Planning a XenDesktop Deployment

2013-05-22 15:28:53 UTC 2013 Citrix Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Terms of Use | Trademarks | Privacy Statement

Contents

Planning a XenDesktop Deployment ...................................................................... High Availability Planning....................................................................... Active Directory Considerations ............................................................... Web Interface Considerations .................................................................. Delegated Administration....................................................................... Security Planning for XenDesktop ............................................................. User Access and Experience .................................................................... High Availability of the Virtual Desktop Agent ..............................................

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Planning a XenDesktop Deployment

XenDesktop allows you to grow your deployment at a rate that best suits your organization. You can start with a simple default configuration, which you release to additional user groups at a later time. It is important to think about your deployment in terms of user needs and focus your pilot on the users who will see the most immediate benefit. If you are not ready to transition your users to virtual desktops, you can start with a Remote PC deployment that enables them to access their office PCs and take advantage of Citrix HDX features, and then add traditional virtual desktops and application deployments later. In addition to the essential elements listed here, Project Accelerator is a web application that relays Citrix Consulting Services best practices for a XenDesktop deployment project. Accelerator provides you with:

Step-by-step instructions for a fast, successful XenDesktop deployment Sizing plan with detailed storage and other hardware needs. The latest Citrix best practices to help you make informed decisions based on real-world,XenDesktop installations An architecture that you can use to plan your deployment

The following are examples of sizing and architecture plans you can produce through Accelerator. For more information and to get started, see the Project Accelerator pages. Figure 1. Project Accelerator sizing plan example

Planning a XenDesktop Deployment

Figure 2. Project Accelerator architecture plan example

The essential elements you need to have in place for a working XenDesktop site are:

Planning a XenDesktop Deployment

A server to host:

The Controller The License Server. By default, this is installed when you install XenDesktop, but you can choose to use a separate server for licensing. For further information on licensing, see: Licensing. The database. By default, a database is created locally when you install XenDesktop, but you can choose to use a database on a separate server. Important: If you intend using an external database created manually, not created using Desktop Studio, ensure your database administrator uses the following collation setting when creating the database: Latin1_General_CI_AS_KS (where Latin1_General varies depending on the country; for example Japanese_CI_AS_KS). If this collation setting is not specified during database creation, subsequent creation of the XenDesktop service schemas within the database will fail, and an error similar to "<service>: schema requires a case-insensitive database" appears (where <service> is the name of the service whose schema is being created). For further information on setting up the site database, see To configure a XenDesktop site.

Desktop Studio. The console used to configure and manage your XenDesktop deployment. By default, this is installed on servers on which you install the Controller, but you can install it on a separate computer if you want to manage your deployment remotely.

Desktop Director. The console for level-1 and level-2 IT Support staff to monitor a XenDesktop deployment and perform day-to-day maintenance tasks. By default, this is installed on servers on which you install the Controller, but you can choose to install it on a separate computer. A domain controller running Active Directory. Active Directory is required for XenDesktop. Do not install either XenDesktop or the SQL Server database on a domain controller. For more information on Active Directory, see Active Directory Considerations.

Consider the potential implications of the domain name you select. Domain names that may have a duplicate meaning can cause issues in your environment. For example, the string 'client' is also used to access client drive mapping.

VMs or physical computers hosting the desktops you want to deliver to your users. You install the Virtual Desktop Agent on these machines to manage communications and broker connections. User devices running the appropriate client to enable your users to access desktops.

Example Deployments
This topic shows examples of typical XenDesktop deployments, from a simple default configuration to a complex one involving multiple sites. Simple Default Configuration

Planning a XenDesktop Deployment

Figure 3. A single controller configuration of XenDesktop, typical of an initial deployment Note that this configuration forms a single point of failure for administration and session brokering. Distributed Components Configuration You can distribute the components of your deployment among a greater number of servers, or provide greater scalability and failover by increasing the number of controllers in your site. You can install the management consoles on separate computers to enable you to manage your deployment remotely. A distributed deployment is also necessary for an infrastructure based on remote access through Access Gateway.

