Autodesk AutoCAD 2016 / 2017 critical hotfix for Citrix customers using NVIDIA or INTEL GPUs

Earlier this year I have seen several customers having issues with AutoCAD in Citrix not defaulting to the primary display adapter, so the GPU wouldn be fully functioning and Autodesk AutoCAD 2016/2017 would turn off hardware acceleration. This issue have been seen on NVIDIA Gpus such as GRID, NVIDIA also have a official KB on this http://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4092/ and issue is also seen with INTEL gpu such as Iris Pro Graphics more specific on solutions with HPE Moonshot 710p and 710x.

Issue is identified on both Citrix XenApp 7.x (Windows Server OSs) and Citrix XenDesktop 7.x (Workstation OSs)

“The primary display adapter is not shown as the default in a Citrix environment.”

autocad_issue

I am happy to share that Autodesk have finally fixed this “bug” with Citrix and now the GPUs will work correctly with Autodesk AutoCAD 2016 and Autodesk AutoCAD 2017 when you apply below hot fix for the product you have.

Accumulated hotfix 4 for AutoCAD 2016 based applies to:

This hotfix for citrix applies to the following releases with the AutoCAD 2016 Service Pack 1 already installed:

  • Autodesk AutoCAD 2016
  • Autodesk AutoCAD Architecture 2016
  • Autodesk AutoCAD Civil 3D 2016
  • Autodesk AutoCAD Electrical 2016
  • Autodesk AutoCAD Map 3D 2016
  • Autodesk AutoCAD Mechanical 2016
  • Autodesk AutoCAD MEP 2016
  • Autodesk AutoCAD P&ID 2016
  • Autodesk AutoCAD Plant 3D 2016
  • Autodesk AutoCAD Utility Design 2016

Issues Resolved by This Hotfix for citrix

  • There is a security vulnerability with ATIL image files within a drawing.
  • The primary display adapter is not shown as the default in a Citrix environment.
  • Opening an Excel hyperlink resizes the AutoCAD application window to match the Excel sheet size.
  • Locked objects can be edited by Matchprop command.
  • Publish borders are cut off with certain sheet sizes.
  • Background masks are not ignoring the Xrefoverride setting.
  • Can crash when panning transparently in multiple viewports.
  • Performance problem opening files containing specific objects in AutoCAD 2016 may appear as if files cannot be opened.
  • Use of the LISP (command) function within the (mapcar) function results in VVC Internal Error.
  • Grip stretch doesn’t work correctly when DYNMODE equals value other than 2 or 3.
  • acedCallBackOnCancel is not detected for Lispcallable Functions.
  • Certain VBA Macros throw an execution error.
  • DWG file fails to insert into another DWG file.
  • Can crash when Copy/Paste a block by Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V.
  • Can crash when opening AutoCAD in Windows 10.
  • AcSettingSync.exe launched when running OPTIONS command.
  • Annotations in Architectural units format are changing to Decimal format.

Accumulated hotfix 4 for AutoCAD LT 2016 applies to:

this hotfix for citrix applies to the following release:

  • Autodesk AutoCAD LT 2016 with the AutoCAD LT Service Pack 1 already installed

Issues Resolved by This Hotfix for citrix

  • There is a security vulnerability with ATIL image files within a drawing.
  • The primary display adapter is not shown as the default in a Citrix environment.
  • Opening an Excel hyperlink resizes the AutoCAD LT application window to match the Excel sheet size.
  • Locked objects can be edited by Matchprop command.
  • Publish borders are cut off with certain sheet sizes.
  • Background masks are not ignoring the Xrefoverride setting.
  • May crash when panning transparently in multiple viewports.
  • Performance problem opening files containing specific objects in AutoCAD LT 2016 may appear as if files cannot be opened.
  • Grip stretch doesn’t work correctly when DYNMODE equals value other than 2 or 3.
  • DWG file fails to insert into another DWG file.
  • Can crash when Copy/Paste a block by Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V.
  • Can crash when opening AutoCAD LT in Windows 10.
  • AcSettingSync.exe launched when running OPTIONS command.
  • Annotations in Architectural units format are changing to Decimal format.

