operations and maintenance guide - success accelerator for xendesktop 5 v1.0

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Success Accelerator

Citrix XenDesktop Operations and Maintenance Guide

Citrix Worldwide Consulting Solutions


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Table of Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 1

Operations and Maintenance ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Citrix XenDesktop ..................................................................................................................... 2

Overview ....................................................................................................................................................................... 2 Periodic Tasks .............................................................................................................................................................. 2

Daily Periodic Tasks ............................................................................................................................................ 2 Weekly Periodic Tasks ........................................................................................................................................ 2 Yearly Periodic Tasks .......................................................................................................................................... 3 Preventative Maintenance ................................................................................................................................... 3

Citrix XenApp ............................................................................................................................ 4 Overview ....................................................................................................................................................................... 4 Periodic Tasks .............................................................................................................................................................. 4


Citrix Provisioning Services....................................................................................................... 7 Overview ....................................................................................................................................................................... 7 Periodic Tasks .............................................................................................................................................................. 7



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Introduction

After a new XenDesktop environment has been designed and rolled out to production users, there are ongoing tasks required to keep everything running smoothly. This document describes those periodic tasks that are recommended to be executed to support the components of a new Citrix XenDesktop infrastructure.

Operations and Maintenance

Monitoring the new environment enables administrators to address issues proactively. By having an in-depth understanding of current and expected behavior of the various components, administrators are better equipped to discover an issue before it impacts the user community.

Make sure to define the monitoring activities that administrators will perform on a periodic basis, as well as the tools that will be used. In addition, determine which reports will be made available to management.

A variety of built-in and customizable reports exist within the Citrix products so that administrators can track trends, effectively plan capacity, and address auditing requirements. In addition, troubleshooting is typically minimized when administrators fully utilize the tools integrated into the Platinum edition, as well as other third party tools.

Citrix Consulting recommends that support staff and administrators involved in this implementation review the product documents, articles, and guides to support, manage and administer the environment. All of these documents are available from the Citrix Product Documentation Library (http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/index.jsp) or on the Citrix Knowledge Base (http://support.citrix.com).

The remaining sections of this document identify the maintenance tasks (daily, weekly, yearly and preventative) required to support each component of the XenDesktop Platinum edition.

http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/index.jsp

http://support.citrix.com/


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Citrix XenDesktop

The section describes the periodic tasks that are recommended to be executed to support the Citrix XenDesktop infrastructure within the new environment.

Overview

Several tasks need to be performed to ensure a stable, scalable Citrix XenDesktop platform.

The team responsible for supporting and managing the Citrix XenDesktop infrastructure should perform regular tasks that should be incorporated into the existing standard operating procedures. These are usually broken down into daily, weekly or yearly tasks.

Periodic Tasks

Daily Periodic Tasks

The following table outlines the necessary tasks that should be undertaken by the appropriate Citrix XenDesktop administrators on a daily basis:

Daily Tasks – Citrix XenDesktop

Event log checking Checking of the event logs on all Citrix XenDesktop (Desktop Delivery Controller) servers including Windows System, Application and Error logs.

Citrix XenDesktop Alerts Checking of the Citrix XenDesktop alerts in Desktop Studio needs to be performed at least once per day to ensure no issues have occurred with the Citrix XenDesktop environment.

Check Citrix XenDesktop logs

Checking of Citrix XenDesktop specific application logs including the Pool Management Logs. To assist with troubleshooting efforts, refer to Comprehensive List of Event Log Messages for XenDesktop on http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX119978

Test Virtual Desktop Access

Simulate a connection to ensure access to Desktop Groups (Pooled and Assigned) is available to users.

Weekly Periodic Tasks

The following table outlines the necessary tasks that should be undertaken by the appropriate Citrix XenDesktop administrators on a weekly basis:

Weekly Tasks – Citrix XenDesktop

Review Access Management Console

Check the status of the Citrix XenDesktop Desktop Groups, Idle Pool count and connectivity to backend hosting infrastructure.

Hotfixes and Patches Review the latest Citrix hotfixes and ascertain whether the XenDesktop Controller and virtual desktops require them.

Printer Drivers Review the local installation of printer drivers on the virtual desktops, if required for auto-creation.

Review Citrix Knowledge Base for latest incidents

Review incidents logged for any common issues related to Citrix XenDesktop on http://support.citrix.com/

http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX119978

http://support.citrix.com/product/xd/



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Backup Citrix XenDesktop Database

Perform full-data backup of the Citrix XenDesktop Datastore (could be a daily task due to size of the transaction log)

Backup User Data Backup user-related file data.

Yearly Periodic Tasks

The following table outlines the necessary tasks that should be undertaken by the appropriate Citrix XenDesktop administrators on a yearly basis:

Yearly Tasks – Citrix XenDesktop

Perform restore test Conduct backup tests to validate the actual restore process is functioning correctly.

