Hi!

 

Has anybody implemented SCOM on Citrix PVS-servers? They are reinstalled during night hours, and I guess I have to include the agent in the image. Whats Best Practice on such servers? I use SCOM 2012 (no SP or R2).

 Any help appreciated.

Best regards
Rune Haugen
Atea AS
Norway

Hi,

I donot know how Citrix works. But I think we can install the agent just like a normal application. If the server can be pre-configured with an application, I think it also works if we put the agent in.

Hi Runeha,

You need to install the agent in the Citrix image. When the servers are provisioned they will show up in pending management the first time. (make sure the security settings in OpsMgr are set correctly. Preview manually installed agents).

Now when overnight the servers are provisioned again the will still show up in OpsMgr. You might want to consider to set a maintenance mode in OpsMgr when the servers are provisioned.

Hope this helps,

____________________________________________

Regards Marthijn van Rheenen
Blog: Heading To The Clouds

• Edited by Marthijn van Rheenen Friday, December 13, 2013 2:02 PM
• Marked as answer by Niki HanModerator Friday, December 20, 2013 1:59 AM

Hi

I used to install the agent directly into the Citrix image. When the starts the first time you need to approve the agent. After that you can reload the basic image without any issues. Make sure you install any Update Rollups also into the source image. You probably reboot / redeploy the image every night, so make sure you putt all citrix server into a group and run a script which puts the server group into maintenance mode. Use a group, because it is more efficient than each computer object itself.

For monitoring Citrix I can recommend the Comtrade management pack http://www.managementproducts.comtrade.com/management_pack/citrix/xendesktop/Pages/default.aspx

Cheers,

Stefan

I finally figured out how to install SCOM agent on a Glod Image (Citrix PVS). This instructions are provided by Comtrade and it works.

Before you carry out this procedure, make sure you have the following setting in SCOM server:
Administration -> Settings -> Server -> Security set to Review new manual agent installations
in pending management view.

1. Install the SCOM agent on the PVS master image and enter in SCOM management group info
2. Stop the SCOM agent service
3. Delete the SCOM agent certificate from the Certificates snap-in under Computer store\Operations Manager\Certificate. It is located under Certificates (Local Computer) -> Operations Manager -> Certificates
4. Change the regkey at "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\HealthService\Parameters\State Directory" to point to a path on the persistent disk (ex: P:\System Center Operations Manager\Agent\Health Service State). Make sure this directory exists on the persistent drive (see note at the end).
5. Capture the image and assign to your PVS targets
6. Reboot
7. Approve XenApp servers in the SCOM Pending Management view

NOTE:

1. One caveat is the health service state folder has to already exist on the persistent drive or the health service will not start. This can be done through a script/GPP applied to the target or by simply creating the folder manually. I have updated my startup script to create this folder if it doesn't exist.
2. With Manual Agent installation, there will not be any secondary Management server configured. To overcome this, enable AD Integration and provide the Management Group / Server information through AD Integration.

I have also set the SCOM Agent service to start Manually. Our Startup script will check the PVS Disk mode. The SCOM service will be started by startup script only if the vDisk is in Read-only mode. Otherwise, Every time we update the vDisk, the Certificate has to be removed (Step 3).

Hi, good morning!

Sivakarthi, could you let me know what are the used commands on this startup script?

How can I check the current disk mode?

There is a ini file in the Root of OS Drive (C:) named personality.ini. The two values highlighted below will tell you the current disk mode. $WriteCacheType will also provide you the current Write Cache type. a value of 0 indicates Private Mode all other values indocate Shared Mode.

[StringData]

<<All your Personality Strings will be listed here>>

$DiskName=<<Name of the vDisk.vhd>>
$WriteCacheType=<<Integer value representing the current disk mode. For private it is 0>>
[ArdenceData]
_EnablePrinterSettings=0
_DiskMode=<<Current Disk Mode S or P, S=Shared, P=Private>>

Let me see if I undestood it.

I must create a INI file (Ex. SCOMAgent.INI) in the root of C:, this file must contains script above (only this? Are there no other commands?);

and set SCOM Service to run manually and in the field "Start Parameters", i must set the path of this script (C:\SCOMAgent.INI);

Is this? I don't understand how this script will work as a trigger to startup this service.

No.. Your startup script should read the c:\personality.ini file to identify the vDisk Mode (Private/Shared). Refer to my previous post on details of personality.ini file.

If the diskmode is Shared, then do a "sc start healthservice" in your startup script.