System requirements and compatibility

The system requirements in this article were valid when this Citrix Provisioning version was released. Updates are made periodically. Components not covered here (such as StoreFront, host systems, and Citrix Receivers) are described in their respective documentation.

For more information about using this Current Release (CR) in a Long Term Service (LTSR) environment and other FAQ, see the Knowledge Center article.

Important:

Review the pre-installation tasks article before installing Citrix Provisioning.

Unless otherwise noted, the component installer deploys software prerequisites automatically (such as .NET elements) if the required versions are not detected on the machine. The Citrix installation media also contains some of this prerequisite software.

For internationalization information, see Global Status of Citrix Products.

Database

The following databases are supported: Microsoft SQL Server 2012 and later.

For information about database support for Citrix Provisioning on Microsoft Azure, see SQL Server on Azure SQL.

SQL Server Native Client support is removed from Citrix Provisioning 2109 and later. Microsoft OLE DB Driver is now installed with specific Citrix Provisioning versions.

Note:

Currently, Citrix Provisioning does not support installing the SQL Server in the Operating System where the Citrix Provisioning Server is installed. However, this scenario is possible in the testing environment.

Database clustering is supported.

When configuring databases for provisioning, consider that no preference exists for any specific SQL collation. Collation supports the standard method recommended by Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops when using the configuration wizard. The administrator creates the database with a collation that ends with _CI_AS_KS. Citrix recommends using a collation that ends with _100_CI_AS_KS. Collation requirements differ for earlier Citrix Provisioning releases. See FAQ: Recommended database collations for Citrix Products for more information.

Note

See Supported Databases for Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktop Components in the Knowledge Center for additional information about supported databases and clients.

License

The Citrix Licensing Server download for this release is included with the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktop installation media. Use the most recent Citrix License Server to get the latest features.

Important:

Citrix Provisioning servers must be connected to the License Server to operate successfully. Use the most recent version of the Citrix License Server to get the latest features. Citrix recommends that you upgrade the License Server before upgrading Citrix Provisioning to avoid any licensing conflicts related to grace periods. For more information, see Licensing.

Provisioning server

Operating systems

• Windows Server 2022 Standard and data center editions
• Windows Server 2019 Standard and data center editions
• Windows Server 2016 Standard and data center editions

Refer to the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops System Requirements page for a complete list of supported provisioning server operating systems.

English, Japanese, and Simplified Chinese versions are supported.

Processors

The following processors are supported:

• Intel or AMD x64 compatible; 2 GHz minimum; 3 GHz preferred
• 3.5 GHz Dual Core/HT or similar for loads greater than 250 target devices
• A Citrix Provisioning server with 2 vCPUs.

Memory sizing

The recommended memory sizing for the Citrix Provisioning Server is:

2GiB + (Multi-Session-OS_vDisk x 4GiB) + (Single-Session-OS_vDisk x 2GiB) + 15% (Buffer)

Storage

A Provisioning Server can have many vDisks stored on it, and each disk can be several GB in size. Improve your streaming performance by using a RAID array, SAN, or NAS.

There must be enough space on the hard disk to store the vDisks. For example, if you have a 15 GB hard drive, you can only create a 14 GB virtual disk.

More requirements depend on several factors such as:

• Hard disk capacity – The requirements of the operating system and applications running on a target device. Citrix recommends adding 20% to the base size of the final installed image.
• Private Image Mode – The number of target devices using a virtual disk in private image mode. vDisks in private image mode are backed up daily.
• Standard Image Mode – The number of target devices using a virtual disk in standard image mode. Best practice is to include making a copy of every virtual disk created. Minimum estimated common storage sizes:
  • 250 MB for the database
  • 5 GB on a clean Windows system
  • 15 GB per virtual disk for Vista Class images

Network adaptor

• Static IP, 1 network connection with Gb Ethernet, or higher preferred
• Dual 1 GB Ethernet for more than 250 target devices
• Two NICs often perform better than a single dual-ported NIC

Note:

For information specific to network adapters for Citrix Provisioning on Microsoft Azure, see Citrix Provisioning on Microsoft Azure.

Citrix Provisioning dependencies

The Citrix Provisioning server install program requires Microsoft NET 4.8 and Windows PowerShell 4.0.

Network

The following list describes each network type and the associated port.

