XenApp and XenDesktop

Virtual Delivery Agent policy settings

The Virtual Delivery Agent (VDA) section contains policy settings that control communication between the VDA and controllers for a site.

Important: The VDA requires information provided by these settings to register with a Delivery Controller, if you are not using the auto-update feature. Because this information is required for registration, you must configure the following settings using the Group Policy Editor, unless you provide this information during the VDA installation:

  • Controller registration IPv6 netmask
  • Controller registration port
  • Controller SIDs
  • Controllers
  • Only use IPv6 controller registration
  • Site GUID

Controller registration IPv6 netmask

This policy setting allows administrators to restrict the VDA to only a preferred subnet (rather than a global IP, if one is registered). This setting specifies the IPv6 address and network where the VDA will register. The VDA will register only on the first address that matches the specified netmask. This setting is valid only if the Only use IPv6 controller registration policy setting is enabled.

By default this setting is blank.

Controller registration port

Use this setting only if the Enable auto update of controllers setting is disabled.

This setting specifies the TCP/IP port number the VDA uses to register with a Controller when using registry-based registration.

By default, the port number is set to 80.

Controller SIDs

Use this setting only if the Enable auto update of controllers setting is disabled.

This setting specifies a space-separated list of controller Security Identifiers (SIDs) the VDA uses to register with a Controller when using registry-based registration. This is an optional setting which may be used with the Controllers setting to restrict the list of Controllers used for registration.

By default, this setting is blank.

Controllers

Use this setting only if the Enable auto update of controllers setting is disabled.

This setting specifies a space-separated list of controller Fully Qualified Domain Names (FQDNs) the VDA uses to register with a Controller when using registry-based registration. This is an optional setting that may be used with the Controller SIDs setting.

By default, this setting is blank.

Enable auto update of controllers

This setting enables the VDA to register with a Controller automatically after installation.

After the VDA registers, the Controller with which it registered sends a list of the current controller FQDNs and SIDs to the VDA. The VDA writes this list to persistent storage. Each Controller also checks the Site database every 90 minutes for Controller information; if a Controller has been added or removed since the last check, or if a policy change has occurred, the Controller sends updated lists to its registered VDAs. The VDA will accept connections from all the Controllers in the most recent list it received.

By default, this setting is enabled.

Only use IPv6 controller registration

This setting controls which form of address the VDA uses to register with the Controller:

  • When enabled, the VDA registers with the Controller using the machine’s IPv6 address. When the VDA communicates with the Controller, it uses the following address order: global IP address, Unique Local Address (ULA), link-local address (if no other IPv6 addresses are available).
  • When disabled, the VDA registers and communicates with the Controller using the machine’s IPv4 address.

By default, this is setting is disabled.

Site GUID

Use this setting only if the Enable auto update of controllers setting is disabled.

This setting specifies the Globally Unique Identifier (GUID) of the site the VDA uses to register with a Controller when using Active Directory-based registration.

By default, this setting is blank.

Virtual Delivery Agent policy settings