How to remove a dead server from the Citrix Management Console?

- Execute the DSVERIFY SERVERS /CLEAN /FORCE for optimizing the Data Store.

- DSVerify can run on any of the server in the farm.

- MetaFrame feature release 3 has a command line tool known as DSCHECK.

- Use the following command using DSVerify command line tool:

--- DSCHECK / CHECK

- Or right click on the ‘server in the farm’ and click ‘Remove Server from Farm’.

- Use this option when the servers no longer operational.

When creating a desktop group in the Management Console, the virtual desktops appear as Not Registered.

To resolve the issue, grant the logon right, Access this computer from the network to the Delivery Controller machine account(s). 

This can be modified directly on the VDA (recommended for testing):

1.To edit the policy directly on the VDA, use Local Computer Policy editor (MMC, then add the Snap-In Local Computer Policy.)

2.The policy is located in Computer Configuration -->Windows Settings -->Security Settings -->Local Policies -->User Rights Assignment

3.Locate "Access this computer from the network"

4.Click 'Add User or Group'.   Change the Object Types to include "Computers".

5.Type the names of the Delivery Controller(s).  Click 'Check Names'.  Click OK to save the change.  There will be several warnings.

Once this is determined to resolve the OU-based registration issue, policy can be applied to all the VDA's by completing one of the following tasks:

Apply a group policy from the domain controller either to the domain as a whole or to an Organizational Unit containing the Virtual Desktops for the XenDesktop farm

How to Change XML Service Port When Not Using Default SSL Port

We can change the XML service port by follwing the below steps when not using default ssl port:

1. Click Start > Run.

2. Type command prompt or cmd in the text field and choose Command Prompt or cmd that appears in the Programs listing.

3.Type cd \.

4.Type cd Program Files\Citrix\Broker\Service and press Enter.

5.Type BrokerService.exe /show and press Enter to show the current ports.

6.To change the XML port, type BrokerService.exe -wiport port and press Enter. The Citrix Broker Service will then automatically stop and start to apply the change.

7.To confirm this, run BrokerService.exe –upgrade command to validate the web server port value.

XenApp Questions Level-1 & 2

Question 1. What Is Citrix Xml Service?

The Citrix XML Service is used by clients connecting over the TCP/IP+HTTP protocol and the Web Interface for MetaFrame Presentation Server.
The Citrix XML Service Port is used by the ICA Client for connection to the Citrix server / published application: When TCP/IP + HTTP is selected and you specify servers in the Address List box, the client communicates with the Citrix XML Service on a specified server for Enumeration.

Question 2. How To Change The Port Number?

CTXXMLSS.EXE to change the port number.


Question 3. What Is The Main Concept Of Citrix?

Main concept of Citrix is to deploy remote application to users.


Question 4. What Are Different Xenapp Editions?

Advanced, enterprise, platinum.


Question 5. Name Few Functions Of Each Edition?

Advanced edition: Basic edition, positioning applications, getting those application out to users.
Planitum Edition: Adds password manager, edge site for monitoring Citrix server, password manager provides SSL for single sign, provides access gateway, replacing secured gateway (Access gateway being a hardware device, and secured gateway being a software device).
Enterprise : Adds some more functionality to XenApp.

Question 6. What Is A Citrix Xenapp Farm?

It is a group of XenApp servers, they can be combination of web interface servers, where the website will allow the users to connect into the XenApp license servers and XenApp servers itself. Farm has a single data store.

Question 7. What Is A Citrix Xenapp Data Collector?

Stores dynamic information, for each of the Zones in a farm we will have a data collector. Ex: how many users are on a server, what the users are doing, what applications are being run.

Question 8. What Is A Citrix Xenapp Data Store?

It stores static information, farm has a single data store, data store is connected by some data connection, like SQL or Oracle.

Note: With the use of both, data collector and data store, we can manage a farm.

Question 9. What Is The Function Of Local Host Cache In Citrix?

It is local host cache, available on each server. Its like a mini data base, for example if a XENAPP server losses its connectivity to data store then it will use the information it has in its local host cache.

Question 10. Name Few Citrix Xenapp Clients?

Program neighborhood agent
Xenapp web plugin
java client's
Xenapp plugin for hosted app
XenApp plugin for stream app


Question 11. Prerequisites For Installing Xenapp 6.5?

Terminal service role
Application server role
Iis role
A database
Jre 1.6.0-05
.net frame work 3.5
Visual j# .net 2.0
net
Visual C++ 2005 8.0 sp1.

Question 12. What Is The Function Of Citrix Xenapp Hosted Apps?

Hosted app is an application that is hosted in Citrix XenApp servers and is accessed by clients remotely.

Question 13. What Is The Function Of Streamed Apps?

Streamed apps comes with platinum edition and here the vdisk is provisioned by a provisioning server to target devices

Question 14. What Is The Use Of Appcompat?

You can easily move an application with this AppCompat toolkit. Move application to XenApp, search and anaylize, virtualize and validate.

Question 15. Name Few Best Citrix Services?

Citrix client network: which maps client drives and peripherals
Citrix CPU utilization, GMT/resource mgmet
Citrix encryption service
Citrix health monitoring and recovery
Citrix IMA
Citrix licenses management console
Citrix license
Citrix ls port updater service
Print manger
Secure gateway
Streaming service
Virtual memory optimization
Wm service

Question 16. Architecture Of Ica Protocol?

ICA: Citrix actually replaced the terminal servers RDP with its own protocol called ICA.

ICA protocol is called thin protocol as it can run with very low bandwidth connections, ICA protocol is not transferring the real data back and forth, its just updating screen updates and mouse clicks from server to client and client to server. With ICA protocol, users can print to their local printers.

Question 17. Name Few Citrix Xenapp Port Numbers?

ICA : 1494
ICA with session reliability: 2598
IMA communication: 2512
XenApp advanced console: 2513
TCP browsing: 1604
Xml service port shared with IIS: 80
Ssl communication: 443
Licenses management console: 8082
Licenses port: 27000

Question 18. What Is Windows Print Server?

A print server, or printer server, is a device that connects printers to client computers over a network. It accepts print jobs from the computers and sends the jobs to the appropriate printers.

Question 19. How Does A Window Print Server Work?

Normally, a server operating system is installed on the print server computer and then the office’s various printers can be added to the system with the appropriate drivers. The new printers are then set up to be shared from the print server, so that employees can access them from their individual workstations.

Question 20. What Is Print Spooling?

In print spooling, documents are loaded into a buffer (usually an area on a disk), and then the printer pulls them off the buffer at its own rate. Because the documents are in a buffer where they can be accessed by the printer, you can perform other operations on the computer while the printing takes place in the background. Spooling also lets you place a number of print jobs on a queue instead of waiting for each one to finish before specifying the next one.

Question 21. What Is Windows Universal Print Driver?

(Universal Printer Driver or Unidriver) is a GDI-based Microsoft Windows universal printer driver and architecture for non-PostScript printers. It is used to simplify driver development of non-PostScript printers (also called Winprinters) for printer manufacturers. Unidrv allows the creation of a printer-specific minidriver in the form of a GPD (Generic Printer Description) file, similar to a PPD file, which is much simpler than kernel mode driver development.

Question 22. What Is A Xps And Emf Print Drivers?

Universal XPS Printer driver:-

This driver is based on the Windows XML Paper Specification (XPS) printing technology introduced in Windows Server 2008. Windows XPS printing technology uses XML to create a platform-independent “electronic paper” similar to Adobe’s PDF format. The XPS format is a device-independent XML-based spool file format that provides a compressed XML description of a page’s graphic elements. Printing devices can use XPS-formatted print jobs directly without translation.

The Citrix Universal XPS Printer driver creates the XPS print job using the Microsoft XPS printer driver on the client device. The Citrix Universal XPS Printer driver obtains printing device-specific information from the client device. Provided your farm servers are running XenApp 5.0 and your client devices have .NET 3.0 installed on them, which comes with Windows

Vista, you can use the Citrix Universal XPS Printer driver.

Citrix Universal Printer driver:-

This driver uses Windows’ Enhanced Metafile Format (EMF) technology.EMF is a device-independent format for capturing the graphical elements printed on each page of a print job. A client-side renderer uses EMF and provides a substantial reduction in the processing time of Citrix Universal print jobs on the client.

Question 23. Rdp V/s Xenapp?

Main difference – RDP: transfer complete frame and bandwidth depends on screen resolution,

ICA: create virtual channels(video,audio,print,keyboard& mouse updates) and transfers only screen updates and bandwidth will less as keyboard and mouse click will be 10-15% of frame

RDP works only under TCP/IP, while ICA works on many protocols.
RDP doesn’t permit applications to run in a browser, while works for ICA
Session Reliability will be there in ICA,it is not in the RDP
Encryption is possible in ICA,it is not present in RDP
ICA also supports non windows like DOS, UNIX, MACOS, mobiles

Question 24. What Is The Difference B/w Data Store And Dc?

