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automation

Citrix XenDesktop 7 - Unattended Installation + Site join

We all need to automate things, we need to fast deploy, fast provision and stay lazy, not doing the same thing every day… So let check how we can industrialize XenDesktop 7 deployment (the easy part) and configuration (I guess the tricky part).

First to deploy XenDesktop 7 using command line is simple and very well documented [link]

Installs XenDesktop Server Options can be (see documentation for further details):

/COMPONENTS CONTROLLER, DESKTOPSTUDIO, DESKTOPDIRECTOR, LICENSESERVER, STOREFRONT

/EXCLUDE <package> excludes a package from installation

/HELP, /H, /? Shows this dialog

/NOREBOOT Suppress reboot after installation (if needed)

/PASSIVE, /QUIET Do not show UI during installation

/REMOVE Remove components (instead of installing)

/CONFIGURE_FIREWALL Configure Windows Firewall

/NOSQL Do not install SQL Server Express 2012

/NO_REMOTE_ASSISTANCE Do not install Windows Remote Assistance when installing Director

I will add a second server to my existing deployment (1 DDC, Windows 2012 XenDesktop 7) my command line to install components I need look like :

XenDesktopServerSetup.exe /COMPONENTS CONTROLLER,DESKTOPSTUDIO /PASSIVE /NOREBOOT /NOSQL /CONFIGURE_FIREWALL

The XenDesktop 7 “Framework” is now installed but the is still configuration an Site join to automate.

Using Powershell this is an easy step as well :

Add-XDController -SiteControllerAddress ddc01.metal.inc(Name of one DDC)

This command line will update the database automatically, if you do not wish to, you need to specify it :

Add-XDController -SiteControllerAddress ddc01.metal.inc -DoNotUpdateDatabaseServer

Note : if you had DesktopStudio open, to show the change on the new DDC, refreshing the mmc is not enough, you need to close and open it again.

Last thing, to remove a DDC using command line, still with PowerShell :

Remove-XDController -SiteControllerAddress ddc02.metal.inc(Name of DDC you want to remove)

This command line will update the database automatically, if you do not wish to, you need to specify it :

Remove-XDController -SiteControllerAddress ddc02.metal.inc -DoNotUpdateDatabaseServer

Note : You must execute this commend another DDC than the one you want to remove.

So to sum-up, this is very easy to automate XenDesktop DDC deployment once the first DDC is set up. The next step will be to try to automate the first DDC installation and configuration.

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