Let’s begin by installing the Provisioning Services server which we’ll be using for provisioning our XenApp and XenDesktop servers. The PVS server is a probably one of my favorite products from Citrix.
- Part 1: Deploying XenDesktop 7.6 – Introduction
- Part 2: Deploying XenDesktop 7.6 – What’s the difference between FMA and IMA?
- Part 3: Deploying XenDesktop 7.6 – Delivery Controller, Studio, Director, and StoreFront
- Part 4: Deploying XenDesktop 7.6 – Site Creation
- Part 5: Deploying XenDesktop 7.6 – Virtual Delivery Agent
- Part 6: Deploying XenDesktop 7.6 – Configuring StoreFront
- Part 7: Deploying XenDesktop 7.6 – Publishing Applications
- Part 8: Deploying XenDesktop 7.6 – Publishing Desktops
- Part 9: Deploying XenDesktop 7.6 – Installing Receiver
- Part 10: Deploying XenDesktop 7.6 – Provisioning Netscaler
- Part 11: Deploying XenDesktop 7.6 – Load Balancing Storefront with Netscaler
- Part 12: Deploying XenDesktop 7.6 – Installing Provisioning Services (PVS)
- Part 13: Deploying XenDesktop 7.6 – Configuring Provisioning Services (PVS)
Provisioning Services Installation
The installation of PVS is pretty straight forward, there isn’t much configuration to do. The only thing I’d mention, is that I use a dedicated SQL server in my lab and that’s the server I used for hosting the PVS database
Download the PVS ISO, mount it and launch the installer
You will then be prompted with a warning stating that some per-requisites are required to be installed prior to PVS installation
It is also a good idea to install the PVS console before installing the server. If you try to install the server first, you’ll be given another warning
Click Next on the welcome Wizard
Accept the EULA
There you go, PVS is now installed
Next, we’re going to perform some minor configurations to get the PVS server going before we start building the templates
Since we’re going to be PXE booting, it is important to ensure that we have a fully functioning DHCP server present with all the subnets and option 66/67 configured. We can also host the DHCP server on the PVS server itself. In my lab, I have a dedicated DHCP server running on my Domain Controller so I opted for the second option “The service that runs on another computer”
Same applies for the PXE service
We now need to specify our Database Server for hosting the PVS database
Next, we’ll need to define the farm properties
You can chose to use a service account (domain) or utilize the Network Service account. For production environments, I usually go for a service account that I typically create in AD, but for the lab, I opted for a network service account. And of course you can always change the account later on
This is the part where you can have your PVS server running on two separate networks. For example, your management network where you’re going to be connecting from and your streaming network where you’re going to be pushing the images from. Again, in a lab, both my streaming and management network are the same
Next, we’re going to specify the TFTP settings, we can leave this section set to default. The main thing I’d like for you to notice is the ARDBP32.BIN file which is what the PXE clients are going to query on initial boot up. This is also the file that we’ll have to configure in DHCP
We now have one last piece to configure, and that is the DHCP options for your subnet or subnets. These options are 66/67
The boot server host name is the name is the name (in this case, IP) if the PXE server (PVS Server in this case)
The post Part 12: Deploying XenDesktop 7.6 – Installing Provisioning Services (PVS) appeared first on virtualizemydc.ca.