Datastore – Is the database which contain the static information related Xenapp farm which includes – published applications, users, printers, and servers, citrix GPO.

Datacollector – maintains dynamic information about the servers in the zone, such as server loads, session status, published applications, users connected, and license usage. Data collectors receive incremental data updates and queries from servers within the zone. Data collectors relay information to all other data collectors in the farm. By default, the data collector is configured on the first server when you create the farm, and all other servers configured with the controller server mode have equal rights to become the data collector if the data collector fails. When the zone’s data collector fails, a data collector election occurs and another server takes over the data collector functionality. Farms determine the data collector based on the election preferences set for a server. Applications are typically not published on the data collector.

Question 25. What Is Xml Broker?

It functions as an intermediary between the farm and Web Interface.
XML Broker receives the credentials of user from the Web Interface.
XML Broker retrieves the applications which have user permissions to access.
This is done by Independent Management Architecture and returns to the Web Interface.
Once the user is authenticated, the XML broker locates the server in the farm.
XML Broker returns the address of the service rendering server to the Web Interface.
XMS Service functions between Web Interface and IMA service.

Question 26. What Is Citrix Xenapp Farm?

XenApp server farm is a logical collection or group of XenApp servers that can be managed as a single entity and they talk to single datastore server.

Question 27. What Is Zone?

A zone is a grouping of XenApp servers that communicate with a common data collector. In large farms with multiple zones, each zone has a server designated as its data collector. Data collectors in farms with more than one zone function as communication gateways with the other zone data collectors. The data collector maintains all load and session information for the servers in its zone. All farms have at least one zone, even small ones. The fewest number of zones should be implemented, with one being optimal. Multiple zones are necessary only in large farms that span WANs.

Question 28. What Are The Different Ports And Their Numbers?

ICA port – 1494.

XML port – 80 & 443.

Session reliability – 2598/2599.

License – 27000.

Vendor daemon – 7279.

License management console – 8082.

Database port – 1433.

IMA – 2512 & 2513

Question 29. What Is Application Enumeration Process?

The application listing and displaying process is as follows:

A user launches the Web Interface URL, it returns the logon page.
Users types their credentials, it is forwarded from XML then to IMA service in HTTP (or HTTPS) form.
The IMA then forwards thecredential data to local Lsass.exe (lsass.exe” is the Local Security Authentication Server. It verifies the validity of user logons to your PC or server).
The Lsass.exe encrypts the credentials then passes them to the domain controller.
The DC returns the SIDs (user’s SID and the list of group SIDs) to Lsass.exe and to IMA.
IMA used the SIDs to search the Local Host Cache (LHC) for a list of applications and the Worker Group Preference policy for that authenticated user.
The list of the applications together with the user’s worker group preference policy are returned to the Web Interface.
The Web Interface returns the web page to the web browser with the list of applications
Web Interface passes the application information together with the user’s Worker Group Preference policy back to IMA on the XML broker server.
It then forwards to the IMA service on the Zone Data Collector.
The Zone Data Collector tries to find out a least loaded server according to the Worker Group preference list.
When it finds the least loaded server, it sends a query to the Citrix Service Manager of that server to verify whether the server has the required application installed, if the answer is yes, it then provides this server’s host ID to the XML broker.
The XML broker translates this host ID into it’s IP address by searching the LHC
The IP address is then provided to Web Interface and it creates the ICA file.
The ICA file is then returned to Web browser on the client machine.
Citrix online Web plug-in uses the ICA file to launch an ICA connection to the least loaded XenApp server.
The XenApp server launches the application for the user.

Question 30. What If Datastore Goes Down?

Data store Server goes down (And you have a backup from the Data store available, If you don’t you would have to recreate all the farm settings) dsmaint backup takes a backup of the data store.
Run a dsmaint migrate to migrate the settings to a new data store. Even if a Data store is unavailable the LHC contains enough information about the farm to allow normal operations for an indefinite period of time. However, no new information can be published, or added to the farm, until the farm data store is online. If you need to start from scratch with a new data store, prepare a new data store the way you did before configuring XenApp and run the Server Configuration Tool from any farm server. After running the Server Configuration Tool, manually reenter the lost settings. If you use the same name as he previous data store, you do not need to reconfigure the farm servers.

Question 31. What If License Server Goes Down?

The Citrix servers can function without contacting the license server and it is 30-days fault tolerant, and in Enterprise version an alert can be set with Resource Manager to send an email in case of License Server Connection Failure. If the license server reconnects at any time in the thirty days the problem resolves itself. If the server is not going to come back up, then the license file, digitally signed with the case-sensitive hostname of the old license server, is the critical component. The license file, a *.lic file, can be backed up to a thumb drive separately, and restored to a new server with the same name of the old license server, and the Citrix License server software installed.

Question 32. What If Data Collector Goes Down?

Data collector server goes down.
The servers in the zone recognize that the data collector has gone down and start the election process. In this example the back up data collector is elected as the new data collector for the zone.
The member servers in the zone then send all of their information to the new data collector for the zone. This is a function of the number each server has of sessions, disconnected session, and applications.
In turn, the new data collector replicates this information to all other data collectors in the farm. Even if a Data collector is unavailable the servers will continue to function. The users that are already logged in will not be affected.

Question 33. What Happens In Zdc Election Process?

Incase ZDC is not be available, another server in the zone can take over that role. The process of taking the role is called ZDC election. Server Administrators should choose the Zone Data Collector strategy carefully during the farm design itself. When an election needs to occur in a zone, the winner of the election is determined by

Highest version of Presentation Server first
Highest rank (as configured in the Management Console)
Highest Host ID number (Every server has a unique ID called Host ID).
When the existing data collector for Zone failed unexpectedly or the communication between a member server and the Zone Data Collector for its zone failed or the communication between data collectors failed, then the election process begins in the Zone. If the server is shutdown properly, it triggers the election process before it goes down. The servers in the zone recognize the data collector has gone down and starts the election process. Then the ZDC is elected and the member servers send all of their information to the new ZDC for the zone. In turn the new data collector replicates this information to all other data collectors in the farm.

Note: The data collector election process is not dependent on the data store. If the data collector goes down, sessions connected to other servers in the farm are unaffected .The data collector election process is triggered automatically without administrative interference. Existing as well as incoming users are not affected by the election process, as a new data collector is elected almost instantaneously.

C: QueryHR.exe

—— Showing Hosts for “10.22.44.0” ——

Host 1:

—————————–

Zone Name: 10.22.44.0

Host Name: TEDDYCTX02

Admin Port: 2513

IMA Port: 2512

Host ID: 4022

Master Ranking: 1

Master Version: 1

———————————

—— Show Host Records Completed ——-

To see the Host ID number and its version, run queryhr.exe utility (with no parameters).

Each server in the zone has a rank assigned to it. The administrator can configure such that the servers in a zone can be ranked to make the server as the most desired to serve as the zone master or ZDC. The ties between servers with the same administrative ranking are broken by using the HOST IDs assigned to the servers. When a Presentation Server starts or when the IMA service starts, the IMA service starts trying to contact other servers via the IMA protocol on port 2512 until it finds one that’s online. When it finds, it queries it to find out which server is acting as the data collector. The winner of this Zone Data Collector election is determined by the newest version of the IMA service. We can control which server will act as data collector by keeping that server the most up-to-date.

Data Collection Election Priority

Whichever server has the most recent version of the IMA Service running. (This may include hotfixes) and the server with the highest preference set in the data store.

Basically data collectors and data store are not really related. The data store holds permanent farm configuration information in a database, and the data collector tracks dynamic session information in its RAM.

In addition to their primary role to provide dynamic farm information for admin consoles or for incoming connection requests, data collectors also take part in the distribution of configuration changes to Presentation Servers in the farm. When we make a changes in a presentation server that change is written to the local host cache of whichever server we connected to, and then immediately replicated to the data store. Presentation Server only looks for changes in the central data store every 30 minutes. Whenever a change is made to the data store, that change is sent to the data collector for the zone.

The data collector then distributes that change (via IMA port 2512) to all of the servers in its zone, allowing each server to update its own local host cache accordingly. Furthermore, if we have more than one zone, the initial data collector contacts the data collectors in the other zones. It sends its change to them, and in turn those data collectors forward the change to all of the servers in their zones.

Coolest part is if the change is larger than 64k, the data collectors don’t send the actual change out to its zone. Instead they send out a notification which causes the servers in the zone to perform an “on demand” sync with the central data store. However it’s rare for a single change to be more than 64k in size.  The data collector election priority settings in the management console

Presentation Server Java Management Console > Right-click on farm

name >Properties > Zones > highlight server > “Set Election Preference”

We can totally control which server is our data collector by manually setting the preferences in the Java console. We can manually configure four levels of Zone’s Data Collector election preferenceoptions

Most Preferred

Preferred

Default Preferred

Not Preferred

The important thing to remember is that these preferences will beignored if a newer server is up for election.

