Receiver StoreFront 1.0 – Step by Step Guide

This article will show how to quickly create a StoreFront 1.0 Proof Of Concept.

As per Citrix eDocs:

“Receiver Storefront provides authentication and resource delivery infrastructure for Citrix Receiver, enabling you to create centralized enterprise stores to deliver desktops, applications, and other services to users on any device, anywhere.”

Source: Citrix eDocs

The StoreFront is a component of the new Citrix CloudGateway Express and Enterprise infrastructures; it provides authentication and content delivery (XenApp apps, XenDesktop desktops, SaaS…) to Citrix Receivers for any device and platform.

StoreFront will be the replacement of what we now call the Web Interface; indeed, the WI should be replaced by all customers by 2015. StoreFront gives users the opportunity to choose which applications to have in their ‘home page’. Such information are stored in the StoreFront DB and roams along with users between different devices and OSs. In this way, users will have their settings following them on every device, everywhere.

This article is intended to show how to quickly create a POC and not how to install it in a production environment.

This Guide is divided into three parts:

• 1 – StoreFront Installation;
• 2 – StoreFront Configuration – HTTP;
• 3 – StoreFront Configuration – HTTPS.

As you might know, by default the latest Citrix Receiver will not connect to a non-secure service site, that’s why I included the HTTPS configuration part. Anyway, if you are interested in allowing http access instead of https, you can give a look at this article:geekshangout.com.

1 – StoreFront Installation

Prerequisites: the most important prerequisite is SQL Express, for the others take a look at Citrix eDocs!

1) First of all download the software installer from Citrix.com and save it on your server;

2) Double click on the icon, accept the license agreement and click Next:

3) The IIS role will be installed automatically, click Next and then Install:

4) Click on Finish when the installation completes, you will be redirected to the Citrix Receiver StoreFront Console.

 2 – StoreFront Configuration – HTTP

We will now go through the configuration of StoreFront as an HTTP site;

1) In the console select ‘Deploy a single server’:

2) Type in the server URL you want to use and click Create:

3) Now we have to create an authentication service for the site, to do that click Create Service in the Authentication box:

4) Select the authentication method you want to use and click Create:

5) Now we have to create a store for the site, which is a container of applications and desktops; click on Create Store and enter the name you wish to use:

6) Now enter the information of the XenApp or XenDesktop farms you want to configure and click on Create; if you need to, you can add more farms later:

7) Now click on Create Site in the ‘Receiver for Web’ box in order to create a ‘Web Site’ which will provide the ‘Web Receiver’ feature to users:

 Click on the link provided to see the web receiver page and then on finish. Your site is now alive!

9) Insert your User name and Password and Log On:

10) Click on Add Apps and chose the applications/desktops you want to have on your personal page:

11) On your home page you will see the apps you chose, just click on one of them to launch it!

12) From this page you can automatically activate (that is, configure) the receiver installed on your device; to do that click on the ‘Activate Citrix Receiver for your Desktop’ and select Activate:

13) Click open on the IE alert:

This is the content of the file:

3842074174

Your DesktApp Desktop

http://cg01/Citrix/YourDesktAppDesktop/discovery

It’s actually an XML file which instructs the Citrix Receiver on how to connect to the store.

 3 – StoreFront Configuration – HTTPS

We will now go through the configuration of StoreFront as an HTTPS site. In order to do that, you have to bind the HTTPS protocol (along with a valid server certificate) to your Default Web Site in the IIS management console. Once that is done, you can proceed with the following tasks (which are exactly the same as for the HTTP configuration):

1) Start the deployment process and choose ‘Deploy a single server’:

2) Then create the authentication service:

3) Then create the store:

4) And then the HTTPS web site:

Your site is now configured to be accessed through HTTPS!!!

XenDesktop 5.6 - Step by Step Guide

This article will show how to quickly create a XenDesktop 5.6 Proof Of Concept.

In this environment we will use XenServer 6 and the Citrix Machine Creation Service (and not Provisioning Services) in order to create and manage virtual desktops, see The Citrix Blog for more information about Machine Creation Service.

First of all, take a look at this link for the System Requirements.

The process can be divided into three parts:

• 1 – Windows 7 (or XP) image preparation;
• 2 – XenDesktop Installation;
• 3 – XenDesktop Configuration.

1 – Windows 7 (or XP) image preparation

These are the major steps to consider when preparing the client image:

• Install a Windows 7 virtual machine;
• Install XenServer tools (or HyperV or VMWare tools) on it;
• Join it to your domain;
• Install any application you want to provide with your desktop;
• Install the Citrix Virtual Desktop Agent; here’s how to do it:

Virtual Desktop Agent installation:

1) Insert the XenDesktop DVD into the virtual machine and click on Install Virtual Desktop Agent:

2) Select Quick Deploy, accept the License Agreement and the click on Install:

3) The installation will start; click Close when it ends and let the machine reboot:

The client is ready, now you can install XenDesktop 5.6.

