Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops

Create a VMware catalog

July 9, 2025

Contributed by:

C S

Create machine catalogs describes the wizards that create a machine catalog. The following information covers details specific to VMware virtualization environments.

Note:

Before creating a VMware catalog, you need to finish creating a connection to VMware. See Connection to VMware.

Create a master VM

Use a master VM to provide user desktops and applications in a machine catalog. On your hypervisor:

Install a VDA on the master VM, selecting the option to optimize the desktop, which improves performance.
Take a snapshot of the master VM to use as a back-up.

Note:

You can use MCS to provision VMs in vSAN 8.0 environment.

Create a machine catalog using a machine profile

You can create an MCS machine catalog using a machine profile. The source of the machine profile input is a VMware template. The machine profile captures the hardware properties from a VMware template and applies them to the newly provisioned VMs in the catalog.

Note:

Master image input (snapshot) and machine profile input (VMware template) must either be both vTPM enabled or both vTPM disabled. This rule applies to both New-ProvScheme and Set-ProvScheme.

If the master image is vTPM enabled, then the VMware template can only come from the same VM source as the master image.

Encrypted storage policy only supports full clone.

The machine profile-based catalogs utilize the provided VMware template to gather storage controller information, relying on the attached virtual disks. The template must include a virtual disk which is required to retrieve the storage controller information that is used to configure virtual disks for the virtual machines.

The VMware template in the machine profile must exist during the catalog life cycle to allow provisioning of VMs to the catalog. Without a VMware template, you cannot provision new VMs. When a VMware template gets deleted, you must supply a new template using the Set-ProvScheme command.

MCS captures properties of a VMware template. You can create new a VMware template referencing stored properties of VMware template using the Get-Provscheme command.
Alternatively, if the machine catalog and provisioned VMs exist, then an MCS provisioned machine can also be used to create a new VMware template.

Based on different OS, you can create a machine catalog with different configurations:

If windows 11 is installed on the master image, then it is a requirement to have vTPM enabled for the master image. Therefore, the VMware template, which is a source of machine profile, must have vTPM attached to it.
If windows 10 is installed on the master image with no vTPM attached, then you can create a machine catalog with non-vTPM VMware template as source for machine profile.

There is another configuration where you can create a machine catalog using full copy disk mode with machine profile template applied with encrypted storage policy.

To create a machine catalog using PowerShell commands with machine profile as input:

Open a PowerShell window.
Run asnp citrix*.

Run the following commands:

To create a machine catalog with vTPM attached VMware template as a source for machine profile input and windows11 installed master image:

 $identityPool = New-AcctIdentityPool  -IdentityPoolName "<string>"
 -NamingScheme "<string>-###"
 -NamingSchemeType Numeric
 -Domain "<domain name"
 -ZoneUid "<Uid>"  -Scope @()
 <!--NeedCopy-->

 $provScheme =New-ProvScheme  -CleanOnBoot
 -HostingUnitName "vSanRg"
 -IdentityPoolName "<string>"
 -InitialBatchSizeHint 1
 -MasterImageVM "XDHyp:\HostingUnits\<hosting unit name>\<snapshot name>.snapshot"
 -NetworkMapping @{"0"="XDHyp:\HostingUnits\<hosting unit name>\\<network name>.network"}
 -ProvisioningSchemeName "<string>"
 -Scope @() -VMCpuCount 4
 -VMMemoryMB 6144
 -MachineProfile "XDHyp:\HostingUnits\<hosting unit name>\<template name>.template" -TenancyType Shared
 -FunctionalLevel "L7_20"
 <!--NeedCopy-->

 $catalog = New-BrokerCatalog
 -AllocationType "Static"
 -PersistUserChanges  "OnLocal"
 -Description "<string>"
 -IsRemotePC $False
 -MinimumFunctionalLevel 'L7_9'
 -Name "<catalog name>"
 -ProvisioningType 'MCS'
 -Scope @()
 -SessionSupport "SingleSession" -ZoneUid "<Uid>"
 <!--NeedCopy-->

 Set-BrokerCatalog -Name "<string>"
 -ProvisioningSchemeId $provScheme.ProvisioningSchemeUid.Guid
 <!--NeedCopy-->

To create a machine catalog with Non-vTPM VMware template as source for machine profile and Windows10 installed master image:

 $identityPool = New-AcctIdentityPool
 -IdentityPoolName "<string>"
 -NamingScheme "<string>-###" -NamingSchemeType Numeric
 -Domain "<domain name>"
 -ZoneUid "<Uid>"  -Scope @()
 <!--NeedCopy-->

