Citrix Installing XenDesktop 7 in 31 Steps

Citrix have finally released the much anticipated XenDesktop 7, the co-joined XenDesktop and
XenApp products into the one combined solution.
Below are the generic installation instructions and yes it can be done in 20 minutes if you already
have spent the time lining up all your ducks in terms of information and pre-requisites
Here is a list of some of the top new features in XenDesktop 7.
Installing your Site on your first XenDesktop 7 Controller
1. Run AutoSelect.exe and install any pre-requisites that are not yet installed to enable the
installer to start.

2. Click on Start

3. On this selection page you have the option of what you want to install. For fresh installs you
start from the left by selecting Delivery Controller, this installs the controller component required
to set up your site.
The Prepare Machines and Image allows you to install the new VDA (Virtual Delivery Agent, not
to be confused with Virtual Desktop agent used in XenDesktop 5.6 and earlier). The VDA
replaces the traditional XenApp install for XenApp servers in all previous versions of XenApp,
Presentation Server, Metaframe.

This makes a complete distinction between a controller where you install the full controller
software and everything else. Gone are Worker Group Server concepts. Everything else just gets
the VDA, be it a Windows Desktop OS, XP and above, or a Server OS, 2008 R2 and above.
Extend deployment allows you to install individual components separately if dividing up your
server roles, i.e. you might have dedicated StoreFront or License servers as an example in most
enterprises
Click on Delivery Controller
4. Accept the license agreement

5. Deselect the options that you do not want, i.e. if separating out StoreFront and the License
server deselect these two options here. You will want to have deployed a License server
elsewhere prior to installing your first XenDesktop 7 controller below, as the License server is
asked for in the install.

6. Select optional Features, you will likely have a full SQL server elsewhere

7. Select how you want the install to configure local firewall rules.

8. A typical summary window appears to confirm what it will install Click on Install

9. The install will start

10. Click on Finish with the option to launch Studio to start your Site Configuration in Studio. The
install is now complete but you need to configure your site in order to do anything, and that's
what Studio is for.

11. Once in Studio you have three options.

1. Full deployment This will configure this controller as the first in your site.
2. Remote PC Access deployment - installs the Remote PC feature for remote access to physical
machines with the VDA installed.
3. Scale out our Deployment use this is if you are installing additional Controllers and want to
join an existing site.

Click on Get started! Create a Site

12. As this is a new Controller and a new Site, select the "Configure the Site and start delivery
applications and desktops to users", Enter the name for your site and click on Next.

13. Select your SQL store on which the XenDesktop Database will be created. You can test SQL
connectivity by clicking on Test Connection. Alternatively if your install account does not have
rights to create the database you can generate a database script that you pass to your DBAs to
run under an appropriate account that will create the necessary database.

14. If you sect Test Connection it will attempt to connect not just to the SQL server but also the
database which unless you have had the database created wont exist and the test connection
will fail. Clicking on OK will prompt the install to create the Database for you Click on OK

15. Click on close

16. Click on Next.

17. Enter your License server details and click on Next.

(See the License Server Install section below on Installing the License server, as we deselected
it earlier for the purposes of this document).

18. Here you need to enter the details of your Hypervisor Host, and how you want to create
VMs. Click on Next.

19. Provide a name for your Network virtualisation settings and select your network that the VMs
will use. Click on Next

20. Now you will need to select the storage volumes to place the VMs on when created and
controlled. Click on Next.

21. Here you can opt to add an App-V Publishing server Click on Next.

22. Another Summary will appear click on Finish.

23. The configuration will now commence and perform all of the actions previously selected.

24. Your site has been configured, and you are ready to create your first catalog.

Installing the License server

25. Run the installer as above in step1 and select Delivery Controller and then add Remove
components and select License server, or alternatively Select License server from the right hand
side under Extend Deployment.

26. Accept the license agreement and click on Next

27. Click on Next

28. Select how you want the installer to configure the local firewall

29. A summary will appear click on Install

30. The install will commence

31. Click on Finish. Now you can use the 30 day trial or buy your license's and get them from
MyCitrix.com
Installing the License server
25. Run the installer as above in step1 and select Delivery Controller and then add Remove
components and select License server, or alternatively Select License server from the right hand
side under Extend Deployment.