Citrix Policy Assessment Review Citrix Policies and determine whether new policies are required and existing policies need to be updated.

Software Upgrade Review and asses the requirement for new Citrix XenDesktop software releases/versions.

Capacity Assessment Perform capacity assessment of the Citrix XenDesktop environment.

Preventative Maintenance

As a part of your preventative maintenance routine for your Citrix XenDesktop environment, Citrix Xnapshot for XenDesktop should be run on regular three month intervals. This tool collects a wealth of information about the underlying system and its configuration, such as BIOS information, registry information, device drivers, Windows services, installed hotfixes, Citrix binaries, and Citrix XenDesktop farm information.

Citrix recommends that the following key Microsoft Windows services be monitored on all of the Citrix XenDesktop (Desktop Delivery Controller) servers to ensure reliability.

Citrix XenDesktop Services to be Monitored

Citrix Desktop Delivery Controller Service

Citrix Diagnostic Facility COM Server

Citrix Management Server

Citrix MFCOM Service

Citrix Pool Management Service

Citrix Services Manager

Citrix XTE Server

IPSEC Services

Remote Procedure Call (RPC)

Server

Windows Management Instrumentation Driver Extensions

Workstation



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Citrix XenApp

The section describes the periodic tasks that are recommended to be executed to support the Citrix XenApp infrastructure within the new environment.

Overview

Several tasks need to be performed to ensure a stable, scalable Citrix XenApp platform.

The team responsible for supporting and managing the Citrix XenApp infrastructure should perform regular tasks that should be incorporated into the existing standard operating procedures. These are usually broken down into daily, weekly or yearly tasks.

Periodic Tasks


The following table outlines the necessary tasks that should be undertaken by the appropriate Citrix XenApp administrators on a daily basis:

Daily Tasks – Citrix XenApp

Event log checking Checking of the event logs on all Citrix XenApp servers including Windows System, Application and Error logs.

Reboot schedule checking All Citrix XenApp servers are rebooted on a regular basis as part of an automated process. Ensuring the reboot of the servers has been successful is essential to maintain server health and performance.

Citrix XenApp Alerts Checking of the Citrix XenApp server alerts in the Access Management Console needs to be performed at least once per day to ensure no issues have occurred with the XenApp environment.

Suggested daily Citrix XenApp commands to be run

Qfarm /load - to check that the load of the Citrix XenApp servers are reporting correctly

Qfarm /zone - to confirm that the correct Zone Data collector is assigned

Qfarm /online - to confirm all Citrix XenApp servers are online

Test Application Access Simulate an ICA connection to ensure key applications are available to users.


The following table outlines the necessary tasks that should be undertaken by the appropriate Citrix XenApp administrators on a weekly basis:

Weekly Tasks – Citrix XenApp

Administration Configuration and Logging Reports

Confirm that Citrix XenApp farm changes taken place during the previous week have been approved.

Citrix XenApp Commands to be run

DSCheck.exe - verify that the contents of the datastore are still valid.


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Hotfixes and Patches Review the latest Citrix hotfixes and ascertain whether the Citrix XenApp farm requires them.


Review incidents logged for any common issues related to Citrix XenApp on http://support.citrix.com/

Printer Drivers Review the local installation of printer drivers on each Citrix XenApp server to ensure no rogue drivers have been installed

Backup Citrix XenApp related databases

Perform full-data backups of the following Citrix XenApp databases:

Citrix XenApp Datastore

Citrix SmartAuditor Datastore

Citrix XenApp Configuration Logging Database

Backup User Data Backup user-related file data.

Backup Application Profiles

Perform full-data backup of the Citrix XenApp application profiles used for streaming.


The following table outlines the necessary tasks that should be undertaken by the appropriate Citrix XenApp administrators on a yearly basis:

Yearly Tasks – Citrix XenApp


Citrix Policy Assessment Review Citrix Policies and determine whether new policies are required or existing policies need to be updated.

Perform BCP/DR test Conduct functional Business Continuity Plan (BCP)/Disaster Recovery (DR) test to confirm DR readiness.

Software Upgrade Assess the validity of applications. Review and asses the requirement for new Citrix Web Interface software releases/versions.

Capacity Assessment Perform capacity assessment of the Citrix XenApp environment to determine environment utilization and any scalability requirements.


Citrix recommends that the following key Microsoft Windows services be monitored on all of the Citrix XenApp servers to ensure reliability.

Citrix XenApp Services to be Monitored

Citrix Client Network

Citrix Diagnostic Facility COM Server

Citrix Encryption Service

Citrix Health Monitoring and Recovery

Citrix Independent Management Architecture

Citrix MFCOM Service

Citrix Print Manager Service

http://support.citrix.com/product/xa/



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Citrix Services Manager

Citrix SMA Service

Citrix Streaming Service

Citrix WMI Service

Citrix XTE Server

Print Spooler

Server

Remote Desktop (Terminal) Services

Citrix Systems Monitoring Agent


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Citrix Provisioning Services

The section describes the periodic tasks that are recommended to be executed to support the Citrix Provision Services infrastructure within the new environment.