Planning a XenDesktop Deployment

Figure 4. A distributed components configuration of XenDesktop Further components available with XenDesktop to enhance your deployment include:

XenServer, which is a host used for scalable and cost-effective hosting of desktops. XenApp to deliver applications to your users either by streaming them to virtual desktops or hosting them on a XenApp server. For information on using XenApp with XenDesktop, see Using XenApp with XenDesktop. Profile management to ensure that your users get a consistent experience every time they log on by managing user personalization settings. For more information, see the Profile management documentation.

For more information about Citrix Access Gateway for secure remote access, Edgesight performance monitoring, Branch Repeater for WAN optimization, Workflow Studio and StorageLink, see XenDesktop Features and Editions and the product-specific documentation. Multiple Site Configuration If you have multiple regional sites, for example one in Europe and one in the US, you can use Citrix NetScaler to direct user connections to the most appropriate site and the Web Interface to deliver desktops and applications to users. In the following example, each site is split into two data centers, with the database mirrored or clustered between the data centers to provide a high availability configuration. Having two sites globally, rather than just one, minimizes the amount of unnecessary WAN traffic. A separate Desktop Studio console is required to manage each site; sites cannot be managed as a single entity. Desktop Director can be used to support users across sites.

Planning a XenDesktop Deployment Citrix NetScaler accelerates application performance, load balances servers, increases security, and optimizes the user experience. In the example below, two NetScalers are used to provide a high availability configuration. The NetScalers are configured for Global Server Load Balancing and positioned in the DMZ to provide a multi-site, fault-tolerant solution.

Figure 5. A configuration consisting of multiple regional sites and data centers

High Availability Planning

This topic outlines ways in which you can increase the level of fault tolerance in a XenDesktop deployment to ensure that business-critical applications and desktops are always available. It also provides pointers to further information and products. Note: For information about configuring the Virtual Desktop Agent to operate in high availability mode, see High Availability of the Virtual Desktop Agent.

Configuring Database Fault Tolerance

In XenDesktop, all information is stored on the database; controllers communicate only with the database and not with each other. A controller may be unplugged or turned off without this affecting other controllers in the site. This means, however, that the database forms a single point of failure. If the database server fails, existing connections to virtual desktops will continue to function until the user either logs off or disconnects from their virtual desktop; new connections cannot be established if the database server is unavailable. Citrix recommends that you backup the database regularly so that you can restore from the backup if the database server fails. In addition to this good practice, there are three other high availability solutions to consider for ensuring automatic failover. The benefits and disadvantages of each of these solutions are outlined below: 1. SQL Mirroring. This is the recommended solution. Mirroring the database ensures that, should you lose the active database server, the automatic failover process happens quickly in a matter of seconds, so users are generally unaffected. This method, however, is more expensive than alternative solutions because full SQL server licenses are required on each database server; you cannot use SQL Express. 2. Using the hypervisor's high availability features. With this method, you deploy the database as a virtual machine and use your hypervisor's high availability features. This solution is less expensive than mirroring as it uses your existing host software and you can also use SQL Express. However, the automatic failover process is slower as it can take time for a new machine to start for the database, which may interrupt the service to users. 3. SQL Clustering. Microsoft's SQL clustering technology can be used to automatically allow one server to take over the tasks and responsibilities of another server that has failed. However, setting up this solution is more complicated, and the automatic failover process typically slower than with alternatives such as SQL Mirroring. Note: If you want to mirror the XenDesktop database, ensure that the database uses the full recovery model and not the simple model. When Desktop Studio is used to create a database on an external SQL server, the database is configured to use the simple model by default; this means the transaction log cannot be backed up and the database cannot be mirrored. To ensure the database is configured to use the full recovery model, create the database manually and then use Desktop Studio to generate the necessary setup scripts to be run on the database. For more information about configuring XenDesktop for use with a mirrored database, see http://support.citrix.com/article/ctx127359. For more information about reconfiguring an existing XenDesktop site to use a mirrored database, 9

High Availability Planning see http://support.citrix.com/article/ctx127538.

