9. Rapid Server Deployment

Rapid deployment of MetaFrame Servers gives you the following benefits.

       The ability to deploy a MetaFrame server in minutes rather than hours

       The ability to guarantee consistency amongst MetaFrame servers

You can accomplish this through server cloning or scripted unattended installations as documented below.

Note: With the release of MetaFrame XP with Feature Release 2, Citrix has switched the installation application a Microsoft Installer package that gives us the ability to create .mst files for rapid deployment. I will be documenting this for the next release.

9. 1.        How to Clone a Citrix MetaFrame XP Server

If you will be utilizing server cloning for rapid deployment of MetaFrame servers and for disaster recovery purposes then you will want to follow the following procedures.

Now that you completed the installation of the first server and with the procedures documented from the first server build, you completed the second server. You are now ready to take advantage of the benefits of MetaFrame XPs support for cloning technologies.

Note: Cloning a MetaFrame server that is acting as the host server for the Microsoft Access data store server is not supported.

For future growth, ease of server deployment and disaster recovery purposes, it is desirable that you use system-imaging utilities to clone MetaFrame XP servers. (Ghost, DriveImage) A few manual steps are required for cloning MetaFrame XP servers. Please be very careful and make sure you complete every step and double checking your work is advisable. If you forget to change the server DSN file, you run the risk of corrupting the IMA data store and that could cause farm wide issues.

Microsoft Sysprep v1.1

In order to successfully clone a Microsoft Windows Server it is required to utilize Windows 2000 System Preparation Utility (sysprep)

The sysprep utility can be downloaded from: http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/downloads/tools/sysprep/license.asp

Sysprep is a simple utility that prepares a Windows 2000 machine for the following:

        Disk duplication Sysprep allows you to copy fully installed systems when the hardware is similar. It modifies the local computer security identifier (SID) so that it is unique to each computer.

        Automating Mini-Setup Sysprep creates a shortened GUI-mode setup that takes 3 to 10 minutes instead of 20 to 30 minutes and prompts the end user only for required and user-specific information, such as accepting the Microsoft license agreement, computer name, domain properties and TCP/IP addresses.

Conditions of Sysprep with the current version of Windows 2000

       Sysprep runs only if the computer is a member of a workgroup, not a domain.

       You can run additional programs at the end of Mini-Setup by providing a Cmdlines.txt in your Sysprep folder.

For more information on the Microsoft Sysprep utility, please refer to Microsofts Windows 2000 Deployment Planning Guide: http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/reskit/dpg/default.asp.

Note: Sysprep has been known to take a while to finish and you system might appear to be hung but is not.

9. 1. 1 Steps required to clone a MetaFrame XP Server

Note: The following procedures do NOT work on MetaFrame servers with their drives remapped. This is just another reason why I do not recommend remapping drives.

The following defines how to clone a Citrix MetaFrame Server.

1.      Install and configure the MetaFrame XP server as discribed in the installation procedures in this document.

2.      Install any image applications.

3.      Create a new folder off the root of the boot drive called sysprep. i.e., c:\sysprep.

4.      Download and extract the Sysprep utility to a temp folder when finish copy sysprep.exe and setupcl.exe to c:\sysprep.

5.      Remove the server from the domain and reboot when prompted.

6.      Empty all the event logs, recycle bin and clear documents and settings.

7.      Delete the Wfcname.ini file from the root drive of the server, if it exists.

8.      Edit the Mf20.dsn file with Notepad or another text editor. By default, the DSN file is located in the %ProgramFiles%\Citrix\Independent Management Architecture folder.

For a Microsoft SQL Server installation, the DSN file should look similar to this:

[ODBC]

DRIVER= SQL Server

UID= SQL_USERNAME

DATABASE= NAME_OF_DATABASE

WSID= NAME_OF_ MF_SERVER

APP= Citrix IMA

SERVER= NAME_OF_SQL_SERVER

Remove the following line:

WSID= NAME_OF_MF_SERVER.

The DSN now looks like this:

[ODBC]

DRIVER=SQL Server

UID=SQL_USERNAME

DATABASE=NAME_OF_DATABASE

APP=Citrix IMA

SERVER=NAME_OF_SQL_SERVER

9.      Save the changes to the DSN file.

10. Stop the IMA service and set the startup option to Manual.

11. Run sysprep.exe from c:\sysprep and follow on screen instructions.

12. Take the image of the server.

13. Deploy the image obtained in Step 10. and follow the Windows 2000 mini setup wizzard to install the image.

14. Login as administator

15. Open the %ProgramFiles%\Citrix\Independent Management Architecture\MF20.dsn file and add the following line: WSID= NAME_OF_NEW_MF_SERVER to create a dsn follow similar to the following:

[ODBC]

DRIVER= SQL Server

UID= SQL_USERNAME

DATABASE= NAME_OF_DATABASE

WSID= NAME_OF_ NEW_MF_SERVER

APP= Citrix IMA

SERVER= NAME_OF_SQL_SERVER

16. If Resource Management is installed then you will need to recreate the RMLocalDatabase. To recreate the RMLocalDatabase:

         Delete C:\%Program Files%\Citrix\Citrix Resource Manager\LocalDB\RMLocalDatabase.*

         Open the ODBC Data Source Administrator. Click Start click Settings click Control Panel click Administrative Tools click Data Sources (ODBC)

         Select the System DSN tab in the ODBC Data Source Administrator dialog box select RMLocalDatabase from the list Click Create.

