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Create a catalog of Amazon WorkSpaces Core Managed Instances

September 6, 2025
Contributed by: 
C

Create machine catalogs describes the wizards that create a machine catalog. The following information covers details specific to Amazon WorkSpaces Core Managed Instances.

Note:

Currently, creation of catalogs of only non-persistent VMs (CleanOnBoot property is True) is supported.

Prerequistes

Before creating a catalog of Amazon WorkSpaces Core Managed Instances, you need to finish creating:

  1. A connection to Amazon WorkSpaces Core Managed Instances. See Connection to Amazon WorkSpaces Core Managed Instances
  2. A prepared image. See Create a prepared image for Amazon WorkSpaces Core Managed Instances.

Network setting during image preparation

During image preparation, a preparation virtual machine (VM) is created based on the original VM. This preparation VM is disconnected from the network. To disconnect the network from the preparation VM, a network security group is created to deny all inbound and outbound traffic. This network security group persists and is reused. The network security group’s name is Citrix.XenDesktop.IsolationGroup-GUID, where GUID is randomly generated.

A machine profile-based machine catalog

You can use a machine profile to capture the hardware properties from an EC2 instance (VM) or launch template version and apply them to the provisioned machines. Properties that are captured can include, for example, tenancy type, instance type, security groups, network mappings, EBS volume properties, EBS optimization, CPU options, hibernation capability, and other supported AWS configurations.

You can use an AWS EC2 Instance (VM) or AWS Launch Template version as the machine profile input.

Note:

AWS tenancy

AWS provides the following tenancy options: shared tenancy (the default type) and dedicated tenancy. Shared tenancy means that multiple Amazon WorkSpaces Core instances from different customers might reside on the same piece of physical hardware. Dedicated tenancy means that your Amazon WorkSpaces Core instances run only on hardware with other instances that you have deployed.

Note:

The dedicated instances are only supported (dedicated hosts are currently not supported). Other customers do not use the same piece of hardware.

Tenancy type is captured from machine profile

When you use MCS to create a catalog to provision machines in AWS, the tenancy type is captured from the machine profile.

  • Shared hardware: This setting is suitable for most deployments. Multiple customers share pieces of hardware even though they do not interact with each other. Using shared hardware is the least expensive option for running your Amazon EC2 instances.
  • Dedicated instance: This setting is more suitable for deployments with specific security or compliance requirements. With a dedicated instance, you still enjoy the benefits of having a host separate from other AWS customers but you do not pay for the entire host. You do not need to worry about the capacity of the host but you are charged at a higher rate for the instances. Additionally, Dedicated Instances provide limited support for Bring Your Own License (BYOL).

Create a catalog

A prepared image and a machine profile is required for creating catalogs of Amazon WorkSpaces Core Managed Instances. You can use an AWS VM Instance or AWS Launch Template version as the machine profile input.

You can create a catalog using:

Create a catalog using Studio

Create a machine catalog from the Images node

Use the Create catalog option in the Images node to create a catalog using the image version.

Alternatively, you can select the version when creating a catalog in the Machine Catalogs node, linking to the prepared image option in the catalog creation workflow. See Create a machine catalog from the Machine Catalogs node.

To create an MCS machine catalog from the Images node, do the following:

  1. Select an image version and click Create catalog. Click Next on the Introduction page.
  2. On the Machine Management and Image pages, the settings are pre-selected based on the selected image version. On the Image page, enter a note for the selected prepared image.
  3. Complete the settings on the following pages.
  4. On the Summary page, check the details of the machine catalog. Enter a name and description for the machine catalog. Click Finish.
  5. Go to the Machine Catalogs node to see the created machine catalog.

Create a machine catalog from the Machine Catalogs node

To create an MCS machine catalog from the Machine Catalogs node, do the following:

  1. Click Machine Catalogs on the left navigation pane.
  2. Click Create Machine Catalog. The Machine Catalog Setup page appears.
  3. On the Machine Type page, select a machine type for the catalog, for example, Multi-session OS.

  4. On the Machine Management page, select the following settings:

    1. Select Machines that are power managed (for example, virtual machines or blade PCs).
    2. Select Citrix provisioning technology. Then, select Citrix Machine Creation Services™.
    3. In the Resources field, select the resources (Availability Zone) that you configured while creating the host connection and click Next.
  5. On the Desktop experience page, select either random or static desktop that you want users to have when they log in.

