Test Citrix Summary Database Connection

1. Logon to Citrix server
2. Go to Start > All Programs > Administrative Tools > Data Source (ODBC)
3. ODBC Data Source Administrator dialog box appears, select System DSN.
4. Select rmsummarydatabse and click on Configure button.
5. It prompted a dialog box, verify the configuration; Name: rmsummarydatabase, Description: rmsummarydatabase and Server: XXXXXX. Press Next
6. Ensure selection box "With SQL Server authentication using a login ID and password entered by the user" selected. Also, tick box "Connect to SQL Server to obtain default settings for additional configuration options" is ticked. Press Next. 
7. Tick checkbox "Change the default database to", select CTXSummaryDB. Press Next.
8. Press Finish.
9. Select Test Data Source button to test the connection to Citrix Summary database. You should be prompted with TESTS COMPLETED SUCCESSFULLY!. Press OK.
10. Press OK.

Extend disk partition of Non System drives using Diskpart.

Disk extension can be done only, if we have an unallocated space is available next to the drive. Please see the below screenshot.

Then Go to Command prompt, and follow the steps mentioned in the below screenshot.

Now, the drive has been extended to 13.67 GB from 11.71 GB. This is for non system drives.

7 Ways To Speed Up Citrix Logons

In each of the GPOs that are applied to your servers and users, both User and Computer processing is enabled by default. Disabling unused parts of a GPO can save some time off both logons and server booting. You can do this in the GPO properties. Just bring up the GPO in Group Policy Management Editor, right-click the policy name, and click Properties.

If you have a GPO that only has User settings, disable Computer Configuration settings. If you have a GPO that only has user settings, disable User Configuration settings. When your Citrix servers are busy, having only the necessary parts of your GPOs enabled for processing could make a big difference.

2. Redirect user profile folders

Create a GPO for folder redirection and load it up in the Group Policy Management Editor. Look under User Configuration > Policies > Windows Settings > Folder Redirection. You’ll see a list of folders that can be redirected.

Right-click the folder to redirect, then select “Basic – Redirect everyone’s folder to the same location.” Under Target folder location, select “Create af older for each user under the root path” and specify the UNC to your repository for storing redirected user folders. It is not necessary to specify a username variable as Windows will add that automatically. Also, there is no need to add a trailing backslash.

Repeat for each folder you wish to redirect. If you redirect AppData, be sure to test all of your applications with the redirection. Some applications (Outlook 2007 for example) will ignore AppData redirection and will just store user settings locally. It is definitely worth testing AppData redirection because if you can move it out of the user’s profile, it will dramatically improve logon times.

3. Reduce the number of User GPOs processed

Consolidate as many User GPOs as possible. If you have several GPOs to control application settings, see if you can consolidate them into one. The fewer GPOs that have to be processed at logon, the faster the logon process will be.

4. Use asynchronous group policy processing

Asynchronous group policy processing simply processes multiple User GPOs simultaneously instead of waiting for one to finish before starting the next. Some third-party products like AppSense have incorporated this approach to speed up logon times. In Windows Server 2008 and later, asynchronous group policy processing is enabled by default.

5. Adjust visual effects preferences via GPO

Many of the bells and whistles can be disabled in your user sessions in one fell swoop. In one of your user GPOs, browse to User > Preferences > Windows Settings > Registry.

Right-click Registry, click New, then click Registry Item.

Create the registry item with the following data:

Hive: HKCU
Key Path: Control Panel\Desktop
Value Name: UserPreferencesMask
Value Type: Reg_Binary
Value Data: 9012018010000000

This registry key-value will turn off all visual effects (except for font-smoothing) and animations.

6. Disable font smoothing on the Web Interface

Some users don’t like the font-smoothing effect provided by Windows Server 2008 and Web Interface. Others like it or just don’t notice it. But one thing is certain: ClearType font-smoothing generates three time the network traffic and can negatively impact a user’s experience.

Turning off font-smoothing globally or on a per-user basis is quick and easy. Click here for the instructions from Citrix eDocs. Note that font-smoothing only occurs in ICA sessions when the user is using the Online Plugin/Receiver Enterprise client.

7. Remove all unnecessary printer mappings from users’ workstations and sessions.

It’s not an option in all environments, but if you can swing this, it can make a big difference in logon times. Even though Citrix will not, by default, wait for printers to be created before starting a published application, the mapping still occurs in the background during the logon process and can slow things down.

And if you’re really hardcore when it comes to optimizing logon times, you can just force everyone to use the Citrix Universal Printer and disallow all printer mappings!

To Speed Up Your Windows 7 Boot Time by 20%

Here is a very simple way to reduce the time it takes to boot Windows 7 by around 20% (the exact number depends on the hardware).

The simple graphical animation Windows 7 displays while booting to the logon screen slows down the startup process by several seconds! By disabling this effect we gain roughly 20% in boot speed. There are two ways to configure this.

