Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops

Citrix Hypervisor virtualization environments

Create a connection to Citrix Hypervisor

When you create a connection to Citrix Hypervisor (formerly XenServer), you must provide the credentials for a VM Power Admin or higher-level user.

Citrix recommends using HTTPS to secure communications with Citrix Hypervisor. To use HTTPS, you must replace the default SSL certificate installed on Citrix Hypervisor; see CTX128656.

You can configure high availability if it is enabled on the Citrix Hypervisor server. Citrix recommends that you select all servers in the pool (from Edit High Availability) to allow communication with the Citrix Hypervisor server if the pool master fails.

You can select a GPU type and group, or pass through, if the Citrix Hypervisor supports vGPU. The display indicates if the selection has dedicated GPU resources.

When using local storage on one or more Citrix Hypervisor hosts for temporary data storage, make sure that each storage location in the pool has a unique name. (To change a name in XenCenter, right-click the storage and edit the name property.)

You can use Citrix Provisioning (formerly Provisioning Services) and Machine Creation Services (MCS) to provision:

  • legacy BIOS for supported Desktop or Server OS VMs.
  • UEFI for supported Desktop or Server OS VMs, including Secure Boot.

Note:

Pool operator permissions or higher are required when configuring MCS.

Use IntelliCache for Citrix Hypervisor connections

Using IntelliCache, hosted VDI deployments are more cost-effective because you can use a combination of shared storage and local storage. This enhances performance and reduces network traffic. The local storage caches the master image from the shared storage, which reduces the number of reads on the shared storage. For shared desktops, writes to the differencing disks are written to local storage on the host and not to shared storage.

  • Shared storage must be NFS when using IntelliCache.
  • Citrix recommends that you use a high performance local storage device to ensure the fastest possible data transfer.

To use IntelliCache, you must enable it in both this product and Citrix Hypervisor.

  • When installing Citrix Hypervisor, select Enable thin provisioning (Optimized storage for Virtual Desktops). Citrix does not support mixed pools of servers that have IntelliCache enabled and servers that do not. For more information, see the Citrix Hypervisor documentation.
  • In Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops, IntelliCache is disabled by default. You can change the setting only when creating a Citrix Hypervisor connection; you cannot disable IntelliCache later. When you add a Citrix Hypervisor connection:
    • Select Shared as the storage type.
    • Select the Use IntelliCache check box.

Create a machine catalog using a Citrix Hypervisor connection

GPU-capable machines require a dedicated master image. Those VMs require video card drivers that support GPUs. Configure GPU-capable machines to allow the VM to operate with software that uses the GPU for operations.

  1. In XenCenter, create a VM with standard VGA, networks, and vCPU.
  2. Update the VM configuration to enable GPU use (either Passthrough or vGPU).
  3. Install a supported operating system and enable RDP.
  4. Install Citrix VM Tools and NVIDIA drivers.
  5. Clear the Virtual Network Computing (VNC) Admin Console to optimize performance, and then restart the VM.
  6. You are prompted to use RDP. Using RDP, install the VDA and then restart the VM.
  7. Optionally, create a snapshot for the VM as a baseline template for other GPU master images.
  8. Using RDP, install customer-specific applications that are configured in XenCenter and use GPU capabilities.

More information

Citrix Hypervisor virtualization environments