  6. On the Image page, click Select an image to select a prepared image for the machine catalog. Select the prepared version that you created. Click the image version name. To view more details about the selected image version, click the version number, which is underlined. Click Done.

    The machine profile associated with the prepared image appears and its hardware properties (for example, instance type, tenancy type, network mappings, security groups, volume properties) are used to create machines in the catalogs. To change the machine profile source to another VM or launch template version click the edit button.

  7. On the Virtual Machines page:

    1. Enter the number of VMs for the catalog.
    2. The default machine specification is displayed, which is based on the machine profile. To change it, select the edit icon and select a machine specification.
  8. On the NICs page, select the NICs (or ENIs) for the VMs.
  9. On the Machine Identities page, configure on-premises Active Directory or Microsoft Entra hybrid joined for the machines in the catalog by selecting the domain and creating new AD accounts for the VMs to be created in this machine catalog. The provisioned VMs are joined to the domain selected. Specify the account naming scheme for the new AD accounts to be created for the VMs. Click Next.
  10. On the Domain credentials page, click Enter credentials to provide the credentials for the selected domain. Enter admin-level username and password when prompted. You can also use a service account if you have domain credentials already saved previously by following our product docs.
  11. Click through the remaining pages until the Summary page. Enter a name for the machine catalog and select Finish to create the machine catalog.

Create a catalog using PowerShell

Create a catalog using a prepared image version spec and machine profile

Create an MCS non-persistent machine catalog from the prepared image version spec using the New-ProvScheme command. For example,

New-ProvScheme -ProvisioningSchemeName <string> -ImageVersionSpecUid <Guid> -HostingUnitUid <Guid> -IdentityPoolUid <Guid> [-CleanOnBoot $true] [-MachineProfile <string>] [-ProvisioningSchemeType “MCS”]
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Example of the complete set of Powershell commands to create a catalog:

$Catalog = New-BrokerCatalog  -AllocationType "Random"  -IsRemotePC $False  -MinimumFunctionalLevel "L7_20" -Name "wsccatalog" -PersistUserChanges "Discard" -ProvisioningType "MCS" -Scope @() -SessionSupport "MultiSession"

$IdentityPool = New-AcctIdentityPool  -AllowUnicode  -Domain "domainname" -IdentityPoolName "wsccatalog" -IdentityType "ActiveDirectory"  -NamingScheme "aws##" -NamingSchemeType "Numeric" -Scope @()

$PreparedImageVersionSpec = Get-ProvImageVersionSpec -ImageDefinitionName image1 -ImageVersionNumber 1 -Filter "PreparationType -eq 'Mcs'"

$Task = New-ProvScheme -ProvisioningSchemeName wsccatalog -ImageVersionSpecUid $PreparedImageVersionSpec.ImageVersionSpecUid -HostingUnitName azure -IdentityPoolName wsccatalog -CleanOnBoot -Scope @() -SecurityGroup @() -MachineProfile 'XdHyp:\HostingUnits\cvad-test-scalestress\us-east-1a.availabilityzone\machine-profile-instance i (i-0xxxxxxxx).vm' -RunAsynchronously

Get-ProvTask -TaskId $Task.TaskId
$ProvScheme = Get-ProvScheme -ProvisioningSchemeName wsccatalog

Set-BrokerCatalog -Name $Catalog.Name -ProvisioningSchemeId $ProvScheme.ProvisioningSchemeUid
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Update the machine profile

To update the machine profile on a catalog that was initially provisioned with a machine profile, do the following. You can also change the tenancy type and hibernation capability of the machine profile source while editing an MCS machine catalog.

  1. Run Set-ProvScheme command. For example,

    Set-ProvScheme `
-ProvisioningSchemeUid "<ID" `
-MachineProfile "XDHyp:\HostingUnits\abc\us-east-1a.availabilityzone\citrix-cvad-machineprofile-instance (i-0xxxxxxxx).vm"
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Create a catalog with launch template version using PowerShell

You can create an MCS machine catalog with a launch template version as a machine profile input. You can also update the input of a machine profile catalog from a VM to a launch template version and from a launch template version to a VM.

On the AWS EC2 console, you can provide the instance configuration information of a launch template along with version number. When you specify the launch template version as a machine profile input while creating or updating a machine catalog, the properties from that version of the launch template are copied to the provisioned VDA VMs.

The following properties can be provided using machine profile input or explicitly as parameters in New-ProvScheme or Set-ProvSchemecommands. If they are provided in New-ProvScheme or Set-ProvScheme commands, they take precedence over the machine profile values of these properties.

  • Service Offering
  • Networks

Note:

If service offering is not provided in the machine profile launch template or as a parameter in the New-ProvScheme command, you get an appropriate error.

To create a catalog using launch template version as a machine profile input:

  1. Open a PowerShell window.
  2. Run asnp citrix* to load the Citrix-specific PowerShell modules.

  3. Get the list of launch template versions of a launch template. For example:

    XDHyp:\HostingUnits\test\test-mp-sard (lt-01xxxxx).launchtemplate> ls | Select FullPath
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  4. Create an identity pool if not created. For example:

    New-AcctIdentityPool `
-IdentityPoolName "abc11" `
-NamingScheme "abc1-##" `
-NamingSchemeType Numeric `
-Domain "citrix-xxxxxx.local" `
-ZoneUid "xxxxxxxx" `
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  5. Create a provisioning scheme with a launch template version as a machine profile input. For example:

    New-ProvScheme `
-ProvisioningSchemeName "MPLT1" `
-HostingUnitUid "c7f71f6a-3f45-4xxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxx" `
-IdentityPoolUid "bf3a6ba2-1f80-4xxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxx" `
-ImageVersionSpecUid ‘24dfb047-e867-527g-896c-25664xxxxx1t’ ` 
-CleanOnBoot `
-MachineProfile "XDHyp:\HostingUnits\xxxx-ue1a\machineprofiletest (lt-01xxxxx).launchtemplate\lt-01xxxxx (1).launchtemplateversion"
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  6. Register a provisioning scheme as a broker catalog. For example:

    New-BrokerCatalog -Name "MPLT1" `
-AllocationType Random `
-Description "Machine profile catalog" `
-ProvisioningSchemeId fe7df345-244e-4xxxx-xxxxxxxxx `
-ProvisioningType Mcs `
-SessionSupport MultiSession `
-PersistUserChanges Discard
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  7. Complete creating the catalog.

Update the machine profile source

You can also update the input of a machine profile catalog from a VM to a launch template version and from a launch template version to a VM. For example:

  • To update the input of a machine profile catalog from a VM to a launch template version:

     Set-ProvScheme -ProvisioningSchemeName "CloudServiceOfferingTest" `
 -MachineProfile "XDHyp:\HostingUnits\xxxx-ue1a\machineprofiletest (lt-0bxxxxxxxxxxxx).launchtemplate\lt-0bxxxxxxxxxxxx (1).launchtemplateversion"
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  • To update the input of a machine profile catalog from a launch template version to a VM:

     Set-ProvScheme -ProvisioningSchemeName "CloudServiceOfferingTest" `
 -MachineProfile "XDHyp:\HostingUnits\sard-ue1a\us-east-1a.availabilityzone\apollo-non-persistent-vda-win2022-2 (i-08xxxxxxxxx).vm"
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Encrypt OS and ID disks

You can create a non-persistent catalog of VMs with AWS KMS keys (Customer managed key and AWS managed key) that can be used to encrypt OS disk and Identity Disk (ID).

  • AWS managed keys are automatically rotated every year.
  • Customer managed keys are optional for automatic rotation and can be managed manually.

You can see the following AWS documents for more information on KMS keys:

For encryption of OS and ID disks, configure one of the following:

  • Use a prepared image that is encrypted (for example, an AMI created from an instance or snapshot that contains an EBS root volume encrypted with KMS key)
  • Use a machine profile source (VM or launch template) that contains an encrypted EBS root volume.

Limitations

Consider the following limitations:

  • MCS currently supports only one disk on prepared image AMI.

  • You cannot directly encrypt existing unencrypted EBS volumes or snapshots, or modify the KMS key of an existing encrypted volume. To do that, you must:

    1. Create a new snapshot of that volume.
    2. Create a new volume from that snapshot
    3. Encrypt the new volume.

See the following AWS documents:

Create a catalog with disk encryption

You can create an MCS machine catalog with disk encryption using:

  • Prepared image (created using image management from master image that has encrypted disk)
  • Machine profile

Considerations while using machine profile input are:

  • The KMS key of the machine profile input takes precedence over the prepared image’s KMS key.
  • If no machine profile input is provided, then the KMS key of the prepared image AMI is used to encrypt the disks of catalog VMs.
  • If the machine profile has Block Device Mappings present, then the block devices present in the prepared image template (AMI) and the machine profile must match. For example, if AMI has a device defined on /dev/sda1, then the Machine Profile must also have a device defined on /dev/sda1.
  • If there is no key in the machine profile source and the prepared image is unencrypted, then disks of catalog VMs are not encrypted.
  • When the prepared image is encrypted, a machine profile source VM or launch template must have an encrypted root volume to be considered a valid input.

Modify an existing catalog

You can modify an existing catalog using the Set-ProvScheme PowerShell command to have:

  • A machine profile input with a volume containing a new KMS key.
  • A prepared image created from the master image with encrypted AMI using image management.

Important considerations:

  • The volumes of new VMs added to the catalog are encrypted with the new KMS key.
  • To update the encryption settings when there is an existing machine profile, run Set-ProvScheme with a new machine profile.
  • You cannot modify an existing catalog from having encrypted volumes to unencrypted volumes. You cannot do an image update from an encrypted prepared image AMI to an unencrypted prepared image AMI.

Enable NitroTPM and UEFI secure boot for VM instances

When creating a catalog, you can now select a prepared image (AMI) with NitroTPM and/or UEFI secure boot enabled. Accordingly, the provisioned VMs in the catalog are also enabled with NitroTPM and/or UEFI secure boot. This implementation ensures that the VMs are secured and trusted. For more information on NitroTPM and UEFI Secure Boot, see the Amazon documentation.

Limitations

  • You can use both NitroTPM and Secure Boot currently in all AWS Regions (including the AWS GovCloud (US) Regions) except China.
  • You cannot enable NitroTPM and UEFI secure boot on existing catalogs. If you want a catalog with NitroTPM and UEFI secure boot enabled, create a new catalog.

Key steps

  1. Set up your AWS environment.
  2. Create a connection to AWS.
  3. Create a master image (AMI) enabled with NitroTPM and/or UEFI secure boot.
  4. Create a prepared image from the master image. See Create a prepared image for Amazon WorkSpaces Core Managed Instances.
  5. Create a machine catalog by selecting the prepared image with NitroTPM and UEFI secure boot enabled in Citrix Studio catalog creation menu or when creating a Provisioning Scheme using PowerShell commands.

VMs added to the created catalog have NitoTPM and UEFI secure boot enabled.

Create an AMI that supports NitroTPM and UEFI secure boot

  1. You can create an AMI from a VM that has NitroTPM and/or UEFI secure boot enabled.

    1. Create the instance from using the AWS marketplace images. Example, search for TPM-Windows_Server-2022-English-Full-Base on the aws-marketplace.
    2. Download single or multi session VDA.
    3. Create an AMI from that VM.

  2. Use the register-image command:

    --boot-mode (string)
--tpm-support (string)
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    For more information, see register-image.

See the following AWS documents:

You can open a PowerShell window from the Delivery controller™ host to check if a specific:

  • service offering supports NitroTPM or UEFI secure boot

     (Get-Item -Path “XDHyp:\HostingUnits\aws\T3 Medium Instance.serviceoffering”).AdditionalData.BootMode
 (Get-Item -Path “XDHyp:\HostingUnits\aws\T3 Medium Instance.serviceoffering”).AdditionalData.NitroTpmSupportVersions
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  • template supports NitroTPM or UEFI secure boot

     (Get-HypInventoryItem -LiteralPath “XDHyp:\HostingUnits\aws” -ResourceType “template -Id “ID”).AdditionalData.BootMode

 (Get-HypInventoryItem -LiteralPath “XDHyp:\HostingUnits\aws” -ResourceType “template -Id “ID”).AdditionalData.TpmSupport
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Update the service offering of existing catalog

You can change the service offering of an existing catalog using Set-ProvScheme. The change applies to the newly added VMs. However, you get errors in the following scenarios:

AMIs boot mode AMI supports Nitro TPM? Service offering supports NitroTPM and UEFI secure boot?
UEFI No No
Legacy BIOS Yes No
UEFI Yes No
UEFI Preferred Yes No

Copy tags on VMs

You can copy tags on NICs, and disks (Identity disk, write back cache disk, and OS disk) that are specified in the machine profile to newly created VMs in an MCS machine catalog. You can specify these tags in any of the machine profile sources (AWS VM instance or AWS launch template version). This feature is applicable to persistent and non-persistent machine catalogs and VMs.

