What’s new
What’s new in 2311
This release of Citrix Provisioning includes the enhancements described in the following sections. It includes several fixes for issues seen in past releases, and issues that we have identified.
Important:
Use the most recent version of the Citrix License Server to receive the latest provisioning features.
When upgrading Citrix Provisioning to the newest version, the latest License Server version is required.
For more information, see Licensing.
Citrix Hypervisor rebranded to XenServer
In line with our latest rebranding strategy, we’ve updated all instances of Citrix Hypervisor to XenServer.
Image Portability Service Automation for Citrix Provisioning
Image Portability Service can be used to automate some common Citrix Provisioning operations that cannot be performed while streaming. For more information, see:
- Upgrade PVS: Upgrade PVS takes a VHD(X) from a Citrix Provisioning (PVS) store and upgrades the version of PVS on the image to the version specified in the job request.
- Reverse Imaging: Reverse Imaging takes a VHD(X) from a Citrix Provisioning (PVS) store, and recreates the original platform image. This allows you to perform any upgrade tasks that you need to perform with PVS streaming disabled.
- Convert to UEFI: Convert to UEFI takes a MBR/BIOS VHD(X) from a Citrix Provisioning (PVS) store and converts the disk format to GPT/EFI.
For information on migrating workloads using Image Portability Service, see Migrate workloads between Resource Locations using Image Portability Service.
Support for creating Citrix Provisioning catalogs in Citrix Studio
To create a Citrix Provisioning catalog, you had to use the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Setup Wizard. With this feature, you can now create a Citrix Provisioning catalog by using Citrix Studio (Full Configuration interface (for Citrix DaaS) and Web Studio (for on-premises Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops deployment)), and PowerShell.
This implementation provides you the following advantages:
- A single unified console 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.
Currently, this feature is available only for Azure workloads.
For more information, see Create Citrix Provisioning catalogs in Citrix Studio.
Support for IPv6-based streaming
Citrix Provisioning now supports streaming of UEFI-based targets over IPv6. This implementation implies that you can now configure Citrix Provisioning Servers to use IPv6. Then, create targets that stream using IPv6. Note that IPv6 support is for BDM (iso and hard disk) only.
This feature is applicable to the following hypervisors:
- VMware 7.x
- VMware 8.x
- Hyper-V
- Azure
For more information, see:
Support for providing Citrix Provisioning Server information during a BDM update
When doing a BDM update, the Citrix Provisioning Servers information was read from the BIOS bootstrap file in previous versions. This bootstrap file relied on the BIOS, which is not supported any longer, and has other limitations, such as it doesn’t support the DNS name of servers.
With this feature, you have to now provide the Citrix Provisioning Servers information when doing a BDM update. Therefore, this implementation allows you to update BDM even when BIOS support is removed. You can enter either a DNS name that is set up as an alias for all login servers or select individual servers.
Support for the Microsoft OLE DB Driver 19.3 or later
Citrix Provisioning now supports Microsoft OLE DB Driver 19.3 or later versions to meet security compliance and performance requirements.
Support for farm read-only administrative role
To simplify the process of managing the administrative roles and responsibilities, Citrix Provisioning now supports farm read-only access to a group of users. For more information, see Administrative roles.
Support for joining your farm to customer-managed Delivery Controller
Citrix Provisioning now allows you to join your farm with a Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops site (customer-managed Delivery Controller). If you choose to join your farm to a Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops site, then you can also provision Citrix Provisioning targets using the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Web Studio. However, currently, you can do the provisioning only for Azure workloads. For more information on joining your farm, see Farm.
Support for creating Hybrid Azure AD joined catalogs
Citrix Provisioning now supports creating Hybrid Azure AD joined catalogs. While running the Image Wizard to create a vDisk, select Prepare for Hybrid Azure AD join in the Edit Optimization Settings dialog if you want to create a Hybrid Azure AD joined catalog. For more information, see Create Hybrid Azure AD joined catalogs.
Support for VMware vSAN 8.0
Citrix Provisioning now supports VMware vSAN 8.0. You can upgrade your existing vSAN environment to vSAN 8.0 in Citrix Provisioning deployment.
Support for provisioning target devices in untrusted domains using API
Previously, you provisioned target devices in untrusted domains using only Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Setup Wizard or Streamed VM Setup Wizard. With this feature, you can now provision target devices in untrusted domains using Citrix Provisioning API PowerShell commands. To do this, add the parameter DomainCredentials to the provisioning commands Start-PvsProvisionMachines or Start-PvsProvisionXdMachines. For more information, see Provision target devices in untrusted domain using API PowerShell commands