TECHNICAL WHITE PAPER
Integration Guide:
Using Unidesk 3.x with Citrix XenDesktop
This document provides a high-‐level overview of the Unidesk® product as well as
design considerations for deploying Unidesk 3.x in a Citrix XenDesktop
environment.
February 2015
Table of Contents
Introduction
3
In this document
3
Supported versions
3
Unidesk 3.x and Citrix XenDesktop Integration
4
Layer Storage
4
Layer Sizing
6
Desktop Access to Layers
6
Integrating Unidesk Desktops with Citrix XenDesktop
7
Configuring XenDesktop Controller with Hyper-‐V
7
Installing the Unidesk Broker Agent
7
Configuring the Unidesk Connection to the Xen DDC
8
Virtual Desktop Agent Installation
9
Installing VDA 7.6
9
Run the XenDesktop Installer For Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 Update 1
9
Run the Command Line installer for XenDesktop on Windows Server 2012
11
Adding Unidesk Desktops to XenDesktop
13
Creating Collections
13
Create New Desktops with the Create Desktop Wizard
14
Using Citrix User Profile Manager (UPM) with Unidesk
17
Citrix UPM 5.x in XenDesktop 7.6 and Later
17
Turning on UPM via Group Policy
17
Glossary of Unidesk terms
18
Introduction
This document provides a high-level overview of the Unidesk® product as well as design considerations for deploying Unidesk 3.x in a Citrix XenDesktop environment.
The information in this document is based on Unidesk internal and external testing of Unidesk 3.x.
The audience for this document includes customers, field consultants and sales engineers that want to deploy, test, or better understand how the Unidesk managed environment works in conjunction with XenDesktop and Hyper-V™ implementations.
In this document
This document includes the following information:
• An overview of the tested solution.
• A summary of the Unidesk infrastructure.
• The overall infrastructure requirements for a Unidesk environment.
• The impact of Unidesk software on existing virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI).
• The impact of Unidesk software to the VDI storage model.
This document does not provide all configuration details for using Citrix Solutions or implementing the required VMware infrastructure. Contact the product manufacturer for information about implementing these products.
Supported versions
For details on which Citrix XenDesktop versions are supported on which Unidesk 3.x versions, see the page on Unidesk 3.x Platform Support:
Unidesk 3.x and Citrix XenDesktop Integration
As shown in the following illustration, the Unidesk system provides the disk (or C: drive) to virtual desktops hosted in a virtual infrastructure. Administrators use the Unidesk management interface to create, manage, update, and report on the desktop virtual machines in the environment. As directed by the administrator, the Unidesk software builds, deletes, and reconfigures virtual desktops.
The Unidesk infrastructure is built using Hyper-V virtual appliances on top of a Hyper-V infrastructure. When you build a Unidesk solution, you deploy the Unidesk Management Appliance first, followed by the Master CachePoint Appliance, and then by downstream or secondary CachePoint Appliances.
The Management Appliance communicates with the CachePoint Appliances in the environment. The single Master CachePoint Appliance maintains a copy of every Operating System or Application Layer in the environment. Each additional CachePoint Appliance manages the composite virtual disks for Unidesk desktops associated with that CachePoint.
Layer Storage
In version 3.x of Unidesk, Application and OS layers are stored as separate vhdx files. Desktops mount these files directly from the storage in a many to one fashion.
These hold the Application layers, OS layers, and Personalization layers respectively. Note also each deployed desktop also has a folder with boot files as show in the chart below.
This file structure provides a great deal of information surrounding sizing, for example it is easy to determine the space used by a particular layer.
Layer Sizing
Each layer version starts as a full clone of the pervious layer, and then changes are made to the layer and saved. This means that versions are always larger than the base layer as shown below
Desktop Access to Layers
In Unidesk, Desktops access layers through the Windows storage stack by connecting to them directly on the Hyper-V Host. The boot drive and the two UEP vhdx’s are attached as normal disks. The OS and Application layers are accessed using differencing disks attached to the parent disks which are the layer disks themselves.
