Post By Martin 2 Comments
March 2007 15

Guest Blogger – Citrix Access Suite

So what have I been working on lately, well an improvements project to enable non-exec directors access to documents that they are priviledged.  Solution Citrix Access Suite, which consists of PS4 ( no not the next playstation but Citrix Presentation Server ), AAC (Advanced Access Controls) and the CAG Appliance (Citrix Access Gateway), oh and WI (Web Interface)
Well wanting to test the improvements before getting my grubby mits on the actual (single server / single CAG solution of which about 10 non-exec directors connect to) I built an identical server with W2K3/PS4/AAC/WI all on the same server – something that is not recommended by Citrix but since they put the solution in before my time here I didn’t have an issue with supporting it
Tip for getting all of these Citrix products on the same server is get your Certificates and Service Dependencies right!  When time permits I will try and knock up some install or at least troubleshooting tips.
  • Always use the FQDN of the server for the certificate for the Citrix SSL Relay as we are not talking about a redundant solution I won’t discuss Hardware Load Balancers for AAC/WI
  • Refer to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/193888 and set all of the AAC Services to Depend on the IMA Service.
    HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\CtxMsamAgentServer
    HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\ActivationServiceHost
    HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\CtxMsamDeployment
    HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\CtxMsamResAgg
    HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\EngineMgrService
The next thing was the CAG, which out of the box is really a Super Micro 1U server with Citrix Software on it and no in built redundacy unless you buy 2 of them.  CAG software is quite dependent on having a specific brand of NIC installed so early versions of VMware software, I have installed it on VMWare Server (my predecessor used VMware Workstation 5.5) and whilst I have yet to test I think I may be able to get it to work or at least migrate a template to VI3.  Full information on virtualising your CAG is littered around the internet, but a quick start is here with my template VMX created and you can obtain
You will need
Further details can be found on this thread on VMware.com
But the easy way is to create a new VM called CAG with a 40GB disk then copy the contents below into the file that is created, and then point the Virtual CD/DVD at the CAG iso.  (DO NOT CONNECT AT STARTUP!  It will rebuild the PC without prompting – unless you you fancy lableing in Vista Ultimate Edition with a fictitious  code and leaving it on JBP’s desk)

====================================

My Template VMX File for you to copy

====================================
config.version = “8″
virtualHW.version = “4″
scsi0.present = “TRUE”
memsize = “392″
MemAllowAutoScaleDown = “FALSE”
ide0:0.present = “TRUE”
ide0:0.fileName = “CAG.vmdk”
ide1:0.present = “TRUE”
ide1:0.fileName = “\\bigburd\ISOImages\CAG\CAG.iso”
ide1:0.deviceType = “cdrom-image”
floppy0.present = “FALSE”
ethernet0.present = “TRUE”
ethernet0.connectionType = “hostonly”
ethernet0.virtualDev = e1000
ethernet0.addressType = “generated”
ethernet0.generatedAddress = “00:0c:29:ca:f0:14″
ethernet0.generatedAddressOffset = “0″
ethernet1.present = “TRUE”
ethernet1.connectionType = “bridged”
ethernet1.virtualDev = e1000
ethernet1.addressType = “generated”
ethernet1.generatedAddress = “00:0c:29:ca:f0:1e”
ethernet1.generatedAddressOffset = “10″
sound.present = “FALSE”
sound.virtualDev = “es1371″
sound.fileName = “-1″
sound.autodetect = “TRUE”
displayName = “CAG”
guestOS = “other”
nvram = “CAG.nvram”
ide1:0.autodetect = “TRUE”
ide0:0.redo = “”
uuid.location = “56 4d a7 ed 3a 5d 53 e3-bf c7 a8 f6 95 ca f0 14″
uuid.bios = “56 4d a7 ed 3a 5d 53 e3-bf c7 a8 f6 95 ca f0 14″
tools.remindInstall = “TRUE”
ide1:0.startConnected = “FALSE”
checkpoint.vmState.readOnly = “FALSE”
checkpoint.vmState = “”
priority.grabbed = “normal”
priority.ungrabbed = “normal”
serial0.present = “TRUE”
serial0.fileType = “pipe”   
serial0.fileName = “\\.\pipe\vmwaredebug“   
serial0.pipe.endPoint = “client”
====================================

So Citrix, if you are listening, when do you expect to come up with a license model that allows us to Virtualise Our Shiney Metal CAG’s? 

Additionally
PS here is a good VMWare Project Blog http://virtualize.wordpress.com/

Related posts:

  1. Lsass error cutil64.dll in Citrix http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX114316 The root cause of this issue was the iSeries...
  2. Citrix furthers the possibilities with remote working Network World Citrix on Monday said its latest desktop virtualization...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Bookmark and Share

2 Comments

  1. Tom says:
    March 31, 2007 at 3:16 pm

    Hello.nice site

  2. citrix tips says:
    November 18, 2008 at 8:40 pm

    yes nice site, some useful articles

Leave a Reply