Interview questions 1

What are the default tests available in Health Monitoring & Recovery Tool?
XenApp Health Monitoring and Recovery Tool have the following default tests.
1. Citrix IMA Service test
2. Logon Monitor test
3. Terminal Service test
4. XML Service test
Health Monitoring & Recovery in the farm-wide configuration allows us to select the maximum percentage of servers that HMR can exclude from load balancing. The default value is 10% of server.

What is Hotfix Management and how to configure Server Restart Schedule?
Hotfix Management in Access Management Console allows us to check the Hotfixes installed in the particular server as well as compare the Hotfixes with the scope of server. But this tool will not automatically intimate or download available Hotfixes from the Citrix website. We can configure server restarting schedule for the servers in the XenApp farm. Right-Click the server and go to All Task.Go to Set restart options and Set restart schedule.

What is the session reliability service in Windows services?
Citrix XTE Server is the Windows service for session reliability.

What is Installation Manager?
Installation Manager will not be in the part of Citrix installation setup. It should be downloaded from the Citrix website and installed separately. We need to have PowerShell already installed in the server. Install the IM component in the workstation/system you want to manage from and the IM utility in the XenApp servers. After installing the we can access it through the Windows management console. We can select the shared msi file path from where the application to be deployed and the server and the time of installation. We can also schedule command-line task to install exe files or to run some commands or queries in the servers.

What is Configuration logging?
Administrative Configuration Logging is the new feature in XenApp 5.0 and it can be configured in farm-wide properties. We can store all the administrative changes in the farm. We can see the log from the Report Center. We can clear log from the farm properties. We can configure to have credential to clear the log.

How to configure SecureICA and SSL/TSL connection in XenApp?
To configure SecureICA, Go to Access Management Console and right click the application and go to the properties. In the Client option select the Encryption level. This should be configured both in client and server side. If we use XenApp client it will automatically select the Encryption type. If we use Program Neighbourhood we have to select the proper Encryption type in the client side. We can enforce these properties in the Group Policies or in Citrix policy in XenApp Advanced Configuration. We can Enable the SecureICA encryption and select the Encryption Level. If we enable SSL/TSL connection, we should have installed Citrix SSL Relay and Server Certificate installed in the server. We can configure this in Citrix SSL Relay Configuration Tool in Citrix Administration.

How to recover Citrix License Server?
The Citrix servers can function without contacting the license server and it is 30-days fault tolerant, and in Enterprise version an alert can be set with Resource Manager to send an email in case of License Server Connection Failure. If the license server reconnects at any time in the thirty days the problem resolves itself. If the server is not going to come back up, then the license file, digitally signed with the case-sensitive hostname of the old license server, is the critical component. The license file, a *.lic file, can be backed up to a thumb drive separately, and restored to a new server with the same name of the old license server, and the Citrix License server software installed.

What is "Citrix Startup License" in Citrix presentation server license management console?
The Startup license does not affect the license count. It is used to allow Citrix products to communicate with the license server using a continuous open connection. Every five minutes the license server and the products send a heartbeat message to each other to verify that they are mutually communicating.

How to restore the data source to the new server?
To restore the data store to a different server, or just to move it to a more convenient place on the network, the procedure is as follows:
1. Place the mf20.mdb that was backed up in the proper directory: C:\ProgramFiles\Citrix\Independent Management Architecture;
2. Create a file dsn to the new data store;
3. Run dsmaint config /user:user /pwd:password /dsn:path to dsn on the new data store server and restart IMA;
4. Run dsmaint failover newdatastoreservername on all the other servers in the farm and restart IMA
To create a dsn file, go to the control panel, administrative tools, of the Citrix server that holds the new data store, and go to “Data Sources (ODBC)”. On the tab marked “file dsn”, create a new file, with Access 4.0 drivers, that is in the same directory as the mdb file is, and can be named anything, but for convention should be mf20.dsn. on the final screen, the actual database that the dsn file is supposed to point to must be selected. Under the select button, highlight the proper database, (not the imalhc.mdb but the mf20.mdb) and close the utility.

What is CtxHide? How to solve CtxHide.exe Causing Citrix Session’s to Hang on Logon?
CtxHide.exe is responsible for hiding the DOS window in which UsrLogon.cmd is running.
Workarounds
1. Remove CtxHide.exe from the appsetup key in the registry
Use the registry editor to navigate to the following value:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\AppSetup
Double Click on the AppSetup value and remove the CtxHide.exe entry as the example shows below. Note that your AppSetup value may contain more than the following example.
Windows Registry Editor Version 6.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]
"AppSetup"="CtxHide.exe UsrLogon.Cmd,cmstart.exe"
The result of removing CtxHide.exe is that users can see usrlogon.cmd running on logon.
2. Swap CtxHide.exe for Runh.exe
Runh.exe has been used to hide usrlogon.cmd script from the user experience prior to Metaframe Presentation Server 3.0. It performs the same function as CtxHide.exe. For more information on runh and to download the executable go to: http://thin.msterminalservices.org/runh.cfm.
Download runh.exe from the above link and place the runh.exe in the server’s system32 directory. In Windows registry navigate to the AppSetup key, remove CtxHide.exe and replace with runh. Runh will now call and hide usrlogon.cmd.
Windows Registry Editor Version 6.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]
"AppSetup"="runh UsrLogon.Cmd,cmstart.exe"
To return to the original configuration navigate to the AppSetup value, remove runh and add CtxHide.exe.