Integrating Unidesk Desktops with Citrix XenDesktop
When using Unidesk 3.x with Citrix XenDesktop, Unidesk software replaces Provisioning Services (PVS) and Machine Creation Services (MCS) for both persistent and non-persistent desktops. In the tested environment, Provisioning Services was not installed and is not used to deploy and manage virtual machines. Citrix XenDesktop uses Unidesk desktops in the way it would use thick-provisioned, pre-existing virtual machines. Unidesk desktops are created, patched, updated and managed using the Unidesk Management Console with Citrix Controllers providing connectivity to the virtual machines. One Unidesk system can only be connected to a single group of XenDesktop Controllers. If you require an Architecture where separate groups of controllers are supported say at separate sites, this will be available at some point in the future but not today. However, you can create desktops in Unidesk and manually add them to other instances of XenDesktop controllers. They will appear in Unidesk as non XenDesktop integrated desktops.
In the following set of section the options and requirements for XenDesktop and Unidesk integration are discussed. The sections include:
• Configuring XenDesktop Controller communication with a Hyper-V Deployment
• Installing the Unidesk Connection Broker Agent
• Configuring the Unidesk Connection to the Citrix XenDesktop Controllers
• Virtual Desktop Agent Installation
• Adding Unidesk Desktops to XenDesktop
• Utilizing User Profile Manager (UPM) with Unidesk
Configuring XenDesktop Controller with Hyper-‐V
Use this section if you have not yet configured your XenDesktop Controller to communicate with your Hyper-V environment. XenDesktop requires your Hyper-V environment be manage by System Center Virtual Machine Manager(SCVMM). If you do not currently have SCVMM installed in your environment, Microsoft offers a 90 day trail provided in a VHDX template.
Once you have configured SCVMM on your Hyper-V environment you will need to install one component on your Xen DDC. Citrix requires the SCVMM console to be installed on your DDC. This component is on the base SCVMM install media and allows the DDC to make remote calls back into the SCVMM managed environment.
Installing the Unidesk Broker Agent
In order for the Unidesk deployment to communicate with the XenDesktop deployment the Unidesk Broker Agent needs to be installed on the DDC. This component will be installed on each controller in your farm. This allows Unidesk to continue communication with the farm in the event that one of the Controllers fails. The installer is found in the Unidesk Download package under the name:
unidesk_hyperv_broker_communication_agent_<version>.exe
This installer will not prompt for a reboot, so there will not be an impact to a production deployment.
There are a few steps to running the Broker Agent installer. After executing the installer it will ask you for an install path. Next it will ask for a communication port. This port is defaulted to 8015, though it can be set to anything you wish. The Broker Agent installer will open up the port entered on your firewall if one is enabled. Simply allow the installer to finish after this. There are two more steps after the installer has finish. First, the PowerShell access policy needs to be changed to either ‘Unrestricted’ or ‘Bypass’. In order to do this open a console with Administrative privileges and use the
command:
The second change is to the account that runs the Unidesk Broker Agent. This account must be a full administrator for the Xen Solution and it also must have the ability to access the SCVMM deployment.
Configuring the Unidesk Connection to the Xen DDC
Virtual Desktop Agent Installation
The first step in the process is to deploy the Citrix XenDesktop agent to the desktops that will belong to the Citrix XenDesktop desktop group. The recommended way to install the agent is as part of the gold image, prior to importing it into a Unidesk OS Layer. You can install the VDA into an application layer provided you do not want to use XenDesktop AppV integration. That service installs a user account, CtxAppVCOMAdmin, and new user accounts can only be placed in a Unidesk OS Layer.
For evaluation purposes, it might be faster to set up XenDesktop as a user-installed application on the desktop and stored in the Personalization Layer.
Installing the agent in the desktop personalization layer requires a manual installation or using a separate scripted method or third party tool. For testing purposes, a manual installation on the desktop and stored in the Personalization Layer can be the most expedient way to install and test the solution. This method is not recommended for bulk distribution.
Installing VDA 7.6
When you install XenDesktop 7, there are several settings you must choose for the software to work correctly with Unidesk. Please use the instructions in this section when doing the installation.
Run the XenDesktop Installer For Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 Update 1
1. Start the Citrix XenDesktop 7 installer and choose Virtual Delivery Agent for Windows Desktop OS.
3. On the HDX 3D Pro step, choose the appropriate type for your graphics hardware.
4. On the core components step choose if you would like to keep the default folder path and if you would like to install the receiver or not.
6. On the Features step, disable both Optimize performance and Personal vDisk.
7. Continue to the end of the installer steps and start the installation.
8. If at any point during the installation a window pops up requesting a reboot and gives you the choice to reboot later, choose Reboot later. Otherwise, restart and continue the installation when the desktop comes back up. 9. When the installation completes, select Restart machine and click Finish.