Configuring Site Failover

You can specify XenDesktop sites for emergency use when users cannot access their production sites; for example, due to a power failure or network outage. This allows you to make provisions to deal with loss of access to production servers, and to ensure critical applications and desktops are always available. To specify alternate XenDesktop sites, you use the Web Interface to direct users to a list of recovery sites when none of their normal sites can be reached. To do this, configure the Web Interface RecoveryFarm setting with a list of alternate sites. Should no primary sites be available, the sites in the RecoveryFarm list are tried one after another until a working site is found. For more information about configuring the RecoveryFarm setting, see the Web Interface documentation. To further increase the level of fault tolerance, Citrix recommends you use the intelligent load balancing features of NetScaler. In addition to providing users with a single access point, NetScaler can validate that Web Interface and XML services are functioning properly before directing user requests to Web Interface servers. This prevents users from being directed to servers with inactive services and ensures failover occurs promptly when there is a disruption. Fault tolerance can be increased yet further by using the Global Server Load Balancing (GSLB) features of NetScaler. With GSLB in front of Web Interface, you can route users to an alternative site that is still running and reachable. For more information, see the NetScaler Administration Guide and the NetScaler High Availability and GSLB knowledge base articles available on the Citrix Web site. To ensure users always access their own virtual desktops and data, regardless of where they connect from, you can use the site roaming feature of Web Interface. For example, if you have users who travel between Europe and the US, or connect from home using laptops, you can ensure that they always connect to their own virtual desktops and user data from different sites. To enable site roaming support, you configure the Web Interface, using the Farm<n>Groups parameter, to direct users to the appropriate data center for their virtual desktops. For more information, see the topic about configuring XenDesktop user roaming in your Web Interface documentation.

Example
The following example shows a high availability configuration consisting of a primary site and a disaster-recovery site. Each site is split into two data centers, with the database mirrored to provide a fault-tolerant configuration. In the event of an outage in the primary site, NetScalers configured for Global Server Load Balancing, positioned in the DMZ in front of the Web Interface, load balance and route user connections to the disaster-recovery site. NetScalers are also positioned between the Web Interface and the XenDesktop sites to determine if a site is working properly.

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High Availability Planning

Figure 1. High Availability Configuration

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Active Directory Considerations

Active Directory is required in a XenDesktop deployment for authentication and authorization. Active Directory can also be used for controller discovery, if you decide not to use the default registry-based discovery mechanism. This topic explains how XenDesktop uses Active Directory, how to employ Active Directory-based discovery, and it outlines the Active Directory environments that are supported. XenDesktop uses the services provided by Active Directory for two main purposes:

Security. Active Directory's inbuilt security infrastructure is used by desktops to verify that communications from controllers come from authorized controllers in the appropriate site. Active Directory's security infrastructure also ensures that the data exchanged by desktops and controllers is confidential. XenDesktop uses Active Directory's inbuilt Kerberos infrastructure to guarantee the authenticity and confidentiality of communication. For more information about Kerberos, refer to Microsoft's product documentation. Discovery. Active Directory is optionally used by desktops to discover the controllers that constitute a site. This means you can add a new controller to a site without having to reconfigure all desktops in the site. Instead, desktops determine which controllers are available by referring to information that controllers publish in Active Directory. This feature is available only if the desktops are in the same Active Directory forest as the controllers.

Note: By default, controller discovery is registry-based, and XenDesktop requires no objects to be created in Active Directory. For more information about the registry entries used by registry-based discovery, see: http://support.citrix.com/article/ctx118976.

Active Directory-based Controller Discovery

During installation of the Virtual Desktop Agent, you can choose to use Active Directory-based discovery rather than the default registry-based discovery. Active Directory-based discovery requires that all computers in a site are members of a domain, with mutual trusting relationships between the domain used by controller and the domain(s) used by desktops. Note: If your organizational structure means that you need a deployment where the controllers are in a separate Active Directory forest from the desktops for your users, see http://support.citrix.com/article/ctx122417 for details of how to configure a supported solution. When you create a site, a corresponding Organizational Unit (OU) must be created in Active Directory if you want desktops to discover the controllers in the site through Active Directory. The OU can be created in any domain in the forest that contains your computers. As best practice, the OU should also contain the controllers in the farm, but this is not enforced or required. A domain administrator with appropriate privileges can create the OU as an empty container. The domain administrator can then delegate administrative authority over the OU to a XenDesktop administrator.

