Interview questions 5

How to Recreate the Local Host Cache?
If the IMA service does not start, the cause may be a corrupt LHC. Verify the data store is available before beginning this procedure. If the data store is not available, the IMA service fails to start until the data store is available.

Recreating the Local Host Cache after a minimum of SP1 has been installed

1. Stop the IMA service. This can be done via the command line, net stop imaservice or from services.
2. From the command line run: dsmaint recreatelhc which renames the existing LHC database, creates a new database and modifies the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Citrix\IMA\Runtime\PSRequired key to 1. Setting the value PSRequired to 1 forces the server to establish communication with the datastore in order to populate the Local Host Cache database. When the IMA service is restarted, the LHC is recreated with the current data from the data store.
3. Restart the IMA service. This can be done via the command line, net start imaservice, or from services.
Recreating the LHC database on servers that do not have a minimum of SP1 installed
1. Stop the IMA service, if it is started. This can be done via the command line, net stop imaservice, or from services.
2. Go to %ProgramFiles%\Citrix\Independent Management Architecture and rename the imalhc.mdb to imlhc.mdb.bak
3 Launch the ODBC Data Source Administrator:
• On Windows Server, choose Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Data Sources (ODBC).
4. Select the File DSN tab and browse to %ProgramFiles%\Citrix\Independent Management Architecture.
5. Select the imalhc.dsn file and click Configure.
6. In the Database area, click Create. The New Database dialog box appears.
7. In the Database Name box, type the name imalhc.mdb for the new local host cache database.
8. Click OK to create the database, and then click OK to close the ODBC Data Source Administrator.
9. Open regedt32 and navigate to the registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Citrix\IMA\RUNTIME and modify the value of PSRequired (REG_DWORD): 0x1
10. Restart the IMA service. This can be done via the command line, net start imaservice, or from services.

How to disable print drivers from automatically updating the DataStore?
When a new printer or printer driver was installed on a MetaFrame server, a substantial amount of traffic (in the order of 8 to 10MB per second) occurred between the IMA Service and the data store the IMA Service was using. This occurred because the IMA Service needed to update the Management Console for MetaFrame XP with the information about the new printer or printer driver, which caused the huge amount of network traffic.
To resolve this problem, navigate to the following registry key and change the value of fDisablePrinterWorkerThread to 1:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Citrix\IMAPrinter
Type: REG_DWORD
Value: fDisablePrinterWorkerThread = 1
After making this change to the registry, restart the IMA Service for the change to take effect.
When the registry switch is set to 1, the IMA Service does not automatically update printer or printer driver information to the Management Console. You need to update this information manually. To do this, click Printer Management in the left panel of the Management Console and then double-click Update Printer and Driver.
Note: Ensure the latest MfPrintSs.dll is installed on the server.

How do I disable the Citrix Management Console splash screen?
There are two ways to disable the Citrix Management Console splash screen:
• Add -nologo to the Ctxload.exe command line. For example, if you publish ctxload as a published application, edit the published application and add -nologo to the end of the command line.
• If you run the Citrix Management Console from the toolbar, open the Program Files\Citrix\Administration folder. Create a shortcut to ctxload. Open the properties of that shortcut and add -nologo to the end of the target box. Click OK. Add the shortcut to the toolbar.

What is licenses auto-activation?
License auto-activation is a benefit offered to customers purchasing MetaFrame XP product through an electronic licensing program with Citrix. License auto-activation removes the need to activate MetaFrame product licenses via the Citrix Activation System. With license auto-activation, MetaFrame XP product licenses purchased through an electronic licensing program are automatically activated when they are installed on the MetaFrame XP server.

How to install XenApp client in command prompt and apply policies?
Run the XenAppHosted.msi in command prompt
"c:\>msiexec /a xenapphosted.msi"
This will launch "Client Packager Installation". We can create a pre-configured client package with the answer file for the questions asked by the installer, so that we can have silent installation of the client in various systems in the environment.
There is another way to create client installation package.
Type the command "msiexec.exe /I path/XenAppHosted.msi [Options]"
To add Group Policy to manage the client we need to add the .ADM by Citrix to the existing Administrative Template of the Group Policy Management. This is available where Citrix Clients have been already installed. It is located in "c:\program files\Citrix\ICA Client\Configuration\icaclient.adm"
We can manage Citrix Client connectivity by the Windows Group Policy

How to change the Citrix XML Service Port on Metaframe Servers ?
Un-registering the XML Service
1. Open a Command Prompt window and run ‘ctxxmlss /u’ (This command will un-register the Citrix XML service and mark it for deletion)
2. Reboot the server
Registering the XML on a port other than sharing with IIS
1. Un-register the service using the instructions above.
2. Open a ‘Command Prompt’ window and run ctxxmlss /r[Port Number] (Notice that there is no space between the switch “/r” and the port number.
3. Reboot the server or open the service control manager and manually start the Citrix XML Service
Registering the XML Service to share the port with IIS on Windows Server 2003 running IIS 6.0
By default when installing IIS 6.0, the virtual Scripts Folder is not created
1. Un-register the service using the instructions above.
2. Navigate to the ‘\Inetpub’ folder and create a new folder with the name of ‘Scripts’
3. Open the IIS Manager MMC Snap-in
4. Right click on the ‘Default Web Site’ and select New | Virtual Directory…
5. Click Next
6. Under Alias: type the name ‘Scripts’ and click Next
7. Under Path: type C:\Inetpub\Scripts and click Next
8. Under Allow the following permissions: make sure that the following are selected
a. Read
b. Run Scripts (such as ASP)
c. Execute (such as ISAPI applications or CGI)
9. Click Next and click Finish
10. Right click on the Scripts virtual directory and go to Properties
11. Under the Virtual Directory tab make sure that the Execute Permissions: field is set to Scripts and Executables
12. Under the Directory Security tab click on Edit… under Authentication and Access Control and make sure that the Enable anonymous access check box is checked
13. Now copy the files ctxxmlss.txt, clm.dll, wpnbr.dll to the newly create Scripts folder under the Inetpub folder.

Note: The file ‘ctxxmlss.txt’ is located in the ‘Program Files\Citrix\System32’ folder and the files ‘clm.dll’ and 'wpnbr.dll' are located in the ‘%SYSTEMROOT%\System32’ folder
If Microsoft IIS is installed, the administrator of the MetaFrame XP installation is given the option to install the Citrix XML Service and share a port with IIS.
In fact, no separate XML service is running. IIS serves the XML data using an ISAPI filter named Wpnbr.dll located in the \Inetpub\Scripts folder. To remove the Citrix XML Service functionality from your MetaFrame server, simply rename or delete the Wpnbr.dll file.
Once the XML Service port is changed on the Metaframe Servers you will need to change NFuse or WI to point to the new port.