Who Should Install This Service Pack for AutoCAD 2017?

Apply this Service Pack to the following Autodesk products running on all supported operating systems and languages. Be sure to install the correct Service Pack.

This Service Pack can be applied to AutoCAD 2017 installed as a standalone application, AutoCAD-based Vertical products, and the Autodesk Design Suites listed below.

AutoCAD and Verticals Products:

  • AutoCAD 2017
  • AutoCAD LT 2017
  • AutoCAD Architecture 2017
  • AutoCAD Civil 3D 2017
  • AutoCAD Electrical 2017
  • AutoCAD Map 3D 2017
  • AutoCAD Mechanical 2017
  • AutoCAD MEP 2017
  • AutoCAD P&ID 2017
  • AutoCAD Plant 3D 2017
  • AutoCAD Utility Design 2017

Autodesk Design Suites:

  • Autodesk AutoCAD Design Suite 2017
  • Autodesk AutoCAD Inventor LT Suite 2017
  • Autodesk AutoCAD Revit LT Suite 2017
  • Autodesk AutoCAD with Advance Steel 2017
  • Autodesk Building Design Suite 2017
  • Autodesk Factory Design Suite 2017
  • Autodesk Infrastructure Design Suite 2017
  • Autodesk Plant Design Suite 2017
  • Autodesk Product Design Suite 2017
  • Autodesk Revit Collaboration Suite 2017

Issues Resolved by This Service Pack

Display

  • Xrefs on a frozen viewport layer would still be plotted
  • AutoCAD in Citrix might not default to the primary display adapter.

 

Open and Save

  • Opening a drawing file using an Excel hyperlink was repositioning the AutoCAD application window.

PDF Import

  • Importing a PDF Underlay that was attached with relative path could fail.

Xref

  • The Xref status incorrectly displays the “Needs reloading” message when the dataset is opened from a UNC path to a shared folder.

General

  • When opening drawings created with AutoCAD Architecture, AutoCAD might crash if the drawing was saved again.
  • Plotting with certain visual styles might produce incorrect results.
  • Migrating custom settings might fail.

 

Source

Download the Autodesk AutoCAD 2017 Service Pack 1 here

Download Accumulated hotfix 4 for AutoCAD 2016 based products here

Download Accumulated hot fix 4 for AutoCAD 2016 here

NVIDIA GRID vGPU 352.83-354.80

NVIDIA GRID update - vGPU 352.83-354.80

NVIDIA GRID – vGPU 352.83-354.80

Hi All

Its time to update your NVIDIA GRID K1, K2, M6, M60 environment.

NVIDIA have released new drivers that supports Windows 10 + fix several bugs.

If you want to test Server 2016 then the new Windows 10 drivers works, I have just tried and they work but they are not “certified” so test this with your own risk, please. Always test this in a test environment and this is not for production environments, unless you want to be early innovators 😉

#HINT – Windows 10 is not supported on Citrix XenServer 6.2 only on Citrix XenServer 6.5.
## HINT – Linux drivers are only available with Tesla M6, M60.

Whats new in vGPU 352.83-354.80

NVIDIA have released a new version of vGPU 352.83-354.80 for NVIDIA GRID 1.0 (K1, K2) GRID 2.0 Tesla M6 and Tesla M60 platform.

Included in this release is

  • NVIDIA GRID Virtual GPU Manager versions 352.83 for Citrix XenServer 6.5 SP1
  • NVIDIA GRID Virtual GPU Manager versions 352.83 for Citrix XenServer 6.2 SP1 with hotfixes XS62ESP1009 and XS62ESP1011
  • NVIDIA GRID Virtual GPU Manager version 352.83 for VMware vSphere 6.0 Hypervisor (ESXi)
  • NVIDIA Windows drivers for vGPU version 354.80
  • NVIDIA Linux drivers for vGPU version 352.83.

