XenClient Enterprise Release Notes Version 4.1 June 25, 2012 XenClient Enterprise Synchronizer Version 4.1 XenClient Enterprise Engine Version 4.1 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 Version 4.1; this release version is suitable for deployments in production environments without significant restrictions. These Release Notes provide information about resolved and known issues in this release of XenClient Enterprise. Resolved Issues The following XenClient Enterprise Synchronizer issue was identified in a previous release and has been resolved at this release. Active Directory updates would cause loss of virtual machines when a user s group membership changed When a user received a virtual machine assignment through a group, and the user was removed from the group, and auto reconciliation was used, the VM would automatically be unassigned from the user; any data not backed up would be lost. This issue has been resolved. Simplified Active Directory Integration This release provides a number of enhancements to the Active Directory (AD) implementation. These changes were designed to simplify AD integration by providing the ability to directly browse the AD hierarchy and integrate the entire domain, selected Organizational Units (OUs), or individual users. For more information, refer to the XenClient Enterprise 4.1 Feature List. Improved management interface The Synchronizer management interface was improved at this release. These improvements include the ability to search or apply persistent filters to users, groups, and computers, and the capability to save persistent filters by the Administrator. For more information, refer to the XenClient Enterprise 4.1 Feature List. 2
The following XenClient Enterprise Engine issues were identified in a previous release and have been resolved at this release. Improved sound architecture performance This release includes updates to the sound architecture used by the XenClient Enterprise Engine; these include improvements to analog, built-in microphones and USB audio devices. LCD display appeared blank on some platforms On some new Hewlett Packard Ivy Bridge-based laptops with pre-production BIOS, booting or rebooting with the lid closed could possibly result in a black screen when the lid was opened. This issue has been resolved. Network could become unavailable after pausing a VM If the user changed networks (i.e., moved from wired to wireless, or between access points) while the guest VM was paused, the IP address would not refresh upon resume. This issue has been resolved. Monitor plug and play could fail upon resume In some situations, adding an external monitor, or changing its configuration while the machine was suspended could prevent the monitor from appearing after resuming. This issue has been resolved. Current Known Issues Version 4.1 has undergone significant testing. The following issues have been identified and will be addressed in a subsequent release. These issues are organized by functional area. XenClient Enterprise Synchronizer The following Synchronizer issues have been identified at this release. Browser security warning when navigating to a user Internet Explorer (IE) Version 8 displays a Security Warning stating "Do you want to view only the webpage content that was delivered securely?" the first time an object is navigated to; click NO in the warning dialog box. This warning will only be displayed once per session. This warning is not displayed in IE 9. Navigation tree displays unexpected entries If you encounter unexpected entries in the navigation tree, or entries displayed under the wrong folder, try refreshing the accordion in the navigation tree. This should refresh the view and correct any problems with the display. 3
Console display may be abnormal In some situations, the Synchronizer Console may exhibit abnormal display behavior, including color schema changes, or a VM console that fails to appear. To resolve these situations, clear your Web browser cache then refresh the browser (F5). 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. Synchronizer Console memory leak Normal use of the Synchronizer console can result in excessive memory use. Refresh the console application (browser refresh) or restart your browser to free up memory; to monitor memory usage, use the Windows Task Manager. 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. Modifications to the device black list file do not persist on upgrade If the DeviceBlackList.csv file found in the server's conf directory has been modified, changes to the file must be restored after upgrade. These changes can be found in a backup of the conf directory named conf.bakn; use the most recent backup folder. 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. XenClient Enterprise Engine The following Engine issues have been identified at this release. 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 nvidia cards running prior versions of XenClient Engine test these devices with the new technology before deploying to production use. 4
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. Resizing the disk does not prompt the user to shutdown When resizing the U: or L: disks for a user s VM, if the VM is running when the resize is issued the user receives no indication that the VM should be shutdown to perform the resize operation. The resize will occur the next time the VM is shutdown. 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 occasionally knows there is a second monitor but 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. Engine upgrade fails to prompt for reboot Upgrading an Engine fails to provide a pop-up window instructing you to reboot the platform. As a result, the user will not know if a upgrade occurred; use the Activity Center Control Panel to determine if an upgrade occurred: 1. In the Tools by Name Control Panel, select Activity Center: 5
