XenDesktop Advanced Settings (XDAS) 1.3.3

Table of contents

• Overview
• Prerequisites
• Compatibility
• Installation and First Execution
• Settings Description
• License
• Disclaimer and Important Notices
• Download
• ChangeLog

Overview

XenDesktop Advanced Settings is an application I’ve developed in C# to help change some hidden settings of Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktop. With this tool you can tweak your farm, for example you can change the behavior of the VMs in a delivery group when a user logoff (reboot the VM or not) or you can set the next number the MCS will use for the first instance it will create. Usually you have to fiddle with Powershell and search online for documentation, which is not always easy to find and some times even do not exists.

I’ve already spent a lot of time coding this utility but I’ll keep it free. By the way, if you like this tool and use it, you are encouraged to donate, to show your appreciation. New features will be added over time depending also on how many donations and endorsement I will receive so, every now and then, check on this site if there are new versions available.

Prerequisites

XDAS is written in C# but also uses Powershell to send commands to the Delivery Controller. The reason is that Citrix haven’t released a C# library, so I had no choice. The prerequisites are:

• .NET Framework 4 or higher (4.7.2 or higher recommended)
• Powershell 2.0 or higher
• Citrix Studio (or just Citrix Powershell snap-ins)

Citrix Studio is needed because Citrix did not release its Powershell modules/snap-ins as a separate download. My application do not requires Citrix Studio so if you are able to only install XenDesktop Powershell modules/snap-ins it’s fine.

You must be an Administrator of the farm to read and change its settings.

Compatibility

I have tested this application on:

• Citrix XenDesktop 7.5
• Citrix XenDesktop 7.15
• Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 7 1912

I suppose it works with any 7.x version.

Installation and First Execution

There is no Setup.exe to run, just extract the content of the Zip file in any folder you like.

From the folder where you extracted the the Zip file, run “XenDesktop Advanced Settings.exe”. The first step is to enter your farm’s delivery controller address. Click on the Manage button.

For each Citrix farm you want to manage insert:

• Farm Name: a name which identifies you farm, typically the name you used when you created the farm but you can type whatever you want.
• Delivery Controller FQDN: insert the address (either hostname or IP address) of one of the farm’s delivery controller.

Close the dialog box. XDAS will try to connect to your farm. If it cannot, an error will be displayed with more details.

An XML file with all your farms is created in the same folder where the executable resides. Do not cancel it or you will have to re-enter your farm information every time.

Settings Description

Reboot VM after user logoff:

Citrix XenDesktop will set this property to true for client OS and to false for server OS.

Allowed values:

• True: every time a user logoff* from a VM, the VM reboot.
• False: every time a user logoff* from a VM, the VM did not reboot.

*Note that when a user close all applications in his current Citrix session, a logoff is started.

In same cases XenDesktop did not set any value for this property (behavior is unknown). XDAS will show this as “Error”.

Next Instance Number:

Using the MCS provisioning method, can happens that you have to delete some instances (for example, to free up some space on the store). Later you need to create new instances. Unfortunately XenDesktop did not let you chose the number for the first instance it will create. So you will finish to have “holes” in the numeric part of your instances’s name.

Allowed values:

• {Any number}: you can change the number used for the first new instance created by the MCS for the specified Machine Catalog.

WARNING: the application did not check if the number is already used! You can set any number you want, thus, creating conflicts with existing VM’s name!

Allocated CPUs:

Sometimes, after you have deployed an application, users complains about speed and responsiveness. So you want to add more CPUs to yours MCS instances. Using XenCenter you change the CPUs allocated to the new value on both instances and the golden image. Unfortunately if you later create a new instance, the MCS process will use the values you set when you first created the Machine Catalog.

Allowed values:

• {Any number}: you can change the number of CPUs allocated to the new instances created by the MCS for the specified Machine Catalog.

WARNING: you can enter any integer number. XDAS will not check if you use values that your farm can’t handle or strange values like 0 or 10000.

Allocated RAM:

Sometimes, after you have deployed an application, users complains about speed and responsiveness. So you want to add more RAM to yours MCS instances.
Using XenCenter you change the RAM allocated to the new value on both instances and the golden image.
Unfortunately if you later create a new instance, the MCS process will use the values you set when you first created the Machine Catalog.

Allowed values:

• {Any number}: you can change the RAM allocated to the new instances created by the MCS for the specified Machine Catalog.

WARNING: you can enter any integer number. XDAS will not check if you use values that your farm / OS can’t handle or strange values like 0.

Sessions Data Retention:

By default, sessions data are retained for 90 days then deleted.
Citrix Director uses these data for reporting.

Allowed values:

• {>= 7; =< 365}: any integer number between 7 and 365

WARNING: increasing retention days will increase DB size.
If you don’t have Premium licenses, the sessions data are retained for 7 days and can’t be changed.
If you change this setting you must change also summaries data retention to the same value or higher or it will not works.

Summaries Data Retention:

By default, summaries data are retained for 90 days then deleted.
Citrix Director uses these data for reporting.

Allowed values:

• {>= 7; =< 365}: any integer number between 7 and 365

WARNING: increasing retention days will increase DB size.
If you don’t have Premium licenses, the summaries data are retained for 7 days and can’t be changed.

License

“XenDesktop Advanced Settings” can be abbreviated as XDAS from here on.

• You are free to use XDAS for personal or commercial use.
• You can’t sell XDAS.
• You cannot link XDAS executable, directly or in any other format (for example .zip), in any site. This must be the only page where XDAS can be downloaded. If you want to share XDAS, use this link only: http://marcoboemi.altervista.org/blog/xendesktop-advanced-settings/

Disclaimer and Important Notices

Use this software at your own risk. Before using this software, backup your Citrix farm.

“XenDesktop Advanced Settings” changes settings on your Citrix farm. I try to make the code as fail proof as possible but mistakes happens (as with any software by the way). Also I’m not asking money for it, so no refund is possible.

Download

By downloading this software you agree and have read the “Disclaimer and Important Notices” and the “License” paragraphs.

ChangeLog

• 1.0 [05/05/2020] Initial release.
• 1.1 [19/05/2020] New feature: now you can change the “Allocated CPUs” MC property.
• 1.1.1 [19/05/2020] Enhancement: TAB navigation is now improved.
• 1.2 [20/05/2020] New feature: now you can change the “Allocated RAM” MC property.
• 1.2.1 [20/05/2020] Enhancement: improved GUI reactivity when moving between controls.
• 1.3 [28/02/2023]
  • New feature: now you can change Sessions Data Retention used by Director reports.
  • New feature: now you can change Summaries Data Retention used by Director reports.
  • Enhancement: added a status bar on the bottom, mainly to make it clear when settings are changed.
• 1.3.1 [15/03/2023] Enhancement: added a splash screen to make it clear application is loading.
• 1.3.2 [15/03/2023] Enhancement: optimized Powershell performance and RAM utilization.
• 1.3.3 [22/03/2023] Enhancement: added a blink effect when the status bar text changes.