 

Important:

The GRID vGPU Manager and Windows guest VM drivers must be installed together. Older VM drivers will not function correctly with this release of GRID vGPU Manager. Similarly, older GRID vGPU Managers will not function correctly with this release of Windows guest drivers

 

Update existing vGPU GRID Manager (Hypervisor)

GRID vGPU Manager 352.83 upgrade for Citrix XenServer 6.2

If you have a NVIDIA GRID K1, K2 vGPU GRID manager installed in Citrix XenServer. Upgrade with below methodology:

Methodology 1 – the manual way “No GUI”

Upgrading an existing installation of the NVIDIA driver on Citrix XenServer 6.2, use the rpm -U command to upgrade:

If you have NVIDIA GRID K1 / K2
[root@localhost ~]# rpm -Uv NVIDIA-vGPU-kepler-xenserver-6.2-352.83.i386.rpm 
Preparing packages for installation...
If you have NVIDIA GRID TESLA M6 / M60
[root@localhost ~]# rpm -Uv NVIDIA-vGPU-xenserver-6.2-352.83.i386.rpm 
Preparing packages for installation...

The recommendation from NVIDIA is to shutdown all VMs using a GPU. The machine does continue to work during the update, but since you need to reboot the XenServer itself, it’s better to gracefully shutdown the VMs. So after your VMs have been shutdown and you upgraded the NVIDIA driver, you can reboot your host.

[root@localhost ~]# xe host-disable
[root@localhost ~]# xe host-reboot

Validate from putty or XenCenter CLI

run lsmod | grep nvidia

Verify that the NVIDIA kernel driver can successfully communicate with the GRID physical GPUs in your system by running the nvidia-smi command, which should produce a listing of the GPUs in your platform:

Check driver version is 352.83, if it is then your host is ready for GPU awesomeness and make your VM rock.

GRID vGPU Manager 352.83 for Citrix XenServer 6.5

If you have a NVIDIA GRID K1, K2, M6, M60 vGPU GRID manager installed in Citrix XenServer. Upgrade with one of below methodology:

Methodology 1 – the manual way “No GUI”

Upgrading an existing installation of the NVIDIA driver on Citrix XenServer 6.5, use the rpm -U command to upgrade:

If you have NVIDIA GRID K1 / K2
[root@localhost ~]# rpm -Uv NVIDIA-vGPU-kepler-xenserver-6.5-352.83.x86_64.rpm 
Preparing packages for installation...
If you have NVIDIA GRID TESLA M6 / M60
[root@localhost ~]# rpm -Uv NVIDIA-vGPU-xenserver-6.5-352.83.x86_64.rpm 
Preparing packages for installation...

The recommendation from NVIDIA is to shutdown all VMs using a GPU. The machine does continue to work during the update, but since you need to reboot the XenServer itself, it’s better to gracefully shutdown the VMs. So after your VMs have been shutdown and you upgraded the NVIDIA driver, you can reboot your host.

[root@localhost ~]# xe host-disable
[root@localhost ~]# xe host-reboot

Methodology 2 – the “GUI” way

Select Install Update… from the Tools menu
 Click Next after going through the instructions on the Before You Start section
 Click Add on the Select Update section and open NVIDIA’s XenServer Supplemental Pack ISO

If you have NVIDIA GRID K1 / K2 select following file:

“NVIDIA-vGPU-kepler-xenserver-6.5-352.83.x86_64-supplemental-pack.tar.bz2 ”

If you have NVIDIA GRID K1 / K2 select following file:

“NVIDIA-vGPU-xenserver-6.5-352.83.x86_64-supplemental-pack.tar.bz2 ”

Click Next on the Select Update section
 In the Select Servers section select all the XenServer hosts on which the Supplemental Pack should be installed on and click Next
 Click Next on the Upload section once the Supplemental Pack has been uploaded to all the XenServer hosts
Getting Started
 Click Next on the Prechecks section
 Click Install Update on the Update Mode section
 Click Finish on the Install Update section

After the XenServer platform has rebooted, verify that the GRID package installed and loaded correctly by checking for the NVIDIA kernel driver in the list of kernel loaded modules.

Validate from putty or XenCenter CLI

run lsmod | grep nvidia

Verify that the NVIDIA kernel driver can successfully communicate with the GRID physical GPUs in your system by running the nvidia-smi command, which should produce a listing of the GPUs in your platform:

Check driver version is 352.83, if it is then your host is ready for GPU awesomeness and make your VM rock.

