Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 7 2402 LTSR
About the release
The Long Term Service Release (LTSR) program for Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops provides stability and long-term support for Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops releases.
LTSRs are also available for Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 2203 and 1912.
This Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops release includes new versions of the Windows Virtual Delivery Agents (VDAs) and new versions of several core components. You can:
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Install or upgrade a site: Use the ISO for this release to install or upgrade core components and VDAs. Installing or upgrading to the latest version allows you to use the latest features.
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Install or upgrade VDAs in an existing site: If you already have a deployment and aren’t ready to upgrade your core components, you can still use several of the latest HDX features by installing (or upgrading to) a new VDA. Upgrading only the VDAs can be helpful when you want to test enhancements in a non-production environment.
After upgrading your VDAs to this version, you do not need to update the machine catalog’s functional level. For more information, see VDA versions and functional levels.
For installation and upgrade instructions:
- If you are building a new site, follow the sequence in Install and configure.
- If you are upgrading a site, see Upgrade a deployment.
Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 7 2402 LTSR
Secure HDX (Preview)
You can now use Secure HDX, which is an Application Level Encryption (ALE) solution that prevents any network elements in the traffic path from being able to inspect the HDX traffic. For more information, see Secure HDX.
New HDX Graphics policy - Allow Windows screen lock
With the new Allow Windows screen lock policy in HDX Graphics, you now have the option to modify Windows display timeouts in a Citrix Virtual Desktop session on Workstation OS as per your requirement. For more information, see Allow Windows screen lock.
New loss tolerant mode for audio policy
Loss tolerant mode for audio is now available to allow audio delivery through the loss tolerant mode policy. For more information, see Loss tolerant mode for audio.
Signed third-party binaries
Binaries distributed by Citrix are now signed. Signed binaries indicate that they are validated by either Citrix-generated certificates or authentic third-party certificates. For more information, see Install VDAs.
Enhanced system logs for browser content redirection
With the enhancements to the system logs, browser content redirection now allows admins to monitor the feature status. For more information, see How to troubleshoot browser content redirection.
Enhanced bidirectional content redirection configuration
Previously, configuring bidirectional content redirection involved managing three distinct policies: Allow bidirectional content redirection, Allow redirection of URLs to VDA, and Allow redirection of URLs to the Client. These policies require configurations on both the server side and the client side (configured through Group Policies). Starting with this release, we have consolidated all three policies into a single, unified policy. It not only simplifies and enhances the configuration process but also eliminates the requirement for client-side configurations. For more information, see Bidirectional content redirection configuration.
HDX Reducer
You can now configure the version of the HDX compression algorithm, or Reducer, that you want to use in the session host. For more information, see HDX Reducer.
New HDX registry setting for configuring EDT timeout
You now have the option to configure EDT timeout by setting the registry. For more information, see Configure EDT timeout.
Microsoft Teams Optimization - allow-listed registry entry
Starting with Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 2402, you no longer need to manually configure the msedgewebview2.exe
registry entry as it is now allow-listed by default.
For more information, see the Microsoft documentation.
Virtual channel allow list support for environment variables
You can now use system environment variables in the path of trusted processes. For more information, see Using system environment variables.
Citrix Secure Private Access for on-premises
Secure Private Access for on-premises and support for ZTNA and other enhancements
Citrix Secure Private Access on-premises solution enhances an organization’s overall security and compliance posture with the ability to easily deliver zero-trust access to browser-based apps (internal web and SaaS apps) using the StoreFront on-premises portal as a unified access portal to web and SaaS apps, along with virtual apps and desktops as an integrated part of Citrix Workspace. Citrix Secure Private Access on-premises is a customer-managed Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) solution that provides VPN less access to Internal web and SaaS applications with the following along with a seamless end-user experience:
- Least privilege principle
- Single sign-on (SSO)
- Multifactor authentication
- Device posture assessment
- Application-level security controls
- App protection features
For more information, see Citrix Secure Private Access for on-premises – General Availability.
Virtual Delivery Agents (VDAs) 2402 LTSR
Option to install, upgrade, or uninstall Citrix Workspace App during VDA installation, upgrade, or uninstallation
This feature allows you to choose to install, upgrade, or uninstall the Citrix Workspace App during a VDA installation, upgrade, or uninstallation in the following scenarios:
- During a VDA installation, you can choose to install the Citrix Workspace App. By default, Citrix Workspace App is not installed during the VDA installation.
- During a VDA upgrade, if Citrix Workspace App is not already installed in the VDA, you can choose to install Citrix Workspace App.
- During a VDA upgrade, if the version of Citrix Workspace App can be upgraded, then the option to upgrade Citrix Workspace App is displayed.
