Multi-site management and end-user aggregation (Preview)

As a Full Administrator of multiple sites, you can designate a primary site and link other sites to it for centralized management. This feature lets you improve the overall operational efficiency across various aspects:

• Easy site management. Full Administrators can easily switch sites through a dropdown list in the upper right corner of the Full Configuration console, eliminating the need to change accounts.
• Aggregated help desk operations. Help desk administrators can view helpdesk-related information for all sites through a unified Monitor console.
• Aggregated user resources. End users can log on to a single Citrix Workspace URL (for example, primarysite.cloud.com) and access their apps and desktops on all sites, regardless of the site in which those resources are deployed.

Note:

When you switch between sites, each site’s configuration information is managed separately. Configuration settings for one site aren’t combined with those of another site within the Manage > Full Configuration console.

This article guides you through configuring centralized site management using the Full Configuration interface. For more information about doing so using PowerShell scripts, see this article.

Overview

The following diagram illustrates the hierarchical primary-secondary architecture.

Primary and secondary in the diagram represent the following:

• Primary (also known as hub). The site that serves as the central primary for managing all your sites.
• Secondary (also known as spoke). The sites added to the primary site for centralized management.

Limitations

• Limit to four secondary sites. For optimal performance in aggregating end-user resources through a single store URL, we recommend adding no more than four secondary sites due to scalability constraints of the Workspace platform.
• Regional consistency. For aggregating end-user resources, all secondary sites must be in the same region as the primary site.

Preparation

Before you begin, you need to:

• Designate a primary cloud account. Determine a cloud account (also called site) where you centrally manage sites in your organization.

• Ensure you have Full Administrator permissions. Ensure that you have Full Administrator permission to all sites you want to manage. For more information, see Add an administrator.

Set up centralized site management

As a full administrator of multiple sites, you can set up centralized site management by designating one site as the primary site, signing in to this site, and adding other sites as secondary sites. Follow these steps to complete the setup:

1. Sign in to Citrix Cloud, and then select the cloud account that you want to use as the primary site.
2. From DaaS > Manage > Full Configuration, select Settings in the left pane.

3. In the Centralize site management tile, click Add.

   

4. On the Acknowledge page that appears, click Confirm to confirm configuring this site as the primary.

5. On the Add DaaS sites page that appears, complete the following settings:

   1. Select how you want to apply the centralized management:

      • Add DaaS sites only. Apply centralized management only to the Full Configuration and Monitor consoles.
      • Add DaaS sites and aggregate end-user resources through a single store URL. Apply centralized management to both the Full Configuration and Monitor consoles and the store URL.

   2. Select the cloud accounts you want to add as secondary sites. Only cloud accounts of which you are a Full Administrator appear. (Make sure you’re invited as the Full Administrator of the cloud account.)

      

      Note:

      If you chose Add DaaS sites and aggregate end-user resources through a single store URL in the previous step:

      • For optimal performance in aggregating end-user resources, we recommend adding no more than four secondary sites due to scalability constraints of the Workspace platform.
      • Only those sites located in the same region as the primary site are available for selection as secondary sites.

   3. Click Add.

6. Refresh your browser. The site selection box appears at the top right corner of the console, where this site and its secondary sites appear.

   

Manage sites from a single interface

When signing in with a user account having the Full Administrator access to the primary site, you can manage both it and its secondary sites in one interface. The site selection box shows the primary site and its secondary sites where you are a Full Administrator.

1. Sign in to Citrix Cloud and select the corresponding cloud account for the primary site.
2. Go to DaaS > Manage > Full Configuration, then select a site as needed from the dropdown list. The list includes both this site and its secondary sites where you have the Full Administrator access.

3. From the left pane, select a node and start your management. For example, select Machine Catalogs to start creating or managing catalogs for the selected site.

   Note:

   • When you are on the secondary site through the primary site’s Full Configuration, the Manage button on Centralize site management tile is disabled.
   • Your site selection in the Full Configuration console isn’t synced with the Monitor console. To monitor a secondary site, switch to the Monitor console and select the site from the selection box.

Remove a secondary site

To remove a secondary site from the centralized site management, follow these steps:

1. Sign in to Citrix Cloud and select the corresponding cloud account for the primary site.
2. Go to DaaS > Manage > Full Configuration, then select the primary site.
3. From DaaS > Manage > Full Configuration, select Settings in the left pane.
4. In the Centralize site management tile, click Manage.
5. On the Manage DaaS sites page that appears, clear the checkbox next to the account you want to detach from the primary site.
6. Click Save.

Example use case

The company XYZ is headquartered in Florida and has branches in Texas and California, each with a dedicated DaaS site and distinct administrative access:

• The user account Admin 1 is the Full Administrator of the sites Florida, Texas, and California.
• The user account Admin 2 is the Full Administrator of the sites Florida and Texas.
• The user account Admin 3 is the Full Administrator of the site Florida.
• The user account Admin 4 is the Full Administrator of the site Texas.

As Admin 1, to centralize site management for Florida, Texas, and California, follow these steps:

1. Sign in to Citrix Cloud and select the cloud account Florida.
2. Access the Full Configuration console, go to Settings > Centralize site management, and then click Add.
3. On the Add DaaS sites page, select Add DaaS sites and aggregate end-user resources through a single store URL, and then select the cloud accounts associated with Texas and California as the secondary sites.
4. Click Add.
5. Refresh your browser. The site selection drop-down list appears in the top right corner, displaying the options Florida, Texas, and California.

6. To create and manage resources for a site (for example, Texas), follow these steps:

   1. Select the site from the site selection drop-down list.
   2. Select the corresponding node from the left pane to proceed (for example, select the Machine Catalog node to create VMs; select the Settings node to configure global settings for this site).

After the completion of centralized site management, user experiences of different roles within the Florida, Texas, and California sites are as follows:

• Full Administrator of Florida. After accessing Full Configuration, you can view a secondary site (Texas or California) in the site selection drop-down list only when you are the Full Administrator of that site. For example, Admin 2 can view the sites Florida and Texas while Admin 3 can view only the site Florida.

• Full Monitor Administrator. You can use the universal search feature to search for users, machines, endpoints, and transactions across all aggregated sites (Florida, Texas, and California) in the Monitor interface.

• End user of Florida, Texas, or California. When signing in to the workspace URL using the headquarter’s workspace URL, florida.cloud.com, you can view all assigned apps and desktops, regardless of their deployment site (Florida, Texas, or California).