XenDesktop 7.6 install with powershell Part 2

In part 2 of powershell XenDesktop 7.6 installation guide we will use powershell to install Virtual Delivery Agent on Windows Server operating system.

The XenDesktop 7.6 install with powershell guide will consist of following articles:

Part 1 – Installation and site configuration

Part 2 – Install and configure VDA.

Part 3 – Create and configure machine catalog (comming soon).

Part 4 – Create and configure delivery group (comming soon).

Part 5 – Configure StoreFront (comming soon).

Before you start with installation you have to make sure that you fully understand how you would like to use the machine you are going to update with VDA client, how you will specify the locations of installed Controllers, if HDX3D Pro will be used etc. The full list of XenDesktop pre-installation decisions can be found in Citrix eDocs 

In this article I will use executable included in the XenDesktop installation media but as an alternative you can use a standalone VDA installation package. The standalone VDA package is intended primarily for deployments that use command-line (silent) installation – it supports the same command line parameters as the XenDesktopVdaSetup.exe command, which is used by the full-product installer. For installation you can use also installation scripts located in iso:Support\AdDeploy\ folder on XenDesktop 7.6 instllation media.

Today I will show you how to :

1. Install VDA and create a Master Image for PVS or MCS.
2. Install VDA onto physical or virtual server to enable connections to this machine

Install VDA and create a Master Image for PVS or MCS.

If you make a decision that you want to deploy master image you need to run XenDesktopVDASetup.exe command located in iso:x64\XenDesktop Setup folder. The full syntax is shown in Figure 1. There are 2 important parameters in use:

• MASTERIMAGE parameter is used to prepare the image for beeing deployed by Citrix Provisioning Services or Machine Creation Services
• OPTIMIZE parameter is used to prepare and optimize the image for Virtual Machine

.
.\XenDesktopVdaSetup.exe /components VDA /controllers "XD001.lab.citrix24.com,XD002.lab.citrix24.com" /masterimage /optimize /noreboot /quiet /enable_remote_assistance /enable_real_time_transport /enable_hdx_ports
.

The result is shown in Figure 2 below:

Figure 2

The installation procedure is quite well documented in Citrix eDocs but it’s important to add some comments to make sure you clearly understand available options:

• OPTIMIZE – this option will optimize the base image for a virtual machine. The changes applied to the base image are described in the Citrix support article: CTX125874 How to Optimize XenDesktop Machines. This option is recommended to use when preparing the master image but if you want to remove this option I would recommend to double check what each change is used for and how this is handled in your own customization.
• REMOVE or REMOVEALL – these options are used to remove one or more components, use the /remove and /components options. To remove all components, use the /removeall option.
• RECONFIGURE – this option is used to modify already installed VDA

Install VDA onto physical or virtual server to enable connections to this machine

The second available option is to install Virtual Delivery Agent to enable connection to the machine which was deployed without VDA. The installation procedure is almost the same, you need to run XenDesktopVDASetup.exe command- the syntax is shown in Figure 3.

.
.\XenDesktopVdaSetup.exe /components VDA /controllers "XD001.lab.citrix24.com,XD002.lab.citrix24.com" /noreboot /quiet /enable_remote_assistance /enable_real_time_transport /enable_hdx_ports
.

The result is shown in Figure 4 below:

After restart server is ready to to be added to machine catalog. In the next step we will use powershell to configure machine catalog and delivery group. Stay with me to learn how to do this with powershell.