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Active Directory Considerations If the XenDesktop administrator has CreateChild permissions on a parent OU, this administrator can create and populate the site OU by running a PowerShell script, called 'Set-ADControllerDiscovery.ps1'. You can use the standard Active Directory Users and Computers MMC snap-in to configure these permissions. Also, to run Set-ADControllerDiscovery.ps1, the administrator must have full administration rights on XenDesktop. A small number of objects that are essential for the operation of the farm are created in the OU. Note: Only standard Active Directory objects are created and used by XenDesktop. It is not necessary to extend the schema. The set of objects created includes:

A Controllers security group. The computer account of all controllers in the site must be a member of this security group. Desktops in a site accept data from controllers only if they are members of this security group. Ensure that all controllers have the 'Access this computer from the network' privilege on all virtual desktops running the Virtual Desktop Agent. You can do this by giving the Controllers security group this privilege. If controllers do not have this privilege, virtual desktops will fail to register.

A Service Connection Point (SCP) object that contains information about the site, such as the site's name. Note: If you use the Active Directory Users and Computers administrative tool to inspect a site OU, you may have to enable Advanced Features in the View menu to see SCP objects.

A container called RegistrationServices, which is created within the site's OU. This contains one SCP object for each controller in the site. The SCP is created when the Set-ADControllerDiscovery.ps1 script is run. Each time the controller starts, it validates the contents of its SCP and updates them if necessary.

If multiple administrators are likely to add and remove controllers after the initial installation is complete, they need permissions to create and delete children on the RegistrationServices container and Write properties on the Controllers security group (these permissions are granted automatically to the administrator who creates or populates the OU by running the Set-ADControllerDiscovery.ps1 script). Either the domain administrator or the original installing administrator can grant these permissions, and Citrix recommends setting up a security group to do this. The following points are important to bear in mind when you are using a site OU with XenDesktop:

Information is written to Active Directory only when installing or uninstalling XenDesktop, or when a controller starts and needs to update the information in its SCP (for example, because the controller was renamed or because the communication port was changed). By default, the Set-ADControllerDiscovery.ps1 script sets up permissions on the objects in the site's OU appropriately, giving controllers Write access to their SCP. The contents of the objects in the site OU are used to establish trust between desktops and controllers. You should ensure that:

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Active Directory Considerations

Only authorized administrators can add or remove computers from the Controllers security group, using the security group's access control list (ACL) Only authorized administrators and the respective controller can change the information in the controller's SCP

Depending on your Active Directory infrastructure, you should be aware of replication and its impact on a XenDesktop implementation. Refer to Microsoft's documentation to understand the concepts of replication and associated delays. This is particularly important if you create the site's OU in a domain that has domain controllers located in multiple Active Directory sites. Depending on the location of desktops, controllers, and domain controllers, changes that are made to Active Directory when you are initially creating the OU for the site, installing or uninstalling controllers, or changing controller names or communication ports may not be visible to desktops until that information is replicated to the appropriate domain controller. The symptoms of such replication delay include desktops that cannot establish contact with controllers and are, therefore, not available for user connections. XenDesktop uses some of the standard computer object attributes in Active Directory to manage desktops. Depending on your setup, the machine object's fully qualified domain name, as stored in the desktop's Active Directory record, can be included as part of the connection settings that are returned to the user to make a connection. It is, therefore, important to ensure that this information is consistent with information held in your DNS environment.