Question 34. What Happens If The Web Interface Is Down?

New user will not be able to access the application hosted in citrix and it will not affect the existing connected user.

Question 35. What Are The Types Of Websites In Web Interface?

Website and service site.

Question 36. How Can We Add The Backup Xml Service?


We can specify the back xml service on the webinterface management console.

Question 37. What Is LHC?

A local cache of the data store, which allows a server to function in the absence of data store.

Question 38. What Is Session Reliability?

This setting allows or prevents sessions to remain open during a loss of network connectivity. By default, session reliability is allowed.

Session Reliability keeps sessions active when network connectivity is interrupted. Users continue to see the application they are using until network connectivity resumes. When connectivity is momentarily lost, the session remains active on the server. The user’s display freezes and the cursor changes to a spinning hourglass until connectivity resumes. The user continues to access the display during the interruption and can resume interacting with the application when the network connection is restored. Session Reliability reconnects users without re-authentication prompts.

Question 39. What Is Meant By Keep Alive?

Keep Alive Policy Settings The Keep Alive section contains policy settings for managing ICA keep-alive messages.  ICA keep alive timeout This setting specifies the number of seconds between successive ICAkeep-alive messages. By default, the interval between keep-alive messages is 60 seconds.  Specify an interval between 1-3600 seconds in which to send ICA keep-alive messages. Do not configure this setting if your network monitoring software is responsible for closing inactive connections. If using Citrix Access Gateway, set keep-alive intervals on the Access Gateway to match the keep-alive intervals on XenApp.

ICA keep alives

This setting enables or disables sending ICA keep-alive messages periodically. By default, keep-alive messages are not sent.

Enabling this setting prevents broken connections from being disconnected. If XenApp detects no activity, this setting prevents Remote Desktop Services from disconnecting the session. XenApp sends keep-alive messages every few seconds to detect if the session is active. If the session is no longer active, XenApp marks the session as disconnected.

ICA Keep-Alive does not work if you are using Session Reliability.Configure ICA Keep-Alive only for connections that are not using Session Reliability.

Related Policy Settings
Session reliability connections.

Question 40. New Featires In 6.5?

Session Lingering
Session Pre-Launch
App Center
Load Evaluators assigned to Worker Groups or OUs instead of individual servers
Datastore and Zone information configured via GPO
Sesssion Only and Controller roles
Desktop Director web console can manage XenApp sessions
MultiStream ICA – ica traffic can be split into four separate TCP streams if required Log On control feauture to drain users.

Question 41. What Are The Policies You Have Worked?

Clipboard policy, drive mapping policy, printer policy, universal printer policy, Universal profile management 4.0.

Question 42. Which Has High Priority Citrix Policy Or Ad Policy?

Local -> Citrix > site > domain > OU.

Question 43. What Is Universal Printer In Citrix?

Universal Print Server: The Citrix Universal Print Server extends XenApp and XenDesktop Universal printing support to network printing. This feature eliminates the need to install numerous network printer drivers on XenApp and XenDesktop hosts, and enables more efficient network utilization. The new Citrix Universal printer driver supports direct network printing on Windows and non-Windows clients. After you install the Universal Print Server components and configure the new policy settings, a user can add and enumerate network printers through the Windows Provider and Citrix Provider interfaces.

The Universal Print Server feature comprises:

A client component, UPClient, that you install on each XenApp and XenDesktop host that provisions session network printers and that uses the Universal Printer Driver.
A server component, UPServer, that you install on each print server that provisions session network printers and that uses the Universal Printer Driver for the session printers (regardless of whether or not the session printers are centrally provisioned).

Question 44. What Are Commands Often Used In Citrix?

Qfarm /load, /zone, /app, lboff and enablelb /servername

dsmaint, /clean, / recreatelhc after stoping IMA.


Question 45. How To Know Which Is Your Data Store Machine?

By opening the MF20.dsn file in notepad.

Question 46. What Are Troubleshooting Steps If IMA Service Is Not Getting started?

The following could be some reasons, in addition to others, for the

IMA Service to fail to start:

IMA Service load time
IMA Service subsystem
Missing Temp directory
Print spooler service
ODBC configuration
Roaming Profile
Another server with an identical NetBIOS name on the same network
IMA Service Load Time

If the Service Control Manager reports that the IMA Service could not be started, but the service eventually starts, ignore the error message. The Service Control Manager has a timeout of six minutes. The IMA Service can take longer than six minutes to start if the load on the database exceeds the capabilities of the database hardware or if the network has high-latency. If you feel that the service is merely hung(stuck in a “starting” state) you can terminate the ImaSrv.exe process in Task Manager and restart the Citrix Independent Management Architecture service as a test.

IMA Service Subsystem

Examine the following Windows Registry setting:

x32-bit: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWARECitrixIMARuntimeCurrentlyLoadingPlugin
x64-bit: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREWow6432NodeCitrixIMARuntimeCurrentlyLoadingPlugin
If there is no value specified in the CurrentlyLoadingPlugin portion of the preceding Windows Registry entry, then either the IMA Service could not connect to the data store or the local host cache is missing or corrupt.

If a CurrentlyLoadingPlugin value is specified, the IMA Service made a connection to the data store and the value displayed is the name of the IMA Service subsystem that failed to load.

Missing Temp Directory

If administrators see an “IMA Service Failed” error message with an error code of 2147483649 when starting the server, the local system account might be missing a Temp directory which is required for the IMA Service to run.

To gain further insight into the situation, change the IMA Service startup account to the local administrator and restart the server. If the IMA Service is successful in starting under the local administrator’s account, then it is likely that a missing Temp directory for the local system account is causing the situation.

If the Temp directory is not present, then manually create one as

Temp. For example:

C:WindowsTemp

Also, verify that the TMP and TEMP system environment variables point to the temporary directory. Restart the server to restart the IMA Service.

 Print Spooler Service

When the server attempts to start the IMA Service, the “Setup Could Not Start the IMA Service” error message appears. This error shows that the IMA Service is not starting, possibly because the print spooler service is not running or was configured incorrectly. In addition, the following error messages appear in the Event Viewer:

Failed to load plugin MfPrintSs.dll with error 80000001h
Failed to load initial plugins with error 80000001h
The Independent Management Architecture service terminated with service-specific error
The error occurs because the print spooler service:

Has stopped
Is disabled
Is not configured to run under the Local System Account
To resolve this issue, verify that the print spooler service was started in the context of system rather than in the context of a user. A print spooler service that is not running or has been configured incorrectly might cause the printing subsystem to fail to load.

To resolve the situation, stop and start the print spooler service, ensure that it is configured to run under the Local System Account.

Then, try to start the IMA Service.

ODBC Configuration

Verify that the Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle server is online.
Verify the name of the DSN file that the IMA Service is using the
following key in the Windows Registry:

x32-bit: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWARECitrixIMADataSourceName
x64-bit: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREWow6432NodeCitrixIMADataSourceNameRoaming Profile
3. Attempt to connect to the database using the DSN file with an ODBC test utility such as Oracle ODBC Test or SQL Server ODBC Test.
4. Verify that the correct user name and password are being used for database connectivity.
5. Change the user name and password using the DSMAINT CONFIG command, if needed using dsmaint config /user:username /pwd:password/dsn:dsnfilename.
6. Enable ODBC Tracing for further troubleshooting.
 When the server attempts to start the IMA Service, the “Setup Could Not Start the IMA Service” error message appears. In the event viewer the error IMA_RESULT_INVALID_MESSAGE is displayed or other events related to the IMA Service not being able to start. Verify the size of the roaming profile, especially if it is crossing a WAN. Also watch for error messages related to not being able to load the profile. Test with a local user profile or one that is smaller in size.

Another server with an identical NetBIOS name on the same network Verify that there is not another server on the network with the same NetBIOS name on the network. If the CurrentlyLoadingPlugin has the ImaLicSs.dll listed, this might be an indication of this condition.Another symptom of ImaLicSs.dll “106. The IMA Service failed to start because of license group corruption in the data store. “CTX124406 – DSCHECK – XenApp Data Store Checker Tool Commands.

Question 47. What Is Proximity Printing?

Proximity printing basically detects a user’s current IP address and then maps the user to a printer in the user’s subnet. Granted, one would hope that maybe every floor has its own scope or some kind of an identifier that would make it unique so that you can map a printer accordingly. Assuming that is the case, you can configure Citrix print policies to map network printers for users based on the IP address of their device.

