156

Error: You cannot access this session because no licenses are available -Xen Desktop

Symptoms or Error

  • A XenDesktop session fails to start, with the following error: “You cannot access this session because no licenses are available.” Event ID: 9027, Event ID: 1163
  • Event Source: Citrix ICA Service
  • Error 0 received while obtaining a license for a Citrix XenApp client connection.
  • The license request has been rejected.
    • Note: The license error “flex code -18” shown in the DDC log stands for “License server system does not support this feature”.
  • The Broker log might contain the following errors:
    • Controller:EventLogManager decided to log event CDS_EVENT_LICENSE_NONE_CHECKED_OUT of type Warning with arguments:
      • This is based on event log groups LicensingCheckout
    • Licensing:MFLic_GetLicense result Success, request result Rejected
    • Licensing:License request rejected, flex code -18

Solution

Resolution 1 – Event ID: 9027

Check the configuration of the site: XenDesktop License edition and model using PowerShell command “Get-BrokerSite”  which shows license configuration for the site.

For Virtual Machine hosted applications

  • AppLicenseEdition
  • ApplicationLicenseModel

For XenDesktop sessions

  • DesktopLicenseEdition
  • DesktopLicenseModel

 

Compare the configuration with the licenses used in the environment from license server.  Check the licenses in the license server.  Change the site configuration using the Set-BrokerSite PowerShell command.

Examples

To configure the site to use the Platinum edition, use the following command:

  • Set-BrokerSite -DesktopLicenseEdition PLT

To set up Virtual Machine hosted applications to use Platinum edition:

  • Set-BrokerSite -AppLicenseEdition PLT

 Resolution 2:

  1. Download and install the most recent version of the licensing server.
  2. On the DDC, restart the Citrix services: (This can be done on a live system and will not affect the users)
    • Citrix AD Identity Service
    • Citrix Broker Service
    • Citrix Configuration Service
    • Citrix Diagnostic Facility COM Service
    • Citrix Host Service
    • Citrix Machine Creation Service
    • Citrix Machine Identity Service
  3. On the License Server, restart Citrix services.
    • Citrix Licensing
    • Citrix Licensing Config Service
    • Citrix Licensing Support Service
  4. Access Desktop Studio > Configuration > Licensing > Change Licensing Server > Verify.
  5. If the issue persists, restart all the DDCs in the farm one by one.

Resolution 3 – Event ID: 1163

In this case, upgrade the database as prompted by XenDesktop Studio.

Restart the Desktop Studio Server, error should no longer appear.

Resolution 4

  1. Confirm all licenses are visible in License admin console.
  2. Verify end date of subscription advantage of licenses are relevant to version of product.
  3. Confirm start up server is showing in License admin console and hosts are communicating.
  4. Import startup.lic or reinstall license admin console, which should create a new startup.lic.
    1. Issue occurs mainly due to either corrupt startup.lic or no startup.lic under C:\Program Files\Citrix\Licensing\MyFiles
  5. Restart Citrix licensing service.
  6. Relaunch application, error should no longer appear.
 Problem Cause
  • Event ID: 9027 Licensing is not set up properly in XenDesktop Site; licenses are not checked out on the license server when the user tries to start a new XenDesktop session.
  • License Model: Could be User/Device or Concurrent License Edition: Could be Platinum (PLT), Enterprise (ENT) or Advanced (ADV).
  • Event ID: 1163 XenDesktop Upgrade did not complete successfully and the following error was observed in the XenDesktop Studio: “A database upgrade is available. Learn more about this upgrade”
  • Startup license file is missing from the My Files folder.
  • corrupt startup.lic or no startup.lic under C:\Program Files\Citrix\Licensing\MyFiles

 Additional Resources

http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX136266

Find master image used by machine catalog

To load Citrix snappins ,  you need to add the Citrix powershell snapins. To do so, type : Add-PSSnapin citrix*  or asnp citrix*

Get-ProvScheme is the powershell command provides the details of provisioning scheme & Master Image

Note: The above details can also be fetched by logging to SQL configuration database(Table: DesktopUpdateManagerSchema.ProvisioningScheme))

Syntax:
MasterImageVM : XDHyp:\HostingUnits\<Hosting Resource Connection Name>\<Master Image Name>.vm\Citrix_XD_<Catalogue Name>.snapshot

ProvScheme

Note:
  • Above POST created based on personal experience & knowledge for personal reuse.
  • In case, if you wish you to use the above article, use the above steps upon proper testing and reader will be responsible for any outcome.

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