Linux Virtual Delivery Agent

System requirements

The Current Release of the Linux VDA is aligned with Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops. It is also backward compatible with earlier versions of Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops that haven’t yet reached the end of their lifecycle. For information about the Citrix product lifecycle, and to find out when Citrix stops supporting specific versions of products, see the Citrix Product Lifecycle Matrix.

The configuration process for Linux VDAs differs slightly from Windows VDAs. Any Delivery Controller farm is able to broker both Windows and Linux desktops.

System requirements for components not covered here (such as Citrix Workspace app) are described in their respective documentation sets.

For information about using a Current Release (CR) in a Long Term Service (LTSR) environment and other FAQs, see Knowledge Center article.

Supported Linux distributions, Xorg versions, and desktop environments

For a matrix of the Linux distributions, Xorg versions, and desktop environments that this version of the Linux VDA supports, see the following table. For more information, see XorgModuleABIVersions.

Linux distribution Xorg version Supported desktop
Amazon Linux 2 1.20 MATE, GNOME
Debian 10.9 1.20 MATE, GNOME
Rocky Linux 8.8/8.6 1.20 MATE, GNOME, GNOME Classic, KDE
RHEL 8.8, RHEL 8.6, RHEL 8.4, RHEL 8.3, RHEL 8.2, RHEL 8.1 >= 1.20.8 MATE, GNOME, KDE
RHEL 7.9, RHEL 7.8, CentOS 7.9, CentOS 7.8 1.20 MATE, GNOME, KDE
SUSE 15.3, SUSE 15.2 1.20 MATE, GNOME
SUSE 12.5 1.19 GNOME, KDE
Ubuntu 20.04 1.20 MATE, GNOME
Ubuntu 18.04 1.19 MATE, GNOME

Note:

  • When the support from your OS vendor expires, Citrix might be limited in its ability to remediate problems. For deprecated or removed platforms, see Deprecation.

  • At least one desktop must be installed. You can specify through the ctxinstall.sh or ctxsetup.sh script the GNOME or MATE desktop environment to use in sessions.

  • Do not use HWE kernel or HWE Xorg on Ubuntu.

  • Your user name format must comply with the systemd syntax rules for your current display manager. For more information about the systemd user name syntax, see the User/Group Name Syntax.

Supported host platforms and virtualization environments

  • Bare metal servers
  • Citrix Hypervisor
  • VMware vSphere Hypervisor
  • Microsoft Hyper-V
  • Nutanix AHV
  • Microsoft Azure
  • Amazon Web Services (AWS)
  • Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

Note:

In all cases, the supported processor architecture is x86-64.

Starting with the 2203 release, you can host the Linux VDA on Microsoft Azure, AWS, and GCP for Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops and Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service). To add these public cloud host connections to your Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops deployment, you need Citrix Universal Subscription or Hybrid Rights licenses. For information about Universal Subscription and Hybrid Rights licenses, see Transition and Trade Up (TTU) with Citrix Universal Subscription.

Active Directory integration packages

The Linux VDA supports the following Active Directory integration packages and products:

  Winbind SSSD Centrify PBIS Quest
Amazon Linux 2 Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Debian 10.9 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Rocky Linux 8.8/8.6 Yes Yes No No Yes (Quest v4.1 and later)
RHEL 8.8 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes (Quest v4.1 and later)
RHEL 8.6 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes (Quest v4.1 and later)
RHEL 8.4 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes (Quest v4.1 and later)
RHEL 8.3 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes (Quest v4.1 and later)
RHEL 8.2 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes (Quest v4.1 and later)
RHEL 8.1 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes (Quest v4.1 and later)
RHEL 7.9, CentOS 7.9 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes (Quest v4.1 and later)
RHEL 7.8, CentOS 7.8 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes (Quest v4.1 and later)
SUSE 15.3 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
SUSE 15.2 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
SUSE 12.5 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes (Quest v4.1 and later)
Ubuntu 20.04 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes (Quest v4.1 and later)
Ubuntu 18.04 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes (Quest v4.1 and later)

HDX 3D Pro

The HDX 3D Pro capabilities of Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops let you deliver desktops and applications that perform best using a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) for hardware acceleration.

Hypervisors

For the Linux VDA, HDX 3D Pro is compatible with the following hypervisors:

  • Citrix Hypervisor
  • VMware vSphere Hypervisor
  • Nutanix AHV
  • Microsoft Azure
  • AWS
  • Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

Note:

The hypervisors are compatible with certain Linux distributions. To use HDX 3D Pro for Amazon Linux 2, we recommend you install NVIDIA driver 470.

GPUs

To learn which NVIDIA GPU cards your Linux distribution supports, go to the NVIDIA product support matrix and check the Hypervisor or Bare-Metal OS, Software Product Deployment, Hardware Supported, and Guest OS Support columns.

Ensure that you install the latest vGPU driver for your GPU card. Currently, the Linux VDA supports up to vGPU 14. For more information, see NVIDIA Virtual GPU Software Supported GPUs.

System requirements