To configure proximity printing, follow these steps:

Create a separate Citrix Policy for each subnet or each geographic location
Enable proximity printing through the session printing policy rule in Citrix Policies
Add the printers for that subnet or geographic location in the policy
Set the Default printer policy to use the Do not adjust the user’s default printer setting
Filter the policy bt Client IP address
Now there is another method which you should be aware, called Workspace Control. This feature is useful when users disconnect from their existing session, move to a different location and a different device and connect back to that same session. Typically, without Workspace Control, if they resume the same session the printers will not change. With Workspace Control, when they connect again, it automatically detects that they are connecting from a different location and a different device and maps their printers. Cool, no.

Question 48. What Are Troubleshooting Steps If Delivery Service Console Is Not Getting Connected To Xenapp?

Check the IMA port and check the MFCOM services if they are running or not.

Question 49. How To Enable Configuration Log In Db?

to create the configuration log in DB for citrix we need a seprate database and once the DB is created right on the farm and then go to properties and follow th wizard.

Question 50. What Is The Purpose Of Ctx Keytool?

CTX KEYTOOL – Use ctx keytool to enable and disable the IMA encryption feature and generate, load, replace, enable, disable, or back up farm key files.

Question 51. How To Upgrade/migrate Your Xenapp?

We cannot upgrade to xenapp 6.5 due to architure defrence so, if we want to move to upper version there is a option of migration.

Steps:1. Create a new farm with the xenapp 6.5 and use the migration tool and specify the source farm to new farm and then migration utility will check for the compatibility of apps with new farm and after that it will migrate the old farm to new farm.

Question 52. What Is Workspace Control?

Use workspace control to allow users to disconnect quickly from all resources (applications, content, and desktops), reconnect to disconnected resources, and log off from all resources. This allows users to move between devices and gain access to all of their resources (disconnected only or disconnected and active) either when they log on or manually at any time. For example, clinicians in hospitals may need to move between workstations and access the same set of resources each time they log on.

Question 53. What Are The Windows Editions Available? And Which Are Supported?

Windows server 2008 R2 is supported for xenapp 6 and xenapp 6.5.

Question 54. Which Databases Are Used In The Environment?

MS SQL 2008

Question 55. What Are The License Server Ports? And What Is License Vendor Daemon?

27000 and vendor daemon is the thing that will provide the license to DATA collector for the users.

Question 56. What Is The Purpose Of Dscheck?

This utility performs validation checks on a server farm datastore. Results are displayed on the console and written to the Event Log. The /clean option deletes inconsistent records.

Question 57. What Is The Purpose Of Dsmaint Command?

Run the dsmaint on farm servers to perform XenApp data store maintenance tasks, including backing up the data store, migrating the data store to a new server, and compacting the XenApp data store or the Streaming Offline database. Not all dsmaint commands apply to all database types.
When using this command, user names and passwords may be case-sensitive, depending on the database and the operating system you are using.

Question 58. How To Take Back Up And Restore Of Xenapp And Data Store?

DSmaint backup Path.

Question 59. How To Bring Xenapp Server Into Maintenance Mode?

change logon:

/EXECUTE Enable execute mode (default).
/INSTALL Enable install mode.
/QUERY Display current settings.
/disable disable user login from session

Question 60. What Do You Mean By Load Throttling?

Limits the number of concurrent connection attempts that a server handles. This prevents the server from failing when many users try to connect to it simultaneously. The default setting (High impact) assumes that logons affect server load significantly. This rule affects only the initial logon period, not the main part of a session. The Load Throttling rule can be applied only to a server, not to an individual application.

Question 61. What Do You Mean By Workergroup And What Are Its Advantages?

Worker Groups are new in Citrix XenApp 6. They’re collections of XenApp servers that reside in the same farm and are managed as a single unit. Worker Groups let you collect servers into groups for publishing applications, load balancing, and policy filtering. They’re particularly useful for larger installations where many XenApp servers must be managed as a single unit. Worker Groups can be created based on each server’s Active Directory Organizational Unit (OU) membership, or a Worker Group membership can be specifically assigned to each server in the Citrix Delivery Services Console.

Question 62. What Are Worker Group Priorities?

Whenever we add the worker group to load balancing. Each worker group you add is automatically assigned a priority, from highest (1) to lowest.

Question 63. Explain The Use Of Shadowing In Citrix?

In Citrix, shadowing resembles for one user to join remotely to another user.  One user can use the session of another user remotely.

Question 64. Explain What Is The Purpose Of Zones?

Data collector stores information about Zones, User’s Session and Published Application.

A Farm consists of a subset referred as Zones
It consists of various server members
One of the server members is referred as Zone Data Collector
In traffic controlling, Zones are useful
Using ZDCs communication is established among zones

Question 65. Explain How You Can Remove Dead Server From The Citrix Management Console?

To remove dead server from the Citrix Management Console you have to run:

DSVERIFY SERVERS/CLEAN/FORCE for optimizing the Data Store
DSVerify can be executed on any of the servers in the farm
MetaFrame feature release 3 has a command line tool known as DSCHECK:

Use the following command DSVerify command line tool DSCHECK/CHECK
or right click on the ‘server in the farm’ and select option ‘remove from the Farm’

Question 66. Explain What Is Citrix Access Gateway?

CAG or Citrix Access Gateway is a universal secured socket layer virtual private network appliances. It got features like IPSec and SSL VPN.  It also enables instant access to the users and secure access to the company.  Any information resource can be retrieved by using CAG with secure, single point access, always on features.  It supports various types of applications including IP telephony.  Any application which is hosted on Citrix Presentation Server can be used in a secured manner.

Question 67. Explain What Is Citrix Receiver?

Citrix receiver is a collection of suite of products that enables client devices to connect to various desktop virtualization services offered by Citrix.  Citrix receiver can link with client devices to XenDesktop applications, XenApp and desktops via the HDX protocol.

Question 68. Mention What Is The Limit Of Refresh Time For Local Host Cache In Citrix?

The refresh time set for Local Host Cache is 30 minutes, it can be created when IMA is stopped.

Question 69. List Out The Load Evaluators That Are Supported In Citrix?

Load evaluators that are supported in Citrix includes:

Memory Utilization
CPU Utilization
IP Range
Page Swap
Page Fault
Context Switches
Disk Data I/O
Scheduling
Server Application Load
User Application Load

Question 70. Explain What Is Lhc In Citrix?

The IMA service executing on each Presentation Server downloads the information it requires from the central data store into a local MDB database known as  the Local Host Cache or LHC.

Question 71. Mention What Are The Default Tests Available In Health Monitoring & Recovery Tool?

The tests in XenApp Health Monitoring and Recovery Tool are

Citrix IMA service test
Logon Monitor test
Terminal Service test
XML Service Test

Question 72. Explain What Is The Step To Clear Xenserver Cache?

To clear XenServer cache you have to use command Dnscmd Server Name/clearcache.

Question 73. Explain What Is Citrix Xml Broker?

Citrix XML broker behaves as an intermediary between the web interface and farm.  It receives the credentials of the user from the web interface. It retrieves the applications that have user permission to access.  It is done by independent management architecture and returns to the web interface. XML broker detects the server in the farm, once the user is authenticated.  It returns the address of the service rendering server to the web interface.  It functions between IMA service and web interface.

Question 74. Mention What Is Web Interface Or Nfuse?

Citrix web interface software provides web access to Java, Unix and Windows applications which are hosted via Citrix application server software. Citrix offers server side control of hosted applications, while Citrix web interface makes applications accessible through a web browser interface.

Question 75. Mention What Is The Query Command In Citrix?

Query command in Citrix includes

qfarm
querydc
queryds
queryhr

Question 76. List Out The Ports Associated With Citrix Services?

Default port is A: 1494
Default listening port for Citrix XML service: 80
For ICA: 1494
UDP port used for client broadcasting: 1604
IMA port: 2512 and 2513
CMC and SSL port: 443
Server to SQL port: 1433
Session Reliability: 2598
Port Number for licensing: 27000

Question 77. Explain What Is Data Store?

Data store is a DATABASE which consists of all the configuration information needed by the Citrix farm.  Changes can be made at any time to the Meta Frame Server. The changes are persisted in the data store.  It will data store following information like

Server configuration
User configuration
Print Environment
Published Application

Question 78. List Out The Services Provided By Citrix?

Service provided by Citrix includes

Citrix virtual memory optimization service
Encryption service
Citrix XTE service
Independent Management architecture
Citrix SMA service
COM (Common Object Model) services

Question 79. List Out The Major Citrix Components?

Major Citrix components are

XenApp:It allows to host applications on central servers and enables users to interact with them remotely and deliver it to the user’s devices for local executions
XenDesktop:It is the practice of hosting a desktop OPERATING SYSTEM with a virtual machine running on a remote SERVER
XenServer:It enables you to combine multiple Xen-enabled servers into a powerful resource pool using industry standard shared storage architecture and leveraging resource clustering technology created by XenSource
Provisioning Server:It reduces the number of systems that they manage, even as the computers number continues to grow.
Netscaler: It is used to provide level 4 load balancing

Question 80. Explain What Is Citrix?

