Skip vDisk Boot Menu under PVS 7.0/7.1

Under Provisioning Services 6.1 I had disabled the vDisk Boot Menu for all of my Maintenance/Test Target Devices by setting the "SkipBootMenu" DWORD Registry Key as described in the Citrix Support Article CTX135299.

After upgrading my Provisioning Servers to Version 7.x the PVS vDisk Boot Menu reappeared even though the SkipBootMenu was still present. After a quick Call with Citrix it was determined that the Registry Key has been moved from:

• Old: HKLM\Software\Citrix\ProvisioningServices\SkipBootMenu (PVS 6.x)
• New: HKLM\Software\Citrix\ProvisioningServices\StreamProcess\SkipBootMenu (PVS 7.x)

The correct Registry Key Location for PVS 7.0

After moving the Registry Key to the new Location and restarting the StreamService my Maintenance/Test Target Devices are now skipping the vDisk Boot Menu again. Problem solved!

Point-and-Print Restrictions and XenApp

I'm running a provisioned XenApp 6.5 Farm and recently updated the HP Universal Print Driver (UPD) on the Print Server to the newest Version because we needed the support for some newer Printer Models.

But after the HP UPD Update the Users weren't able to map HP Printers (with the updated HP UPD) from the Print Server. They would always receive an "Access Denied" Error when trying to map a Printer.

I hadn't updated my provisioned XenApp Image with the new HP Drivers but wanted to to let the Users install the new Drivers until I could update my XenApp Image. But I had disabled the Point and Print Restrictions via GPO and wondered why Users still couldn't install Print Drivers.

While disabling Point and Print Restrictions alone works perfectly on Windows 7 Systems but for Windows Server 2008 R2 disabling Point and Print alone is not enough. You also have to disable the following Security Policy on your XenApp Servers:

And here is the GPO I'm currently using to allow Users to install Print Drivers on my XenApp Servers. Instead of disabling the Point and Print Restrictions completely you can of course also set it to enabled and adjust it accordingly. You can find more information on TechNet.

PVS and KMS Licensing - Unexpected MAPI Error

Just a very quick Post regarding the often encountered Error Message "An unexpected MAPI Error occurred" when promoting a vDisk from private Mode to Standard Mode while having the Microsoft Licensing Option set to KMS.

Solution:

Add the User account that runs the SOAP Service into the Local Admin Group on your Provisioning Server(s). Afterwards you should restart your SOAP and Stream Service.

I don't know if this Solution is applicable if you run your PVS SOAP and Stream Service under the Network Service (and therefor not under an Domain Account). Feel free to let me know via the Comments.

PVS and vSphere 5 PXE Reboot Problem

I recently worked in a Project where we deployed XenApp 6.5 Workers via Citrix Provisioning Services 6.0 (PVS) onto a vSphere 5 Cluster and ran into a Problem regarding the PXE Boot. We knew that PVS 6.0 is currently not supported with vSphere 5, but the customer wanted to use his vSphere 5 Cluster nonetheless.

Everytime we rebooted a Target Device, running an XenApp 6.5 Worker, it would reboot and then hang on the PXE Boot like this:

When we powered the VM completely off and then started the VM again (cold reboot) the PXE Boot worked without a Problem. The Problem would only occur when rebooting the VM without completely shutting it down before.

To fix the Problem we had to enabled the "Interrupt safe mode" Option in the Bootsptrap Configuration of the Provisioning Servers:

And voilà: Rebooting the XenApp 6.5 Workers on a vSphere 5 Host/Cluster now works as expected.

UPDATE: Citrix published an official Support Article (with the same Solution) regarding the Bootstrap Configuration in an vSphere 5 Enviroment: http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX131993