UDP and TCP ports

• Provisioning server to provisioning server communication: Each provisioning server must be configured to use the same ports (UDP) to communicate with each other using the Messaging Manager. At least five ports must exist in the selected port range. Configure the port range on the Stream Services dialog when running the Configuration Wizard.

  Note:

  If you are configuring for high availability, all provisioning servers selected as failover servers must reside within the same site. High availability is not intended to cross between sites.

  Default port range (UDP): 6890–6909

• Provisioning servers to target device communication: Each provisioning server must be configured to use the same ports (UDP) to communicate with target devices using the StreamProcess. The port range is configured using the Console Network tab on the Server Properties dialog.

  Note:

  The first 3 ports are reserved for Citrix Provisioning.

  Default port range (UDP): 6910–6930

• Target device to Citrix Provisioning communication: Unlike provisioning servers to target device port numbers, which you can configure using the configuration wizard, target device to Citrix Provisioning communication cannot be configured because the client port numbers are static.

Tip:

Make sure that port 6901 is open for target device communication. If you are using the installation wizard to open ports manually, be sure to include port 6901 to prevent communication problems between the target device and provisioning server. If you have chosen to use the default settings when using the wizard, you will not have the option to manually set this port.

Ports (UDP): 6901, 6902, 6905

• Login server communication: Each provisioning server used as a login server must be configured on the Stream Servers Boot List dialog when running the Configuration wizard.

  Default port (UDP): 6910

• Citrix Provisioning console communication: The SOAP Server is used when accessing the provisioning console. The ports (TCP) are configured on the Stream Services dialog when running the Configuration Wizard. For PowerShell: MCLI-Run SetupConnection. For MCLI: MCLI Run SetupConnection.

Trivial FTP (TFTP)

• The TFTP port value is stored in the registry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\BNTFTP\Parameters Port

  Default port (TFTP): 69

TSB

• The TSB port value is stored in the registry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\PVSTSB\Parameters Port

  Default port (UDP): 6969

  Port Fast: Port Fast must be enabled

  Network card: PXE 0.99j, PXE 2.1 or later

  Addressing: DHCP

Target device

In most implementations, there is a single virtual disk providing a standard image for multiple target devices. To simplify virtual disk and target device maintenance, create and maintain fewer vDisks and assign more target devices to each virtual disk.

Tip:

When using the virtual disk Imaging Wizard for a target device, problems appear related to some Microsoft components which are not installed. For example, operating systems that do not have Microsoft Visual C++ generate an error message similar to:

api-ms-win-crt-runtime-11-1-01.dll is missing

Citrix recommends that all Windows updates and components are current before installing Citrix Provisioning.

When provisioning target devices, consider the following:

• To have a single virtual disk, all target devices must have certain similarities to ensure that the OS has the necessary drivers required to run properly. The three key components are the motherboard, network card, or video card.

• Install and configure the OEM NIC teaming software before you install the target device software.

• Identify target devices by the operating system running on the device.

• Dual boot virtual disk images are not supported.

• BitLocker encryption is not supported on a provisioned target device virtual disk.

• Citrix Provisioning supports layered images for Citrix App Layering functionality. See the System requirements for more information.

Supported Operating Systems

• Windows Server 2022 Standard and data center editions
• Windows Server 2019 Standard and data center editions
• Windows Server 2016 Standard and data center editions

Important:

Windows Server 2016 is not supported in target devices provisioned on Azure.

• Windows 11 is only supported on ESX 7.0 Update 2 and newer.
• Windows 10 (64-bit)
• Windows 10 20H2
• Windows 10 21H1
• Windows 10 21H2

Refer to the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops System Requirements page for a complete list of supported target device operating systems.

Consider the following when provisioning target devices:

• Citrix Provisioning supports publicly available Windows OS version at the time of the release.
• Citrix recommends that you reboot after installing each Windows update.

Windows 10 limitations

For target devices running supported versions of Windows 10, note the following:

• Windows 10 v1803 target devices with virtual disk cache type set to Cache in device RAM possibly crash when booting.
• Citrix Provisioning supports Windows 10 Fall Creator v1709, however, a target device with this OS cannot boot from a virtual disk in private image mode.
• Windows 10 v1809 (x86 and x64) creates a page file error. For Windows 10 1803, this issue does not exist between versions 17134.0–17134.523. However, the issue appears when using Windows 10 1803 version 17134.556. See the Microsoft site for more information. For Windows 10 1809, this issue appears between versions 17763.0–17763.253. The issue is resolved in Windows 10 1809 version 17763.292. See the Microsoft site for more information.