Supported Active Directory Environments

XenDesktop supports deployments in which the user accounts and computer accounts exist in domains in a single Active Directory forest. User and computer accounts can exist in arbitrary domains within a single forest. All domain functional levels and forest functional levels are supported in this type of deployment. XenDesktop also supports deployments in which user accounts exist in an Active Directory forest that is different from the Active Directory forest containing the computer accounts of the controllers and virtual desktops. In this type of deployment, the domain(s) containing the controller and virtual desktop computer accounts must trust the domain(s) containing user accounts. Forest trusts or external trusts can be used. All domain functional levels and forest functional levels are supported in this type of deployment. Additionally, XenDesktop supports deployments in which the computer accounts for controllers exist in an Active Directory forest that is different from one or more additional Active Directory forests that contain the computer accounts of the virtual desktops. In this type of deployment a bi-directional trust must exist between the domain(s) containing the controller computer accounts and all domain(s) containing the virtual desktop computer accounts. In this type of deployment, all domains containing controller or virtual desktop computer accounts must be at "Windows 2000 native" functional level or higher. All forest functional levels are supported. For more information about enabling this type of deployment, see http://support.citrix.com/article/ctx122417.

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Web Interface Considerations

Citrix Web Interface is installed by default on all servers on which you install the controller, together with three Web sites. This topic provides details about the additional options you have in relation to the Web Interface and the default Web sites. The default sites are typically created in the following locations when the Web Interface is installed:

The desktop appliance site, for XenDesktop-ready thin clients, is: \Inetpub\wwwroot\Citrix\DesktopAppliance The XenDesktop Services site, for full-screen-only use with domain-joined Windows XP and XPe appliances, is: \Inetpub\wwwroot\Citrix\PNAgent The XenDesktop Web site, for window view mode users who need to be able to access multiple desktops or to access desktops from a browser, is: \Inetpub\wwwroot\Citrix\DesktopWeb This is the default site that users are presented with if they browse just to the controller address.

To modify the desktop appliance site, you must edit the configuration files as described in the Web Interface documentation. The other default sites are standard Web Interface sites and you can modify them through the Web Interface Management Console. For remote access through Access Gateway, you need to create a new Web Interface site. For information about creating sites, and details of how to modify the site's user interface to refer to desktops rather than applications, see the Web Interface documentation.

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Delegated Administration
This topic describes the different XenDesktop administration roles and responsibilities. Citrix administrators are not set up automatically during XenDesktop installation. After installation, only local administrators on the server running the Controller have full administrative privileges, with authority to manage and administer all areas of the XenDesktop site. Only an administrator with full rights can create additional full or delegated administrators. Note: Local administrators on the Controller always have full administrative privileges; these privileges always take precedence, regardless of delegated privileges that may later be explicitly assigned by Citrix administrators. However, Citrix recommends that for normal operation, you create Citrix administrators with the appropriate rights, rather than use the Local administrators account. Granting local administrators on the Controller full rights allows these administrators to configure the XenDesktop deployment and prevents a deployment from unintentionally being rendered unmanageable should all explicit administrators be removed.

XenDesktop Administration Roles

There are five types of XenDesktop administrator:

Full administrator. This administrator has full administration rights with authority to manage and administer the entire XenDesktop site. Full administrators can perform any of the roles listed below, such as that of the machine or assignment administrator. Following XenDesktop installation, only local administrators on the server running the Controller have this role and can create further full or delegated administrators. Note that, to configure hosts, you must be a full administrator. Read-only administrator. This administrator can see all aspects of the XenDesktop site but has no authority to change any settings; any attempted edits will not be saved. Machine administrator. This administrator owns the catalogs and is responsible for building the virtual desktops. The machine administrator can specify which assignment administrators can consume the images created. This administrator can also see other aspects of the XenDesktop site. Assignment administrator. This administrator takes the virtual desktops created by the machine administrator, wraps these in one or more desktop groups and assigns them to users. The assignment administrator can specify which help desk administrators are permitted to support these users; for example, based on geographical roles. This administrator can also see other aspects of the XenDesktop site. Help desk administrator. This administrator performs day-to-day monitoring and maintenance tasks. Help desk administrators can perform the following actions on desktop groups:

Send messages

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Delegated Administration

Session controls: Disconnect; Logoff Power controls (XenServer; this may differ on other hosts): Suspend; Restart; Force restart; Shut down; Force shutdown; Start

Note: For more information about displaying administration rights and creating additional administrators, see Delegating Administration Tasks. For more information about Desktop Director administration roles, see the Desktop Director documentation.

