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Citrix released its Cloud Automation offering earlier this year that will change the way you think about deploying workloads for App, Desktop and Mobile delivery, it is called Citrix Workspace Cloud and I have to say, I think it is excellent. I have been fortunate enough to have been on the initial test phase of the product and am now working my way through a trial phase. There really is no limit to what you are able to do with this product, the only thing that will stop you is your own imagination (and possibly your scripting skills). Another big plus is that whilst heavily focused on the Citrix Stack you are not limited to deploying only Citrix workloads.
This article is going to walk you through setting up an initial resource location then connecting your Workspace Cloud portal to a Microsoft Azure Cloud and deploying a server with 7Zip installed into your Cloud. It is going to Focus on the Lifecycle Management part of the Citrix Workspace Cloud suite.
There are some pre-reqs to doing this. You must have a Network, Storage Zone and CloudApp already set up in Azure and you should have a pre-build domain controller running in your Azure Subscription.
If you want to read more about Citrix Workspace Cloud then take a look at XenApp Blog here or the official Citrix Documentation here. If you require additional help on setting up / installing or configuring Citrix Workspace Cloud then speak to Virtual Workspaces here.
I hope the article helps you get started with Citrix Workspace Cloud, as always please share and comment.
Build Guide
Log into your Domain Controller in Microsoft Azure. Open up Internet Explorer and log into Workspace Cloud.
Navigate to Resource Locations from the CWC drop down list
Click on Add Workspace Cloud Connector
Click to download the Cloud Connector software and save it to your desktop
Double click the download to install the software
Let it authenticate to your cloud provider and finish the install
From your Management PC, Open up Internet Explorer, Log into Workspace Cloud.
Navigate to Lifecycle Management from the CWC drop down
Click on Resource Locations
Click Add Resource Location
Select Microsoft Azure
click the link to download the publisher settings for your Azure Subscription. You will need to sign into your azure portal to download this.
NOTE: If you are a subscriber to more than one directory then you should edit the downloaded file and split the subscriptions into multiple files – this way you can be more specific about what subscription you build the blueprints into.
Locate the downloaded file and click on Upload
Click Add
Resource Location is added
You should now be able to see your new Resource Location listed below.
At this point you can either select one of the existing pre-build blueprints to install or design and build your own to deploy.
Click on Design and Deploy
First we will add the script to install 7Zip to the server. I cannot take credit for this script as Eric from xenappblog.com has already done an excellent job of writing this. To get a copy of the script go to his excellent site here.
Click New Script
Fill out the script general details screen including any TAGS you want
Paste a copy of the powershell script to install 7Zip Unattended
Click next and add any parameters you want to be passed into the script
Click next and select if you want the script to run as a particular user
Click Finish and you will see your script is not available in Lifecycle management
NOTE: you will now see the TAGS you listed on the left hand side of the screen. You can filter your scripts and blueprints by clicking on any of these.
At this point the script is ready to go, you now need to design the blueprint.
Click New Blueprint
Fill out the blueprint general options, tags and select the environments that you want to install the blueprint into.
Click Deploy
From the Blueprint Designer list on the left Under Cloud Step, drag Server to the Steps location on the right hand side of the screen
Click the Recommended Config tab and here you can add any recommended configs you want to display during deployment. Such as Machine Size in Azure!
From the Blueprint Designer list on the left Under My Script drag your Install 7Zip Script to the right hand side of the screen UNDER the server build step. This should execute after the server has been built.
From the Runs On tab click the select servers option. This will enable you to let the blueprint know what servers you want to run the script on.
Select 1. Server: All Servers. This will run the Install 7Zip Script on any server you deploy using the above Server task.
Click on Done and Save. You will now see the available blueprint in your portal.
Now we need to deploy the blueprint to our Azure Cloud. From the drop down next to the blueprint select deploy.
Then click on Start deployment setup
Give the deployment a name that is useful. Note, you can select a pre-deployed config that you have saved here. Currently we do not have one as this is the first deployment but this can save you a lot of time in the future is you save your deployment profiles.
Select the Resource Location your created earlier to deploy this blueprint into.
Click Continue for the pre-deployment check list
Select the number of Virtual Machines you want to deploy
Select the VM Tier for the Resource Location you want to use.
From the list provided select Windows then the type of Windows machine that you want to deploy. In this case we ae going to use Windows Server 2008 R2 (old school!!)
Give the machine a name and select the cloud service you want to install it into. This must already be set up in your Microsoft Azure subscription and linked to a network, storage group and region.
Give an admin username and password. NOTE: These must follow the Azure Minimum complexity requirements or the build will fail. Also select to add the machine to a domain and fill out the details. Add any custom port forwarding you require.
Click Next then Finish and review the build config
Click next to specify any custom parameters
Click next then save the config as a pre-defined build profile. This will speed upt he time to deployment in future as you can select this from the initial stage in future.
Click next and finish to deploy the blueprint.
You should now see the deployment in progress
If you switch to your Microsoft Azure portal you will see the new server being built.
Click on the deployment to see a more detailed look at the deployment and the stage of deployment it is currently processing.
Once the server is built and registered Workspace Cloud will move to the next step “Install 7Zip”
Eventually the deployment will finish.
You can see a overview status for the deployment from the portal
If you log into the server you will see that it is on the domain and has 7Zip installed.
That’s it, easy as that !!
Hope this helps some of you out. As usual please share and comment.
Thanks
b@m