So I have been wanting do some extra **training on a CAG. Unfortunatley I don’t have any spare CAG appliances to do so. I have a VMware Server 1.0.6 for Linux running on RedHat Enterprise Server 5. I searched and searched and found a couple of sites that do have instructions for CAG 4.2 on VMware Workstation. I tried that but I run into the issue of the express setup through VMWaregateway. There is no VMWaregateway for VMWare server for Linux!
After quite a bit of failures I finally got it and it is actually quite simple. Probably can use these same direction on VMWare Server for Windows.
Here we go!
Requirements:
VMWare Server 1.0.6
Citrix Access Gateway 4.5.6 CD or ISO (downloadable from mycitrix)
Serial port(DB9) on both the server and your client
Serial cable
40 GB hard drive space
512 MB of available memory
Installation Process:
1. Create new VM
2. Select “Custom”
3. “Guest Operating System” – Other & “Version” – Other
4. Name the VM anything you want (In this instance I’m going to name is CAG)
5. You decide whether you want it private
6. Again, decide how you want it to startup and shutdown
7. Select “One” for “Number of processors:”
8. As for memory I selected 512MB
9. Network connection doesn’t matter, just depends on what scenario you want. (I selected bridge)
10. Accept defaults for “I/O adapter types”
11. Now “Create a new virtual disk”
12. Select “IDE(Recommended)”
13. Disk Size is 40GB and “Allocate all disk space now.”
14. Name your “Disk File” – CAG.vmdk
15. Once that is done “Edit virtual machine settings”
16. Add a serial port – “Use physical serial port on the host”
17. Depending on your scenario Add what NICs and type you want
18. After that is done you need to edit the CAG.vmx or Other.vmx; add or replace these lines in the config:
ethernet0.virtualDev = e1000
ethernet1.virtualDev = e1000
19. Now you can boot to the CAG ISO or CD in your new VM
20. While that is running go ahead and connect your cable from client to server
21. Start your terminal emulation software (I used TeraTerm Pro):
9600-8-N-1 w/ no flow control
22. You should see the CAG Menu now.
23. Setup your IP and you are done!
Now these are the steps that I used that finally worked. You may be able to get different variations of settings to work for you.
**This is just for training. You cannot put this into production because you will violate Citrix EULA.
Have a Wonderful Day!
Citrix Access Gateway 4.5.6 on VMware Server, huh?
iSCSI, Switches and NICs Oh My!
A recent post by Marc Farley over at Equallogic brings to light an important fact, not all switches are created equal. In the fiber world, administrators are well aware of the cost of fiber switches, maybe painfully aware. Because iSCSI delivers the prospect of a lower TCO, some folks rush to the conclusion that any gigabit ethernet switch will do as they are not forced into a limited selection of vendors like on the fiber side, where Cisco, Brocade and McData seem to rule.
Unfortunately, many of them will come to the harsh realization that low end switches are not ready for production environments or environments which support a lot of IO. Couple the performance implications of switches with that of subpar NIC hardware and you have a recipe for disaster.
For example, the recommendations for iSCSI on an Equallogic device are to utilize flow control, jumbo packets and disable unicast storm control. In order for the switch settings to be effective, the NIC has to support the same options. Enabling jumbo packets on a switch does nothing if the NIC cannot support the setting. If the NIC does not support flow control, then again the flow algorithms will not be effective in controlling traffic from end-to-end. Additionally it is recommended that the NIC support a 2048 receive buffer, especially for applications like SQL, to ensure packets are not lost. If the NIC buffer is too small, packets may be lost during rapid network transitions.
XenServer - MPIO
Virtualization is a real hot topic as we all know but unless you do it right you can cause yourself a lot of grief that is all to real.
Using XenServer's native support for ISCSI you can have yourself a nice little robust virtual environment, with the use of Shared Resources if any hardware goes down you are but a click away to recovery (XenMotion).Dell's EqualLogic PS5000 Series
That is unless that hardware is your one and only NIC!
There is always an answer to IT woes however, and MPIO or Multipath for XenServer is the answer to NIC issues. Citrix's XenServer does natively support ISCSI but to get the Multipath to work it takes additional configurations, and I will help shine some light on this with some undisclosed documentation.