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Security Planning for XenDesktop

This topic describes:

General security best practices when using XenDesktop, and any security-related differences between XenDesktop and a conventional computer environment Managing user privileges Deployment scenarios and their security implications

Your organization may need to meet specific security standards to satisfy regulatory requirements. This document does not cover this subject, because such security standards change over time. For up-to-date information on security standards and Citrix products, consult Security and Compliance Information, or contact your Citrix representative.

Security Best Practices

Keep all computers in your environment up to date with security patches. One advantage of XenDesktop is that you can use thin clients as terminals, which simplifies this task. Protect all computers in your environment with antivirus software. Protect all computers in your environment with perimeter firewalls, including at enclave boundaries as appropriate. If you are migrating a conventional environment to XenDesktop, you may need to reposition an existing perimeter firewall or add new perimeter firewalls. For example, suppose there is a perimeter firewall between a conventional client and database server in the data center. When XenDesktop is used, that perimeter firewall must instead be placed so that the virtual desktop and user device are on one side of it, and the database servers and controllers in the data center are on the other side. You should, therefore, consider creating an enclave within your data center to contain the servers and controllers used by XenDesktop. You should also consider having protection between the user device and the virtual desktop. All computers in your environment should be protected by a personal firewall on the computer. When the Virtual Desktop Agent is installed, it prompts for consent to adjust the configuration of the Microsoft Windows Firewall to add any necessary program exceptions or port exceptions so that the Virtual Desktop Agent will operate correctly. These exceptions are displayed by Windows Firewall in the usual way. The exceptions are removed if the Virtual Desktop Agent is uninstalled. If you are using a personal firewall other than Windows Firewall, you must adjust the firewall configuration manually. For further details about configuring firewalls, see To configure firewalls manually. Note: TCP ports 1494 and 2598 are used for ICA and CGP and are therefore likely to be open at firewalls so that users outside the data center can access them. Citrix recommends that you do not use these ports for anything else, to avoid the possibility of inadvertently leaving administrative interfaces open to attack. Ports 1494 and 2598 are officially registered with the Internet Assigned Number Authority (see 18

Security Planning for XenDesktop http://www.iana.org/). All network communications should be appropriately secured and encrypted as appropriate to match your security policy. You can secure all communication between Microsoft Windows computers using IPSec; refer to your operating system documentation for details about how to do this. In addition, communication between user devices and desktops is secured through Citrix SecureICA, which is configured by default to 128-bit encryption. You can configure SecureICA when you are creating or updating an assignment; see To secure desktop groups.

Managing User Privileges

You should grant users only the capabilities they require. Microsoft Windows privileges continue to be applied to desktops in the usual way: configure privileges through User Rights Assignment and group memberships through Group Policy. One advantage of XenDesktop is that it is possible to grant a user administrative rights to a desktop without also granting physical control over the computer on which the desktop is stored. When planning for desktop privileges, note:

By default, when non-privileged users connect to a desktop, they see the time zone of the system running the desktop instead of the time zone of their own user device. For information on how to allow users to see their local time when using desktops, see Configuring Time Zone Settings A user who is an administrator on a desktop has full control over that desktop. If a desktop is a pooled desktop rather than a dedicated desktop, the user must be trusted in respect of all other users of that desktop, including future users. All users of the desktop need to be aware of the potential permanent risk to their data security posed by this situation. This consideration does not apply to dedicated desktops, which have only a single user; that user should not be an administrator on any other desktop. Note: For information about how to use standard Windows procedures to grant users administrative privileges only over the desktop to which they are connected, see http://support.citrix.com/article/ctx116942/.

A user who is an administrator on a desktop can generally install software on that desktop, including potentially malicious software. The user can also potentially monitor or control traffic on any network connected to the desktop.