- During a VDA uninstallation, you can choose to not uninstall the Citrix Workspace App. By default, the Citrix Workspace App is uninstalled during the VDA uninstallation. For more information, see Select the components to install and the installation location and Command-line options for installing a VDA
WebSocket support for VDAs
Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops now allow you to use WebSocket technology over the Citrix Brokering Protocol (CBP) to facilitate communication between VDAs and Delivery Controllers. This feature requires only the TLS port 443 for communication from the VDA to the Delivery Controller.
For more information, see WebSocket communication between VDA and Delivery Controller.
Support VDA Updates from a local file share that VDAs have access (Preview)
You can now support VDA updates from a local file share and specify the VDA installer location through PowerShell commands. For more information, see Support VDA updates from Local File Share.
Web Studio
Support for provisioning VMware VMs using machine profiles
When provisioning VMware VMs using the Machine Creation Service (MCS), you can now select an existing template as the machine profile, letting the VMs within the catalog inherit settings from the selected template.
The inherited settings include:
- Tags placed on the template
- Custom attributes
- vSAN Storage policies
- Virtual hardware version
- vSphere Virtual TPM (vTPM)
- CPU count and core per socket
- NIC count
For more information, see Creating machine catalogs.
Managing prepared images with the Images node
An Images node is now available in Web Studio, letting you prepare an MCS image (prepared image) from a single source image and deploy it across various MCS machine catalogs. This node facilitates complete image lifecycle management, enabling you to create image definitions, versions, and catalogs.
Images prepared using this node can only be used in Azure and VMware environments. For detailed information on image management, see Image management (Preview).
Alternatively, you can also create catalogs with prepared images using the Machine Catalogs node. For more information, see Creating machine catalogs.
Policies related
New policy validations. Additional policy validations are added. As a result, enabling policies or doing an in-place upgrade might lead to loss of policy data if invalid policy settings are present. If you create or edit the policies using a method other than Web Studio, Citrix recommends you use the latest version of the SDK and snap-in. For more information, see CTX676686.
Deprecated features
The following features and settings have been deprecated in Web Studio:
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Azure environments:
Provisioning VMs using a master image from a different region has been deprecated. We recommend using Azure Compute Gallery to replicate the master image to the region where the VMs will be created.
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AWS environments:
The option Apply machine template properties to virtual machines, on the Machine Catalog Setup > Machine Template page, has been deprecated. We recommend using machine profiles to specify machine properties for VMs instead.
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All hypervisor and cloud service environments:
Configuring the write-back cache with only a disk cache and no memory cache has been deprecated. We recommend setting the memory cache size to a value greater than zero.
Citrix Director
Secure Private Access integration with Director (Preview)
The Secure Private Access integration with Director allows help desk admin or full admin to monitor and troubleshoot all Secure Private Access sessions in Director. To support this feature, you must use the 2402 or later versions of Director, Secure Private Access, Citrix Workspace app, and VDA.
Available actions include viewing the details of the following:
- Secure Private Access active sessions for a user under the Select a Session popup > Sessions tab > Web Apps and SaaS Apps
- Secure Private Access failed or blocked enumerations and failed app launches under the Select a Session popup > Denied Access tab
- Session and application details view for active and failed app launches
- Session and application details view for failed and blocked enumerations
For more information, see Secure Private Access integration with Director (Preview) page.
Enhanced Performance Metrics panel
The Performance Metrics panel has an enhanced visualization of the real-time metrics. When you click the Session Performance tab, along with the real time data, you can view the last 15-minutes data without waiting for the page load time. This enhancement helps to reduce mean time for resolution by enabling admins to be able to correlate multiple component performance metrics in a single view. For more information, see Performance metrics section.
Support for newer version of Microsoft Teams
Citrix Director now supports Microsoft Teams version 2.1 or earlier.
Machine Creation Services (MCS)
Image management (Preview)
With the image management functionality, MCS separates the mastering phase from the overall provisioning workflow.
You can prepare an MCS image (Prepared Image) from a single source image and use it across multiple different MCS machine catalogs. This implementation significantly reduces the storage and time costs, and simplifies the VM deployment and image update process.
The benefits of using this image management functionality are:
- Generate prepared images in advance without creating a catalog.
- Reuse prepared images in multiple scenarios, such as creating and updating a catalog.
- Significantly reduce catalog creation or update time.
For detailed information on image management, see Image management (Preview).
Configure required Azure host connection permissions
Previously, the host connection test validated whether the credential is good to connect to the hypervisor. The test did not perform validation on actual permissions that you might need to perform relevant MCS operations such as power management, VM creation, and many more.
With this feature, you can now easily configure all the minimum permissions required for a service principal or user account in Azure tied to a host connection to perform all MCS operations using an ARM template. This ARM template automates the following:
- Creation of an Azure Role with minimal permissions necessary for operations.
- Assignment of this role to an existing Azure Service Principal at the subscription level.
You can deploy this ARM template using the Azure Portal or PowerShell commands. For more information, see ARM Template for CVAD Operations.