 $provScheme =New-ProvScheme
 -CleanOnBoot -HostingUnitName "<string>"
 -IdentityPoolName "<string>"
 -InitialBatchSizeHint 1
 -MasterImageVM "XDHyp:\HostingUnits\<hosting unit name>\<snapshot name>.snapshot
 -NetworkMapping @{"0"="XDHyp:\HostingUnits\<hosting unit name>\\<string>.network"}
 -ProvisioningSchemeName "<string>"  -Scope @() -VMCpuCount 4  -VMMemoryMB 8192
 -MachineProfile "XDHyp:\HostingUnits\<hosting unit name>\<template name>.template"
 -TenancyType Shared  -FunctionalLevel "L7_20"
 <!--NeedCopy-->

 $catalog = New-BrokerCatalog
 -AllocationType "Static"
 -PersistUserChanges  "OnLocal"
 -Description "<string>"
 -IsRemotePC $False
 -MinimumFunctionalLevel 'L7_9' -Name "<string>" -ProvisioningType 'MCS' -Scope @()
 -SessionSupport "SingleSession" -ZoneUid "<Uid"
 <!--NeedCopy-->

 Set-BrokerCatalog -Name "<string>"
 -ProvisioningSchemeId $provScheme.ProvisioningSchemeUid.Guid
 <!--NeedCopy-->

To create a machine catalog using Full copy disk mode with machine profile template applied with encrypted storage policy:

 $identityPool = New-AcctIdentityPool
 -IdentityPoolName "<string>"
 -NamingScheme "<string>-###"
 -NamingSchemeType Numeric
 -Domain "<domain name>"
 -ZoneUid "<Uid>"  -Scope @()
 <!--NeedCopy-->

 $provScheme =New-ProvScheme
 -HostingUnitName "<string>"
 -IdentityPoolName "<string>"
 -InitialBatchSizeHint 1
 -MasterImageVM "XDHyp:\HostingUnits\<hosting unit name>\<snapshot name>.snapshot"
 -NetworkMapping @{"0"="XDHyp:\HostingUnits\<hosting unit name>\\<string>.network"}
 -ProvisioningSchemeName "<string>"
 -Scope @() -VMCpuCount 4  -VMMemoryMB 8192 -MachineProfile "XDHyp:\HostingUnits\<hosting unit name>\<template name>.template"
 -TenancyType Shared
 -FunctionalLevel "L7_20" -UseFullDiskCloneProvisioning
 <!--NeedCopy-->

 $catalog = New-BrokerCatalog
 -AllocationType "Static"
 -PersistUserChanges  "OnLocal"
 -Description "<string>"  -IsRemotePC $False
 -MinimumFunctionalLevel 'L7_9'
 -Name "<string>" -ProvisioningType 'MCS' -Scope @()
 -SessionSupport "SingleSession" -ZoneUid "<Uid>"
 <!--NeedCopy-->

 Set-BrokerCatalog -Name "<string>"
 -ProvisioningSchemeId $provScheme.ProvisioningSchemeUid.Guid
 <!--NeedCopy-->

To update a machine profile, use the Set-ProvScheme command. For example:

Set-ProvScheme -ProvisioningSchemeName 'name' -IdentityPoolName 'name' -MachineProfile 'XDHyp:\HostingUnits\<hosting unit name>\<template name>.template'
<!--NeedCopy-->

Check for multiple NICs

You get various error messages during the pre-flight checks for multiple NICs when using a machine profile and the NetworkMapping parameter in the New-ProvScheme and Set-ProvScheme commands.

The pre-flight checklist for multiple NICs is as follows:

Only NIC count from the machine profile template is used and validated. The network to which these NICs point towards is not used or validated against the hosting unit networks.
If the NIC count in the machine profile template is greater than the number of networks in the hosting unit, you get an error message.
If the NIC count in the machine profile template is zero, you get an error message. When the NIC count in the machine profile template is one, then:
- If no network mapping is specified in the New-ProvScheme or Set-ProvScheme command, and the hosting unit network is one, then the hosting unit network is used.
- If network mapping is specified, then the specified network mapping is used if it is valid.
When the NIC count in the machine profile template is greater than 1, or the hosting unit network count is greater than 1, then:
- Valid network mapping is required in the command, and it should provide mapping for each NIC (that is, NetworkMapping count should be same as the machine profile NIC count).
- Multiple NICs cannot be mapped to the same network in the hosting unit.
- NetworkMapping count and machine profile NIC count must be less than or equal to the hosting unit network count.
- NetworkMapping must be provided for each id from 0 to n-1, where n is the number of network adapters in the machine profile template.

Troubleshooting

If the catalog fails to create, see CTX294978.

Where to go next

If this is the first catalog created, Web Studio guides you to create a delivery group
To review the entire configuration process, see Install and configure
To manage catalogs, see Manage machine catalogs and Manage a VMware catalog

More information

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Create a VMware catalog

July 9, 2025

Contributed by:

C S

July 9, 2025

Contributed by:

C S

Create a VMware catalog

Create a master VM

Create a machine catalog using a machine profile

Check for multiple NICs

Troubleshooting

Where to go next

More information

In this article