XenClient Enterprise Release Notes Version 4.5.1 December 19, 2012 XenClient Enterprise Version 4.5.1 1
About XenClient Enterprise XenClient Enterprise is a distributed desktop virtualization solution that makes managing thousands of desktops and laptops as easy as managing one. The first product in the industry to combine centralized desktop management with distributed execution on a bare-metal (Type 1) client hypervisor, XenClient Enterprise offers IT professionals and desktop consumers a single, unified product that extends the benefits and convenience of local desktop virtualization with the efficiency and control of central, policydriven management; the best of both worlds. Virtual Computer is now part of Citrix, and NxTop is now called XenClient Enterprise. As a result, NxTop Center has been renamed XenClient Enterprise Synchronizer, and NxTop Engine has been renamed XenClient Enterprise Engine. The user interfaces (UI) have a new look-and-feel that matches the Citrix brand, but the core functionality remains the same. The user documentation has been updated to reflect these changes. About this Release Citrix has officially released XenClient Enterprise Version 4.5.1. This release is ready for enterprise deployment after taking into consideration the issues noted in this document. Upgrading to XenClient Enterprise Version 4.5.1 Use the information in this section for compatibility considerations and general procedures for upgrading to this release of XenClient Enterprise. Refer to the Engine and Synchronizer installation guides for additional information. Compatibility Considerations Before upgrading, consider the following: NxTop Center NxTop Center NxTop Center Synchronizer 3.0 3.1 4.0 4.1.x/4.5.1 Engine 3.0 3.1 4.0 * 4.1.x/4.5.1 * = no audio, must republish the VM =supported interoperability between the Engine and Synchronizer Download the Latest Version The latest version of XenClient Enterprise is available on the My Citrix Website. This site provides access to the Engine, Synchronizer, and the latest PV drivers in bundled ISO installation packages. 2
Upgrading Synchronizer Use the information in this section to familiarize yourself with general Synchronizer installation issues and to upgrade to the latest version. When upgrading the Synchronizer, consider the following: Windows 2008 R2 is required. If a Remote Server feature will be used, a new license file with this feature enabled must be imported into the central server. The installation of Synchronizer onto the remote server will not succeed if the license file does not enable this feature. If the device blacklist (Program Files x86\citrix\conf\deviceblacklist.csv, or, InstallDirectory \conf\deviceblacklist.csv) has been modified to accommodate certain USB devices, this file must be saved. Once the upgrade is complete, changes made to the original DeviceBlackList.csv must be merged into the new file. A warning message may appear informing you of potential long-duration upgrades resulting from native language support. To upgrade the Synchronizer: 1. First upgrade the central server to Version 4.5.1 before installing remote servers. Remote Servers and central servers must all be at the same version (i.e. all servers must be Version 4.5.1). Upgrades to Version 4.5.1 of Synchronizer are not supported if the installed version is NxTop Center version 3.1 or earlier. 2. Upgrade or install Version 4.5.1 on all remote servers. Upgrading the Engine When upgrading an Engine, consider the following: First, ensure that current VM backups are on Synchronizer for any computer being upgraded. Upgrades to Version 4.5.1 can be centrally administered via Synchronizer. Simply import the Engine update kit into the software library and assign it to the computers identified for upgrade. Verify that all upgraded devices have been installed and rebooted. Engine policies can be used to automate the procedure of rebooting individual clients. Refer to Synchronizer Online Help for more information. Recommended Upgrade Process for Shared and Custom Virtual Machines Use the information in this section to upgrade to the latest version of XenClient. Shared Virtual Machines For shared VMs, use the following procedure when upgrading to the latest release of XenClient: If you are currently running a XenClient Enterprise version prior to version 4.0, first upgrade to release 4.0, then follow the procedure in this section to upgrade to version 4.5.1. 3
1. Upgrade Synchronizer to version 4.5.1. 2. In Synchronizer, import the latest Engine update and assign it to all clients. 3. Once the Engine update is downloaded and installed, reboot the client. 4. If you are using Windows XP VMs, use Synchronizer to publish the virtual machines. Existing Windows 7 VMs do not need to be republished after upgrading Synchronizer or Engine. PV drivers are automatically updated after the Engine is updated to the latest version. Custom Virtual Machines For custom VMs, use the following procedure when upgrading to the latest release of XenClient: 1. Using the Engine UI, access the Virtual Machine Control Panel and select Mount Paravirtualized Drivers: 2. Follow the steps in the Mount PV Drivers Wizard to update the custom VM. Resolved Synchronizer Issues The following XenClient Enterprise Synchronizer issues have been resolved and enhancements made at this release. 4
