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Provisioning Server
Citrix Provisioning Services 6.1 released
Citrix has released a new version of Provisioning Services 6.1
What's New in This Release
- Support for Personal vDisks — Citrix XenDesktop with personal vDisk technology is a high-performance enterprise desktop virtualization solution that makes VDI accessible to workers who require personalized desktops using pooled-static virtual machines. Target devices that use personal vDisks are created using the Citrix XenDesktop Setup Wizard. Within a Provisioning Services farm, the wizard creates and adds target devices with personal vDisks to an existing site's collection and assigns an existing shared-mode vDisk to that device. The wizard also creates XenDesktop virtual machines to associate with each device. A new type of catalog exists in Citrix Desktop Studio that allows you to preserve the assignment of users to desktops; the same users are assigned the same desktop for later sessions. In addition, a dedicated storage disk is created (before logon) for each user so they can store all personalization's to that desktop. Personalizations include any changes to the vDisk image or desktop that are not made as a result of an image update, such as application settings, adds, deletes, modifications, documents, etc.
- Support for Microsoft System Center 2012 Configuration Manager (SCCM) – The vDisk Update Management feature now supports SCCM 2012 environments.
- Support for Microsoft System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) – The XenDesktop Setup Wizard and Streamed VM Setup Wizard now support SCVMM 2012 for Hyper-V environments.
- Provisioning Services support for KMS licensing no longer requires local administrator privileges. Provisioning Services SoapServer KMS licensing now requires the same VHD mount privileges as Microsoft Windows (SE_MANAGE_VOLUME_PRIVILEGE, which is included in Administrators group by default).
Note: If upgrading from a past release, be sure to reset the privileges accordingly.
- Hypervisor support for ESX 5.0.
Starting with this release, see http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX131938 to view a list of fixed issues and hot fixes since the previous Provisioning Services release.
Citrix Provisioning Services 6.0 PowerShell Programmer's Guide
Use Provisioning Services’ programming interfaces to manage your implementation from a command line or from scripts. Only users with correct administrative privileges can use programming commands. Non-administrators, that do not have elevated privileges and attempt to use these commands, will receive the ‘Invalid access’ message.
Three different programming interfaces exist:
- Management Command Line Interface (MCLI)
- Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) Server Programmer Interface
- PowerShell Programmer Interface
Click here to download Citrix Provisioning Services 6.0 PowerShell Programmer’s Guide
Citrix Provisioning Services 6.0 released
Citrix announces the availability of Provisioning Services 6.0. This release is significant as it moves beyond single image delivery into single image management. Users of Provisioning Services already know the huge impact streaming a single shared disk image has on the cost and effort of managing virtual desktops and XenApp farms.
New in this Release
- Integrated vDisk Version Management: Allows you to create and manage versions directly within the Provisioning Services Console. Versions can be targeted specific groups of devices facilitating the image lifecycle flow through maintenance, test, and production. In addition, versions are maintained as difference files, conserving storage space.
- Automated vDisk Updates: Allows you to define recurring scheduled tasks that automate the process of vDisk patching using tools like Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) and Windows Server Update Services (WSUS).
- Support for vDisk Replication: Allows you to safely use replication solutions like Microsoft DFS Replication to distribute vDisks across multiple servers or geographic locations. Provisioning Servers will maintain an inventory of available vDisks and versions and adjust load balancing as needed to ensure sessions are only assigned to servers that have access to the required vDisk/version.
- XenDesktop and Streamed VM Setup Wizards
Click here to download Citrix Provisioning Services 6.0
Click here to learn more from the Citrix Blog about the release
Provisioning Services 6.0 PowerShell Programmer's Guide
Citrix Provisioning Services 6.0 Beta now available
Provisioning Services 6.0 adds new features that enhance your ability to manage and deploy shared vDisk images.
These new features include:
- Integrated vDisk Version Management: Allows you to create and manage versions directly within the Provisioning Services Console. Versions can be targeted specific groups of devices facilitating the image lifecycle flow through maintenance, test, and production. In addition, versions are maintained as difference files, conserving storage space.
- Automated vDisk Updates: Allows you to define recurring scheduled tasks that automate the process of vDisk patching using tools like Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) and Windows Server Update Services (WSUS).
- Support for vDisk Replication: Allows you to safely use replication solutions like Microsoft DFS Replication to distribute vDisks across multiple servers or geographic locations. Provisioning Servers will maintain an inventory of available vDisks and versions and adjust load balancing as needed to ensure sessions are only assigned to servers that have access to the required vDisk/version.
Please refer to the Release Notes for more information about known bugs and other limitations.
The Provisioning Services 6.0 Beta provides an early opportunity to try out these new features.
Click here to learn more and download ( requires a valid mycitrix.com account )
Citrix Provisioning Services 5.6 Service Pack 1 hotfix fixes XenDesktop 5 and Virtual Machine setup wizard
This hotfix provides a patch to the Citrix Provisioning Services 5.6 SP 1 management console, adding two new wizards to the Site context menu. The first is an updated version of the XenDesktop Setup Wizard, compatible with XenDesktop 5 that automates deployment of collections of streamed virtual desktops. The second is a new Streamed VM Setup Wizard that provides similar functionality for the deployment of other types of streamed VMs, including XenApp servers.
First install or upgrade to Citrix Provisioning Services 5.6 SP 1 and apply the appropriate installer for this enhancement to the Citrix Provisioning Services console.
The release folder includes the 6 files:
For 32bit Windows installations:
ConsolePatch.msp
ServerPatch.msp
Host.PowerShellSnapIn.msi
For 64bit Windows installations:
ConsolePatch_x64.msp
ServerPatch_x64.msp
Host.PowerShellSnapIn_x64.msi
For standalone Citrix Provisioning Services Console installations run the appropriate ConsolePatch msp
For Provisioning Services Server installations run the appropriate ServerPatch msp
Click here to learn more and download this hotfix
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- Citrix releases Provisioning Services 5.6 SP 1
- Hotfix update for Citrix Provisioning Services 5.1 SP2 Released for download
- Citrix releases Provisioning Services 5.6
- Citrix how to estimate write cache size in Provisioning Services
- Windows 7 Fails to PXE Boot Event ID 7026 with Provisioning Server 5.1
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