Using a GUI

Run MSConfig.exe and check the box in front of “No GUI boot”:

From the Command Line

Issue the following command in an elevated command prompt:

bcdedit /set quietboot on

Creating DFS Share

1. Go to the concerned server
2. Create a folder with the naming convention in the group shares folder
3. Share the folder by giving change permissions to authenticated users and delete the Everyone.
4. Then click caching and  select "files or programs from the share will not be available offline".
5. Go to dsa.msc and go to sites. Then go to the concerned location of the server and click groups
6. Create a functional group with the name FGXXXXX under the Functional Security groups. XXXX will be the group name.
7. Click group and then properties and add the description Functional group XXXXXX.

8. Go to share security groups and create the following groups

     a)DSXXXXXXX-C and select option Domain and security.
     b)DSXXXXXXX-R and select option Domain and security.
     c)GSXXXXXXX-c and selection option Global and security.
     d)GSXXXXXXX-R and selection option Global and security.

9)  Go to Functional group and under the "Member of" add the above GS groups. Based on the request i.e. user needs Read or Write. If write add GSXXX-C and if Read add GSXXX-R.
10) Go to GS groups and under the Member of add the DS group. Ex. Under GSXXX-C add DSXXX-C and under GSXXX_R add DSXXX-R.
11.Go to share folder and properties add DS groups. For DSXXXXXXX-C give modify permisison (As per user permission. Here user requested for write permission)
12) Go to DFS Mgmt and under the folder, create a folder Y and click add. Mention the server name and click shared folders and add the folder name.
13) Access the DFS path if its working or not.

Citrix Commands

Command	Description
acrcfg	Configure auto-reconnect settings.
altaddr	Specify server alternate IP address.
app	Run application execution shell.
Apputil	Add servers to configured Servers list for published applciations
auditlog	Generate server logon/logoff reports.
change client	Change client device mapping.
Change Client	Changes client mapping settings
Change port	Changes com port mappings
Change User	Install/execute/query mode.
chfarm	Change the server farm membership of the server, create an additional farm, and configure a replacement data store.
ctxkeytool	Generate farm key for IMA encryption.
ctxxmlss	Change the Citrix XML Service port number.
dscheck	Validate the integrity of the server farm data store.
dsmaint	Maintain the server farm’s data store.
Driveremap	Remap the server’s drive letters
Dsverify	Clean errors in the farm’s data store
enablelb	Enable load balancing for servers that fail health monitoring tests.
icaport	Configure TCP/IP port number used by the ICA protocol on the server.
imaport	Change IMA ports.
migratetosqlexpress	Migrate the server farm’s data store from a Microsoft Access database to a SQL Server Express database.
Mlicense	Add multiple MetaFrame licenses to the Server farm’s data store
twconfig	Configure ICA display settings.
Clicense	Maintain Citrix licenses
Clrprint	Set the number of ICA client printer pipes
query	View information about server farms, processes, ICA sessions, and users.
Query farm	Shows the server name, protocol and ip address
Query farm /app	Show the published applications
Query farm /disc	Shows the disconnected session data for the server farm
Query farm /load	Displays server load information
Query User	Displays the current connections
Querydc	Us this utility to determine the data collector for a given zone
Queryds	Command line utility is provided to query the current information on the local zone data collector
Queryhr	Use this utility to display information about member servers in the farm.

Active Directory

LDAP:

LDAP is the directory service protocol that is used to query and update AD.

LDAP naming paths are used to access AD objects and include the following:

Ø  Distinguished names

Ø  Relative Distinguished names

Distinguished name gives the complete path of the object.

E.g. CN=Rama Raju,OU=India,DC=Microsoft,DC=com

Relative Distinguished name is the portion of the distinguished name that uniquely defines the object.

E.g. CN=Rama Raju

Physical and Logical Componets of AD:

Logical components: Domains, OU, Trees & Forest


Physical Components: Domain Controllers & Sites

Tombstone Objects:

The tombstone lifetime in an Active Directory forest determines how long a deleted object - aka a ‘tombstone’ - is retained in Active Directory. The tombstone lifetime is determined by the value of the tombstoneLifetime attribute on the Directory Service object in the configuration directory partition.


Tombstone Lifetime assists in removing objects from replicated servers and preventing restores from reintroducing a deleted object. Actually when an object is deleted from Active Directory, it is not physically removed from the Active Directory for some days. Instead, the Active Directory sets the ‘isDeleted’ attribute of the deleted object to TRUE and move it to a special container called ‘Tombstone’.

• The default Tombstone Life time period is 60 days in Windows Server 2003 
• But the default Tombstone Lifetime period has been changed in Windows Server 2003 SP1and later to 180 days.

The tombstone lifetime attribute remains same on all the domain controllers and it is deleted from all the servers at the same time. This is because the expiration of a tombstone lifetime is based on the time when an object was deleted logically from the Active Directory, rather than the time when it is received as a tombstone on a server through replication.