It is an application deployment system. With Citrix, one can access the customized application and can also delivered to remote systems. It also allows file transfer from home computer to office computer and e-mail accessing.

Question 81. What Free Tool From Citrix Will Allow You To Analyze Your Log Files, Profile Your Citrix Environment, Scan For Known Issues And Attach A Log File To A Citrix Support Ticket?


Citrix Insight Services or TaaS

Question 82. Citrix Storefront Displays Applications Differently Than Web Interface. Instead Of Having All Accessible Applications Appear On The Home Screen, First Time Users Are Invited To Choose (subscribe) To The Applications They Want To Regularly Use After They Logon. What Function In Storefront Must You Use To Avoid Users Having A Blank Screen And Automatically Subscribe Users To A Few Core Applications When They First Logon?


Keywords

Question 83. You Are Preparing A Pvs Master Target Device Which Is Created On Vmware Vsphere Virtual Hardware Version 10 Or Higher. What Must You Do With The Cd/dvd Rom Setting For Pvs To Work Correctly?


You will need to change the CD/DVD Rom to IDE instead of SATA. SATA is not supported in PVS.

Question 84. What Is The Major Financial Bottleneck Of Any Vdi Deployment?

Storage. Traditionally, storage has been very costly in getting a comparable VDI end user experience as opposed to the local desktop experience. There are several vender solutions on the market now to address this.

Question 85. You Are Architecting A Citrix Provisioning Services (pvs) Deployment Which Will Be Placed Across Different Data Centres Via A Wan Link. You Only Want The Pvs Disks To Be Streamed In Each Local Data Centre And Not Cross Over The Wan. What Feature In Pvs Would You Use To Accomplish This?


Subnet Affinity

Question 86. You Manager Has Requested You To Come Up With A Way For Your Help Desk To Monitor And Troubleshoot Your Xendesktop/xenapp 7.x Environment, Without Adding On A Third Party Solution. What Built In Citrix Functionality Would You Use To Do So?


Citrix Director Enables level-1 and level-2 IT Support staff to monitor a XenDesktop deployment and perform day-to-day maintenance tasks. You can also view and interact with a user’s session, using Microsoft Remote Assistance, to troubleshoot problems.

Question 87. What Is The Role Of The Xendesktop Controller?

A controller is the server-side architectural component of XenDesktop that is responsible for distributing desktops, managing user access, and optimizing connections.

Question 88. What Are The Two Most Common Ports Used On Xenapp Ica Sessions? What Are Each Used For?

Ports 1494 (ICA/HDX) and 2598(Session Reliability)

Question 89. Can You Name Two Of The Services Required To Be Running On The Provisioning Server For It To Function?


SOAP and STREAM services must be running on the PVS Servers.

Question 90. How Does Citrix Netscaler Licensing Differ From The Other Citrix Product Licensing?

As an appliance or hardware, Netscaler is separate from most other Citrix products that use a license server. It is licensed independently.

Question 91. You Are Migrating Your Citrix Environment From A 2003 Os To 2008r2 Os, And You Want To Make Sure Your Current Applications Will Run Correctly On The 2008r2 Os. What Software Or Utility Does Citrix Provider You Help You Make Sure Your Applications Will Be Compatible On The 2008r2 Os Before The Migration?


Citrix AppDNA

Question 92. You Are Creating A Xenapp/xendesktop Environment And Your Manager Asked You To Optimize Your Profiles Without Using A Third Party Solution. How Would You Accomplish This?

Citrix has User Profile Manager, which will allow you to streamline your profiles and leverage Microsoft folder redirection.

Question 93. You Have Been Tasked To Come Up With An Active/active Gslb Scenario For Your Citrix Xendesktop Environment. What Are Some Underlying Factors You Should Consider During Your Research And Planning Phase?

You want to make sure you have a working way for data replication, including profile replication between the two sites. Microsoft does not support two way replication for their profiles. You will also need to make sure you have a way to disconnect sessions from each site. It is best to use Active/Passive with manual failover in this scenario.

Question 94. You Will Be Migrating From Xenapp 6.5 To Xenapp 7.6, What Are Two Differences Between Ima And Fma?

FMA uses Sites and no longer utilizes Zones or Zone Data Collectors, FMA uses Virtual Desktop Agents (VDA’s), FMA leverages MCS for Servers and Desktops, IMA uses Local Host Cache (LHC), IMA uses IMA Service.

Question 95. You Have Been Asked To Reduce The Time On Citrix Support Calls, By Making Sure Your Citrix Xenapp 6.5 Farm Is “citrix Support Ready” And Already Has The Proper Tools Installed Before Contacting Citrix, What Is The Main Tool You Would Install?

Citrix Scout

XenDesktop Questions Level-1

Question 1. Can You Please Explain The Difference Between Desktop Virtualization And Virtual Desktop Interface?


Virtual desktop interface is a form of desktop virtualization, whereas desktop virtualization is itself a different entity that is separated with others.

VDI create a virtual machine and execute the user's desktop inside it, whereas desktop virtualization allows running the customized desktop without any virtual machines.

VDI works only for few users that have different demands but it is unsuitable to meet all the demands for all users, whereas desktop virtualization meet and provide all the required features to the user.

Question 2. Can You Explain What Are The Features Of Citrix Xen Desktop Virtualization?


Citrix xen provides high end functionalities to the user for desktop virtualization.

It also provide the following features such as:

High definition user experience: it provides high end multimedia graphics, real time collaborations and connectivity through peripherals. It provides breadth and depth for easy viewing of high end 3D graphics.
FlexCast: provides fast delivery of the new technology that enables the delivery of hosted models to meet the requirement of the users.
On demand apps: citrix provide the provision for on demand application to the users. It also provides the provision to manage the functionalities of applications on virtual desktops.

Question 3. Please Tell Me How Desktop Virtualization Different From Application Virtualization?


Desktop virtualization provides the desktop operating system its environment and applications from the datacenter, whereas application virtualization only brings application from the datacenter.

Desktop virtualization brings only the desktop features not the application related to it, whereas application keep the desktop separate and bring only those applications that are required at a particular time. This way optimization and efficiency can be maintained.

Question 4. Do You Know What Are The Different Flavors Available In Citrix Xen Desktop Addition?


Citrix xen desktop virtualization comes in different flavors and they are as follows:

Express edition- this is the edition which is a trial version and user can use it for 10 days. It has limitation as well on the usage.
VDI (virtual desktop interface) : it provides scalability and also virtual desktops using the client-server model.
Enterprise edition- it has all the tools available for customization and it is a cost-effective platform that provides flexibility, scalability and delivery of applications without any hassles.
Platinum edition- it is a complete package to deliver full performance monitor, Qos capabilities and services for end-to-end delivery. It has support for virtual desktop support.

Question 5. Explain What Is Xen In Citrix Xen Desktop Solution And Why Is It There?


Xen is an open-source hypervisor that is somehow appealed to Citrix developers and Citrix Cloud services are based on further development of this hypervisors only. Xen being an open-source project has contributors from around the world. This is the only major open-source hypervisor that supports Dom-0. Thus it is the best choice for cloud developers till date.



Question 6. Do You Know What Is Virtual Desktop Infrastructure And Is It Provided By Citrix Xen Desktop?


Virtual desktop infrastructure is the practice of hosting a desktop operating system within a virtual machine running on a hosted, centralized or remote server. The term was coined by VMware Inc. Microsoft included a technology called virtual desktop infrastructure in Windows Server 2008. Intel has built hardware virtualization support into its processors, citing a growing need for client-hosted virtualization. Yes, virtual Desktop Infrastructure is provided by Citrix as Citrix Xen Desktop.

Question 7. Can You Explain What Issue Does The Netscaler Solves?


The Netscaler technology resolves issues of low speed internet and low bandwidth that needs to stream a desktop from a centralized server.
This provides slow streaming compliance on the virtualization solution to provide optimum support and feature on the client machine.

Question 8. Do You Know What Is On-demand Apps Feature In Flexcast Delivery?


The On-demand Apps feature in FlexCast delivery is a feature provided by Citrix Xen Desktop to deliver software applications on a client request for usage. These applications are packaged as images which are isolated and independent to the compatible hardware. On-demand applications could be like a Microsoft office application running on Linux machine.

Question 9. Tell Me Choices Of Hypervisors Given In Citrix Xen Desktop Are?


There are multiple choices of Hypervisors that comes along Citrix Xen Desktop solutions.

XenDesktop on XenServer by Citrix
XenDesktop on Hyper-V by Microsoft
XenDesktop on V-Sphere by VmWare
These are the three major players in cloud computing solution industries and XenDesktop is supported by all three of them.

Question 10. Please Explain Some Security Features In Citrix Xen Desktop?


Citrix Xen Desktop comes with an integrated hardened SSL VPN with advanced, policy-based access control lets you give users encrypted access to desktops, applications, and valuable intellectual property from anywhere while eliminating the risk of data theft or loss. Centralized data control provides high security compliance.