Added support for localization This release supports localization. The Synchronizer Console can now be viewed in German. Unlock codes accessible for unowned computers Previously Synchronizer would provide unlock codes for an unowned computer; the unlock button is no longer displayed as an active choice in the Actions Panel. Additional virtual machine adapter created when started A new virtual machine adapter was erroneously created each time the VM was started in Synchronizer. Active Directory connectivity problems causes password conflict Previously, losing connection to the Active Directory server would cause a conflict with a user s password. This issue has been resolved. Active Directory group missing Active Directory group descriptions that exceeded a certain length were not displayed. At this release, group descriptions are now truncated allowing them to be properly displayed. Domain name created with a / fail to create computer account In the previous release, computer accounts with a / used in the domain name would prevent the account from being created. Administrative privileges prevent changes to Engine policies Synchronizer Administrators who had the ability to create/delete Engine Policy did not have the capability to modify any of the parameters in it. This release now allows an Administrator with appropriate privileges to fully control all aspects of an existing policy. Bandwidth policies between remote and central servers not functioning properly A netmask of 255.255.255.254 and any IP address would never match that IP address; this issue has been resolved. Current Known Synchronizer Issues Synchronizer Version 4.5.1 has undergone significant testing. The following issues have been identified and will be addressed in a subsequent release. Importing an ISO with obscure foreign characters may fail On some occasions, importing ISO files with obscure foreign characters in the filename may fail. Active-X prevents VM authoring If you are running Synchronizer through Internet Explorer on a Windows 2008 server with Enhanced Security enabled, the virtual machine Active-X control will not install; no error message will be displayed, and you will be unable to author the VM through that browser. To resolve this issue: 5
1. Run Synchronizer from a browser on another (non-server) computer (for example, a computer running Windows 7). 2. Turn off Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration; run Server Manager, select the top node in the left hand panel (tree), click on the Configure Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration link in the Security Information section of the UI turn off the feature for administrators, regular users, or both. Installation on a server with foreign characters in the hostname fails Synchronizer cannot be installed on a server with a hostname containing foreign characters. Valid hostname characters are A-Z, a-z, 0-9 and hyphen. Some interface elements not internationalized The following Synchronizer elements do not have full international language support: Event summary and detail screens Task log OS Profile Definition name and description Legacy objects created in versions 4.1 or earlier (e.g., policy names and descriptions) Calendar date selector Field validation error messages, for example, when a user enters a numeric value outside the valid range. Base key names (up, down, escape, etc.) and modifiers (Alt, Ctrl, Shift, etc.) used to define hot key sequences; these elements are localized in the Engine, but are not in Synchronizer. Field validation error messages are provided by an external widget and are not currently translatable; these widgets are being converted to localized instances and will be available at a later Synchronizer release. Problems with national characters The XenClient Enterprise solution preserves files and directories specified in OS profile definitions. The default and sample profiles are based on English file and directory names. If a non-english version of Windows is used, directory names may be in a foreign equivalent. This will prevent data from being preserved across snapback. To preserve user data across snapback, you must create a localized version of the OS profile definition User Folders. Cannot update a custom virtual machine to work with new Windows Settings policies The Grant Admin Rights feature within the Windows Settings VM policy will not work for custom VMs that were installed and run at a client Engine prior to the introduction of this feature. If this feature is required for previously assigned custom VMs, the only recourse is to unassign the VM, delete its archived history (including backups), and then reassign the VM. Ensure any user data is backed up using a backup solution independent of the Synchronizer. 6
