Home App Layering Lab: Part 40 – Getting Started with Citrix App Layering

Lab: Part 40 – Getting Started with Citrix App Layering

December 23, 2018

Step-by-step guide to learn how to install and upgrade Citrix App Layering.

More from the Lab!

Citrix App Layering is a Windows Operating System and application management solution designed to simplify the management of images. In this article, we will review how to install and upgrade the Enterprise Layer Manager (ELM), hereafter referred to as the App Layering appliance.

Requirements

For this lab, you need the following:

MyCitrix account with permissions to download AppLayering software (App Layering is included in all editions and deprecated in Citrix Cloud)
Virtual Infrastructure (Supported: Azure, Nutanix AHV 5.0 and up, Citrix XenServer 6.5 and up, Microsoft Hyper-V 2012 R2+ or VMware vSphere 5.5 and up)
Permissions to create/edit virtual machines (or Deploy OVF for VMware)
1 IP address available for the appliance (or DHCP)
Internet Explorer or Firefox (Google Chrome does not support Microsoft Silverlight)
Read the App Layering Technical Overview from Citrix

Best Practices for Citrix App Layering Installation and Upgrade

App Layering is a new OS build process and must be carefully studied. Check out Citrix documentation about App Layering.
Only standalone ELM appliance can be deployed
4vCPU for the appliance (default)
No built-in HA in Citrix App Layering.
Backup the appliance and the repository
10 Gpbs connection between the appliance and the file share
Hyper-V: Generation 1 for Network Adapter
Expand ELM work disk (default size 300GB)
Upgrade the appliance frequently as Citrix often releases updates that include fixes
Upgrading the appliance has no impact on users
All layering tasks must be processed before starting the upgrade

Download and Install Citrix App Layering

Go to https://www.citrix.com/downloads/citrix-app-layering. Logon with you MyCitrix credentials and download the latest Enterprise Layer Manager (ELM) software from Citrix.

Download Citrix App Layering 18.12.0 from Citrix website.

Download Citrix App Layering for Hyper-V

You can download App Layering for Azure, XenServer, VMware, Nutanix AHV and Hyper-V.

Note: you can also download this package from the Citrix Cloud interface.

Here is the content of the zip file for Microsoft Hyper-V.

citrix_app_layering_agent_installer.exe: agent software to install in the OS Layer
citrix_app_layering_os_machine_tools_18.12.0.exe
hyperv_18.12.0.6.zip: images (.vhdx) to import in the hypervisor
- unidesk_hyperv-system.vhdx
- unidesk_hyperv-repository.vhdx (work disk)

Note: For VMware vSphere, the easiest way to deploy Citrix ELM is to Deploy OVF template and specify the .ova file downloaded from internet.

For Hyper-V, it is a little more complicated.

Create a new virtual machine in Microsoft Hyper-V:

Create App Layering virtual machine with Hyper-V

Select Generation 1 (some compatible issues with Generation 2).

Create App Layering virtual machine with Hyper-V - Select generation — Create App Layering virtual machine with Hyper-V – Select generation

Set memory to 4096MB.

Create App Layering virtual machine with Hyper-V - Assign memory — Create App Layering virtual machine with Hyper-V – Assign memory

Select the network.

Create App Layering virtual machine with Hyper-V - Select network adapter — Create App Layering virtual machine with Hyper-V – Select network adapter

Map the system disk previously downloaded.

Create App Layering virtual machine with Hyper-V - Configure HDD — Create App Layering virtual machine with Hyper-V – Configure HDD

Before booting up the virtual machine, you need to add the work disk.

Open the properties of the virtual machine.

Create App Layering virtual machine with Hyper-V - Additional HDD configuration — Create App Layering virtual machine with Hyper-V – Additional HDD configuration

And add the work disk that was also downloaded from the Citrix website.

0: unidesk_hyperv-system.vhd
1: unidesk_hyperv-repository.vhdx (work disk)

You will have the following error message if your disks are not added properly:

App Layering - Emergency mode — App Layering – Emergency mode

You can also configure the virtual machine with 4vCPU.

When everything is ready, boot the virtual machine and wait for the operating system to load.

App Layering - Logon appliance — App Layering – Logon appliance

The default logon is administrator and the default password is Unidesk1. You will be prompted to change your password the first time you logon to the web console.

Here is the appliance configuration screen:

App Layering - Network configuration appliance — App Layering – Network configuration appliance

Select (C) to configure networking. Enter your configuration.

Then save (S) it and go to the web console.

You can also configure the time zone and NTP settings via this setup.

Note: Microsoft Silverlight is required for App Layering but it is not supported by Google Chrome. The workaround available is to install IETab from the store in Google Chrome.

Or use Internet Explorer 11.

Citrix App Layering is installed. Next step is to configure it, go to Lab: Part 41 – Configure Citrix App Layering.

Upgrade Citrix App Layering Infrastructure

Note:The appliance periodically checks for upgrades, and downloads available packages to your appliance.

The ELM can be updated without impacting production users. Desktops and Session Hosts connect directly to the share to access Elastic Layers, never the ELM.
The ELM requires all tasks to be completed before upgrades can be performed.
Only an administrator can run the upgrade.
Verify that a network file share has been configured. You can confirm the share by logging onto the appliance, navigating to System > Settings and Configuration, and finding the network file share setting.

See CTX295952 and the documentation

You can also do this process manually, see below.

Go to https://www.citrix.com/downloads/citrix-app-layering. Logon and download the software.

Download Citrix App Layering 18.12.0 upgrade package from Citrix website.

Make sure to download the appliance upgrade package.

Note: you can also download this package from the Citrix Cloud interface.

Below is the content of the upgrade package for Microsoft Hyper-V:

citrix_app_layering_agent_installer.exe: agent software to install in the OS Layer
citrix_app_layering_os_machine_tools_18.12.0.exe
citrix_app_layering_upgrade_18.12.0.vhd: upgrade disk

Unzip the upgrade package and copy citrix_app_layering_upgrade_18.12.0.vhd to your App Layering share.

Then logon to the management console. Go to System > Manage Appliance.