Question 11. Tell Me What Is Hdx Technology Given By Citrix Xen Desktop Solution?


The HDX technology is coined for term High Definition User Experience. This technology provides flexible compatibilities to multimedia devices and software as Flash, Audio, Video, USB, 3D graphics applications. This compliance ensures a fast and reliable experience through Citrix Xen Desktop throughout the usage.

Question 12. Please Tell Me Does Citrix Xen Destop Application Need To Run On Local Desktop?


Citrix Xen Desktop need not run on a desktop but a client applet for desktop is required to be installed at client-side. The whole functionality is orchestrated through a centralized Server. The technology is simple and follows modern and virtualized client-server architecture. Thus it is a model of cloud computing architecture.

Question 13. Can You Please Explain Does Citrix Xen Desktop Work If Its Offline?


Citrix Xen Desktop works very well online as well as offline. Suppose the Xen Desktop streamed a desktop application on a client machine and suddenly the network is disconnected that does not allow further access to network. In this case the application streamed as a virtual desktop will run very well as if it has never been disconnected.

Question 14. Please Explain Vdi Facility In Flexcast Technology?


The term VDI was coined by Intel and stands for Virtualized Desktop Interface. It is a technology that enables the hosted OS virtualization that meets high graphics and performance requirements to use the local machine resources that can actually leverage desktop streaming through Virtual server. The more powerful is client, the better becomes quality of service.

Question 15. Do You Know What Is Flexcast Delivery Technology In Citrix Xen Desktop?


FlexCast is a delivery model that ensures a flexible and wide range of modifications in virtualized images of every major OS virtualization such as RedHat Linux, Windows, Ubuntu Linux or Windows Server 2008. This provides a standard lock-down for user without personalized experience that does not save personalized options and preferences in usage.

Question 16. Tell Me Does Citrix Xen Desktop Support Global Or Public Access?


Citrix Xen Desktop can be accessed globally from anywhere at any time and any device. This is actually an advantage of having a centralized server at location that serves to all the devices that can actually communicate to it and through minimal C itrix platform tools can actually stream a personally configured Desktop on the go.

Question 17. What Is The Three Phase Approach To Desktop Virtualization?


The three phases provided by Citrix Xen is as follows:

Assess: This is a phase where the user groups gets profiled and prioritized according to the applications they are using. The decision of ordering and user segments virtualization takes place.
Design: in this stage a process to create a detailed design will be included using the networking concept. It will include active directory, storage and image manipulation. This will be the phase where all the requirements will be finalized before install.
Deploy: In this stage the xen desktop virtualization will be installed, tested and deployed according to the design.

Question 18. What Is The Use And Purpose Of Producing A Desktop Virtualization Platform By Citrix?


Citrix has provided a platform that gives desktop virtualization and it delivers the desktop services and applications from anywhere to the users. It reduces the complexity and improves the security of the data. It provides a centralized place to manage the datacenter. It delivers high end experience for the user and provides high latency in the network. It offers reduced time for execution of the application and flexibility in the delivering customized desktops to both virtual and physical devices.

Question 19. How Xen Desktop Helps In Popularizing The Businesses?


Citrix xen desktop provides high level of virtualization to help businesses build their tool and increase their output or productivity day by day.

The features that are provided are as follows:

It enables the virtual space and workflow to increase the productivity.
It provides latest features and help businesses with tools to incorporate those easily.
It gives an easy to use virtualization platform to deliver fast, efficient and flexible applications.
It manages, create and secure the desktop applications from one location.

Question 20. Do You Know What Is The Use Of Desktop Virtualization?


Desktop virtualization provides optimizations techniques to deliver the applications, data and desktop environment to the users. It further provides the security by managing all the applications and desktop systems at one place. It manages and updates different static desktop images from one place and allows the customization of applications to provide high performance, security and portability to each user.

Question 21. How Citrix Xen Fulfill The Requirements Produced By Desktop Virtualization?


Citrix xend virtualization provides a single solution for desktop virtualization that gives on demand services for desktop and other applications. It allows the user to securely deliver the resources through the web to PCs and to the client area with high end user experience.

Question 22. What You Know About Single Instance Management?


A Single Instance Management is referred as a task to apply updates and packages just once that is on the images that are maintained by the administrators at Xen Server. This means less storage is required to handle desktop in datacenter. This provides easy to manage features to the maintainers or administrators of the IT departments.

Question 23. Do You Know What All Elements Could Be Packaged As Images And Then Can Be Deployed On Datacenter In Citrix Xen Desktop?


In order to get a new business startup quick and running, the elements like OS, Applications & User profiles can be packaged as single images and then deployed on datacenters. This process dynamically assembles desktops for each user. These images are maintained by administrators and according to the user tasks these images are deployed.

Question 24. How Does Citrix Xen Desktop Help In Enterprises?


Citrix Xen Desktop is a Desktop virtualization solution for business that need smart management of Desktops. Administrators need not manage applications individually on machines rather it can be done on the go with Citrix Xen Server, remotely. Citrix Xen Desktop enables the client machines to stream a live Desktop to the their machines through centralized Xen Server.

Question 25. Explain The Difference Between Citrix Xen Desktop Virtualization And Xen Server?


Citrix xen server provides server virtualization that enables one platform to host multiple operating system, whereas citrix xen desktop provides desktop virtualization that enables many operating systems to be shared in the datacenter.
Citrix xen server allow the utilization of the server to be maximum, whereas citrix desktop virtualization allows better performance and efficiency as it is controlled and managed from one place.

IMA Helper Tool

IMA Helper is designed to facilitate the process of running DSMAINT CONFIG on XenApp servers. The tool provides a Graphical User Interface for DSMAINT CONFIG to the XenApp Administrator.

Other Features

Password field is hidden (for privacy concerns)
Real-time IMA Status Monitor
Easy RecreateLHC button
Easy Recreate DSN File button


Prerequisites

You must install .NET Framework 3.5 or later.
You must log on as a user with Local Administrative privileges


Sometimes we suddenly can’t connect to a published application and/or dekstop on XenApp. After investigation we notice that the IMA (Independement Management Architecture) service isn’t running and won’t restart anymore. The tool which can help then is IMA Helper from Citrix.With this tool we can:

Recreate Local Host Cache;
Recreate DSN file;
Check IMA service state.


Installing IMA Helper

IMA Helper is a standalone application. You need not install the application.

How to Use IMA Helper

For DSMAINT CONFIG:

On the target XenApp server, run IMA Helper.
Select type of authentication if required (Windows NT is default).
Type or select the required fields:
For Windows NT Authentication enter the Domain, User, and Password details.
For SQL Authentication enter the User and Password details.
Select Browse and manually browse to the location of the DSN file to be used with DSMAINT CONFIG.
Select Run to run the command.
The result (success / failure) is displayed in a message box.

Other Features

If you select RecreateLHC, then DSMAINT RECREATELHC runs on the server and the results are displayed by using a message box. You must stop the IMA service to use this feature.
If you select Create New DSN, then the Microsoft Windows ODBC Data Source Administrator is opened.

Security Permissions Required by IMA Helper

Local Administrative permissions are required for IMA Helper to run.

Data Modified by IMA Helper

No data is directly modified by IMA Helper. This application only creates a graphical bridge to DSMAINT CONFIG, which is a command line application available in any XenApp servers by default. All data modifications are performed by DSMAINT CONFIG.

How to Undo the Changes Made by IMA Helper

No changes are made by IMA Helper. This application only creates a graphical bridge to DSMAINT CONFIG, which is a command line application available in any XenApp servers by default. All data modifications are performed by DSMAINT CONFIG. Refer to XenApp documentation for more information on how to undo the changes made by DSMAINT CONFIG.

Uninstalling IMA Helper

IMA Helper is a standalone application. You need not uninstall any application. You only have to delete the .EXE file..

The tool can be downloaded from Citrix, see article CTX133983.

Citrix Engineer Interview Questions

Q.How well can you explain Citrix? What do you know about it?

Basically, it is one of the very popular systems for the application deployment. All the customized applications can directly be accessed. The users are free to deliver them without doing much to the remote machines and nodes. In addition to this, e-mail accessing and the data transfer tasks can be performed very easily. For the users, it really doesn’t matter what exactly was the size of the file or data to be transferred.

Q. Name any three important ports which are directly associated with the Citrix Services?

These are IMA Port 2512 & 2513, CMC and SSL port and UDP Port

Q. What according to you are the services that Citrix can easily provide?

One of the best services that can simply be assured from it is the Citrix Virtual memory optimization. For security and privacy, it offers another service called Encryption service that simply let the users keep up the pace with the same. The Citrix SMA Service is another one that cut down the complexity from several important tasks in a very reliable manner. Moreover, it provides the Independent Management Architecture that let the users get the desired outcome from the cluster approach.

