Migrating Citrix to a New Server 1

[ryanropp]

We are currently running citrix metaframe xp 1.0 on an older windows 2000 server. I've been tasked with getting a new server and setting up citrix on the new one and doing away with the old one. The new server has win2k3, svc pack 1. We are doing nothing special with citrix. We have about 8 remote users who access one particular program and also print remotely. Being new to citrix, I'm trying to find the easiest way to install on the new server and keep my current settings? Can anyone give me any advice on where to start with this? I've never installed or configured before so any detailed help here would be much appreciated.

Thanks

 

[enigma99]

ryanropp,
Going from Windows 2000 Terminal Server environment to a Windows 2003 Terminal Server envrionment is a little different.
With a WIN2K TSE you have your TSCAL license server installed on a domain controller. This license server can hand out WIN2K TSCALS and nothing else.
With a WIN2K3 TSE you can install the TSCAL license server on any Windows 2003 server. Having said that...you will need to change your Win2k TSCAL licenses to Win2k3 TSCAL licenses.
If you have Microsoft's Software assurance on those TSCAL's it should be an easy task. Just call your vendor and have them do it for you =)
If not...then you will have to purchase new TSCAL for a Wind2k3 server.
Once you have your TSCAL's on your Win2k3 server...it will issue either Win2k or Win2k3 licenses.

Installing Citrix on that server should be pretty straight. Just follow the wizards and tell it to join an existing Citrix Farm. Once Citrix is installed, make your connection settings the same by opening up the Citrix Connection Configuration utility on your Citrix toolbar. Make sure you have the same print drivers on the second server. That way your end-users don't have any issues printing out of their applicaiton.

I guess the only thing that I could not give you any info on is the actual application you have installed.

Also, Win2k3 SP1 has some bugs with Citrix so make sure you have the latest SP's and Hotfixes on your Citrix servers.
Here is the link:

http://support.citrix.com/hotfixes.jspa?product=1&spLevels=&languages=English

Hope that helps!

 

[ryanropp]

Thanks and that is a big help and I will be sure to print this out. One question though, if I install the latest version of citrix and then tell it to join my existing farm, what happens when I remove citrix from the old server?

Thanks

 

[enigma99]

When you install Citrix(MPS 4.0)on a new server and join your existing farm(1.0 XP)...you are basically migrating to a new Citrix platform make sure you make a backup copy of your SQL, Access or Oracle datastore.

The new server will become your preferred datacollector since it has a higher rev numer than the XP 1.0 server.
I would suggest upgrading the old server to MPS 4.0 and then removing it from your 4.0 farm (it is just a cleaner procedure than having to do a dsverify server /clean to remove ghost entries on your farm). But again...you can probably just turn the server off and you should be ok.

Another thing, before you uninstall Citrix from the original server...make sure you remove that server from any publish applications that it is a member of.
If you uninstall Citrix from it and that server was the only member of that published application...the published application will be deleted from the farm.

So just some little gotchas but the migration is a WHOLE LOT better than going from 1.8 to XP...trust me.

Hope that helps!

how bout a star...?
LOL

thx

 

[ryanropp]

LOL, you got one now . How about this scenerio, leaving citrix on the server it's currently on, then redirecting the users to the new server to run the app? Is that possible? If so, how do I do it? This seems to be the easiest and less costly way of doing it if possible. As it stands, I will have to buy licenses for TS for 2003 and upgrade to the latest citrix version so if I can do the above, it would be great?

Just guessing here, would I have to do a workstation setup on the current citrix server for the software app I want to run, pointing it to the new server?

Does all of this make sense??

 

[enigma99]

So it sounds like you will hold off on moving to Win2k3 and MPS 4.0....is that correct?

If so, you want to move forward with installing a Win2k server and having it point to the existing TSCAL server and just installing the app on this server....correct?

If that is the case...then this is a fairly simply solution.

Here you go.
1. Build your server with win2k.
2. Install Citrix XP 1.0 on the server and add it to the existing farm.
3. Once the server is in the farm, install the application on the server.
4. Then do some Q/A stuff on it. Make sure the app launches ok..make sure you can connect to it via ICA...little stuff like that.
5. Once all the testing is complete, open your CMC and go to the applicaitons folder on the very top.
6. Find the application you want to load-balance and right-click---properties and go to the servers portion of it.
7. Find the new server that you just built and highlight it-then hit "Add".
8. Then you highlight the old server and then hit "Remove".
9. What this does..is that it removes the old server from the published applicaiton and it drops the new server in the mix.
10. No new configuration changes need to be made on the client side because you have the same application name and the same Citrix Farm.

Hope that helps.

 

[ryanropp]

Well since I already installed Windows 2003 and have all apps setup and ready to go with the exception of citrix and terminal server, I really would like to stay on 2003. I bet you can't put 1.0 on 2003, correct?? ..The reality is I need to go ahead and bite the bullet and spend the money to get to the latest version of everything. This is my first time doing citrix and I'm just looking for workarounds here. I'm going to upgrade and spend the money and get it working properly on 2003.

Smart move??

Thanks for the help though!!!!!

 

[ryanropp]

One other quick question, I don't need to do anything special with citrix, other than connecting a pc, opening an app and printing. What citrix product should I upgrade to with the least amount of expense???

Thanks

 

[enigma99]

I think upgrading to Win2k3 and MPS4.0 will be worth it.
More stable environment, better printing, memory and CPU optimizer...etc...etc.

There are three versions of Citrix...S,A and E.
From the looks of it, you only have 1 Citrix server with no load-balancing.
If you plan to expand the farm or add extra servers to load-balance your app (ex: more users needing access to the app, performance issues, or just to have fault tolerance) I would buy the "A" version.

This enables the Load Evaluators within Citrix. You still get Web Interface, the ability to create and launch and applicaiton. But it gives you a little more flexibility on adding more servers to the farm.

The "E" version gives you much more features like Resource Manager, Installation Manager and it might also give you Conferencing Manager (don't take my word on it...lol).

Hope that helps and g/l!

 

[ryanropp]

Thanks and that helps. I will only have 1 citrix server and will never expand, at least for 4 years. We only have 15 users now and at most, 5 are on at the same time. The server I bought will be able to handle much more. I take it that S version is the lowest one so I will probably go with that one. If more needs arise, then I will upgrade to the others on the fly.

Thanks so much for all of your help. I feel ready to conquer the install now and have 0 issues, lol..

 

[enigma99]

0 issues....WOW.. =)

G/L and may the force be with you.