 

GRID vGPU Manager 352.83 for VMware vSphere 6.x

To update the NVIDIA GPU VIB, you must uninstall the currently installed VIB and install the new VIB.

To uninstall the currently installed VIB:

  1. Stop all virtual machines using 3D acceleration.
  2. Place the ESXi host into Maintenance mode.
  3. Open a command prompt on the ESXi host.
  4. Stop the xorg service by running the command:/etc/init.d/xorg stop
  5. Remove the NVIDIA VMkernel driver by running the command:vmkload_mod -u nvidia
  6. Identify the NVIDIA VIB name by running this command:esxcli software vib list | grep NVIDIA
  7. Remove the VIB by running the command:esxcli software vib remove -n nameofNVIDIAVIBYou can now install a new NVIDIA GPU VIB
  8. Use the esxcli command to install the vGPU Manager package:
If you have NVIDIA GRID K1 / K2 select following file:
[root@lesxi ~] esxcli software vib install -v /NVIDIA-vGPU-kepler-VMware_ESXi_6.0_Host_Driver_352.83-1OEM.600.0.0.2494585.vib
If you have NVIDIA GRID TESLA M6 / M60 select following file:
[root@lesxi ~] esxcli software vib install -v /NVIDIA-vGPU-VMware_ESXi_6.0_Host_Driver_352.83-1OEM.600.0.0.2494585.vib

After the ESXi host has rebooted, verify that the GRID package installed and loaded correctly by checking for the NVIDIA kernel driver in the list of kernel loaded modules.

[root@lesxi ~]# vmkload_mod -l | grep nvidia 
Preparing packages for installation...

Validate

run nvidia-smi

Verify that the NVIDIA kernel driver can successfully communicate with the GRID physical GPUs in your system by running the nvidia-smi command, which should produce a listing of the GPUs in your platform:

Check driver version is 352.83, if it is then your host is ready for GPU awesomeness and make your VM rock.

Update existing vGPU Driver (Virtual Machine)

When the hypervisor vGPU GRID manager is updated next is updating the Virtual Machines vGPU.

Update your Golden Images and reprovisioning the new virtual machines with updated vGPU drivers, if you have stateless machines update vGPU drivers on each.

#HINT – Express upgrade of drivers is the recommended option according to the setup. If you use the “Custom” option, you will have the option to do a “clean” installation. The downside of the “clean installation” is that it will remove all profiles and custom settings. The pro of using the clean installation option is that it will reinstall the complete driver, meaning that there will be no old driver files left on the system. I most of the time recommends using a “Clean” installation to keep it vanilla 🙂

New driver functionality with 354.80

  • 354.80_grid_win8_win7_64bit_international.exe
  • 354.80_grid_win8_win7_international.exe
  • 354.80_grid_win10_64bit_international.exe
  • 354.80_grid_win10_international.exe
  • NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-352.83-grid.run

#1 Linux driver is not available with Citrix XenServer 6.2 or 6.5 and ESX for K1/K2. This is only available with GRID vGPU for M60

Linux support in only available with GRID Tesla M6 / M60

GRID vGPU with Linux guest VMs is supported on Tesla M60 and M6, with the following distributions:

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.6, 7
  • CentOS 6.6, 7
  • Ubuntu 12.04, 14.04 LTS

 

Source

GRID K1/K2 – sources

Download vGPU 352.83-354.80 for XenServer 6.2 for GRID K1 / K2 her

Download vGPU 352.83-354.80 for XenServer 6.5 for GRID K1 / K2 her

Download vGPU 352.83-354.80 for vSphere 6 for GRID K1 / K2 here

 

Tesla M6/M60 – sources

vGPU Grid Manager + Drivers are only available to customers and NVIDIA NPN partners.

