Lab: Part 26 – Install/Upgrade Citrix XenDesktop 7.11

A quick step-by-step guide to install or upgrade Citrix XenDesktop 7.11.

Citrix released the 7.11 version of XenDesktop/XenApp on Sept 14,2016. To be able to use the new cool features, there are two options available to you, update the controllers or install a new farm. Let’s jump in.

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In-place upgrades are generally not recommended for large organizations where it is often easier to install a new infrastructure and migrate virtual machines.

XenDesktop 7.11 is the latest version available to date, and is the CR (current release) supported by Citrix. Most of large organizations will not deploy CR version of XenDesktop in production but will install the current LTSR (Long Term Support Release) and only schedule a migration to the next LTSR version available.

In the following post, we will review how to do both upgrade and installation of a new farm, so you guys are all covered.

Lab configuration

XenDesktop

• CDC01.citrixguru.lab Running XenDesktop 7.7 Platinum
  • IP: 10.0.0.71
• CDC02.citrixguru.lab – XenDesktop not installed
  • IP: 10.0.0.72

SQL

• SQL 2014 Dedicated server
• SQL01.citrixguru.lab
  • IP: 10.0.0.5
• Databases:
  • XD7_DB
  • XD7_LOGS

Download Citrix XenDesktop 7.11

Go to https://www.citrix.com/downloads/xenapp-and-xendesktop/product-software/xenapp-and-xendesktop-711.html and select the version you want to download.

Getting started

Requirements

You can find the full list of requirements here: https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/xenapp-and-xendesktop/7-11/system-requirements.html

Below are my highlighted items:

• XenDesktop 5.6 and up
• Upgrade License Server to the latest version available
• Software Maintenance / Subscription Advantage eligibility date: Sep 8, 2016
• Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 and up
• Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5.1 & 4.5.2
• Database 2008 R2 and up
  • SQL Server AlwaysOn Failover Cluster Instances
  • SQL Server 2012 AlwaysOn Availability Groups
  • SQL Server Database Mirroring
  • see the Sizing guidance article
• Windows authentication
• SQL permissions
  • More details: XenApp/XenDesktop 7.x database permissions
• Controllers -> 5 GB RAM

Precautions

• Take a snapshot of all XenDesktop/XenApp controllers
• Backup all SQL DB related to XenDesktop/XenApp

Usefull articles

• Lab: Part 11 – Install XenDesktop 7.6
• XenApp/XenDesktop 7.x database permissions
• Lab: Part 13 – Configure Published Applications with XenDesktop 7.6

Upgrade to Citrix XenDesktop 7.11

Mount the .ISO file and wait for the setup to start.

Select Upgrade (on the left).

Accept the XenDesktop 7.11 licensing agreement.

Read XenDesktop 7.11 requirements and Select Next.

Make sure that the SA is not older than 2016.0908 and that your license server is running the latest version available at the time. Here, I will upgrade my license later so I’ve selected “Let me continue, I understand that users will be unable to access their desktops and applications until the license server has been upgraded“.

Select Automatically and Next.

Last summary before the upgrade. Select Upgrade once you’re ready.

Upgrade in progress…

The setup will need to restart the server if .NET 4.5.2 is not installed.

Microsoft .NET 4.5.2 is installed.

Installation continue.

Select I do not want to participate in Call Home.

Installation was successful.

The console will start automatically.

Select the license server has been upgraded. Let me continue.

Here is the critical part of the upgrade. I recommend to select Manually upgrade this site to avoid any issue during this step.

The wizard will automatically create the scripts.

• DisableServices.ps1: Stop all XenDesktop services
• EnableServices.ps1: Start all XenDesktop services
• UpgradeLoggingDatabase.sql: script to upgrade the logging SQL DB
• UpgradeMonitorDatabase.sql: script to upgrade/create the monitoring SQL DB
• UpgradeSiteDatabase.sql: script to upgrade the default Site SQL DB

Below is the process to follow to do the manual upgrade.

Run the first script to disable XenDesktop services.

Then connect to your SQL server to run the 3 scripts in the following order in Microsoft Management Studio:

1. UpgradeLoggingDatabase.sql
2. UpgradeMonitorDatabase.sql
   1. You might have to create manually the database if you don’t have it.
3. UpgradeSiteDatabase.sql:

IMPORTANT:  select SQLCMD or the script will fail and you will have to restore your database from a backup. 

Run EnableServices.ps1 to restart the services.

Note: below is the screen for automatic upgrade.

Then select Continue in the wizard to finish the upgrade.

The screen above will run for few minutes.

Install XenDesktop 7.11

Mount the .ISO file and wait for the setup to start.

Select XenDesktop, start.

Then select Delivery Controller.

Accept the software license.

Select the core components.

Here we will only install Delivery Controller and Studio on our server.

Uncheck SQL Express as we have a dedicated SQL server.

Automatically Open firewall ports.

Summary of the installation.

I do not want to participate in Call Home.

Then wait around 10mins.

Create a new XenDesktop 7.11 site

Start Citrix Studio console and select Deliver applications and desktops to your users .

Select An Empty, unconfigured Site:

• Site name: CitrixGuruXenDesktopSite

Select Generate scripts to manually set up databases on the database server.

Database configuration:

• Site: XD7_DB
• Monitoring: XD7_MONITORING
• Logging: XD7_LOGS

Do not select additional features at this time. If needed you can configure them later.

Summary. Select Generate scripts to create Database SQL scripts.

Script generation in progress.

Give the scripts to your SQL administrators and specify that they need to run in SQLCMD.
More details about the XenDesktop 7.x database permissions in this article: XenApp/XenDesktop 7.x database permissions

Note: Databases must be created manually before running the scripts.

Select Continue Database configuration and Site setup, once all the scripts have been executed.

Enter your SQL server information.

XenDesktop will try to connect to the server.

Then enter your license server address and select Connect.

Select the product and the model, here we have Citrix XenDesktop Platinum User/Device licenses.

Do not select additional features at this time. If needed you can configure them later.

Summary of the configuration.

Wait few minutes.

When configured, Studio will automatically load the console.

Join an existing XenDesktop 7.11 site

Here will join CDC02.citrixguru.lab to the existing XenDesktop site.

Select Connect this Delivery Controller to an existing Site.

Type the FQDN of a controller member of the XenDesktop site you wish to join.

Here: cdc01.citrixguru.lab.

Select No to upgrade manually the database with this new controller.

Select Generate scripts.

More details here: XenApp/XenDesktop 7.x database permissions.

Below are few screenshots of the process.

Once executed with no issues, select OK to continue.

XenDesktop will check if the XenDesktop database is properly configured.

Citrix Studio will automatically loads if everything is ok.

Check the controllers.

And finally check the version in the Studio console to confirm that the upgrade was successful.

Citrix XenDesktop 7.11.0.40 was successfully installed/upgraded.

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