Overview

Several tasks need to be performed to ensure a stable, scalable Citrix Provisioning Services platform.

The team responsible for supporting and managing the Citrix Provisioning Services infrastructure should perform regular tasks that should be incorporated into the existing standard operating procedures framework. These are usually broken down into daily, weekly or yearly tasks.

Periodic Tasks


The following table outlines the necessary tasks that should be undertaken by the appropriate Citrix Provisioning Services administrators on a daily basis:

Daily Tasks – Citrix Provisioning Services

Event log checking Checking of the event logs on all Citrix Provisioning Servers including Windows System, Application and Error logs.

Check Citrix Provisioning Server logs

Checking of Citrix Provisioning Server specific application logs including the following:

Citrix Provisioning Server logs - %APPDATA%\Citrix\Provisioning Services\logs

Reference of PXE Error Codes - http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX120956

Check Citrix Provisioning Server utilization

Check the number of target devices connected to the Citrix Provisioning Servers and balance the load across the servers, if required.


The following table outlines the necessary tasks that should be undertaken by the appropriate Citrix Provisioning Services administrators on a weekly basis:

Weekly Tasks – Citrix Provisioning Services

Backup vDisk Image Files Backup of Citrix Provisioning Server vDisk files (.VHD) on local and/or shared storage.

Backup Citrix Provisioning Server Datastore

Backup of Citrix Provisioning Server database hosted on SQL Server infrastructure.

Hotfixes and Patches Review the latest Citrix hotfixes and ascertain whether the Citrix Provisioning Server farm requires them.


Review incidents logged for any common issues related to Citrix Provisioning Server on http://support.citrix.com/


http://support.citrix.com/product/provsvr/



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Perform vDisk Updates

Update the ‘golden’ vDisk image files and apply the following:

Windows software updates and patches

Operating system and application changes

Anti-virus pattern and definitions updates

Deploy updated vDisk version to target devices post update process

Check Storage Capacity Review the storage utilization – used and free storage space for vDisks and write cache files.

Check Auditing Reports Review the Citrix Provisioning Server Auditing Logs.

Check Network and Streaming Services

Confirm DHCP, TFTP (or PXE, if applicable) and Streaming services are functional.


The following table outlines the necessary tasks that should be undertaken by the appropriate Citrix Provisioning Services administrators on a yearly basis:

Yearly Tasks – Citrix Provisioning Services

Archive Audit Reports Perform an archive of the Citrix Provisioning Server Audit Trail Information for compliance requirements.

Update vDisk Workloads Update the vDisk desktop and/or server workloads (.VHD files) to reflect the current standard operating environment, if required.


Perform BCP/DR test Conduct functional Business Continuity Plan (BCP)/Disaster Recovery (DR) test to confirm DR readiness.

Software Upgrade Review and asses the requirement for new Citrix Provisioning Server software releases/versions.

Capacity Assessment Perform capacity assessment of the Citrix Provisioning Server environment to determine environment utilization and scalability requirements including server, storage and network components.


Citrix recommends that the following key Microsoft Windows services be monitored on all of the Citrix Provisioning Services servers to ensure reliability.

Citrix Provisioning Services Services to be Monitored

Citrix PVS Soap Server

Citrix PVS Stream Service

Citrix PVS TFTP Service

Citrix PVS Two-Stage Boot Service

HTTP SSL (This is a service dependency for Citrix PVS Soap Server service)

DHCP Service (Located on Microsoft DHCP Server/s)


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Revision History

Revision Change Description Updated By Date

0.1 Document Created Worldwide Consulting Solutions November 30, 2010

About Citrix

Citrix Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTXS) is the leading provider of virtualization, networking and software as a service technologies for more than 230,000 organizations worldwide. Its Citrix Delivery Center, Citrix Cloud Center (C3) and Citrix Online Services product families radically simplify computing for millions of users, delivering applications as an on-demand service to any user, in any location on any device. Citrix customers include the world’s largest Internet companies, 99 percent of Fortune Global 500 enterprises, and hundreds of thousands of small businesses and prosumers worldwide. Citrix partners with over 10,000 companies worldwide in more than 100 countries. Founded in 1989, annual revenue in 2010 was $1.9 billion.

©2011 Citrix Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Citrix®, Access Gateway™, Branch Repeater™, Citrix Repeater™, HDX™, XenServer™, XenApp™, XenDesktop™ and Citrix Delivery Center™ are trademarks of Citrix Systems, Inc. and/or one or more of its subsidiaries, and may be registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.

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