Deployment Scenario Security Implications

Your user environment can consist either of user devices that are unmanaged by your organization and completely under the control of the user, or of user devices that are managed and administered by your organization. The security considerations for these two environments are generally different. Managed User Devices Managed user devices are under administrative control; they are either under your own control, or the control of another organization that you trust. You may configure and supply user devices directly to users; alternatively, you may provide terminals on which a single desktop runs in full-screen-only mode (XenDesktop-ready thin clients). You should follow 19

Security Planning for XenDesktop

A managed user device can be set up to be used in full-screen-only mode or in window mode:

If a user device is configured to be used in full-screen-only mode, users log on to it with the usual Log On To Windows screen. The same user credentials are then used to log on automatically to XenDesktop. If a user device is configured so that users see their desktop in a window, users first log on to the user device, then log on to XenDesktop through the XenDesktop Web site supplied with XenDesktop.

Unmanaged User Devices User devices that are not managed and administered by a trusted organization cannot be assumed to be under administrative control. For example, you might permit users to obtain and configure their own devices, but users might not follow the general security best practices described above. XenDesktop has the advantage that it is possible to deliver desktops securely to unmanaged user devices. These devices should still have basic antivirus protection that will defeat keylogger and similar input attacks. Data Storage Considerations When using XenDesktop, you can prevent users from storing data on user devices that are under their physical control. However, you must still consider the implications of users storing data on desktops. It is not good practice for users to store data on desktops; data should be held on file servers, database servers, or other repositories where it can be appropriately protected. Your desktop environment may consist of various types of desktops, such as pooled and dedicated desktops:

Users should never store data on desktops that are shared amongst users, such as pooled desktops. If users store data on dedicated desktops, that data should be removed if the desktop is later made available to other users.

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User Access and Experience

This topic outlines the user experience, depending on how users access their virtual desktops, such as the logon page displayed, whether sessions appear in full screen or window mode, and whether a toolbar is available or not. Understanding the implications of user access helps you determine how accessible the local operating system is to users. For example, you may wish to restrict some users to virtual desktops only, while allowing others access to their local operating system as well as their virtual desktops. The main user access scenarios supported for XenDesktop are:

Using a non-domain-joined thin client to access a single virtual desktop (Scenario A in the tables below) Using a domain-joined thin client or repurposed computer to access a single virtual desktop (Scenario B in the tables below) Using a client computer to access multiple virtual desktops (Scenario C in the tables below)

The following table shows the requirements for each scenario: Scenario A User device OS Windows XP, Windows XP Embedded Browser required Yes Web Interface site Desktop Appliance Client Desktop Appliance Lock in Citrix online plug-in 12.1 Citrix Receiver for Linux 11.100 No XenDesktop Services See manufact urer's docume ntation for the relevant thin client Desktop Viewer in Citrix online plug-in 12.1 Client for Windows CE 10.x Citrix online plug-in for Macintosh 11.2 Preinstalled by administrator Client install Preinstalled by administrator

Linux

Windows XP, Windows XP Embedded

Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP Windows CE

Yes

XenDesktop Web

Preinstalled by administrator or through auto client detection or user prompt

Macintosh OS X

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User Access and Experience The table below summarizes the user experience for each scenario: Scenari o A Logon XenDesktop logon page followed by automatic launch of virtual desktop Windows OS logon page followed by automatic launch of virtual desktop After users click on the URL that provides access to XenDesktop: On first use: If the Citrix online plug-in is installed, the XenDesktop logon page appears followed either by a list of available virtual desktops or automatic launch if only one is available; If the Citrix online plug-in is not installed, the user is prompted to download and install the plug-in. The XenDesktop logon page appears followed either by a list of available virtual desktops or automatic launch if only one is available. On subsequent use: The XenDesktop logon page appears followed either by a list of available virtual desktops or automatic launch if only one is available. [1] A toolbar is available that allows users to switch between different virtual desktops and to customize desktops.
[2]

Virtual desktop display Full screen virtual desktop. No user device OS access. Full screen virtual desktop. No user device OS access. On first use: the virtual desktop appears in window mode. On subsequent use: the virtual desktop appears in either window or full-screen mode, depending on the display mode of the user's last virtual desktop session. User device OS access available.