10. After the desktop restarts, shutdown and import the gold to Unidesk, or Finalize your Layer.
Run the Command Line installer for XenDesktop on Windows Server 2012
When configuring Windows Server 2012for Citrix you need to ensure that you install the Virtual Desktop Agent from the command line. If you attempt to install it from the Launcher it will install the Virtual Desktop Agent for Server OS, which leverages Terminal Services. Unidesk does not support this method at this time.
To install the Agent as a desktop OS, you need to run the following from the command line:
XenDesktopVDASetup.exe /quiet /servervdi /nodesktopexperience /exclude “Personal vDisk”,”Machine Identity Service”
Adding Unidesk Desktops to XenDesktop
With all the previous steps completed, you will now be able to create XenDestkop groups and add desktops automatically to those groups.
Creating Collections
In Unidesk 3.X, there exists the concept of Collections. Each Collection is associated with an Operating System Layer, a number of Users, and a XenDesktop group. When you create a new Collection, Unidesk will create a Catalog in Xen for use with any created desktops. Once the Collection is created, Unidesk will create a XenDesktop Group of the same name. The steps below detail how to create a new Collection.
1. Create and name your Collection
2. Select your Broker type and the users that you would like entitled to the Group. When entitling you can select either a single user or an entire Active Directory group.
4. The OS Assignment will allow you to select an OS Layer that the desktops associated with this collection will be built from.
5. You can now complete the wizard. A Group with the corresponding Name and Type will be created on your DDC and you can now create Desktops.
Create New Desktops with the Create Desktop Wizard
If you add Non-Persistent desktops you will only be given the option to create a particular number of desktops to serve that group.
After assigning the desktop there are several ways to name it. You can use variations of the user name like
When using custom there are several name creation modifiers that can be used. These are listed below; see the product help for more details.
When you finish the wizard, the desktop is added to the Unidesk Database, then we build a VM on Hyper-V, and setup is run for Windows. During the setup process the desktop will be added to Active Directory. Until this happens Unidesk is not able to add the desktop to XenDesktop because Xen requires the desktop be in AD first. So we wait until the desktop build is complete then we add the desktop to XenDesktop.
Using Citrix User Profile Manager (UPM) with Unidesk
Citrix UPM is typically used to help manage a user profile on Non-Persistent Desktops. Data such as personal settings, cookies, and favorites will follow users from Computer to Computer. Unidesk supports running Citrix UPM on all supported Operating Systems.
Citrix UPM 5.x in XenDesktop 7.6 and Later
The components required to enable UPM on the desktop are installed as part of the Xen VDA package when in 7.x. No other work is required.
Turning on UPM via Group Policy
Glossary of Unidesk terms
The following table provides definitions of terms that are specific to the Unidesk product.
Unidesk Term Definition
Application Layer A container or layer that includes an application or set of applications that you
can assign to a hosted virtual desktop.
CacheCloud® A grid of virtual appliances that replicate operating system, application, and
user workspace layers across an enterprise network.
The environment uses the Unidesk Composite Virtualization™ technology to synthesize the layers into complete, personalized desktops.
CachePoint® Appliance A virtual appliance that manage the layers and virtual desktops that you deploy
to end users.
Desktop A hosted virtual machine that is a local composite of the layers assigned to it
and a Personalization Layer that contains all specific desktop information including a user's personalized data, settings, and applications.
Operating System Layer A container or layer that includes an operating system that you can assign to a
hosted virtual desktop.
Gold Image A virtual machine configured with an operating system and any desired
applications that when imported into Unidesk creates the Operating System Layer.
Installation Machine A special type of virtual machine that acts as a staging area for the creation of
Application Layers as well as versions of Operating System and Application Layers.
Management Appliance A virtual appliance that coordinates all of the communication in the Unidesk®
environment. It includes the Management Console and the management infrastructure that controls the workflow of managing virtual desktops.
Management Console The Web-based management console that allows you to manage all of the
components in the Unidesk environment. This console is accessed from the Management Appliance.
Master CachePoint Appliance A special CachePoint Appliance that hosts a copy of all layers and versions of
layers in the Unidesk environment. It also manages all of the Installation Machines used to create Operating System Layers and layer versions.
Operating System Layer A shared container or layer that includes the Operating System that you can
assign to hosted virtual desktops. A desktop is a composite of an Operating System Layer and several Application Layers.
Personalization Layer A unique container or layer that stores all of a desktop’s specific information
