Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 7 2206
About the release
This Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops release includes new versions of the Windows Virtual Delivery Agents (VDAs) and new versions of several core components. You can:
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Install or upgrade a site: Use the ISO for this release to install or upgrade core components and VDAs. Installing or upgrading to the latest version allows you to use the latest features.
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Install or upgrade VDAs in an existing site: If you already have a deployment, and aren’t ready to upgrade your core components, you can still use several of the latest HDX features by installing (or upgrading to) a new VDA. Upgrading only the VDAs can be helpful when you want to test enhancements in a non-production environment.
After upgrading your VDAs to this version (from version 7.9 or later), you do not need to update the machine catalog’s functional level. The 7.9 (or later) value remains the default functional level, and is valid for this release. For more information, see VDA versions and functional levels.
For installation and upgrade instructions:
- If you are building a new site, follow the sequence in Install and configure.
- If you are upgrading a site, see Upgrade a deployment.
Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 7 2206
Install and upgrade: Microsoft Visual C++ prerequisite
When installing a Delivery Controller, VDA, or Universal Print Server, the Citrix installer automatically installs the Microsoft Visual C++ 2015–2019 Redistributable.
- If the machine contains an earlier version of that runtime (such as 2015-2017), the Citrix installer upgrades it.
- If the machine contains a version earlier than 2015, Citrix installs the newer version in parallel.
VDA install and upgrade: Rendezvous proxy configuration
In the full VDA installers, you can specify the additional component, Rendezvous Proxy Configuration, if you plan to use the Rendezvous protocol with the Citrix Gateway Service in your environment, and have a non-transparent proxy in your network for outbound connections. Only HTTP proxies are supported.
For installation information, see Install VDAs and Command line options for installing a VDA. For feature information, see Rendezvous protocol.
VDA install and upgrade: Features
The VDA installers now support two more items. In the graphical interface, both items are on the Features page.
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Use session sharing. Opens ports in the Windows firewall that are required for session sharing. From the command line, use
/enable_ss_ports. -
Is the VDA installed on a VM in a cloud: Helps Citrix to correctly identify resource locations for on-premises and service (Citrix Cloud) VDA deployments for telemetry purposes. This feature has no impact on customer side utilization. From the command line, use
xendesktopcloud.
For installation information, see Install VDAs and Command line options for installing a VDA.
Virtual Delivery Agents (VDAs) 2206
Removed the dependency of multimedia conferencing on Windows Media redirection
Previously, the Multimedia conferencing setting was enabled only when Windows Media redirection was set to Allowed. Starting with this release, to allow or prevent the use of optimized webcam redirection technology, you can enable or disable the Multimedia conferencing setting. There is no dependency on the Windows Media redirection setting.
Custom protocol redirection from VDA to client
Bidirectional content redirection supports redirecting custom protocols from the Citrix VDA to the client. Protocols other than HTTP and HTTPS are supported. For more information, see Custom protocol redirection from VDA to Client.
Wildcard redirection from Citrix VDA session to the client endpoint
Bidirectional content redirection supports the use of wildcards when defining the URLs to be redirected. For more information, see Wildcard redirection from Citrix VDA to client.
Support for Canadian Multilingual Standard Unicode keyboard layouts
With the keyboard feature enhancement on Windows VDA, using a CWA HMTL5 client connected to Windows VDA, users can type using the Canadian Multilingual Standard keyboard layout. The client keyboard layout and VDA keyboard layout must be set to FRA CMS.
Virtual display layout per monitor
Multi-monitor support enhances the virtual display configuration utility and allows independent virtual display layouts on each session monitor. A new preview functionality is added along with UI changes for an improved user experience.
Multi-session VDA timer settings
New user settings are available for configuring session, idle, and disconnected timers for multi-session machines.
Virtual channel allow list
You can now use wildcards in the process path when adding virtual channels to the allow list. For more information, see Virtual channel security documentation.
More options for configuring session watermark
More customization options are added to the Watermark custom text policy, allowing you to further customize session watermarks. For more information, see Watermark custom text section.