Download if you are a NPN partner

Download if you are a GRID 2.0 customer

vGPU 352.83-354.80 for XenServer 6.2 for Tesla M6 / M60

vGPU 352.83-354.80 for XenServer 6.5 for Tesla M6 / M60

vGPU 352.83-354.80 for vSphere 6 for Tesla M6 / M60

For more information about the update from NVIDIA GRID – vGPU 352.83-354.80 contact me.

thomas poppelgaard CTP & MVP

Citrix technology professional – CTP, and Microsoft Most Valuable Professional MVP, Thomas Poppelgaard provides professional services. Write to me on my email thomas@poppelgaard.com or call on my cell +45 53540356

DEVELOP3D LIVE, Warwick, 31March 2016

develop3dlive

Hi all, if you are looking for an event that is all about CAD, CAM, CAE, PLM, Rendering, 3D technologies, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and 3D printing then is FREE!! then DEVELOP3D LIVE is the event to  join. Rachel Berry opened my eyes going there last year 2015 and she made me come all the way from Denmark to Warwick and it was worth the long trip 🙂 If you are looking for travel advice Hotels and such I recommend you read Rachel Berry blogpost, I use myself Kayak.com 🙂 that always saves my life when i am traveling around the world and if you want it cheap use Airbnb.com.

My things learned from DEVELOP3D LIVE 2015

I went there and had high expectations and I was in for a surprise. It was all about above and much more  I saw for the first time Carl Bass the CEO of Autodesk, Gian Paolo Bassi the CEO of SolidWorks, Jon Hirschtick the CEO of Onshore and the founder of SolidWorks, Nikola Bozinovic the Founder and CEO of FRAME, and many many more.

I got my hands on the HP Zvr for the second time, I saw the unit for the first time at NVIDIA GTC in 2013 and HP have acquired the company. I also saw another favorite Augmented Device the HP Sprout, which is an amazing unit. 3Dconnexion was off course also there so all my favorite CAD peripherals and next gen tools.

Below is the picture of Carl Bass CEO of Autodesk talking at DEVELOP3D LIVE last year and Rachel Berry trying Fra.me solution

Carl Bass CEO AutodeskRachel Berry trying out Fra.me

Meet the Speakers of DEVELOP3D LIVE 2016

I am looking very much forward meeting a good friend of mine Adam Jull from IMSCAD Global.
Adam and his team have been early adapters of HDX 3D Pro like myself, so its great to see a pioneer talking at Develop3DLive.

d3dlivespeakers1

d3dlivespeakers

I am also looking very much forward meeting the NVIDIA team + my favorite CAD genius Rachel Berry and also see if AMD have something interesting to show like the Multiuser gpu if its ready for that time.

 

Get your ticket for free here for joining the awesome CAD event in beautiful Warwick. If you never been to UK well this is your reason to go, learn from the best and brightest people on CAD and see the beautiful country side of England. Two awesome things.

Citrix XenDesktop 7.7 and Citrix XenApp 7.7

xd77

Citrix have released a new version of Citrix XenDesktop 7.7 and XenApp 7.7

My first impressions of this release is, this is the release you should update to if you are running Citrix XenDesktop 7.x, the speed improvements in the GUI is incredible, its snappy realiable and makes you work without waiting it for loading when you click around the catalogs and the delivery groups. The 7.7 release is an important release from Citrix where Citrix is now fully supporting Microsoft Azure, so you can provisioning VDI or XenApp machines on Microsoft Azure with MCS technology. Another long waited feature is “Zones” this feature will be loved by customers that have branch offices where there is a requirement to install local Citrix infrastructure components such as Studio, Director, Site database, Zones was very common used in IMA architecture and now its finally implemented in FMA, great job Citrix. These are just some of the all the new huge improvements and this is the best release of XenApp/XenDesktop. Other new product release that is included in the XenDesktop/XenApp 7.7 media is HDX RealTime Optimization Pack 2.0, License Server 11.13.1, Profile Management 5.4, Citrix Provisioning 7.7, Citrix Receiver 4.4 is not in the iso, but you have to download this seperated, which i highly recommends.

What a great year to finish with and happy updating and I wish you all a Happy New Year.

Citrix XenDesktop 7.7 & Citrix XenDesktop 7.7 contains following software updates and new features and enhancements, this blog post covers all whats new in the architecture and components. Citrix Provisioning 7.7 is covered in a seperated article here.

Whats new in release 7.7 FMA

This product release includes the following new and enhanced features.