2 – XenDesktop Installation

Now we will install the server components required to run the POC. As it will be a small demonstration environment, we will install all components in one single server.

1) Insert the XenDesktop 5.6 DVD into your Windows 2008 R2 server, select Install XenDesktop, accept the License Agreement and click Next:

2) Select the components to install and click Next. We will select all components, including SQL Server Express:

3) If you have the Windows firewall enabled, the installer will ask you the permission to open the License server ports, otherwise, if you use another firewall or even none at all, it will ask you to open the License server ports yourself (in my case no firewall is configured); click Next and then Install in the installation Summary:

4) The installation will begin. Once it will be completed, click on Close. The Desktop Studio console will start, from there you will be able to configure your POC environment:

3 – XenDesktop Configuration

We can now start the configuration.

1) In the Desktop Studio console click Quick Deploy, then enter the name of your site an the Hypervisor information, in my environment I use XenServer 6:

2) Select the Hypervisor’s network and storage that should be used by your virtual desktops. Then choose the virtual machine you want to use as the base image for your future virtual desktops, that is, the machine we created at the beginning of the guide:

3) Now you can choose how many virtual desktops you want to create and their hardware; furthermore, you can choose in which Active Directory OU the computer accounts will be created:

4) Once done click on Next and choose the users or groups that should be able to access these desktops:

5) In the Summary window click Finish and the machine creation process will start:

You can see how the disk images for your desktops are created in the XenServer storage:

In the Hypervisor console you will see the new desktops along with their disks:

6) Click Close in the Quick Deploy window and you will be redirected to the Desktop Studio console, you will see that the web interface is automatically configured with a default website for your desktops:

7) Connect to the web interface with your browser; the web interface will automatically detect whether you have the Citrix Receiver or not, if not, it will ask you to install it:

8 ) Click on install and run the Receiver installation. After the installation completes, you will be redirected to the logon page where you will add your user name and password:

9) You will see the desktop published for you:

10) Just click on the icon and the connection will start:

Your Virtual Desktops are now ready!!!

Now you can start playing with policies, catalogs, assignments and so on…

XenDesktop 5.6 Personal vDisk Feature Overview

What is Citrix Personal Vdisk?

• Persistant personalization of user profile and applications., including user installed and entitlement based apps
• Compatible with PCCLM and Application Virtualization solutions such as SCCM, App-V and Xenapp.
• 100% persistence with VDI pooled Storage management
• Near Zero management overhead.

 

VDI Desktop Models - Pooled Desktops
Disadvantages -
1. No personalization.
2. Poor user acceptance.
3. Limited scope/User base.
Advantages 
1. Reduced storage requirements.
2. Centralized management.
3. Uptime predictability.


VDI Desktop Models - Assigned Desktops (Unique VM for each user)

Disadvantages 
1. Increased storage
2. High per user cost
3. Increased management overhead.
4. Complex and unique base images.
Advantages -
1. Highly personalized for users
2. Increased user acceptance


Citrix Personal Vdisk

• Enterprise Scope
• Highly Personalized for users
• Increase User acceptance.
• Reduced Infrastructure requirements
• Centralized Management
• Uptime and Predictability.

Delivering and Managing the PvD Desktop
1. Common Base Setup, Install OS, Common Apps, and VDA in Base VM.
a. Install OS, Common Apps and VDA in base VM.
b. Create VM pool and entitle.

2. User Access
a. Login through Xendesktop client.
b. PVD assigned on first login
c. Locally administered dept apps.
d. User Installed Apps
e. Streamed Apps
3. Image Update
Update Base VM without affecting any user personalization.

 

PvD Disk Characteristics
1. May be attached to any storage targets defined in the hypervisor
a. Thin provisioning is supported for those hypervisors that support it.
b. Can be located on same as VM or different(IOPS split among locations)
2. Default size and location selected in Desktop Studio catalog creation
a. or PVS Xendesktop setup wizard if PVS is use.
b. PvD disk can be resized(more on this shortly)
Citrix Profile Management 

• PvD works with Profile Management Solutions
• PvD can be used as a simple profile management solution itself(For simple environments with single desktops)
• PVD + Citrix Profile Manager(UPM) makes a powerful combination allowing customers to have roaming profiles and persistent personalization.

Business Value - More Users

• 100% persistent personalization
• Expand beyond task workers to knowledge workers
• Support entitlement-based applications. 

Reduce Costs 

• Reduce per-user cost by leveraging existing VDI investment.
• Reduce infrastructure expenditures
• Leverage existing knowledge, resources, tools.

More Quickly

• Evolve toward full VDI deployments vs rip & replace.
• Quickly increase scope of VDI footprint