26. Accept the license agreement and click on Next

27. Click on Next

28. Select how you want the installer to configure the local firewall

29. A summary will appear click on Install

30. The install will commence

31. Click on Finish. Now you can use the 30 day trial or buy your license's and get them from
MyCitrix.com
Installing an additional controller
As you will no doubt need to provide some HA / Fault Tolerance or just scale out your controller
service, here is how to add an additional controller
1. Run the installer as you normally would, click on Start on the Welcome page.
Click on Delivery Controller.
2. Accept the license agreement

3. Deselect any components not required, I already have a License server and a number of
StoreFront servers elsewhere in my enterprise, but would like Studio and Director local.

4. Deselect any components not required, I already have a full SQL server elsewhere

5. Select how you want the installer to configure the local firewall

6. Review the summary, click on install.

7. The install will commence

8. Click on Finish, you know have an additional controller within your site.

9. Now you just need to configure it so open Studio and choose "Scale out your deployment"

10. Now enter the name of an existing controller and click on OK

11. Click on yes to allow this controller to update the database.

12. Now you have an additional Controller in your site.

XenDesktop 7 Top New Features

Citrixs next version of XenApp and XenDesktop codenamed Avalon Excalibur has been in Tech
Preview for a number of months now. Recently at Synergy it has been finally announced that
XenDesktop 7 will be released in June or July 2013.
Here is a brief summary of some of the changes I have noticed by being part of the Citrix High
Engagement Beta program, between previous versions of XenApp and XenDesktop, and new
features you can expect to see. This is by no means an exhaustive list just some of the items that
stood out to me - feel free to comment on any you think should be added.

No longer is there a separate XenDesktop site and XenApp farm and thus two sets of
controllers, now there is just one site, one set of controllers for VDI, SBC desktops and
Applications, and only one set of controllers managing it all.

There is no traditional XenApp Install for Worker Group Servers. This has been replaced
with just a simple VDA install. There are two types of VDA, Desktop and Server OS. But
essentially the same install (There are some differences in the type of ICA stack that gets
installed single for desktop OS' and multi-user for server OS's - naturally) . but the installs are
nearly identical and both are Version 7
The VDA is now the Virtual Delivery Agent not Virtual Desktop agent, as it now enables the
server component as well as the desktop, essentially this replaces the Worker Group XenApp
install.

No IMA in XenApp, replaced with FMA (Flexible Management Architecture, in XenDesktop

since V5.0)

Full Delegated Administration is available in XenDesktop, finally. This is more akin to the
level of delegated administration that is available in XenApp.

XenApp has effectively gone the way of XenDesktop. Publishing an application requires a
Machine Catalogue and a Delivery Group, just to be in a position to publish a single application.

StoreFront 2.0 (The replacement for Web Interface) has built in server propagation and
synchronisation, so no need to repeat the same changes multiple times in a load balanced set
up. You can propagate the changes from one to multiple StoreFront servers saving a lot of time
and potential human error in making repetitive changes.

Desktop Director now has a significant amounts of extra information, particularly for
troubleshooting and is just called Director as it has information from applications not just
desktops. This has now become a far feature / data rich capability and has a lot of data formally
only available in EdgeSight now presented to assist support in troubleshooting - this is a
significant improvement.

Likewise the Desktop was dropped from Desktop Studio, to become just Studio


Now there are only 3 console to manage your combined XenApp and XenDesktop
environment (Studio, Director and StoreFront) rather than the countless consoles in the past.
Plus one more for PVS if you use it.

Having said that expect to not see a lot of the features and functionality from XenApp and
Web Interface currently available in their respective GUIs (AppCentre and Web Interface). Many
features have been removed from the new Studio and Storefront GUIs for some strange reason
and most of this will require PowerShell knowledge to configure.
MCS now supports server OS's as well as just desktop's, so you can now simply deliver both,
without PVS (which is still supported)

All previous versions of XenApp would only work with a specific version of the Windows
Server OS. So if you had XenApp 5 on Windows 2003, and had a server OS upgrade project, it
meant a complete new farm as well. Now however XenDesktop 7 will support Windows server
2008 and 2012 controllers and Desktop and Application servers. The idea is also that when
Windows Server 2015/2020 and Windows 9 (or whatever it ends up being called) is released it
will also be supported (may require an update to the controllers). This means that you can do
server OS upgrades without needing to create a new Citrix farm every time. In essence the Citrix
farm or site is abstracted from specific OSs, the dependency on only one specific OS is lost, and
the farm now operates at one level higher, and in essence a site or farm could exist a lot longer,
evolving rather than being refreshed every three or so years in line with OS refreshs. This new
feature alone IMO is reason to upgrade and is a well thought out improvement.

Support for App-V version 5.