2. In the Activity Center Control Panel, view the Activities in Progress portion of the Current Activities tab to determine if a Engine upgrade occurred. 3. If an upgrade occurred, reboot the platform to load the latest version of the Engine. Upgrading from 3.1.5 to 4.1 Upgrading Engine from version 3.1.5 to version 4.1 may cause problems with audio and screen resolution until the latest PV drivers (version 4.1) are republished. Use the following procedure to avoid upgrade problems: 1. Upgrade the Synchronizer. 2. Publish staged virtual machines. 3. Push Engine upgrades to registered clients. 4. Move users to the staged VM versions. 5. After all Engines are upgraded, make the staged version the default. Certain Lenovo platforms may freeze In rare cases, some Lenovo M91 platforms may experience periodic and unrecoverable system freezes. To resolve this issue, in the platform BIOS change the value of the Max C-State range; available options include: C1 C1C3 C1C3C6 (platform default) Change the platform BIOS Max C-State range to C1. Cannot navigate to pictures on iphone In Windows 7 VMs, images in the DCIM folder are not displayed. 6
Cycling the display continuously displays Connect When the Chrome Browser is running in Connect, cycling the display mode continuously displays the Chrome Browser. Cannot login after prolonged sleep In rare cases, Connect may prevent you from logging in when the platform recovers from an extended sleep period. To resolve this situation, restart the Engine. 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. Connect navigation may not be predictable On occasion, Connect navigation may not predictably navigate to the workspace that was selected. This may occur when multiple VMs are running simultaneously. To resolve this, restart Connect. Small set of platforms may experience sporadic system freezes The Engine has experienced freezes on some machines. Citrix is investigating the cause with the highest priority. If you experience these problems, please contact Citrix immediately. 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. Connect does not fully support dual monitors Connect does not have dual monitor support. Maximizing an application may cause it to incorrectly span both monitors. To avoid issues when using dual monitors with Connect, do not maximize applications. The secondary display is always located on the right. 7
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. Upgrading to XenClient Enterprise Version 4.1 The following sequence is recommended when upgrading existing installations to Version 4.1. This release requires upgrades to the same version of XenClient Enterprise Engine (4.1) and XenClient Enterprise Synchronizer (4.1); this interdependency is critical to ensure that audio works properly. After upgrading to the same version, republish all Virtual Machines. Compatibility Considerations Before upgrading, consider the following: NxTop Center NxTop Center NxTop Center Synchronizer 3.0 3.1 4.0 4.1 Engine 3.0 X X 3.1 * * 4.0 X** * 4.1 X * * ** = no audio support, possible conflicts with other devices; not recommended, Citrix recommends a stepped upgrade * = no audio, must republish the VM Download the Latest Version The latest version of XenClient Enterprise is available on the My Citrix Website. This site provides access to the Engine, the Synchronizer, and the latest PV drivers in bundled ISO installation packages. Upgrade the Synchronizer When upgrading the Synchronizer, consider the following: Upgrades to Version 4.1 of the Synchronizer are supported if the installed version is NxTop Center version 3.0 or greater. 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 the 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. 8
To upgrade the Synchronizer: 1. First upgrade the central server to Version 4.1 before installing remote servers. Remote Servers and central servers must all be at the same version (i.e. all servers must be Version 4.1). 2. Upgrade or install Version 4.1 on all remote servers. Upgrade the Engine When upgrading an Engine, consider the following: First, ensure that current VM backups are on the Synchronizer for any computer being upgraded. Upgrades to Version 4.1 can be centrally administered via the 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 the Synchronizer Online Help for more information. Publish Virtual Machines After upgrading the Synchronizer and all Engines have been upgraded, you can publish so all virtual machines have the latest versions. When publishing, consider the following: Once the Synchronizer is upgraded and computers have been upgraded to XenClient Engine Version 4.1, all virtual machines should be re-published to pick up the latest Para-virtual Drivers (PV). This is necessary for proper operation. Before republishing, you may want to apply outstanding Windows patches and make any outstanding enhancements to the virtual machine. For custom virtual machines you must manually reinstall PV drivers. For more information, refer to the Getting Started topics in the online Help. If your environment uses a mixture of Engine versions 3.1/4.0, include some of these in the staged group to verify success, or to identify problems, in the upgrade process. This may also be a good time to use the version delete feature to rollup old version differencing disks off of your virtual machines. This will reduce the size of the virtual machines transferred to newly provisioned users. 9