         Enter C:\%Program Files%\Citrix\Citrix Resource Manager\LocalDB\RMLocalDatabase.mdb in the database name box.

         Click OK in each dialog box to exit the ODBC Data Source Administrator and then close the Control Panel when finished.

17. Execute regedit.exe on each server and make the following changes:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Citrix\IMA]
"ServerHost"="new_server_name"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Citrix\IMA\RUNTIME]
"PSRequired"=dword:00000001
"HostName"="new_server_name"
where "new_server_name" is the current computer name of each new MetaFrame XP server.

18. Search the registry on each new server. Replace any occurrence of the old server name with the new server name.

19. If NFuse is installed on the new MetaFrame XP servers, the %SystemRoot%\java\trustlib\nfuse.properties file will require modification. Change the SessionField.NFuse_CitrixServer setting to be localhost instead of the old_computer_name.

20. Change the hostname in %SystemDrive%\Inetpub\wwwroot\Citrix\PNAgent\config.xml

21. Manually start the IMA service and set the service to start automatically.

22. Verify that the server was successfully added to the farm by executing qfarm at a command prompt on any server in the farm. The newly imaged server should appear in the list of servers.

9. 1. 2 Workarounds for Cloning MetaFrame Servers with Remapped Drives

If you will be cloning a MetaFrame server and you will be using Symantecs Ghost to create an image of a server computer that is running MetaFrame on Windows 2000 then you will need to follow the following procedures.

The following article was pulled from Symantecs knowledgebase. For more information, please visit: hthttp://service2.symantec.com/SUPPORT/ghost.nsf/docid/2001011211335625

Situation:
You want to clone a terminal server. That is, you want to use Ghost to create an image of a server computer that is running a terminal services program such as Citrix Metaframe or Windows 2000 Terminal Services. You want to know whether Ghost can clone a terminal server.

Solution:
Ghost does not support the cloning of terminal servers. However, Symantec Ghost 7.5 does support the use of Microsoft's Terminal Server for remotely controlling the Ghost Console.

Cloning terminal servers
Symantec does not provide technical support for cloning terminal servers. Symantec provides the following information as a suggestion only. The following suggestions have not been tested and might not work:

In some cases Ghost can successfully clone a terminal server, but the destination computer cannot restart after cloning because Windows changed the drive letters. This problem is likely to happen when you reassigned the drive letters on the source computer in the process of configuring the terminal server program.

Using Ghost's SZEE and -FDSP switches might prevent Windows from changing the drive letters after cloning; however, some terminal server services might not function.

Here is an example of a Ghost command-line that uses the SZEE and -FDSP switches:

ghost.exe -fdsp -clone,mode=load,src=g:\2prtdisk.gho,dst=1,szee


Using terminal services to run the Ghost Console
Symantec Ghost 7.5 supports Microsoft Terminal Server. You can use Microsoft Terminal Server to remotely control the Ghost Console.

Note that you cannot use Terminal Server to remotely control the Ghost Client. Only the Ghost Console can send Tasks to the Ghost Client.

In earlier Ghost versions, using Terminal Services to log in to the Ghost Console does not work. To remotely control the Ghost Console, use a remote control program, such as Symantec pcAnywhere.

9. 2.        Windows 2000 Unattended Install For Thin Client Servers

The Unattended install process consists of two Major Sections:

       Hardware Configuration

       Unattended Windows 2000 Setup and Configuration

Note: Unattended installations are specific to every server and environment.

9. 2. 1 Hardware Configuration

Hardware Configuration is the first step of the unattended install. Unlike other types of unattended installs, this install is not hardware dependent. But if the equipment is not fully supported by a standard Windows 2000 install you may need to add various drivers to the unattended install source files and unattended.txt file. There are also multiple ways to configure the hardware for unattended installs.

        Option 1. Standard Hardware Configuration Tools Use IBMs ServerGuide CD, Compaq SmartStart or similar tools based on the hardware vendor to configure the hardware to the point where it asks for the Operating System Setup Disks or CD.

        Option 2. Automated Hardware Configuration Tools Such as IBMs Automated Update and Configuration CD, these tools are used to replicate the hardwares configuration onto multiple machines of the same type.

Standard Thin Client Server Configuration:

Four HDDs in two RAID1 arrays with High Rebuild Priority. Two 10/100 Ethernet adapters

9. 2. 2 Unattended Windows 2000 Setup and Configuration

The Unattended Windows 2000 setup is the core of any type of unattended server installation used no matter what hardware configuration options are selected. This phase focuses on Three Main Parts:

1.       The Unattend.txt File

2.       The Distribution Directory Structure.

3.       The Post Install Commands.

Each part is critical in the process of the unattended install and configuration, you must use caution in modifying any of these parts.

Unattended.txt File

Also referred to as the answer file, this is the core component of the Windows 2000 Unattended Install. This file is used to answer all of the questions that you would normally see during a regular installation. Multiple configurations of this file can be maintained for different server configurations. It is not required to name this file unattend.txt but its name must not be greater than the DOS name limitation of 8.3 characters.

The Answer file contains many sections and options that can be changed. The definitions of each section, sub-section and value can be found later on in this section. For this document, we will focus on the main sections that would possibly be modified in the Thin Client Server Configuration. This is a sample of this file: