Get started: Plan and build a deployment
If you’re not familiar with the components, terminology, and objects used with this service, see Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service.
For a customer journey perspective, go to the Citrix Success Center. The Success Center provides guidance for the five key stages of your Citrix journey: plan, build, rollout, manage, and optimize.
- The Success Center information is an essential partner to this product documentation.
- Success Center articles and guides offer a broad solution-based perspective. They also contain links to service-specific details in this product documentation.
If you’re migrating from an on-premises Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops deployment, see Migrate to cloud.
How to use this article
To set up your Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service deployment, complete the tasks summarized below. Links are provided to each task’s details.
Review the entire process before starting the deployment, so you know what to expect. This article also links to other helpful information sources.
Note:
If you plan to use the Quick Deploy interface to provision Microsoft Azure machines, follow the setup guidance in Get started with Quick Deploy.
Plan and prepare
Use the Success Center Plan guidance to help establish goals, define use cases and business objectives, identify potential risks, and create a project plan.
In the Citrix Tech Zone documentation, see a step-by-step proof of concept guide for this service.
Sign up
Sign up for a Citrix account and request a Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service demo.
Set up a resource location
Create a resource location and add Cloud Connectors.
More information:
- What are resource locations and Cloud Connectors?
-
Video about installing Cloud Connectors:
If you’re using the Quick Deploy interface to provision Azure VMs, Citrix creates the resource location and Cloud Connectors for you.
On the service’s Overview page, this step is titled Connect to infrastructure.
Create a connection to the resource location
After you add a resource location and Cloud Connectors, create a connection from the service’s control plane to the resource location.
This step isn’t necessary in either of the following cases:
- You’re building a simple proof of concept deployment
- You’re using the Quick Deploy interface to provision Azure VMs.
More information:
Install VDAs
Each machine that delivers applications and desktops to users must have a Citrix Virtual Delivery Agent (VDA) installed on it.
- For a simple proof of concept deployment, download and install a VDA on one machine.
- If you’re using an image to provision VMs, install a VDA on the image.
- For a Remote PC Access deployment, install the core version of the VDA for single-session OS on each physical office PC.
How-to and more information:
- What are VDAs?
- Installation preparation and instruction
- Command-line VDA installation
-
Video about downloading and installing a VDA:
On the service’s Overview page, this step is titled Register resources.
Create a catalog
After you create a connection to your resource location (if needed), you create a catalog. If you’re using the service’s full configuration Manage interface, the workflow guides you automatically to this step.
How-to and more information:
- What are catalogs?
- Create a catalog
- Use the Quick Deploy interface to deploy a catalog containing Azure VMs.
-
Video about creating a catalog using the full configuration management interface:
On the service’s Overview page, this step is titled Create a collection of resources.
Create a delivery group
After you create your first catalog, the Manage workflow guides you to create a delivery group.
This step isn’t necessary if you’re using the Quick Deploy interface to provision Azure VMs.
How-to and more information:
- What are delivery groups?
- Create a delivery group
-
Video about how to create a delivery group:
On the service’s Overview page, this step is titled Assign users.
Deploy other components and technologies
After you complete the tasks above that set up the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service deployment, follow the guidance in the Build area of the Citrix Success Center. You’ll find information about provisioning and configuring other components and technologies in the Citrix solution, such as:
- Citrix policies
- StoreFront
- App Layering
- Workspace Environment Management (WEM) Service
- Citrix Gateway service
- Zones
- Federated Authentication Service (FAS)
Complete other tasks that apply to your configuration. For example, if you plan to deliver Windows Server workloads, configure a Microsoft RDS License Server.
Launch applications and desktops
After you configure your deployment, publishing occurs automatically. Applications and desktops that you configured are available to users in their Citrix Workspace. A user simply navigates to their Workspace URL and selects an application or desktop, which launches immediately.
Send the Workspace URL to your users. You can find the workspace URL in two locations:
- From the Citrix Cloud console, select Workspace Configuration from the menu in the upper left corner. The Access tab contains the Workspace URL.
- From the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service Overview page, the workspace URL appears near the bottom of the page.
More information:
-
Video about users launching applications and desktops from their Workspace:
More information
The Citrix Cloud Learning series provides education courses that are organized by your path:
- If you’re new to the Citrix service, see New to Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Learning Path.
- If you’re migrating from an on-premises Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops deployment, see Migrating Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops to Citrix Cloud Learning Path.