virtuEs.IT

… sharing my IT Quests

XenServer PowerShell 101

Jan 26

Posted by virtuEs in Hypervisors, Scripts | No Comments

Over two years ago I discovered PowerShell as a very usefull scripting language to support the fully automated install and config of a Windows 2008 Office Automation domain with XenApp and RES Software products. Thanks to RES Automation Manager (back than it was still called Wisdom) I could easily build PowerShell scripts to create the required Active Directory structure, Exchange environment and use small scripts for different configurational settings. RES Automation Manager ensured I only needed to concentrate on the actual scripts, as I could configure the Tasks options to ensure the correct execution rights were used and the required snap-ins were loaded by specifying the use of a PowerShell configuration file (.psc1).

 

This blog is all about reconnecting with PowerShell as I want to explore the PowerShell SnapIn for XenServer 6.0.
A quick overview of the available commands is provided with a great poster from Björn Andersson (diversetips.se) for XenServer 6.0:

This blog will be all about the basic PowerShell commands to setup my scripting environment and slowly build up to more complex scripts for XenServer management.

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XenServer 6.0 reference posters

Jan 10

Posted by virtuEs in HowTo, Hypervisors | No Comments

A very quick blogpost to keep track of some great reference posters that are created for Citrix XenServer 6.0.

 

Björn Andersson (diversetips.se) has created two great posters for XenServer 6.0:

In addition to the already published poster from the Citrix Community:

… a great set of reference posters to get the best out of your XenServer infrastructure!

 

 

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Looking back at a great year

Dec 31

Posted by virtuEs in News | 4 Comments

These last few days of the year are one where alot of reflection takes place on set goals and how good we’ve managed to accomplish them, on great events that took place and how they effected us and on the lessons we have learned and will take with us.

 

New professional roles and challenges

A few years ago I already started to promote my new goals for becoming a good Infrastructure Architect with my manager, which resulted in a shift in client assignments for the usual administrative assignments to more Citrix Engineer and design suited projects. And even though I worked as a Citrix Architect on a great Technology refresh in 2010, I managed to write my first solo design for a Citrix XenApp infrastructure at the start of 2011. Getting complemented for the documentation of that design and the impact of it on the environment and related systems was a great boost of confidence. I finally saw myself as a Citrix Architect as well and had fun in this new role.

I was even more lucky and was asked to not only design a Citrix XenServer/XenApp/RES Workspace Manager infrastructure for the next assignment, but also implement my design and ensure the administrators would know which skills were needed to support this new environment. Having some info sessions with them and sharing my knowledge on the products was great fun as well.

 
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Where’s the XenServer 6 auto start VM feature?

Oct 11

Posted by virtuEs in HomeLab, HowTo, Hypervisors | 7 Comments

Yesterday I finally had some hours left to spare at home to attend to my Homelab. as I’m prepping the environment for my next exam (A19 Citrix XenDesktop 5 Administration) I did wanted to upgrade the XenServers to the latest version. So I spent yesterday evening cleaning up the servers with the old VMs from previous studies and left the two XenApp 6.5 servers and my domain server in place.

 

Upgrading the XenServer Homelab

The upgrade itself was done easily with the single disk image. This time I was smart enough to learn from my previous mistake, so I brought down any running VMs (even disabled the auto start options to be sure) and started with my Pool Master upgrade, without triggering any Maintenance Mode. The upgrade went smoothly for both servers, so I was quickly up and running again and checking all VM settings.

 

VM auto start feature

I was a little puzzled on how I could set up my License Server VPX appliance to auto start on booting my XenServer, but I figured it was now set with the vApp features and settings. However the GUI did not offer a select box to enable the auto start feature at the Start Options in the General Properties of the VM. I did not configure HA as it is not necessary right now for my Homelab environment. I just made the assumption that creating and configuring the vApp would enable the auto start feature all the same. And turned off the Homelab servers to test it when I would boot my servers the next day.

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A new ambitious Quest: Taking my Citrix certification to the next level

Sep 11

Posted by virtuEs in HomeLab, Quests | 2 Comments

The last couple of years, I’ve been taken on new customer assignments that took placed me in new roles. No more administration of existing Citrix XenApp environments, but I was given the assignments to design new Citrix XenApp environments and be the one to decide how they would be implemented. After commenting on improvements I saw as an administrator, I was now in charge of making those design calls from the start. So I’ve spent the last years reading about a lot of features, new version improvements and design consequences for Citrix XenApp and XenServer environments.

And even though I’ve been complimented by customers on the quality of my design documents and seen my designs grow into production environments, I still miss some recognition as a Citrix Architect by my peers and some colleagues.

So it is time to take my CCA certifications to the next level and go for the CCEE and CCIA certifications and ensure my level of expertise is reflected by the right set of certificates.

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