What you need:
- NIC for your XenCenter Management
- Redundant NICs for your ISCSI Data
- Some CLI experience
/etc/iscsi/iscsid.conf
Add a comment code out the line node.startup = manual
Remove the comment code to the line node.start = automatic
Save this file
Run the following commands to set the services (daemon) to start on startup
chkconfig open-iscsi on
chkconfig multipathd on
Next you will need to edit the following file:
/etc/multipath.conf
Add line under defaults {
path_checker readsector0
rr_min_io 100
Save this file
Run the service start commands
service open-iscsi start
service multipathd start
Run the following ISCSI discovery commands
Iscsiadm –m discovery –t st –p ipaddress of ISCSI device
Iscsiadm –m node –L all
multipath -l
*Noted the results for your wwid fields, yes it is a really long number
Open the following file
/etc/multipath.conf
Add iscsi device(s)
multipaths {
multipath{
wwid %multipath -l%
alias %friendlyname%
}
multipath{
wwid %multipath -l%
alias %friendlyname%
}
Save this file
Run the following command to confirm success
ls /dev/mapper
Citrix Presentation 4.5 - Unattended installation file
As we all know the faster that you can install and configure systems and/or applications the more billable we can be. Not to mention save yourself sanity!
Using the Citrix Presentation Server 4.5 UnattendedTemplate.txt can save you some of this much need billable time provided you have all of your prerequisites.
- Update the Windows installer*
- DotNet 2.0*
- Java Runtime*
- JSharp 2.0*
- msvcr71.dll**
The last prerequisite was a little know fact that I discovered just recently and thought I'd share. The Unattended install process does not seem to copy over this certain dll which without it will cause the unattended install to fail.
Keep in mind that additional dll maybe needed based upon your scenario, below is my case study.
- Complete Windows Server 2003 unattended installation using a DVD with Manufacture Support Tools
- Citrix MPS 4.5.1 with local access database
- New Citrix Farm
This scenario is set for minimal touch environment with very few customization needed to fit any environment i.e. Mass drivers, Manufacture Support Tools
[Citrix License Agreement]AcceptLicense=Yes
[Data Store Configuration]
CreateFarm=Yes
LocalDBType=Access
DirectConnect=No;
*Leave this blank to use the default zone name
ZoneName=
[Indirect Connect Settings]
IndirectServerName=
IndirectServerPort=2512
UserName=
DomainName=
****************************************************************
*Farm Settings This section specifies the settings for creating a farm.
*This section is used only if CreateFarm is Yes in the Data
* Store Configuration section.
* In this section you must specify:
* 1. The name of the farm you are creating.
* 2. A Windows NT user (user name and domain) who will be the
* administrator of this farm. This user can later designate
* other users as administrators of the farm using the
* Presentation Server Console.
***************************************************************
[Farm Settings]
FarmName=Farm
FarmAdministratorUsername=Administrator
FarmAdministrator
Domain=citrixtest
****************************************************************
*Shadowing Restrictions
*This section specifies whether or not shadowing is enabled. If
* shadowing is enabled, this section specifies shadowing
* restrictions.
***************************************************************
[Shadowing Restrictions]
AllowShadowing=Yes
ProhibitRemoteControl=No
ProhibitNotificationOff=No
ProhibitLoggingOff=No
[Citrix XML Service]
ExtendIIS=No
*This setting applies only if ExtendIIS is No
DedicatedPortNumber=80 *This setting applies only if ExtendIIS is Yes
EnableVirtualScripts=Yes
[Options]
RebootOnFinish=Yes
LogLevel=*v
LogFile=c:\msi.log
UILevel= BASIC_UI_NO_MODAL
IgnoreMCM=NoRemoveWITurnkey=No
[PresentationServer]
ServerType=Enterprise
[LicenseServer]
LicenseServerChoice=Point
LicenseServerName=citrixlc
LicenseServerPortDefault=Yes
LicenseServerPort=27000
[MFRDP]
DisableRDPPromptForPassword=Yes
[IMAEncryption]
EncryptionEnable=0
KeyType=file
NewKeyPath=
KeyPath=
*Note: D:\Support\
**Note: D:\Citrix Presentation Server\Program Files\Citrix\System32
Installation operation failed -- Note: 1: 1708