  • Zones

citrix xa xd 7.7

Deployments that span widely-dispersed locations connected by a WAN can face challenges due to network latency and reliability. Configuring zones can help users in remote regions connect to local resources without forcing connections to traverse large segments of the WAN. Using zones allows effective Site management from a single Citrix Studio console, Citrix Director, and the Site database. This saves the costs of deploying, staffing, licensing, and maintaining additional Sites containing separate databases in remote locations.

Zones can be helpful in deployments of all sizes. You can use zones to keep applications and desktops closer to end users, which improves performance.

For more information, see the Zones article.

  • Improved database flow and configuration

When you configure the databases during Site creation, you can now specify separate locations for the Site, Logging, and Monitoring databases. Later, you can specify different locations for all three databases. In previous releases, all three databases were created at the same address, and you could not specify a different address for the Site database later.

You can now add more Delivery Controllers when you create a Site, as well as later. In previous releases, you could add more Controllers only after you created the Site.

For more information, see the Databases and Controllers articles.

  • Application limits

Configure application limits to help manage application use. For example, you can use application limits to manage the number of users accessing an application simultaneously. Similarly, application limits can be used to manage the number of simultaneous instances of resource-intensive applications, this can help maintain server performance and prevent deterioration in service.

For more information, see the Manage applications article.

  • Multiple notifications before machine updates or scheduled restarts

You can now choose to repeat a notification message that is sent to affected machines before the following types of actions begin:

Updating machines in a Machine Catalog using a new master image

Restarting machines in a Delivery Group according to a configured schedule

If you indicate that the first message should be sent to each affected machine 15 minutes before the update or restart begins, you can also specify that the message be repeated every five minutes until the update/restart begins.

For more information, see the Manage Machine Catalogs and Manage machines in Delivery Groups articles.

  • API support for managing session roaming

By default, sessions roam between client devices with the user. When the user launches a session and then moves to another device, the same session is used and applications are available on both devices. The applications follow, regardless of the device or whether current sessions exist. Similarly, printers and other resources assigned to the application follow.

You can now use the PowerShell SDK to tailor session roaming. This was an experimental feature in the previous release.

For more information, see the Sessions article.

  • API support for provisioning VMs from hypervisor templates

When using the PowerShell SDK to create or update a Machine Catalog, you can now select a template from other hypervisor connections. This is in addition to the currently-available choices of VM images and snapshots.

  • Support for new and additional platforms

See the System requirements article for full support information. Information about support for third-party product versions is updated periodically.

By default, SQL Server 2012 Express SP2 is installed when you install the Delivery Controller. SP1 is no longer installed.

The component installers now automatically deploy 32-bit and 64-bit Microsoft Visual C++ 2012 runtimes, as well as 2008 and 2010 runtimes. Visual C++ 2005 is no longer deployed.

You can install Studio or VDAs for Windows Desktop OS on machines running Windows 10.

You can create connections to Microsoft Azure virtualization resources.

The product ISO no longer includes versions of the Citrix Receiver for Mac and the Citrix Receiver for Linux. You (or your users) can download and install the Citrix Receivers from the Citrix website. Alternatively, you can make those Citrix Receivers available from your StoreFront server (see the Make Citrix Receiver installation files available on the server section in the StoreFront 3.0.x documentation, or the equivalent documentation for the StoreFront version you are using).

Whats new in Citrix Director 7.7

The Citrix Director version provided with this release contains the following new and enhanced features:

  • Proactive monitoring and alerting

You can now configure proactive alerting and notifications when thresholds are reached. This enables quicker responses even when you are not viewing the monitoring console.

For more information, see Alerts and notifications.

  • SCOM integration

Deployments that use Microsoft System Center 2012 – Operations Manager to monitor deployments can now view alerts provided by the Operations Manager on the Dashboard and in other high level views in Citrix Director. For example, if connections to supported hypervisors fail, the administrator can check Citrix Director for Operations Manager alerts. After reviewing alert details in Citrix Director, the administrator can then switch to the Operations Manager console for additional troubleshooting, if needed.

For more information, see SCOM alerts.

  • Windows Authentication

Citrix Director now supports Integrated Windows Authentication. For single sign-on, a user’s Windows credentials are automatically used to access Citrix Director. This support allows users to log on to their machines using any credential provider and supporting hardware, and use that logged-on identity to access Citrix Director.

