HowTo:PvsTry1
From Greg Porter's Wiki
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XenDesktop's Live Desktop Streaming (Previous Botched Attempt One)
This is obviously a work in progress. Go read the manuals, that's what I'm doing.
Using Citrix Provisioning Server (PVS) 5.1 you can boot machines from one central image.
Pre-requisites and things to think about
The PVS server will be doing some broadcast based things on the network, therefore it's probably easiest if the PVS server is on the same subnet as clients. At least have a NIC in the server on the same subnet, even if that NIC isn't the main NIC used for server management.
Clients will be booting up and on the network before they have an operating system. Therefore you *HAVE* to have something to issue them an IP address, like a DHCP server. We already had a Windows DHCP server, so we chose to use that. There's lots of choices. Decide how you are going to handle DHCP, because the PVS installer will want to know.
PVS farm metadata is stored in a SQL Server 2005 database. You need a database. You can use the (lame-o) SQL Server Express 2005 database for demonstration or small PVS instances. The docs say it should be on its own server in a production environment. For demo purposes, it can be on the same server as PVS.
Citrix products like PVS require a licensing server to operate. If you don't have any Citrix products already, then you'll have to load Citrix Licensing Server. If you have one already, you can use it. I don't think it matters where this server is installed, it works across the network. I didn't have one already, and I chose to load it on the PVS server before I did the actual PVS install.
Get media
Get a my.citrix.com account (free registration required). You need this to get the 90 day eval license.
From Citrix.com, go to Downloads, then "Citrix XenDesktop"
Pick "FlexCast Delivery Technology with HDX"
Pick "Provisioning Services for Local Streamed Desktops & Virtual Desktop Provisioning"
Get the iso, burn the iso.
Install SQL Server 2005 Express
I made a separate Windows 2003 vm to run as a database server.
Make sure all patches from Microsoft Update loaded, including .Net (needed by SQL Server), this will take a reboot or two.
If you are using domain based security, make sure that the machine is in the domain already, before starting the installer.
By default a Windows 2003 vm on XenServer 5.5 gets 512 MB of RAM, and the installer will complain. Turn the vm off, and increase the RAM to 1024MB.
I ran the installer for SQL Server Express 2005 that came with PVS 5.1 on the DVD. I took all defaults.
The first time through it complained that "An installation package for the product Microsoft SQL Server Native Client count not be found. Try the installation again using a valid copy of the installation package sqlncli.msi". (Hmm. Maybe that's "normal". The default install doesn't have the client selected.)
Re-ran the installer, all defaults (including leaving the client stuff de-selected). Same problem.
Re-ran the installer again, took all defaults except this time selected to install all software including all of "Client Components" ("This entire feature will be installed..."). Same problem.
Re-ran it multiple times. Same problem.
Tried copying the installer from DVD to local hard drive, ran it from there. Same problem.
Rebooted. During reboot, it popped up a box that said "Your installation of <didn't catch the name> is corrupt. Uninstall it and reinstall." Or something like that. It'd be nice if error dialogs in Windows let you select and copy from them.
Removed everything that said SQL Server on it in Add/Remove Programs. Rebooted.
Disabled the anti-virus, re-ran the installer from the copy on hard drive.
Hmm. Seemed better. Maybe the AV was interfering. "Note to self, turn the AV off during SQL Server installs..." Setup finished, no errors noted.
Reboot, patched with Service Pack 3, reboot, lather, rinse, repeat. Used Microsoft Update.
By default, the install will not allow connections from remote machines. You have to start the SQL Server Configuration Manager, go to Network Configuration, and right click on TCP/IP and enable it. Right click on TCP/IP again, go to Properties, look at the IP address that the server is using and change "Enabled: No" to "Yes".
You have to restart SQL Server (you can do it from right here in SQL Server Configuration Manager, just right click on SQL Server and say Restart).
Install Citrix Licensing Server (if you don't have it already)
Citrix Licensing Server is on the PVS DVD in the Licensing folder.
The installer requires Java 1.6.0, Update 5. If you don't have Java, go to java.sun.com and get Java.
Start the license installer.
(On a default load of Windows 2008, it may complain that these roles are not installed:
- ASP.NET
- Windows Authentication security role
- IIS 6 Metadatabase compatibility role
- IIS 6 WMI compatibility role
This is a generic error, it complains with this error if any or all of these is not installed. Install any missing roles. Restart the installer.)
I took all the defaults for port number, etc. Yay, licensing server is now installed. It had one licensing file with it, I don't know if that is sufficient.
Installation of PVS
Find a Windows machine to load this on. (I used a Windows 2003 vm I built for PVS.) For demo purposes, any old 2003 or 2008 machine will do, you just need some hard drive room to store demo images on.
I hit autoplay on the DVD, and a menu started. There's "Console", "Server" and a couple other choices. I picked "Server".
At this point, it doesn't ask too many questions. I took all the defaults.
It completes and then starts a configuration wizard for a basic server installation.
The first question asks about DHCP. It wants to know what you want to use to assign clients a boot time network address. You could set up Microsoft DHCP on the PVS server, or use the BOOTP service that comes with Provisioning Server, or use these services on another server. I chose to use Microsoft DHCP on another server I had already.
The next question is about how the files will be delivered during PXE boot. I'm not sure what was best, so I left it the default.
Next is Farm Configuration where it asks if you want to "Create a farm" or "Join a farm". I'm loading my first PVS server, so I answered "Create a farm". (A farm is a collection of PVS servers, I'll make a "farm of one" for demo purposes).
Now, the "Database Server" dialog will let you browse and see SQL Servers that are running. I picked the SQL Server Express instance named "SQLExpress" that I just installed. Take the defaults.
It'll eventually ask which NIC you want to use for Stream Services. I assume this needs to be on the same subnet as the clients. Make sure you have a NIC for this wired up. Pick that NIC.
It then asks for TFTP server. I chose the PVS TFTP server (I guess it comes with one, but you could use another).
It asks a few more questions, I took all the defaults. It starts the network services and says "Done". Yay.
The console to manage the thing is another installer dialog. Start autorun on the DVD again, select Install Console.
Once you've done this, you're basically ready to follow the step by step in the "Citrix Provisioning Server 5.0 Installation and Configuration Guide", Chapter 2, "Installing and Configuring", starting with Task 7 (pg 42), "Create a Store", etc.
Create a store. You need to make a folder on your hard drive and point the console at it.
Create a vDisk file in the store.
Format the vDisk.
Linux target device
pg 49 in install guide
[root@localhost tmp]# sh ./PVS_LinuxDevice.run Verifying archive integrity... All good. Uncompressing PVS 5.1.1 build: .................................... ................................................................... Using: /tmp/selfgz30200/modules