Q. What do you understand from the Web Interface in the Citrix?

It is also known as NFuse and is useful in offering the Web access to the Unix, Java, Linux, as well as to Windows-based applications which are hosted through the server software meant for the Citrix environment. The Citrix simply let the users to have the server-side control of all the applications that come with a tag of Citrix. Also, the applications can directly be accessed through the web browser interface.

Q. Can you tell something about the components in Citrix and how they are different from one another?

There are 5 prime components in the Citrix and they are very useful for the users. The very first one is the XenApp which makes sure that users can simply host all applications on the server and ensure the local execution of the same. In addition to this, it enables users to directly access the files through the remote approach. The next component is Netscaler which make sure of load balancing of level 4 to the users. The XenDesktop let the users host a desktop OS with the help of a virtual machine. However, it is necessary that the machine should run on the same server. The XenServer and the Provisioning Server are the other components. XenServer is useful when it comes to combing the multiple servers that are Xen enabled using the clustering technology whereas the latter is useful in impost a limit on the overall number of nodes that can be managed through the system.

Q. Is there any boundation on the refresh time for the Local Host Cache?

When the IMA is stopped, the Local Host Cache has a time limit of 30 minutes.

Q. What exactly do you know about the Data Store in Citrix? What kind of information can it store?

The Citric farm needs a lot of information about the configuration and the same is present in the Data Store. It is possible to modify the Meta Farm Server whenever the need of same is felt. It can easily store the information about the User & Server Configuration, Print Environment, as well as Published Environment.

Q. What exactly do you know about the connection leasing process?

It is basically a built-in ability of the XenDesktop. The users can connect themselves to the recently used desktops and the applications. This can be done even when the database remains unavailable from the users. However, in case the user is trying to connect the desktop or the application first time, this situation is not valid. All the default connections can be cached easily.

Q. Is it possible in the Citrix to clear the XenServer cache?

Yes, this is possible and the users can perform this task through the command prompt.

Q. What do you understand by the XML Broker of the Citrix?

Well, it is actually considered as an intermediary among the farm and the Web interface of the concerned applications. From the interface, it directly gets all the important credentials of the users. All the applications that the users can access have valid permission which it simply makes sure to implement in the Citrix environment. There is a management architecture which is independent and makes sure of Web interface functionality. It generally performs functions between the web interface and the IMA.

Q. Abbreviate LHC in the Citrix?

It stands for Local Host Cache. It is basically a local database in the Citrix Environment.

Q. Is there any Default test available in the recovery tool? What do you think is the benefit of the same?


Yes there are some important Defaults tests which are available and the users are free to use them anytime. These are XML Service Test, IMA Service Test, Terminal Service Test as well as the Logon Monitor test. They simply let users eliminate errors and maintain quality. In addition to this, various short and complex errors can directly be reported to the user or to the virtual machines.

Q. Imagine a Server is totally dead from the Citrix Management Console, what would be the action you will take in such a situation?

The dead server can be removed from the Console through the command prompt. This is done to maintain uninterrupted functionality of the Console.

Q. Tell everything you know about the Citrix Receiver?

Well, it is an array of suite of the products that are responsible for enabling the devices of the client to get connected directly to the other virtualization services which are related to Citrix. All the devices of the clients can be linked to the XenDesktop applications simply through it.

Q. What is the significance of the Citrix Access Gateway?

It is basically a universally secured Socket based VPN appliance. When it comes to getting the instant access and the same is required to be secured to the company, the Gateway is the approach that is useful. It is equipped with several important features such as SSL and IPSC. . A lot of type of applications is supported by it directly. Also, it makes sure of the security of the applications running.

Q. Tell about the significance of the Zones in the Citrix environment?

Zones are nothing but a farm which consists of a subset. There are a lot of server members and one among them is the Zone data collector which manages traffic controlling and this is the prime task of the Zone. It is also possible to establish a communication link between different zones.

Q.You have been asked to reduce the time on Citrix support calls, by making sure your Citrix XenApp 6.5 farm is “Citrix Support Ready” and already has the proper tools installed before contacting Citrix, what is the main tool you would install?

Citrix Scout

Q. You will be migrating from XenApp 6.5 to XenApp 7.6, what are two differences between IMA and FMA?

Some answers include: FMA uses Sites and no longer utilizes Zones or Zone Data Collectors, FMA uses Virtual Desktop Agents (VDA’s), FMA leverages MCS for Servers and Desktops, IMA uses Local Host Cache (LHC), IMA uses IMA Service.

Q.You have been tasked to come up with an Active/Active GSLB scenario for your Citrix XenDesktop environment. What are some underlying factors you should consider during your research and planning phase?

You want to make sure you have a working way for data replication, including profile replication between the two sites. Microsoft does not support two way replication for their profiles. You will also need to make sure you have a way to disconnect sessions from each site. It is best to use Active/Passive with manual failover in this scenario.

Q.You are creating a XenApp/XenDesktop environment and your manager asked you to optimize your profiles without using a third party solution. How would you accomplish this?

Citrix has User Profile Manager, which will allow you to streamline your profiles and leverage Microsoft folder redirection.

Q.You are migrating your Citrix environment from a 2003 OS to 2008R2 OS, and you want to make sure your current applications will run correctly on the 2008R2 OS. What software or utility does Citrix provider you help you make sure your applications will be compatible on the 2008R2 OS before the migration?

A5) – Citrix AppDNA

Q. Can you name two of the services required to be running on the Provisioning Server for it to function?

SOAP and STREAM services must be running on the PVS Servers.

Q. What is the Role of the XenDesktop Controller?

A controller is the server-side architectural component of XenDesktop that is responsible for distributing desktops, managing user access, and optimizing connections.

Q. You manager has requested you to come up with a way for your helpdesk to monitor and troubleshoot your XenDesktop/XenApp 7.x environment, without adding on a third party solution. What built in Citrix functionality would you use to do so?

Citrix Director Enables level-1 and level-2 IT Support staff to monitor a XenDesktop deployment and perform day-to-day maintenance tasks. You can also view and interact with a user’s session, using Microsoft Remote Assistance, to troubleshoot problems.

Q. You are architecting a Citrix Provisioning Services (PVS) deployment which will be placed across different datacenters via a WAN link. You only want the PVS disks to be streamed in each local datacenter and not cross over the WAN. What feature in PVS would you use to accomplish this?

Subnet Affinity

Q. You are preparing a PVS master target device which is created on VMware vSphere virtual hardware version 10 or higher. What must you do with the CD/DVD Rom setting for PVS to work correctly?

You will need to change the CD/DVD Rom to IDE instead of SATA. SATA is not supported in PVS.

Q. Citrix StoreFront displays applications differently than Web Interface. Instead of having all accessible applications appear on the home screen, first time users are invited to choose (subscribe) to the applications they want to regularly use after they logon. What function in Storefront must you use to avoid users having a blank screen and automatically subscribe users to a few core applications when they first logon?

Keywords

Q. What free tool from Citrix will allow you to analyze your log files, profile your Citrix environment, scan for known issues and attach a log file to a Citrix support ticket.
Citrix Insight Services or TaaS

Q. Explain a difficult challenge you had with XenApp and or XenDesktop and what you did to solve it?

A17) – It should be fairly simple for an experienced person to come up with something.

Q. Explain what you do to keep up your professional development?

You are looking for blogs, training (if they are willing to get training on their own, without relying on an employer), video’s and a biggie is home lab. There is not a good excuse in today’s climate for an engineer or architect not to have either a home or cloud based lab if they take their career seriously.


Q. If you were tasked to architect a Citrix XenDesktop 7.6 environment, what would be some of the questions you would ask the business, so you can design a technical solution?

You want to see if they know how to start with a business outcome and work backwards into the technology. Good signs are, asking specific business related questions such as: How do you envision the end goal, what are you trying to accomplish?, What is the importance of this project to the business.

Q. What do you know about Shadowing in the Citrix?

It simply let the users to remotely connect to the others. It is possible among the users to share the sessions only because of Shadowing approach. With it, the users are always free to get the outcomes in the shortest possible time.

Q. What according to you is the biggest issue that can be solved by the Netscaler?

Well, Netscaler is an approach that simply avoids the low internet speed in which a desktop streaming is involved and is based on a central server. On the virtualization solution, an excellent support is available that simply let the users keep up the pace with this.

Q. Can you tell something about the XenDesktop Controller?

It is basically a component that is based on the server side and defines the architecture of the XenDesktop. One of its key roles is to manage the user access and enhance the connections. This is exactly what makes sure of reliable data transfer among the nodes within the same server.

Q. How many levels are there in the Citrix when it comes to implementing the security policies? Can you name them?

There are 3 levels which are available and they are Farm Level, Policy Level itself and the Citrix Server Level. Leveling may not be same depending on the host and at each level, there is a security check of the protocols implementation that simply makes sure of secure approach for all the apps under consideration.

