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Based on Windows 2003 R2 Standard
Time to admit something to you…part of my job is made easy as there is a team dedicated to prep’ing the base build and creating OS patch payloads for security compliance, so I don’t have to concern myself with automating the base OS – I just have to fill in the gaps for XenApp to install without barfing!
Pre-requisites
there are seemingly so many pre-requisites for this build it is mind boggling. From experience, some non-virtualised application suites have their own common requirements, so we believe we should be able simplify things by providing what XenApp needs as well as what we’ve seen some of our more complicated application requirements to make hosting applications somewhat easier.
- .Net Framework 2.0
- .Net Framework 3.0
- .Net Framework 3.5
- JRE 1.5.09
- J# 2.0
- Visual C++ runtime (needed for post roll-up 03 patches!)
All these will be installed via command line scripts in unattended and silent mode, examples of working installation syntax will follow below.
This will save you oodles of time, I assure you. Some of the install commands are pretty easy but others can be a pain in the rear. I admit to getting some guidance from some pretty good resources on the web but to get them right for my own environment sometimes takes a little extra cunning!
Every one of these components need to be installed before putting XenApp 5.0 on the W2K3 server but before we install these, we need to put the server in Terminal Server Application mode.
I also turn off the Internet Explorer “Hardening” restrictions at this point too, within the same process. For this I use sysocmgr in cmd line scripts…
sysocmgr.exe /i:%systemroot%\inf\sysoc.inf /u:”%INSTALLDIR%\CONFIG\TermServ.inf” /r /x /q
The contents of TermServ.inf (which you need to create and make accessible to the installation routine) is as follows: -
[Components]
TerminalServer = on
IEHardenUser = off
IEHardenAdmin = off
[Terminal Services]
AllowConnections = 1
LicensingMode = PerUser
PermissionsSetting = 1
You can change PerUser to PerDevice if that is your preferred licensing medium.
.Net Framework 2.0
Download it here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=0856eacb-4362-4b0d-8edd-aab15c5e04f5&displaylang=en
START /WAIT “dotnet2″ dotnetfx.exe /Q:A /C:”INSTALL.EXE /Q /l c:\setup\log\dotnet2.log”
.Net Framework 3.0
Download it here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=10CC340B-F857-4A14-83F5-25634C3BF043&displaylang=en
START /WAIT “dotnet3″ dotnetfx3.exe /Q /PASSIVE /NORESTART
.Net Framework 3.5
Download it here:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/0/f/60fc5854-3cb8-4892-b6db-bd4f42510f28/dotnetfx35.exe
START /WAIT “dotnet35″ dotNetFx35.exe /Q /PASSIVE /NORESTART
Java JRE 1.5.09
Download it here:
http://java.sun.com/products/archive/
START /WAIT “java” jre-1_5_0_09-windows-i586-p.exe /s /v”ALLUSERS=TRUE REBOOT=REALLYSUPPRESS INSTALLDIR=D:\Progra~1\Java\j2re1.5.0_09 ADDLOCAL=jrecore IEXPLORER=1 MOZILLA=0 JAVAUPDATE=0 /QB-” /QB /l c:\setup\log\jre15.log
In addition to the JRE installation, a few things need to be tidied up, general stuff to delete shortcuts and disable the auto update. I recommend using them as-is.
REG ADD “HKLM\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\Java Plug-in\%JAVAVERSION%” /v HideSystemTrayIcon /t REG_DWORD /d 0×00000001 /f > nul
REG ADD “HKLM\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\Java Update\Policy” /v EnableJavaUpdate /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f > nul
REG ADD “HKLM\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\Java Update\Policy” /v EnableAutoUpdateCheck /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f > nul
REG ADD “HKLM\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\Java Update\Policy” /v NotifyDownload /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f > nul
REG ADD “HKLM\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\Java Update\Policy” /v NotifyInstall /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f > nul
REG DELETE “HKLM\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\Java Update\Policy” /v PromptAutoUpdateCheck /f > nul
IF EXIST “%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Desktop\Java Web Start.LNK” DEL “%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Desktop\Java Web Start.LNK” > nul
IF EXIST “%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs\Java Web Start\Java Web Start.LNK” RD /Q /S “%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs\Java Web Start” > nul
I usually add “> nul” to the end of the command line where I don’t want to see the results…nothing worse than a messy CMD window. Once you’ve tested the syntax successfully it can be hidden.
J# 2.0
Download it here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=F72C74B3-ED0E-4AF8-AE63-2F0E42501BE1&displaylang=en
START /WAIT “jsharp” VJREDIST.EXE /Q:A /C:”INSTALL.EXE /Q /l c:\setup\log\vjredist.log”
VisualC++ Runtime
Download it here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=200b2fd9-ae1a-4a14-984d-389c36f85647&displaylang=en
START /WAIT “C++” vcredist_x86.exe /q:a /c:”VCREDI~3.EXE /q:a /c:”"msiexec /i vcredist.msi /qn”" “
Success confirmation:
Open up the Application Eventlog and check the results of the recent MSIInstaller entries. All of them should say successful at this point. If not check your lines of code!
Reboot time:
You will need to reboot your server at this juncture to ensure the SYSOCMGR change you made for Terminal Services Application Mode is registered. XenApp will not install unless you do…
So what are you waiting for, reboot!
Next time I’ll install XenApp…PL
So it begins, I have been asked (finally) to get a XenApp 5.0 build prepared for our farm replacement at my place of work. The main reason for the effort is that PS4.0 is going end-of-life at the end of the year.
I’ve been reading up on the subject for a little while, having been responsible for some previous versions in our company: -
- Metaframe 1.8 on NT4
- Metaframe XPe on Windows 2000
- Presentation Server 4.0 on Windows 2003
The company has 100,000 employees and approximately 15,000 use the farm(s) at some point with 10% (1500) constantly logged on in peak hours.
The current PS4.0 farm (as did XPe) uses Oracle for the IMA datastore, but we are going to use SQL for the new farm. We have seen a number of issues with Oracle in our multi-datacentre model around replication [which led us to having to split the design into 2 farms] and as such decided to go to SQL and leverage some of the SQL expertise in our company. Oh yeah SQL is cheaper than Oracle too, which is a bonus!
So, what will I be concentrating on with this build?
- Windows 2003, 32-bit
- Windows 2003, 64-bit
- Windows 2008 (future phase)
- Web Interface, probably on 64-bit W2K3 (no W2k8 build avail in-house yet – pah!)
I hope to log all the findings that I come across in preparing for the build, which has to be enterprise-class, as resilient as possible and automated to the hilt.
By the way, all this assumes you already have a TS Licensing Server and a Citrix License Server.
I hope you get something out of these words to help you in your own endeavours…PL