Check for multiple NICs in VMware
In VMware environments, we have introduced various pre-flight checks when the hosting unit and machine profile template have multiple networks, and the -NetworkMapping
parameter is used in the New-ProvScheme
and Set-ProvScheme
commands. For more information on the pre-flight checklist for multiple NICs, see Check for multiple NICs.
Support for creating Windows 11 VMs in GCP
You can now create Windows 11 VMs in GCP. If you install Windows 11 on the master image, then you must enable vTPM during the master image creation process. Also, you must enable vTPM on the machine profile source (VM or instance template).
This feature is applicable to:
- Persistent and Non-persistent MCS machine catalogs
- Only sole-tenant node group
For information on creating Windows 11 VMs on the sole-tenant node, see Create Windows 11 VMs on the sole-tenant node.
Support for creating Citrix Provisioning catalogs using MCS PowerShell commands in VMware
You can now create Citrix Provisioning catalogs using MCS PowerShell commands in VMware.
This implementation provides you the following advantages:
- A single unified API to manage both MCS and Citrix Provisioning catalogs.
- Have new features for Citrix Provisioning catalogs, such as, identity management solution, on-demand provisioning, and so on.
For more information, see Create Citrix Provisioning catalogs in Citrix Studio.
Profile Management
For information about new features, see the What’s new article in its own document.
Linux VDA
For information about new features, see the What’s new article in its own document.
Session Recording
For information about new features, see the What’s new article in its own document.
Workspace Environment Management
For information about new features, see the What’s new article in its own document.
Citrix Provisioning
For information about new features, see the What’s new article in its own document.
Federated Authentication Service
For information about new features, see the What’s new article in its own document.
2402 LTSR initial release baseline components
2402 baseline component | Version as shown in Programs and Features | Documentation |
---|---|---|
Single-session VDA | 2402.0.4000.4310 | Single-session VDA |
Multi-session VDA | 2402.0.4000.4310 | Multi-session VDA |
Delivery Controller | 7.41.100.229 | Delivery Controller |
Citrix Studio | 7.41.100.251 | Citrix Studio |
Citrix Director | 7.33.4000.26 | Citrix Director |
Citrix Group Policy Management | 7.41.100.115 | Citrix Group Policy Management |
Citrix Group Policy Client-Side Extension | 7.41.100.115 | |
Citrix StoreFront | 2402.0.100.64 | Citrix StoreFront |
Citrix Provisioning | 7.41.100 | Citrix Provisioning |
Universal Print Server | 7.33.4000.11 | Universal Print Server |
Session Recording | 24.2.100.35 | Session Recording |
Linux VDA | 24.02.0.93 | Linux Virtual Delivery Agent |
Profile Management | 24.2.100.52 | Profile Management |
Citrix Federated Authentication Service | 10.17.100.90 | Citrix Federated Authentication Service (FAS) |
Browser Content Redirection | 15.32.4000.12 | Browser Content Redirection |
Citrix Probe Agent 2402 | 7.41.100.78 | Download |
2402 LTSR initial release compatible components
The following components - at the versions given below - are compatible with LTSR environments. They aren’t eligible for the LTSR benefits (extended lifecycle and fix-only cumulative updates). Citrix might ask you to upgrade to a newer version of these components within your 2402 environments.
Compatible components and features | Version as shown in Programs and Features | Documentation |
---|---|---|
HDX RealTime Optimization Pack | 2.9.600 | HDX RealTime Optimization Pack |
License Server | 11.17.2.0_BUILD_47000 | License Server |
User personalization layer | 23.9.1 | User personalization layer |
Session Recording web player | 22.3.4000.4 | Session recording web player |
Microsoft Teams optimization | 15.32.3000.9 | Microsoft Teams optimization |
Workspace Environment Management | 2402.1.100.1 | Workspace Environment Management |
2402 LTSR initial release notable exclusions
The following features, components, and platforms aren’t eligible for 2402 lifecycle milestones and benefits. Specifically, cumulative updates and extended lifecycle benefits are excluded. Updates to excluded features and components are available through regular current releases.
Excluded components and features |
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AppDisks |
AppDNA |
Citrix SCOM Management Pack |
Framehawk |
Personal vDisk |
StoreFront Citrix Online Integration |
Excluded Windows platforms * |
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Windows 2008 32-bit (for Universal Print Server) |
* Citrix reserves the right to update platform support based on third-party vendors’ lifecycle milestones.
In this article
- About the release
- Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 7 2402 LTSR
- Citrix Secure Private Access for on-premises
- Virtual Delivery Agents (VDAs) 2402 LTSR
- Web Studio
- Citrix Director
- Machine Creation Services (MCS)
- Profile Management
- Linux VDA
- Session Recording
- Workspace Environment Management
- Citrix Provisioning
- Federated Authentication Service
- 2402 LTSR initial release baseline components
- 2402 LTSR initial release compatible components
- 2402 LTSR initial release notable exclusions