Note:

Citrix Provisioning does not support Windows 10 IoT Core and Windows 10 IoT Enterprise. See the Microsoft site for more information.

About Gen 2 VMs

Gen 2 VMs are supported across all operating systems where Microsoft supports UEFI.

Note:

The Streamed VM wizard setup does not support SCVMM Gen 2 VMs\templates.

Linux streaming

Using the Linux streaming feature with Citrix Provisioning, you can provision Linux virtual desktops in the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops environment. For more information about the Linux streaming feature, see Use Citrix Provisioning to create Linux VMs

The following operating systems are supported for Linux streaming.

• Ubuntu 16.04, 18.04.5, 20.04
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.9, 8.3, 8.4
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP5
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2, SP3

Be sure to follow the installation recommendations in Streaming Linux target devices.

More dependencies

.NET 4.8 (default)

Microsoft licensing

Consider the following when using Microsoft licensing keys with target devices:

• Windows 10, Windows Server 2016, and Windows Server 2012 R2 are deployed using either the Key Management Server (KMS) or with Microsoft Multiple Activation Key (MAK) volume licensing keys.

• Windows Office 2010, Office 2013, and Office 2016 are deployed using KMS licensing. Volume licensing is configured within the virtual disk image when the Imaging Wizard is run on the Master target device. Volume licensing is configured for the virtual disk file on the Microsoft Volume Licensing tab, which is available from the Console vDisk File Properties dialog.

Note:

For MAK licensing to work, the Volume Activation Management Tool (VAMT) for that client OS must be installed on all login servers within a farm. In addition, both Private and Standard Image Modes support MAK and KMS.

File system type

• NTFS
• For Linux streaming, the following file system types are supported: EXT4, BTRFS, XFS.

Supported operating systems include English on English, Japanese, German, French, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, and Russian versions.

Citrix Provisioning console

Processor: Minimum 1 GHz, 2 GHz preferred

Memory: Minimum 1 GB, 2 GB preferred

Hard disk: Minimum 500 MB

Operating systems:

• Windows Server 2022 Standard and data center editions
• Windows Server 2019 Standard and data center editions
• Windows Server 2016 Standard and data center editions
• Windows 11
• Windows 10 (32-bit or 64-bit)
• Windows 10 20H2
• Windows 10 21H1

Note:

Gen 1 VMs are not supported on SCVMM for Hyper-V with Windows Server 2022.

More dependencies:

• MMC 3.0
• Microsoft .NET 4.8
• Windows PowerShell 3.0

Store

Ensure that the store can communicate with the Citrix Provisioning database.

Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Setup wizard

The Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Setup wizard can only operate with the equivalent version of the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops controller:

• One or more configured Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops hosts with identical templates must exist.
• The virtual disk assigned to each VM must be in standard image mode.

More requirements include:

Permissions:

Tip:

Some of the permissons noted in this section relate only to on-premises deployments.

Consider the following:

• A Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops controller must exist with permissions for the current user.
• vCenter, SCVMM, and XenServer minimum permissions must be configured.
• A user accessing the Citrix Provisioning console must be configured as a Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops administrator. The administrator must also exist in the provisioning SiteAdmin group.
• If you are using Citrix Provisioning with Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops, the SOAP Server user account must have Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops full administrator privileges.
• When creating accounts in the Console, the user needs the Active Directory Create Accounts permission. To use existing accounts, Active Directory accounts have to exist in a known OU for selection.
• When creating a machine catalog in Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops, the boot device file is created automatically. Creating it automatically eliminates the need to boot using PXE. An unformatted write cache disk is automatically attached and formatted on first boot.
• When updating the Virtual Delivery Agent (VDA) on the virtual disk image, set the appropriate functional level for the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops catalog using the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops console. See the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops upgrade topics for more information.
• If you are importing an Active Directory .csv file, use the following format: <name>,<type>,<description>.
• The CSV file must contain the column header. For example, the csv file contents are:Name,Type,Description,PVSPC01,Computer,, The trailing comma must be present to signify three values, even if there is no description. The trailing comma format is the same formatting used by the Active Directory Users and Computers MMC when exporting the contents of an organizational unit.