Citrix Studio
Ability to search for a domain when creating a machine catalog
Enumerating a large number of domains can take a long time, especially when there are domains that cannot be reached. Starting with this release, you can search for a domain using an exact match in the following scenarios:
- Create Active Directory accounts for machines when using MCS to create VMs.
- Add OUs when creating Remote PC Access catalogs.
- Add a device collection domain when using Citrix Provisioning to create VMs.
With the feature, you can quickly select the desired domain, thus reducing the wait time when browsing all domains. For more information, see Create machine catalogs.
Machine Creation Services (MCS)
Azure trusted launch support
Using a machine profile with Trusted Launch as Security Type is mandatory when you select an image that has trusted launch enabled. You can then enable or disable SecureBoot and vTPM by specifying their values in the Machine Profile.
Ability to identify Amazon Web Services (AWS) resources created by MCS
You can now identify all AWS resources created by MCS, such as Image, ID disk, OS disk, NIC, and VM that are associated with a ProvScheme using a tag called provschemeID. For more information, see Identify resources.
Ability to use machine profile property values in Azure environment
When you create an Azure catalog with a machine profile, the property values are now set from the ARM template spec or VM, whichever is used as a machine profile, if the values are not explicitly defined in the custom properties. The properties affected by this feature are:
- Availability zone
- Dedicated Host Group Id
- Disk Encryption Set Id
- OS type
- License type
- Service Offering
- Storage type
If some of the properties are missing from the machine profile and not defined in the custom properties, then the default value of the properties takes place wherever applicable. For more information, see Create a machine catalog using an Azure Resource Manager image.
Support for Azure Stack HCI provisioning through SCVMM
MCS now supports Azure Stack HCI provisioning through Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM). You can manage the Azure stack HCI cluster with your existing tools including SCVMM. For more information, see Azure Stack HCI provisioning through SCVMM.
Support for updating MCS provisioned machines in Azure environments
Set-ProvScheme changes the template (provisioning scheme) and does not affect existing machines. Using the Request-ProvVMUpdate command, you can now apply the current provisioning scheme to an existing machine (or a set of machines). Currently, the property update supported by this feature is ServiceOffering. For more information, see Update provisioned machines to current provisioning scheme state.
Support for VMware Storage Profiles
When you create a catalog using a master image on a vSAN Datastore, you can now copy the storage policy such as the RAID-1 or RAID-5 information from the master image to the created target devices. For existing catalogs, the storage policy remains unchanged even if you update the catalog.
Support for restarting non-power managed machines after draining all sessions
You can now create restart schedules to restart machines that are not power managed after all sessions have been drained from them. Create a restart schedule for a delivery group that contains machines that are not power managed, as described in Create a restart schedule. Choose Restart all machines after draining all sessions as the restart duration.
Support for SCVMM 2022
Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops and Citrix DaaS now supports Microsoft’s System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) 2022. SCVMM provides a range of services to include maintaining the resources you need to deploy VMs. For more information about the new features supported in SCVMM 2022, see What’s new in System Center Virtual Machine Manager.
Page file setting during image preparation in Azure environments
You can now avoid potential confusion with page file location because MCS now determines the location at ProvScheme creation during image preparation. This calculation is based on certain rules. The features like ephemeral OS disk (EOS) and MCSIO have their own expected page file location and are exclusive to each other. Also, if image preparation is decoupled from the provisioning scheme creation, MCS correctly determines the page file location. For more information, see Page file location.
Support for updating page file setting in Azure environments
When you create a catalog in the Azure environment, you can now specify the page file setting, including the location and size, using the PoSH command. This action overrides the value determined by MCS. You can update the page file setting by running the New-ProvScheme command and including the following custom properties:
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PageFileDiskDriveLetterOverride: Page file location disk drive letter -
InitialPageFileSizeInMB: Initial page file size in MB -
MaxPageFileSizeInMB: Maximum page file size in MB
For more information, see Update page file setting.
Support for updating the folder ID of a machine catalog in VMware
In VMware virtualization environments, you can now update the folder ID of an MCS machine catalog using the custom property FolderID in Set-ProvScheme. The VMs created after updating the folder ID are created under this new folder ID. If this property is not specified in CustomProperties, then VMs are created under the folder where the master image is located. For more information on updating the folder ID, see Update the folder ID of a machine catalog.