Duration of currently running tasks may be incorrect The duration field, located in the tool tip for a running task, may be incorrect if your Web browser is running on a system that resides in a different time zone than the management server on which the task ran, or if its clock is not synchronized with the clock on the management server. Resolved Engine Issues The following XenClient Enterprise Engine issues and enhancements are provided at this release. Disabling the Dock to preserve memory usage To ensure that low memory platforms (in particular, some laptop models) have enough memory available to start their virtual machines, the Engine now disables the Dock by default. Use the Dock Control Panel in the Engine to enable it: Select the checkbox to enable the Dock. You can alternately use Synchronizer to configure the Dock using a policy: 7
Select the checkbox to enable the Dock. Non-default resolutions are not restored correctly The guest Windows Display Manager did not restore the resolution. This issue has been resolved. Resolution in mirror mode does not match When running in mirrored mode with an external monitor that has a different resolution than the internal screen, the system did not always select the best resolution. Dock navigation may not be predictable On occasion, navigating through the Dock environment could become unpredictable and would not accurately navigate to the workspace that was selected. This issue has been resolved. Disk optimization enhancement A new feature enables faster rollbacks from Staged to Current versions of a VM image deployed to the Engine. When the Staged version is installed, all files for the previous Current version are cached on the Engine. If the VM image assignment for the computer is rolled back to the Current version, then the Current version can be installed on the Engine without re-downloading files from Synchronizer. Improved policies to control Help Desk messages This release provides a new policy to control the generation of Help Desk pop-up messages. System shutdown at boot time when running on battery Previously, systems running on battery power would shut down once the system was started. This issue has been resolved. Suspending a computer prevents the touch screen from functioning On some Lenovo computers, resuming would prevent the touch screen from functioning properly. This issue has been resolved. 8
Small set of platforms would experience sporadic system freezes Previously, the Engine may have experienced freezes on some machines. This issue has been resolved. Multiple icons displayed in the Dock The dock would display multiple icons in the top navigation bar. This issue has been resolved. Certain Lenovo platforms could freeze In rare cases, some Lenovo M91 platforms would experience periodic and unrecoverable system freezes. Could not login after prolonged sleep In rare cases, the dock would prevent you from logging in when the platform recovered from an extended sleep period; restarting the Engine was the only way to recover. This issue has been resolved. Disabling monitors causes display problems Disabling monitors using the Engine Displays Control Panel or the native Windows Display Control Panel could cause problems with screen resolution. This issue has been resolved. Hot key definitions not functioning properly In the previous release, the Hot Keys Control Panel did not allow you to associate functions with hot key combinations. Current Known Engine Issues XenClient Enterprise Engine Version 4.5.1 has undergone significant testing. The following issues have been identified and will be addressed in a subsequent release. Follow Display settings for USB device If a system has a single mouse and keyboard, and the user changes the assignment of the devices from Engine to Follow the Display you may no longer be able to interact with the Engine Control Panel and Launcher to revert the change. If this happens, please plug in another set of mouse and keyboard to revert the setting to its original state. Resuming fails to reconnect to a wired network when using a USB network adapter When running in NAT mode, only the first three name servers configured in DHCP will be used to perform DNS lookups. This could pose problems for those larger networks where there are more than three name servers providing lookups for different portions of the network. There is currently no workaround for this issue; any name servers that are required for use must appear in the first three specified by DHCP. Installing local virtual machine using USB CD-ROM may fail When attaching a USB CD-ROM device, the Device Manager recognizes the device as a USB mass storage device. Use the Device Manager Control Panel to assign the device to the Engine before using it to install a local VM. 9
Assign the USB CD-ROM to the Engine before using it to install a local VM. Hibernate not supported for Windows XP virtual machines Entering hibernate mode in a Windows XP VM may result in the loss of unsaved data. At this release, hibernating a Windows XP virtual machine is not supported. Resuming fails to reconnect to a wired network when using a USB network adapter On some platforms, resuming from sleep fails to reconnect to a wired network when using a USB network adapter; rebooting the host resolves the issue. USB network adapters are not currently supported. Rapidly pressing display cycle keys may fail to update the display Rapidly pressing the display cycle hot-key (Windows-P, Fn-Display on laptops) can cause the last key pressed to be repeated. If this occurs, press any key to break the cycle of repeated keys. Citrix recommends that you allow the previous display configuration change to finish before pressing the key again. Engine fails to connect to WAPs set by policy A computer may fail to connect to a wireless network if WAP security was defined in a policy. When configuring wireless networks by policy it is necessary to choose the correct security protocol. In particular, WPA and WPA2 are considered distinct in this release of the Engine; as a result, if you configure a wireless network as WPA and the actual network is set to WPA2, the configured information will not be used. 10