SCVMM:

• The number of required connections for an SCVMM server is greater than or equal to the number of hosted hypervisors used by the setup wizard for virtual machine cloning. For example: to set connections to 25 from a PowerShell prompt, run: winrm set winrm/config/winrs @{MaxShellsPerUser="25"}winrm set winrm/config/winrs @{MaxConcurrentUsers="25"}
• For Microsoft SCVMM to support Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops, run the following PowerShell command: set-ExecutionPolicy unrestricted on SCVMM. For Microsoft SCVMM, verify that the MAC address for the template is not 00-00-00-00-00-00 before attempting to clone the template.
• If necessary, use the Template Properties dialog to assign a MAC address.

More requirements:

• If you are running a vCenter server on alternate ports, the following registry modifications must be made to connect to it using Citrix Provisioning: Create a new key HKLM\Software\Citrix\ProvisioningServices\PlatformEsx - Create a string in the Platform ESX key named ServerConnectionString and set it to <http://{0}:PORT\#/sdk>
• If you are using port 300, set ServerConnectionString=<http://{0}:300/sdk>.
• If you are using multiple NICs, the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Setup Wizard assumes that the first NIC is the Citrix Provisioning NIC. The Setup Wizard changes it in accordance with the virtual machine network in the domain controller. This item is the first NIC listed in the virtual machines properties.
• To use the Synthetic switch-over feature, both the first legacy NIC and the synthetic NIC must be on the same network.
• If the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops setup wizard is used with SCVMM, both the first legacy and the synthetic NICs’ network change according to the network resource. These NICs are set by Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops, or by the user if the SCVMM host has multiple network resources.
• Multi-NIC support exists for Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops.
• Legacy Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktop agents are supported on VMs. For details, see VDA requirements in the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops documentation.

Streamed VM wizard setup

Streamed VM wizard requirements include:

• One or more hypervisor hosts must exist with a configured template.
• A device collection must exist in the Citrix Provisioning site.
• A virtual disk in standard image mode must exist, and must be associated with the selected VM template.

More requirements include:

Template VM:

• Boot order: Network/PXE must be listed first (as with physical machines).
• Hard disks: If you are using local write cache, an NTFS formatted disk large enough for the cache must exist. Otherwise, no hard disks are required.
• Network: Static MAC addresses. If you are using XenServer, the address cannot be 00-00-00-00-00-00. Before attempting to create a template from a VM, ensure that the VM is fully operational.

Permissions:

• The Citrix Provisioning console user account is added to a provisioning SiteAdmin group or above.
• If you are using Active Directory, when creating accounts in the console, they must possess the Active Directory Create Accounts permission. To use existing accounts, they must exist in a known OU for the selection.

ESD server requirements for virtual disk update management

ESD server requirements include:

• WSUS server: 3.0 SP2
• SCCM: SSCM 2016, SCCM 2012 R2, SCCM 2012 SP1, SCCM 2012

Hypervisor

The following sections include configuration information about supported hypervisors.

Important:

Citrix Provisioning only supports Windows 11 using ESX 7.0 update 2 and newer. Refer to Supported Hypervisors for Virtual Desktops (XenDesktop) and Provisioning Services for a complete list of supported hypervisors.

Citrix Hypervisor 5.6 and newer

The template MAC address cannot be 00-00-00-00-00-00-00.

Citrix Provisioning supports Citrix Hypervisor 8.1 functionality, guest UEFI boot, and secure boot. This functionality enables VMs running Windows 10 (64-bit), Windows Server 2016 (64-bit), or Windows Server 2019 (64-bit) to boot in UEFI mode. UEFI boot provides a richer interface for the guest operating systems to interact with the hardware, which can significantly reduce Windows VM boot times. See the Citrix Hypervisor documentation for more information.

Secure boot in UEFI

Citrix Provisioning supports Secure Boot in UEFI on these platforms:

• Physical machines with UEFI firmware and the Secure Boot option.
• Hyper-V 2016 and later VMs that use the Microsoft UEFI Certificate Authority template in the Secure Boot setting. Hyper-V 2012 R2 is not supported.
• Guest UEFI boot and secure boot for Citrix 8.1 Hypervisors are supported. See the Citrix Hypervisor documentation for more information.

Tip:

When using UEFI, consider that this support extends to physical machines that support UEFI. Secure boot is only supported on Hyper-V 2016 and newer versions. ESX must use version 6.5 or newer for secure boot implementations.

