PN icons launch apps on another server

[wvgirl64]

I just built a new server (our 7th), W2K - SP3, MFXPa FR2,SP2, ICA 6.30.1050, configured the same as our other 6 servers. All the applications loaded okay.
Problem is, when users log into that server and click an icon in the program neighborhood, they are automatically taken to one of the original 6 servers to run the app.
If the user runs the app from the Program Files location, the app runs fine on the server. Why would the neighborhood take them to another server? We have load balancing running, but the new server is not busy enough to require assistance from another server.
Please help, I spent a lot of time on this server and I really don't want to have to start from scratch again!!

 

[Illuvatar]

One of the strange things I have found out through the years is that somewhere there is a kind of cache that identifies a user and where it was connected the last time. The master browser then tries to reconnect that user on that server. I found this when doing a test with two load balanced servers. When I switched of one of the two servers and reconnected a user it tried to reconnect to the switched off server. The user got a 'Server not found' error message... Great! Load balancing. After a while, the user connected to the other server. Best way to get your server running is to lower the parameters in the Loadbalancing admin of the other servers and make sure the new server is the most powerfull. Then, when it has a lot of users return the settings back to default.

 

[wvgirl64]

Okay, sounds like a plan. Can you give me a little more detail on exactly how to modify the parameters on the other servers? I believe we have selected the pre-loaded "advanced" option on all the servers currently.
Thanks for your reply

 

[Illuvatar]

In the Management Console go to Load Evaluators. Double click on your Farm name and make sure that the Application User Load is in the Assigned Rules list. Lower the value of the users.

 

[wvgirl64]

I have created a new load evaluator that only includes the number of server users, set to 100 max. I have set the new server to use that evaluator. When I look at my farm the load shows #7 (the new server) to be low:
H:\>query farm /load

Server Name Server Load
-------------------- ------------
CITRIXSERV01 1410
CITRIXSERV02 2671
CITRIXSERV03 1635
CITRIXSERV04 1500
CITRIXSERV05 2221
CITRIXSERV06 1400
CITRIXSERV07 700

However, when I launch apps from the program neighborhood on that server, the apps still run from another server.

 

[SeanFlynn]

Please forgive my confustion, but could you clear up this quote from your original post:

****
Problem is, when users log into that server and click an icon in the program neighborhood,
****

Are the users connecting to a server desktop, then launching a published app from there?

If this is not the case, then I'm sorry. That's the way I read it.

If that is the case, why run a published app from a server desktop? Why not just launch the published app from PN on the client workstation? If the client is a thin client device, you could use PN passthrough.

I'm not knocking the way it's running, just trying to get an idea of the setup.

John

 

[wvgirl64]

It's ok John, I appreciate all comments and sugg. What we do is:
User launches a published desktop connection from their thin client (Capio terminal). They connect to one of the 7 servers. Then they open prog. neighborhood and launch their apps. If they connect first to server #7, this is when the problems ensue. What I have done so far is to set up the test load evaluator, which only looks at number of users on server and then set that on each application as well for that server. So far, it seems to be helping, although the credentials still come up when the app is launched (like you are logging into another server) although CMC shows the app is running on the current server. ??

 

[SeanFlynn]

Does Server7 show up in the properties of the published app that you are launching? If all the apps are load balanced, is the new server added into the configured servers of the published app?

John

 

[wvgirl64]

Yup. It's like Ragu. It's in there.

 

[SeanFlynn]

Are any apps launching from Server 7? Create a new published app, like notepad or something like that, and only publish it on Server7. Launch the app from 7, and other servers, and see if you can launch it. If it launches, expand it to include another server so it's load balanced and have a couple of people launch it and check the distribution of that app.

John

 

[wvgirl64]

After I changed the load evaluator on 7 yesterday, apps were launching from 7, but the credentials would still pop up as though trying another server. This morning it appears that users on 7 are launching apps from other servers again. The server is allowing users to log into it just fine, but it won't let them run the apps from there.
How can I force users who log into that server to stay on that server?