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SCCM 2012 R2 – Online vs. Offline Updates

Author: Martin Schmittbetz Kommentare: 0 Datum: 30 Jun 2017

Jeder, der heutzutage SCCM im Einsatz hat, kennt den zyklischen Aktualisierungsumstand. Microsoft hat das Update Intervall deutlich erhöht und unterstützt in diesem Zusammenhang nicht mehr alle Vorgängerversionen.

Wie geht man damit um?

In vielen Unternehmen stellt sich die Frage, wie mit solchen Updates zu verfahren ist. Der SCCM bietet für einen einfachen Aktualisierungsablauf den Online Modus des Service Connection Points an. Updates und Hotfixes werden direkt bei Microsoft heruntergeladen und in der Konsole des SCCM anschließend zur Installation bereitgestellt.

Eine weitere Möglichkeit stellt der Offline Modus dar; mit diesem müssen die Updates manuell bei Microsoft heruntergeladen und bereitgestellt werden.
[ + ] Weiterlesen

Step-by-Step – Install Citrix XenApp 7.13 Server VDA

Author: Sinisa Sokolic Kommentare: 0 Datum: 06 Apr 2017

Hello and welcome to the next part of the series dealing with installing a Citrix XenApp / XenDesktop 7.13 on Windows Server 2016. This is the manual part where we are doing a next, next, I agree walk-through for all of you that are new to Citrix XenApp or want to see what changed in […]

The post Step-by-Step – Install Citrix XenApp 7.13 Server VDA appeared first on sinisasokolic.com.

Step-by-Step – Install Citrix XenApp / XenDesktop 7.13 Delivery Controller

Author: Sinisa Sokolic Kommentare: 0 Datum: 05 Apr 2017

Hi and welcome to the next blog post of a series covering installing infrastructure components for Citrix XenApp 7.13 on Windows Server 2016. The overview of the published blog posts can be found on this page: https://www.sinisasokolic.com/citrix/. This is the manual part where we are doing a next, next, I agree walk-through for all of you […]

The post Step-by-Step – Install Citrix XenApp / XenDesktop 7.13 Delivery Controller appeared first on sinisasokolic.com.

Citrix XenApp Login Times – There is always (simple) room for improvement

Author: Sinisa Sokolic Kommentare: 0 Datum: 04 Apr 2017

Last week I had the chance to visit a new customer. I was introduced as a Citrix geek with a lot of experience and had to troubleshoot slow logon times and a few other problems the customer had in his Citrix XenApp environment ;-). This is what I like the most 🙂 I started with […]

The post Citrix XenApp Login Times – There is always (simple) room for improvement appeared first on sinisasokolic.com.

Step by Step – Configure Microsoft RDS Licensing on Windows Server 2016

Author: Sinisa Sokolic Kommentare: 0 Datum: 20 Mar 2017

Hi and welcome everybody to the next blog post of a series about installing and configuring Citrix XenApp 7.13 on Windows Server 2016. After the successful installation of the Microsoft Remote Desktop (RDS) Licensing component, we now need to configure it. So today we will configure Microsoft RDS Licensing. The RD Licensing Manager can be […]

The post Step by Step – Configure Microsoft RDS Licensing on Windows Server 2016 appeared first on sinisasokolic.com.

Step-by-Step – Install Citrix License Server 11.14.0 for 7.13

Author: Sinisa Sokolic Kommentare: 0 Datum: 19 Mar 2017

This is the manual part where we are doing a next, next, I agree walk-through for all of you that are new to Citrix XenApp / XenDesktop or want to see what changed in the installation from previous versions. You can install Citrix Licensing in two seperate ways and you will see that the installation dialogs […]

The post Step-by-Step – Install Citrix License Server 11.14.0 for 7.13 appeared first on sinisasokolic.com.

Step by Step – Install Microsoft RDS Licensing on Windows Server 2016

Author: Sinisa Sokolic Kommentare: 0 Datum: 18 Mar 2017

This blog post is part of a series covering the installation and configuration of Citrix XenApp 7.13 on Windows Server 2016.

This is the manual part were we are doing a next, next, I agree walk-through for all of you that are new to Citrix XenApp or want to see what changed in the installation from previous versions.

Today we are going to install one prerequisite that we need for our Citrix environment – Microsoft Remote Desktop Services Licensing.

In smaller environment I typically tend to install the Microsoft Licensing component on the same server as the Citrix Licensing Server. The bigger the environment the more likely you will have separate systems for infrastructure component installation.

If you want to have an overview of High Availability for RDS deyploments you should check this Technet article. You also find the following statement regarding the other options of fault tollerance you might think about…

There are two deployment configurations that are not supported:

Clustering RD Connection Broker servers on RD Virtualization Host servers.
An active-active RD Connection Broker installation.

To install it you need to switch to the Servermanager and start the Add Roles and Features Wizard. Click NEXT.

2016-10-30-17_48_55-add-roles-and-features-wizard

Choose Role-based or feature-based installation. Click NEXT.

2016-10-30-17_49_05-server-manager

As we are on the server were we want to install RDS Licensing click NEXT.

2016-10-30-17_49_10-add-roles-and-features-wizard

In the next screen scroll down to Remote Desktop Services and place a checkmark left to it. Click NEXT.

2016-10-30-17_49_33-server-manager

In the next screen leave everything untouched. Click NEXT.

2016-10-30-17_49_58-server-manager

NEXT.

2016-10-30-17_50_03-server-manager

Now place a checkmark left to Remote Desktop Services Licensing. Click Add features in the opening window.

2016-10-30-17_50_19-server-manager

In the next screen click NEXT.

2016-10-30-17_50_25-server-manager

Everything we need is now selected and ready for installation. Click INSTALL.

2016-10-30-17_50_33-server-manager

You can watch the progress if you like or grap a cup of coffee ;-). But be quick it won´t take long.

2016-10-30-17_50_38-server-manager

After the installation finishes click CLOSE.

2016-10-30-17_53_09-server-manager

And for today we are finished with this installation-quicky.

The following Windows Roles and Features were installed:

  • DisplayName : Remote Desktop Services
  • DisplayName : Remote Desktop Licensing
  • DisplayName : Remote Differential Compression
  • DisplayName : Remote Server Administration Tools
  • DisplayName : Role Administration Tools
  • DisplayName : Remote Desktop Services Tools
  • DisplayName : Remote Desktop Licensing Diagnoser Tools
  • DisplayName : Remote Desktop Licensing Tools

I hope this blog post helped you a bit. In a later one we will configure RDS Licensing.

Cheers,
Sinisa

 

Creating windows base boxes with packer and vagrant

Author: Oliver Gehrmann Kommentare: 0 Datum: 16 Feb 2017

Have you ever heard of DevOps?… No?

Well, neither have I until a few weeks ago. Let’s have a look at what almighty Wikipedia says about it:

“DevOps (a clipped compound of development and operations) is a set of practices that emphasizes the collaboration and communication of both software developers and other information-technology (IT) professionals while automating the process of software delivery and infrastructure changes. It aims at establishing a culture and environment where building, testing, and releasing software can happen rapidly, frequently, and more reliably”

Honestly this could mean a lot, and from my opinion it’s still quite vague. You could ask ten other people and end up with ten different definitions. I think DevOps can be explained simply as operations working together with engineers to get things done faster in an automated and consecutive way.

I’ll try to give you a practical example of a DevOps process. We are looking for a solution to provide reproducible and lightweight Windows environments for our developers. In fact, the reason they need fresh systems literally every couple of hours is because slow deployment and installation standards are not an option. So what did we do? We created a “blueprint” of the environment which can be quick and easily reproducible by our developers. This is the story of how I fell in love with DevOps:

What do we need?

  • VirtualBox to run the virtual machines
  • Packer to create an Windows base image from an ISO file
  • Vagrant to launch and configure a base image tailored to a specific scenario
  • Chocolaty to easily install packages
  • Cmder, a super sexy and useful console emulator which also incorporates Git SCM (to access Git repositorys) – Byebye cmd.exe
  • Windows ISO (optional)

How do we start?

First of all, I would highly recommend to install chocolatey on your client (https://chocolatey.org). Cmder will be next, it can be installed through chocolatey with an admin command promt:

cinst cmder –y

The associated binaries can be found in C:\tools. Navigate to the path and start cmder with admin rights. Now you are ready to install the main components: VirtualBox, Vagrant and Packer. Do yourself a favor and use chocolatey again:

cinst virtualbox vagrant packer-y

So far, so good. Let’s create a new folder, e.g. “Vagrant” and cd into the directory. We’re going to clone the git repository from Joe Fitzgerald here ( https://github.com/joefitzgerald/packer-windows.git)

mkdir \Vagrant
cd \Vagrant
git clone https://github.com/joefitzgerald/packer-windows.git

Now you can move the “packer.exe” from %programdata%\chocolatey\lib\packer\tools to \vagrant\packer-windows

Building boxes!

You are now ready to build the box. Cd into the packer-windows directory and type:

packer build -only virtualbox-iso windows_2012_r2.json

Be patient now. The whole process can take from 3-5 hours! Afterward, you will find a windows_2012_r2_virtualbox.box file which can be used with vagrant.

The box will be automatically configured with:

  • SSH Server
  • WinRM
  • vagrant user account with a vagrant password
  • Latest Windows updates
  • VirtualBox guest additions
  • 60GB disk

Using different ISOs

By default, a MS evaluation ISO is used which is 180 days valid. If you want to use a different ISO, you have to modify the windows_2012_r2.JSON file and change iso_url and iso_checksum:

To figure out the md5 checksum I recommend the “File Checksum and Integrity Verifier utility”. It can be downloaded here:
https://support.microsoft.com/de-de/kb/841290

Use the following syntax:

cd into the fciv.exe directory
fciv.exe –md5 >iso url<

The tool will compute the md5 checksum of the ISO which you have to use in your .json file.
If you don’t have a volume license ISO, you also need to set the Product Key. For that open the answer_files/2012_r2/Autounattend.xml file, search for ProductKey and follow the instructions.
If you are going to configure your VM as a KMS client, you can use the product keys at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj612867.aspx. These are the default values used in the Key element.

Vagrant

Add the created box file to Vagrant. This will also take a short amount of time.

vagrant box add –name windows_2012_r2 windows_2012_r2_virtualbox.box

Vagrant launch

To start the server with vagrant you need a provisioning script with the final provision.

Create a new directory in C:\vagrant (I called mine DSC1)
cd into there
type vagrant init

Edit the created vagrant file and modify it for your needs. You can use this as an example:



Save it
Type: vagrant up

Shortly after, you can connect to the box via vagrant rdp (Username: vagrant, Password vagrant).
Halt the box with “vagrant halt” or destroy it with “vagrant destroy”. A new box can be built again within seconds, just use “vagrant up”.

That’s it! Enjoy your new, reproducible and lightweight windows environment.

Big thanks to Joe for providing this awesome Github repository! Great work.

E2EVC Rome 2016 – Part 2 (Microsoft) – Troubleshoot XenApp With Style

Author: Sinisa Sokolic Kommentare: 0 Datum: 14 Feb 2017

Hi and welcome to this second part about troubleshooting Citrix XenApp.

Last november I had the honor to speak at two well known EUC and Citrix events. First of all at E2EVC in Rome, Italy and the day after at DCUG TecCon in Kassel, Germany. The topic of both sessions was “Troubleshoot XenApp with Style”.

I am writing this blog for all of you that couldn´t attend one of these great conferences. The third part will cover general troubleshooting tools that didn´t fit in the session and part 1 and 2 of the blog series.

The first part is about the Citrix tools you can use. [ + ] Weiterlesen

E2EVC Rome 2016 – Part 1 (Citrix) – Troubleshoot XenApp With Style

Author: Sinisa Sokolic Kommentare: 0 Datum: 25 Jan 2017

Hi and welcome to this first part about troubleshooting Citrix XenApp. Last november I had the honor to speak at two well known EUC and Citrix events.

First of all at E2EVC in Rome, Italy and the day after at DCUG TecCon in Kassel, Germany. The topic of both sessions was “Troubleshoot XenApp with Style”.

I am writing this blog for all of you that couldn´t attend one of these great conferences. This first part is about the Citrix tools because otherwise it would grow too big if I would integrate all parts. The second part is about some of the Microsoft tools. The third part is about general troubleshooting tools that didn´t fit in the session.

Why Should You Read It?

This post is not about the usual problems you might have with Certificates, Firewalls or similar things where you might be able to find an answer googling around or checking the knowledge base.

It is more about the methodology and the tools to use when you are not able to find anything in the whole world wide web. [ + ] Weiterlesen