For  more information, see Use Citrix Director with Integrated Windows Authentication.

  • Desktop and Server OS usage

The Trends view now shows the usage of Desktop OS by Site and by Delivery group, and it shows the usage of Server OS by site, by Delivery group, and by Machine. This gives you a real-time view of your OS usage, enabling you to quickly assess your site’s capacity needs.

For more information, see Monitor historical trends across a Site.

  • Application limits in Citrix Director

Application limits configured in Studio are shown in existing views and counts in Citrix Director. For example, the User Connection Failures on the Dashboard will indicate when a connection attempt fails because it would exceed an application limit.

For more information, see Application limits.

What’s new in HDX RealTime Optimization Pack 2.0

Citrix Licensing Manager – Enables downloading and allocation of license files from the License Server on which the Citrix Licensing Manager is installed. You can specify a date range for the historical usage and export it to a CSV file.  The CSV file provides daily usage information including the number of licenses in overdraft. License Server VPX does not support the Citrix Licensing Manager.

  • Simple License Service is replaced – The Citrix Licensing Manager replaces the Simple License Service web UI.
  • Partial allocation of licenses – When using the Citrix Licensing Manager to download your licenses, you can specify how many licenses to download for a product. Previously, the Simple License Service allowed only a complete download of licenses for a product.
  • Citrix Licensing Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP) and Call Home support for License Server VPX  – Voluntary data collection programs in which Citrix products gather anonymous or identified configuration, performance, error, and usage data from your deployment and automatically send the data to Citrix. For more information, see “Citrix Licensing Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP) and Call Home” in Technical overview.
  • License Administration Console defaults to Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure  – When the License Administration Console installs, it defaults to https

What’s New in Profile Management 5.4

When upgrading Profile management, the installer removes the old version along with the WMI Provider, and then installs the new version. If you perform the upgrade after separating the two components, the WMI Provider is not upgraded. In this case, install it separately to ensure the two components remain compatible with each other and your VDAs.  You must provide the standalone WMI MSI file or installer for Versions 7.5 and 7.6 of the VDA so that the correct version of the WMI Provider installs after upgrading Profile management.

If you upgrade to Profile management 5.4 on a VDA earlier than version 7.7, use profilemgt_x64/x86.msi to do so. If you upgrade on a Version 7.7 VDA, Profile management 5.4 and WMI Provider 5.4 are automatically installed (by profilemgt_x64/x86.msi and UpmVDAPlugin_x64/x86.msi).

Source

Download Citrix XenDesktop 7.7 here (Require MyCitrix ID)

Download Citrix XenApp 7.7 here (Require MyCitrix ID)

Download Citrix Profile Management 5.4 here

Download Citrix HDX Optimization Pack 2.0 here

Download Citrix License Server 11.13.1 here (For Windows or VPX appliance)

Download Citrix Windows Receiver 4.4 here

Citrix Provisioning 7.7 with Support for Windows 10

Citrix Provisioning 7.7 - Poppelgaard - blog about Remote Graphics
Citrix Provisioning 7.7 – Poppelgaard – blog about Remote Graphics

Citrix have released a new version of Citrix Provisioning 7.7 which contains a lot of new improvements including support for Microsoft Windows 10, Yeah!.

The community have also embrased PVS 7.7 and Carl Webster have updated his PVS 7.7 Documentor Script and Sacha Thomet have developed a PVS 7.7 Health Check script that is also GA same day as PVS 7.7

New features in Citrix Provisioning service – PVS 7.7

The folllowing new features are available with Citrix Provisioning Services 7.7:

