Prepare a Provisioning Services Private vDisk for Shared vDisk

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XenAppCloningTool

This post will try to list some of the Best Practices I’m using when preparing a Provisioning Services Private vDisk for Shared vDisk usage. First of all I always use XenApp Cloning Tool from CitrixTools.net. This tool are not supported by Citrix, but it’s much more powerful and will save you a lot of troubleshooting. Recently the latest version of the tool fixed a issue with slow ICA performance which I been haunting for quite a while. The reason is because Pierre adds registry tweaks to the application when new ones appear. BUT you have to decide, install XenAppPrep from Citrix or XenApp Cloning Tool.

Note : I have been experiencing problems with both tools installed at the same time.

There is a lot of Best Practice documents out there, but no complete guide, so I have made a little script so I don’t forget them all. This way the same procedures is run every time, independent of whom is doing the vDisk updates. Please feel free to leave comments on your Best Practices.

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19 thoughts on “Prepare a Provisioning Services Private vDisk for Shared vDisk”

  1. I see you don’t get many comments around here – which is entirely unfair, since it’s a GREAT BLOG!

    Thanks for these tips – they came at a very timely point for me (we’re currently doing Xendesktop experiments for some very interested customers).

    Reply
  2. If I already have an image (shared) can I go to private mode,then install the tool? Or do I have to thru the process of reverse imaging again? I am having troubles with the machine joining the domain and being added to the farm…

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    • Hi,

      1. Switch the image to private mode – reboot
      2. Join the domain and reboot
      3. Install the tool and select PVS Cloning – shutdown
      4. Switch back to shared image mode

      If you still have problems it´s probably due to password sync, try reset the password in PVS Console. Try this and provide more information if you still have problems.

      Eric

      Reply
  3. Hi! Great blog, I thought I would just add that I have a similar script, but normally have a section that deals with AntiVirus uniquenesses. As an example for Sophos I stop the Sophos Services, then delete some identity specific registry entries and an ini file to enable the PVS’d device to properly register with the AV management console once it reboots.

    Happy to share these if there is any interest.

    Steve

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  4. What abbout the following tuning options:

    dsmaint RECREATELHC
    Rebuild WMI
    FSUTIL behavior set disablelastaccess 1
    chkdsk c: /f /r
    sDelete –c c:

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  5. So I don’t need to set any option anywhere, but just exit the tool? What’s the purpose of the tool than?

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    • You can set options as well, please check the product documentation or contact support. But normally I set to format HD and Optimize on the second tab, then I just click Prepare for Provisioning Services on the first tab.

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  6. OK! I couldn’t find any product documentation but I’ll have a look again. Thanks a lot for the tips.

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  7. Hi Marcel,

    what do you exactly do when you “Rebuild WMI”? There are several articles about rebuilding wmi. Could you please share your script,… or whatever you run?

    Greetings, Maikel

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  8. Hi all,

    just one more…

    I use local storage for my cachedrive and i also redirected my eventlogs, pagefile, spooler and the EdgeSight DB on this Drive.
    So, do you clean this drive as well? Maybe a task that runs direct on the standardmode maschine during servicetime to do a checkdisk, sdelete and/or defrag?

    Reply
    • Sorry for the late reply. You should not clean you Cache Drive, since you want to preserve eventlogs, EdgeSight DB and so on. The commands Marcel and me talks about needs to be run in Private Mode. Good news, the XenApp cloning tool will be released as free of charge this month. That app does many of these tunings.

      Reply

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