Toolbar[1] No

No

Yes3

The first time users connect, a Welcome screen appears followed by the XenDesktop logon page.
[3]

You can disable the toolbar using the Web Interface.conf parameter "ShowDesktop Viewer"; for more information, see the Web Interface documentation. If window size must be constrained to a fixed size, disabling the toolbar allows Web Interface settings to take effect. For full XenDesktop 5 functionality, use the Desktop Viewer in the Citrix online plug-in 12.1. Other clients provide differing levels of functionality: see the specific client documentation 22

User Access and Experience for details. Citrix also recommends that you regularly check http://www.citrix.com/English/ss/downloads/for new versions of the clients, which may offer further enhancements.

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High Availability of the Virtual Desktop Agent

If all controllers in a XenDesktop site fail, you can configure the Virtual Desktop Agent to operate in high availability mode so that users can continue to access and use their desktops. In high availability mode, the Virtual Desktop Agent will accept direct ICA connections from users, rather than connections brokered by the controller. Note: This feature is for use only on the rare occasion that communication with all controllers fails; it is not an alternative to other high availability solutions, such as configuring database fault tolerance and site failover. Before using this feature, refer to the list of limitations below as these have security implications. If communication with the controller fails, high availability mode is initiated only after a set period of time has elapsed. By default, this is 300 seconds (5 minutes), but you can configure the time period. Once in high availability mode, the Virtual Desktop Agent attempts to register with a controller for up to 30 days, while the user continues to use the desktop in this mode. When the controller later becomes available, the desktop registers and the user's session continues uninterrupted, but any subsequent connection is brokered by the controller as normal. If, after 30 days, the desktop is unable to register with the controller, the desktop stops listening for connections and is no longer available. This means the administrator has 30 days to repair the controller infrastructure and should not rely on high availability mode. High availability mode is suitable only for use with dedicated desktops, where the mapping between the user and the Virtual Desktop Agent is known. You cannot configure high availability mode for use with pooled desktops. To enable high availability mode, you: 1. Set the HighAvailability and HaRegistrarTimeout registry keys. 2. Provide users with an ICA launch file that enables them to make direct ICA connections. Create an ICA file for each user who requires this feature; Citrix does not create or distribute ICA files for this purpose. Setting the Registry Keys To configure the Virtual Desktop Agent so that it operates in high availability mode when necessary, add the following registry key or keys. Do this after the Virtual Desktop Agent has been installed. Caution: Editing the Registry incorrectly can cause serious problems that might require you to reinstall your operating system. Citrix cannot guarantee that problems resulting from incorrect use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use Registry Editor at your own risk. Be sure to back up the registry before you edit it. 1. Add the following registry entry (of type REG_DWORD) to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Citrix\VirtualDesktopAgent: HighAvailability.

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High Availability of the Virtual Desktop Agent Set this to 1 to enable high availability mode; 0 (zero), to disable it. 2. To change the time period that the Virtual Desktop Agent tries to register with the controller before initiating high availability mode, add the following registry entry (of type REG_DWORD): HaRegistrarTimeout. Specify the number of seconds. The default is 300 seconds. 3. Restart the virtual desktop. Preparing an ICA Launch File To establish a direct ICA connection to desktops, provide users with an ICA launch file that they can use of communication with the controller fails. Create an ICA launch file for each user who requires this feature; Citrix does not create or distribute ICA files for this purpose. For information on how to create ICA files, see http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX127392. Tell your users when it is appropriate to use this ICA launch file and where they can access it from. High Availability Mode Limitations High availability mode is suitable for use only with dedicated desktops; you cannot configure this for use with pooled desktops. In high availability mode, some features are unavailable, including those in the following list:

User roaming. If a client device is already connected to the desktop, users are unable to connect from a different client device. Power management. When the desktop powers up, it attempts to register, fails and, after the timeout, enters high availability mode. Controller-originated policies. Policies originating on the controller, such as those governing client drive mapping and access to the clipboard, will not function because there is no connection to the controller. Policies originating from the Domain Controller and Local Group Policy are unaffected. Access Gateway and Remote Access

High availability mode persists for up to 30 days only, after which the desktop is no longer available.

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