Q. What are the types of Printer Terminology in the Citrix?

This task can be accomplished in three ways. The very first one is the Network Printer in which the printer driver should be available on the Citrix server. This is basically connected printer server and the driver. Next is the Client printer in which the drivers are present on the Citrix server again and it is connected to the workstations within the network. Last is a Local printer which is connected to all local devices and the drivers are present on the print operation.

Q. Name the variants of the Speed Screen Technology you are familiar with?

These are Speed Screen Image Acceleration, Speed Screen Multimedia Acceleration, Speed Screen Latency Reduction and Speed Screen Flash Acceleration

Q. Tell one basic difference between the Store Front and the Web Interface?

Well, the Store Front depends on the Active Directory domain controller for its functionality whereas the Web Interface doesn’t. Before storing the data into the memory the Store Front perform a basic task and i.e. it checks the application subscription for the existing user. On the other side, the Web Interface doesn’t perform this task.

Q. Suppose no Delivery Controller Servers are available, what would be its impact on the end users?

The VDA cannot register themselves with the controllers during such a scenario. Whenever the new sessions will be launched, they will remain unavailable It is because of this reason users cannot directly access the desktops and the applications. In case the sessions are already connected, it will continue to work with the same. VDA is equipped with a useful feature and i.e. it automatically starts load balancing after 20 seconds in case the Delivery controller remains unavailable.

Q. Is it possible for the users to share the network printer with Citrix Server?

Yes, this is possible and an approach known as Replication can be applied for this task easily. Simply the driver of the printer is replicated and is provided to the concerned server. However, it is necessary to install the driver at the same location from where the replication process is initiated. This seems quite similar to that of mapping which is an approach that is used for mapping the driver software for the domain users only.

Q. Mention a few Load evaluators which are present in the Citrix?

There are several Load Evaluators which are present and they simply make sure of accomplishing a lot of important tasks without bringing the users to adopt the complex approaches. A few of them are Central Processing Unit Utilization, Disk Data Input/Output, Page Swap, Memory Utilization, Scheduling, Context Switches, Page Fault and User Application Load.

Q. What could be the possible reason when the users fail to launch the Citrix applications?

The user might not have installed the latest version of the software.
The application might need special permissions which are not provided
The proxy settings might be wrong
Applications should be integrated to the ID
The user might be accessing the application directly
The applications might not be registered on the server
Q. Name any three benefits that you can derive with the Citric Netsclaer?

It boost the delivery speed
The traffic optimization in the network can simply be assured by the users
The infrastructure intelligence can simply be assured by the users
Q. Name the different versions of Netscaler ADC you are familiar with?

These are Netscaler MPX, Netscaler VPX and NetScaler CPX

Q. How can integration be made possible with the Citrix Netscaler?

Well, this can be assured simply with the application access control ability of the scaler.

Q. What are the load evaluators which supports for Citrix?

Memory Utilization, IP Range, CPU Utilization, Page Swap, Context Switches, Page Fault, Disk Data I/O, Scheduling and Server / User Application Load are the citrix load evaluators that are supporting.

How to reset IE from command prompt

Kindly Run this command as administrator 

1. Open Command Prompt and tpye RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ResetIEtoDefaults

2. You'll be prompted to reset Internet Explorer settings

3. You'll be prompted to reset Internet Explorer settings.

Change Port in XenDesktop

The FMA services XenDesktop 7.x use port 80 for communication by default. If necessary, this port can be changed. Since XenDesktop 5.x release XML functionality is being included as part of the Broker Service, The port change for services can now be achieved by using the BrokerService.exe command as shown in the following section.

Open Command Prompt and navigate to the XenDesktop directory C:\Program Files\Citrix\Broker\Service. You must run Command Prompt with administrative privileges. (Right-click cmd.exe and select Run as Administrator if you are not logged in as the user with administrator rights on the server). If you do not run Command Prompt with Administrative level rights, an error might occur when trying to run the following commands.

To perform the change BrokerService.exe will be used. To see available options enter BrokerService.exe /? as listed below:

Enter BrokerService.exe /Show to display the currently used ports.

To change the WCF port, type BrokerService.exe -VdaPort <port>, as displayed below:

To change the XML port type: BrokerService.exe -wiport <port> and press Enter. Note: This change only alters communications between Web Interface or the StoreFront, and the XenDesktop Controller – it does not change the Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) Registration port used by Virtual Desktop Agents.

The CitrixBrokerService stops and then starts to complete the change

• Note: When appending the –ConfigureFirewall parameter, appropriate exceptions will be added to the Windows Firewall configuration.

Note: This change must be performed on each controller within the XenDesktop 7.x site. Citrix strongly recommends you to configure all controllers within the XenDesktop site equally.

Similarly, you can use the same procedure for the other FMA services, such as :

• BrokerService.exe -VdaPort 8081 -WCFPort 8081 -WIPort 8081 -ConfigureFirewall
• Citrix.ADIdentity.exe –SdkPort 8081 –KeyPort 8081 –SvcPort 8081 -ConfigureFirewall
• Citrix.Configuration.exe –SdkPort 8081 –SvcPort 8081 –ConfigureFirewall
• Citrix.ConfigurationLogging.exe –SdkPort 8081 –SvcPort 8081 –ConfigureFirewall
• Citrix.DelegatedAdmin.exe –SdkPort 8081 –SvcPort 8081 –ConfigureFirewall
• Citrix.EnvTest.exe –SdkPort 8081 –SvcPort 8081 –ConfigureFirewall
• Citrix.Host.exe –SdkPort 8081 –KeyPort 8081 –SvcPort 8081 –ConfigureFirewall
• Citrix.MachineCreation.exe –SdkPort 8081 –SvcPort 8081 –ConfigureFirewall
• Citrix.Monitor.exe –SdkPort 8081 –SvcPort 8081 -ODataPort 8081 –ConfigureFirewall
• Citrix.Storefront.exe –SdkPort 8081 –SvcPort 8081 –ConfigureFirewall

Note: Opening XenDesktop Studio after port modification, the Studio enquires for the delivery controller address which must be specified, including the new port <MyDeliveryController>:<port >“.
This is the same address for PowerShell but with the parameter “-AdminAddress <MyDeliveryController>:<port>“, the port has to be specified additionally.

FlexCast Management Architecture (FMA)- Features

XenApp and XenDesktop share a unified architecture called FlexCast Management Architecture (FMA). FMA’s key features are the ability to run multiple versions of XenApp or XenDesktop from a single Site and integrated provisioning.

FMA key components:

A typical XenApp or XenDesktop environment consists of a few key technology components, which interact when users connect to applications and desktops, and log data about Site activity.

v  Broker Service – a Delivery Controller service that tracks which users are logged in and where, what session resources the users have, and if users need to reconnect to existing applications. The Broker Service executes PowerShell and communicates with the Broker agent over TCP port 80. It does not have the option to use TCP port 443.

v  Broker agent – an agent that hosts multiple plugins and collects real-time data. The Broker agent is located on the VDA and is connected to the Controller by TCP port 80. It does not have the option to use TCP port 443.

v  Delivery Controller – the central management component of a XenApp or XenDesktop Site that consists of services that manage resources, applications, and desktops; and optimize and balance the loads of user connections.

v  Virtual Delivery Agent (VDA) – an agent that is installed on machines running Windows Server or Windows desktop operating systems that allows these machines and the resources they host to be made available to users. The VDA-installed machines running Windows Server OS allow the machine to host multiple connections for multiple users and are connected to users on

   one of the following ports:

v  TCP port 80 or port 443 if SSL is enabled

v  TCP port 2598, if Citrix Gateway Protocol (CGP) is enabled, which enables session reliability

v  TCP port 1494 if CGP is disabled or if the user is connecting with a legacy client

v  Citrix Receiver – a software client that is installed on the user device, supplies the connection to the virtual machine via TCP port 80 or 443, and communicates with StoreFront using the StoreFront Service API.

v  StoreFront – the interface that authenticates users, manages applications and desktops, and hosts the application store. StoreFront communicates with the Delivery Controller using XML.

v  Monitor Service – a Delivery Controller component that collects historical data and puts it in the Site database by default. The Monitor Service communicates on TCP port 80 or 443.

v  ICA File/Stack – bundled user information that is required to connect to the VDA.

v  Site Database – a Microsoft SQL database that stores data for the Delivery Controller, such as site policies, machine catalogs, and delivery groups.

v  NetScaler Gateway – a data-access solution that provides secure access inside or outside the LAN’s firewall with additional credentials.

v  Director – a web-based tool that allows administers access to real-time data from the Broker agent, historical data from the Site database, and HDX data from NetScaler for troubleshooting and support. Director communicates with the Controller on TCP port 80 or 443.

v  Studio – a management console that allows administers to configure and manage Sites and gives access to real-time data from the Broker agent. Studio communicates with the Controller on TCP port 80.