Nutanix Acropolis

Nutanix Acropolis hypervisors are supported using the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Setup Wizard. The following are not supported:

• Linux VMs
• Boot Device Manager (BDM) partition

For configuration information, see Deploying virtual desktops to VMs using the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Configuration Wizard.

Important:

An Acropolis hypervisor (AHV) plug-in from Nutanix that supports Citrix Provisioning is required. Download this plug-in from the Nutanix support site. See the Nutanix documentation portal for installation information.

System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) VMM 2012 and newer

Consider the following when configuring this type of hypervisor:

• Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) 2019 is supported.
• VMM 2012, 2012 SP1, and 2012 R2 are different from each other.
• When creating a machine template for VMM 2012 only, ensure that it has a similar hard disk drive structure and that it can boot from a virtual disk in Private Image mode. Examples:
  • To PXE boot a VM with write cache, create a VM with one hard disk drive.
  • To use Boot Device Manager (BDM) to boot a VM with write cache, create a VM with two hard disk drives.
• For Synthetic NIC Switch Over, boot using legacy NIC and then stream using synthetic NIC, both the legacy and the synthetic NICs must be in the same VLAN in the template VMs. The Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Set Up Wizard changes the VLAN of both NICs to the VLAN selected when running the Wizard. This process uses two IP addresses.
• When running the imaging wizard, make sure you select the legacy NIC’s MAC address.
• Citrix Provisioning does not support multiple legacy NICs in the VMM’s VM. VMM uses the last legacy NIC. The Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Set Up Wizard always uses the first NIC, regardless of whether it is legacy or synthetic.
• When creating a VMM template, make sure you select None – customization not required as the Guest OS profile in Configure Operating System menu.
• When using the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Set Up Wizard, the targets are created but are not bootable. An error appears Device not found in the Citrix Provisioning database. The reason is that the template has the legacy and synthetic NICs in reverse order: synthetic is NIC 1 and legacy is NIC 2. To resolve this issue, delete the NICs in the template. Make a legacy NIC 1 and synthetic NIC 2.

VMware vSphere ESX 4.1 and newer

• Supported Citrix Provisioning PXE NIC: ESX 4.x – E1000, ESX 5.0 and newer – VMXNET3
• Template VM and the master VM: Both must have the same guest operating system, configuration, and virtual machine version. Mismatches cause the process to stop unexpectedly.
• Citrix Provisioning and ESX VM version:
  • vCenter 5.5 defaults to virtual machine version 8, which is for ESX 5.0.
  • The virtual machine version must be changed before OS installation.
  • The template and the master VM must have the same virtual machine version.
• ESX:
  • For ESX 5.0 only, the Interrupt Safe Mode must be enabled on the Citrix Provisioning bootstrap. Otherwise, the VM displays a partial MAC address during reboot
  • With ESX 5.5, a VM created using the Web client defaults to virtual hardware version 10, ESX 5.5. A VM created using the vSphere client defaults to version 8, ESX 5.0.
  • When creating a ESXi 5.5 template using the vSphere web client, you can only create hardware version 10 templates. Be sure to modify the template CD/DVD drive virtual mode from SATA to IDE. Remove the SATA controller if you are planning to use the VMXNet3 driver. Removing the controller ensures that the template is compatible with the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Setup Wizard. The wizard requires target drives that are attached using the SCSI driver.
  • When using multiple NICs in ESX VM, the order of the NICs in the VM’s properties, BIOS, and OS differ. Consider this configuration when making your choices for the streaming NIC. This is the first NIC in the VM’s properties. You can choose the PXE NIC in the BIOS.
• Host record: Regardless of the ESX version, the host’s address for the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops host is the vCenter system. Do not enter the address used by the web client.

Support for Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV)

Citrix Provisioning supports client using SR-IOV on the following hypervisors:

• Hyper-V
• VMware vSphere
• Azure

Note:

For information specific to Citrix Provisioning on Microsoft Azure, see Citrix Provisioning on Microsoft Azure.

Support for cloud platforms

Citrix Provisioning supports the following cloud platforms:

• Citrix Provisioning on Microsoft Azure
• Citrix Provisioning in Nutanix on AWS

• VMware cloud and partner solutions: The following VMware cloud variants are supported:

  • Azure VMware Solution (AVS) integration
  • VMware Cloud on AWS
  • Google Cloud VMware Engine

Note:

The cloud variants are supported from only Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Service.