  • Support for Microsoft Windows 10 Enterprise and Professional editions.
  • In-place upgrade of target device software. Rather than reverse-imaging, you can install a new version of the target device software without having to manually uninstall the previous version. To do an in-place upgrade from version 7.6 to version 7.7 you must first install version 7.6.1.
  • Support for UEFI pre-boot environments. This enables you to stream at startup time using gigabit network speeds, so users experience faster startups, and to use disks over 2 TB.
  • The licensing grace period for Provisioning Services has changed from 96 hours to 30 days, for consistency with XenApp and XenDesktop.
  • The Citrix Provisioning Services API has been enhanced to provide a standard object-oriented PowerShell interface that enables you to integrate your products and tools easily with Citrix Provisioning Services.
  • vGPU-enabled XenDesktop machines can be provisioned using the  Provisioning Services XenDesktop Setup Wizard, rather than manually or by  using the Provisioning Services Streamed Virtual Machine Setup Wizard. You can provision machines on VMware vSphere 6.0 as well as on XenServer 6.2.
  • System Center Virtual Machine Manager Generation 2 VMs can be provisioned through Citrix Provisioning Services. Generation 2 VMs are optimized for modern workloads: the operating system does not carry the overhead of legacy drivers, devices and x86 architectures.

Note: This feature has received limited testing, may not be present in future product releases and must not be enabled on production systems. Citrix may not respond to support requests regarding this feature.

  • FIPS support. Citrix Provisioning Services uses a new algorithm that is compliant with Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS).
  • XenApp Session Recording is automatically available by default on all machines: you do not need to use a manual workaround.
  • Streaming VHDX formatted disks. This feature adds flexibility and efficiency to image and merging operations by letting you stream VHDX files as well as VHD files. Citrix Provisioning Services recognizes and uses the file format .vhdx as the extension for base disks and .avhdx for differencing disks (also known as versions). No configuration of this feature is necessary. You perform all image manipulation functions, such as deleting or merging vDisks, or creating new versions, in the Citrix Provisioning Services console the same way for both formats.

You must use the most recent version of the Citrix License server to get the latest features. When upgrading from an existing version of Provisioning Services to the newest version of Provisioning Services, the most recent version of the license server is usually available with the product software. If you do not upgrade to the latest version of the license server, the product license will enter the 30 day grace period.

Upgrading a Citrix Provisioning Services farm to 7.7

Provisioning Services supports upgrading to the latest product version from versions starting with 5.1 SP1.

Before attempting to upgrade a Citrix Provisioning Services farm:

  • Select a maintenance window that has the least amount of traffic
  • Back up the Provisioning Services database
  • Back up all vDisks
Remember: Mirror if you are in a high-availability scenario; for more information, see Database Mirroring. No special action is required during the upgrade once mirroring is set up.

To upgrade from a previous Citrix Provisioning Services farm, complete the following procedures:

  1. Upgrade the first Citrix Provisioning Server, which upgrades the Citrix Provisioning Services database.
  2. Upgrade Consoles. The Console is a separate executable that can be installed on upgraded servers (PVS_Console.exe or PVS_Console_64.exe). Citrix recommends upgrading Provisioning Services server and console software at the same time for each Provisioning Server system in the farm. Remote Consoles can be upgraded at any time.
  3. Upgrade the remaining Citrix Provisioning Servers within the farm.
  4. Upgrade vDisks.
    Caution: If you are upgrading a Provisioning Services vDisk within a XenDesktop deployment, upgrade the Provisioning Services master target device software before upgrading the XenDesktop VDA software.

Upgrade Utilities

The Upgrade Wizard includes the following utilities:

  • The UpgradeAgent.exe runs on the target device to upgrade previously installed product software.
  • The UpgradeManager.exe runs on the Citrix Provisioning Server to control the upgrade process on the target device.

Source

Download Citrix PVS 7.7 here (Require MyCitrix ID)

Download Citrix PVS 7.7 Documentor here

Download Citrix PVS 7.7 health healthcheck script here

Other PVS 7.7 Guides

Citrix Provisioning Services 7.7 MCLI Programmer’s Guide

Citrix Provisioning Services 7.7 SOAP Server Programmer’s Guide

Citrix Provisioning Services 7.7 PowerShell with Objects Programmer’s Guide

Citrix Provisioning Services 7.7 Transition to PowerShell with Objects from PowerShell (Deprecated) Programmer’s Guide

Professional Services

Citrix technology professional – CTP, and Microsoft Most Valuable Professional MVP, Thomas Poppelgaard provides professional services. Write to me on my email thomas@poppelgaard.com or call on my cell +45 53540356