Note:

  • On the AWS EC2 console, you cannot see the Tag Network Interfaces values under the Launch Template Version Resource Tags. However, you can run the PowerShell command aws ec2 describe-launch-template-versions --launch-template-id lt-0bb652503d45dcbcd --versions 12 to see the tag specifications.
  • If a machine profile source (VM or launch template version) has two network interfaces (eni-1 and eni-2), and eni-1 has tag t1 and eni-2 has tag t2, then the VM gets both the two network interfaces’ tags.

Filter VM instances using PowerShell

An AWS VM instance that you use as a machine profile VM must be compatible for the machine catalog to create and function correctly. To list the AWS VM instances that can be used as machine profile input VMs, you can use the Get-HypInventoryItem command. The command can page and filter the inventory of VMs available on a hosting unit.

Pagination:

Get-HypInventoryItem supports two modes of pagination:

  • Paging mode uses the -MaxRecords and -Skip parameters to return sets of items:
    • -MaxRecords: The default is 1. This controls how many items to return.
    • -Skip: The default is 0. This controls how many items to skip from the absolute beginning (or absolute end) of the list in the hypervisor.
  • Scrolling mode uses -MaxRecords, -ForwardDirection, and -ContinuationToken parameters to allow scrolling of the records:
    • -ForwardDirection: The default is True. This is used along with -MaxRecords to return either the next set of matching records or the previous set of matching records.
    • -ContinuationToken: The returns the items immediately after (or before if ForwardDirection is false) but not including the item given in the ContinuationToken.

Examples of pagination:

  • To return a single record of the machine template with the lowest name. The AdditionalData field has the TotalItemsCount and the TotalFilteredItemsCount:

     Get-HypInventoryItem -LiteralPath "XDHyp:\HostingUnits\ctx-test" -ResourceType template
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  • To return 10 records of the machine template with the lowest name:

     Get-HypInventoryItem -LiteralPath "XDHyp:\HostingUnits\ctx-test" -ResourceType template -MaxRecords 10 | select Name
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  • To return an array of records ending with the highest name:

     Get-HypInventoryItem -LiteralPath "XDHyp:\HostingUnits\ctx-test" -ResourceType template -ForwardDirection $False -MaxRecords 10 | select Name
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  • To return an array of records starting at the machine template associated with the given ContinuationToken:

     Get-HypInventoryItem -LiteralPath "XDHyp:\HostingUnits\ctx-test" -ResourceType template -ContinuationToken "ami-07xxxxxxxxxx" -MaxRecords 10
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Filtering:

The following additional optional parameters are supported for filtering. You can combine these parameters with the pagination options.

  • -ContainsName "my_name": If the given string matches part of an AMI name, then the AMI is included in the Get result. For example:

     Get-HypInventoryItem -LiteralPath "XDHyp:\HostingUnits\ctx-test" -ResourceType template -MaxRecords 100 -ContainName ‘apollo’ | select Name
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  • -Tags '{ "Key0": "Value0", "Key1": "Value1", "Key2": "Value2" }': If an AMI has at least one of these tags, it is included in the Get result. For example:

     Get-HypInventoryItem -LiteralPath "XDHyp:\HostingUnits\ctx-test" -ResourceType template -MaxRecords 100 -Tags '{"opex owner": "Not tagged"}' | select Name
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    Note:

    Two tag values are supported. Not Tagged tag value matches items which do not have the given tag in their list of tags. All values tag value matches items which have the tag regardless of the value of the tag. Otherwise, the match happens only if the item has the tag and the value equals to what is given in the filter.

  • -Id "ami-0a2d913927e0352f3": If the AMI matches the given ID, it is included in the Get result. For example:

     Get-HypInventoryItem -LiteralPath "XDHyp:\HostingUnits\ctx-test" -ResourceType template -Id ami-xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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Filtering on AdditionalData parameter:

The AdditionalData filter parameter lists templates or VMs based on their capability, service offering, or any property which is in AdditionalData. For example:

(Get-HypInventoryItem -ResourceType "launchtemplateversion" -LiteralPath "XDHyp:\HostingUnits\aws" -MaxRecords 200).AdditionalData
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You can also add a -Warn parameter to indicate the incompatible VMs. The VMs are included with an AdditionalData field named Warning. For example:

(Get-HypInventoryItem -ResourceType "launchtemplateversion" -LiteralPath "XDHyp:\HostingUnits\aws" -MaxRecords 200 -Template "ami-015xxxxxxxxx" -Warn $true).AdditionalData
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Where to go next

More information

Create a catalog of Amazon WorkSpaces Core Managed Instances
September 6, 2025
Contributed by: 
C
September 6, 2025
Contributed by: 
C

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