Exporting images using a USB drive may fail In some cases, using a USB drive to export a virtual machine image would fail. When using a USB device for importing or exporting a VM, first assign the device to the Engine using the Device Manager Control Panel, then initiate the import or export operation. Assign the USB device, then export or import the VM. Windows 8 multi monitor limitations For Windows 8 virtual machines, only one monitor is supported and the resolution is always 1024x768; resolutions differing from this configuration may appear distorted. Enabling a disconnected monitor causes malfunctions Using the guest Windows Display Manager to enable or disable displays causes malfunctions; at this release, do not use the Windows Display Manager to enable/disable a display. Some systems with Radeon GPUs displays may not function properly On some systems with Radeon GPU displays the secondary monitor may not function properly when setting up the monitor; click OK or Revert when prompted to resolve the problem. Custom virtual machines should not be run with multiple monitors during upgrades When upgrading from 4.1 to 4.5.1, custom virtual machines with multiple attached monitors may experience display problems with the mouse. To resolve this issue, disconnect the external monitor until the latest version of PV drivers has been installed. Changes in Nvidia architecture may cause problems in systems running previous versions In an effort to support customers using nvidia Optimus technology, Citrix has taken an architectural shift in their drivers used for these graphics cards. As a result, Citrix recommends that existing users with 11
nvidia cards running prior versions of XenClient Engine test these devices with the new technology before deploying to production use. ISOs downloaded by the Windows Installer must be accompanied by a MD5 file When using the XenClient Engine Windows Installer, if you choose to download the Engine ISO from a Web server, you must also provide the MD5 file. The MD5 file is a checksum file provided by Citrix along with the ISO file; its name is the same as the ISO file, but with a.md5 extension amended to it. If the MD5 file is not present in the Web server, the installer will report the ISO as corrupt and will prevent the installation from proceeding. If you cannot provide the MD5 file, you must download the ISO to the local drive and select the installation option for a local file. A warning will then be generated but you can continue the installation without the MD5 file. External monitor sometimes blank when resuming If you suspend the system with no external monitor and then resume with an external monitor connected (for example, when resuming in a dock), Windows detects the second display device but occasionally the screen stays dark. If you encounter this, unplug the external monitor, wait until Windows detects the event (the laptop screen will refresh) and then plug the external monitor back into the dock. Change in memory allocation may prevent virtual machines from starting Memory overhead for the Engine is slightly higher. As a result, VMs previously configured to use the maximum available memory may fail to start due to insufficient memory. To resolve this issue, change the memory usage for the VM using the Memory Control Panel. USB devices may require reinsertion Some USB devices that are non-conforming to the published USB Standards may take an additional removal/insertion cycle for the VM to establish proper communication with the device. Hot swapping network devices may cause loss of connectivity The Engine does not currently support network interfaces connected through USB docks. Slow download speeds The Engine may experience very slow download speeds (measured in KB/sec instead of MB/sec). Under such conditions, verify that the network adapters on the Synchronizer do not have Large Send Offload processing enabled. Windows media player does not play with an external display Windows Media Player does not play videos when the laptop is attached to an external display. Unplug the external display to play the video, or place the monitors in mirror mode using the platform display switch hotkey Fn-F7. 12
Confirmation dialogs will not move to the external monitor If a confirmation dialog is displayed when an active display is changed or the laptop lid is closed, the dialog is not displayed on the new active display. To resolve this, move the active display back to the screen where the dialog is displayed (or open the laptop lid) and dismiss the dialog box. 13