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 the 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 GNOME, GNOME Classic, MATE
Debian 11.7/11.3 1.20 GNOME, GNOME Classic, KDE, MATE
RHEL 9.2/9.0 1.20 GNOME
RHEL 8.8/8.6 1.20 GNOME, GNOME Classic, MATE
RHEL 7.9, CentOS 7.9 1.20 GNOME, GNOME Classic, KDE, MATE
Rocky Linux 9.2/9.0 1.20 GNOME
Rocky Linux 8.8/8.6 1.20 GNOME, GNOME Classic, KDE, MATE
SUSE 15.5 1.20 GNOME, GNOME Classic, MATE
Ubuntu 22.04 1.21 GNOME, GNOME Classic, KDE, MATE
Ubuntu 20.04 1.20 GNOME, GNOME Classic, KDE, MATE

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, GNOME Classic, or MATE desktop environment to use in sessions.
  • According to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux documentation, GNOME is the only desktop environment available in RHEL 9.
  • 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 User/Group Name Syntax.

.Net requirements

You must install .NET Runtime 6.0 on all supported Linux distributions before you install the Linux VDA.

Supported host platforms and virtualization environments

  • Bare metal servers
  • Amazon Web Services (AWS)
  • XenServer (formerly Citrix Hypervisor)
  • Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
  • Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM)
  • Microsoft Azure
  • Microsoft Hyper-V
  • VMware vSphere Hypervisor
  • Nutanix AHV

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 as well as 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 the Citrix Universal Hybrid Multi-Cloud (HMC) license.

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 11.7/11.3 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
RHEL 9.2/9.0, Rocky Linux 9.2/9.0/8.8/8.6 Yes Yes No No Yes (Quest v4.1 and later)
RHEL 8.8/8.6 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)
SUSE 15.5 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Ubuntu 22.04/20.04 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes (Quest v4.1 and later)

Size and scale considerations for Cloud Connectors

When you connect Linux VDAs to the control plane with Citrix Cloud Connectors, consider the following based on Citrix internal testing:

  • Each Citrix Cloud Connector (4 vCPU, 10 GB memory) can support 3,000 Linux VDAs.

  • Deploy two Cloud Connectors in each resource location for high availability and also deploy a maximum of 3000 Linux VDAs in each resource location.

HDX 3D Pro

HDX 3D Pro of Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops lets 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:

  • XenServer (formerly Citrix Hypervisor)
  • VMware vSphere Hypervisor
  • Nutanix AHV
  • Microsoft Azure
  • Amazon Web Services (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

For the Linux VDA, HDX 3D Pro supports the following types of GPUs:

NVIDIA vGPUs

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 15. For more information, see NVIDIA Virtual GPU Software Supported GPUs.

Non-virtualized GPUs

In the Linux VDA documentation, non-virtualized GPUs refer to:

  • GPUs used in Remote PC Access scenarios
  • GPUs passed through from a hypervisor
NVIDIA GPUs that support the NVIDIA Capture SDK for Linux

For NVIDIA GPUs that support the NVIDIA Capture SDK for Linux, enable HDX 3D Pro by setting CTX_XDL_HDX_3D_PRO to Y when installing the Linux VDA. No additional configuration is required. Hardware acceleration is enabled by default after you enable HDX 3D Pro.

Tip:

To use HDX 3D Pro with an NVIDIA GPU, you must install an NVIDIA graphics driver version that supports NVIDIA Capture SDK version 8. For more information, see the NVIDIA Capture SDK documentation.

System requirements