Profile Management 2103

Preconfigure Profile Management on provisioned images

Using provisioning software such as Citrix Provisioning Services, Citrix XenServer, or VMware ESX you can build images that have Profile Management pre-installed. When doing so, you likely capture some Group Policy settings in the registry while you set up the image. For example, it happens while it is in Private Image mode with Provisioning Services. The settings are still present when you deploy the image. For example, when you switch back to standard image mode with Provisioning Services. Ideally, choose defaults that suit the state of the virtual machine when it starts running and your users requirements when they log on. At a minimum, ensure that you have suitable defaults for those policies described in Persistent? Provisioned? Dedicated? Shared?

The defaults are used if gpupdate is not run before the Citrix Profile Management Service starts. So it is best to ensure that they are sensible defaults for most cases. Use this procedure to preconfigure these and other settings you want to preserve in the image.

Note: If you use Provisioning Services, we recommend that you preconfigure images with the Profile Management .ini file first. And you transfer the settings to the .adm or .admx file only once your testing proves successful.

  1. If you use the .adm or .admx file, change the desired settings using the file in the appropriate GPO. If you use the .ini file, omit this step; you make the changes in a later step.
  2. Make the same changes to the log level.
  3. Do one of the following:
    • Switch the image to Private Image mode (Citrix Provisioning Services) and start the operating system on it.
    • Start the operating system (Citrix XenServer or VMware ESX).
  4. Log on using an Administrator account (not any test user account you might have set up), and run gpupdate /force. This step ensures that the registry is correctly configured.
  5. If you use the .ini file, change the desired settings in the file.
  6. Stop the Profile Management Service.
  7. To avoid confusion with the new log files that are created, delete the old Profile Management log file and the configuration log file. These have file names that use the name of the old image. They are redundant because the updated image has new files (with the name of the new image).
  8. Do one of the following:
    • Switch the image back to standard image mode (Citrix Provisioning Services).
    • Save the updated image (Citrix XenServer or VMware ESX).
  9. Start the operating system on the image.
Preconfigure Profile Management on provisioned images