Using the Boot Device Management utility
The Boot Device Management utility is an optional method for providing IP and boot information (boot device) to target devices. It is an alternative to using the traditional DHCP, PXE, and TFTP methods. When the target device starts, it obtains the boot information directly from the boot device. With this information, the target device is able to locate, communicate, and boot from the appropriate Citrix Provisioning server. After user authentication, the server provides the target device with its vDisk image.
The following boot devices are supported:
- USB
- CD-ROM (ISO)
- Hard Disk Partition
Wireless NICs are not supported.
Warning:
When selecting an entire hard drive as a boot device, all existing disk partitions are erased and re-created with a single active partition. The targeted partition is reserved as a boot device, and is not used by the operating system or by data.
When a hard disk partition is selected as boot device, the selected disk partition data is deleted and set as an active partition. This active partition becomes the boot device.
Configuring boot devices
Boot devices are configured using the Boot Device Management utility. This wizard-like application enables you to quickly program boot devices.
After installing the boot device, complete the procedures that follow. Consider the following:
- The target device settings in the Citrix Provisioning console are set to boot from the vDisk. The actual device is set to boot from the hard disk first.
- From the Citrix Provisioning product installation directory, run BDM.exe. The Boot Device Management window opens and the Specify the Login Server page appears.
- If using IPv6 networking, select Use IPv6 address checkbox. This changes the format used or displayed on the server IP address box.
- Under Server Lookup, select the radio button that describes the method to use to retrieve Provisioning Server boot information:
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Use DNS to find the Provisioning Server from which to boot. If this option is selected and the Use DHCP to retrieve Device IP option is selected your DHCP server must be configured to provide the DNS Server.
Note: The boot device uses Host name plus DHCP option 15 (Domain Name, which is optional) as the FQDN to contact the DNS server to resolve the IP address.
If you are using high availability, specify up to 32 Provisioning Servers for the same host name on your DNS server.
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Use the static IP address of the Provisioning Server from which to boot. If you select this option, click Add to enter the following Provisioning Server information:
- IP Address
- Port (default is 6910)
In high availability implementations, enter up to 32 Citrix Provisioning servers. If you are not using high availability, enter only one. Use the Move Up and Move Down buttons to sort the Provisioning Servers boot order. The target device selects a random entry from the list to log in to at boot time. If this fails, the target device selects the next entry and then follows the list in order from that entry.
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- In the Burn the Boot Device dialog, configure the target device IP. If the Use DNS to find the Server option is selected and your DHCP service does not provide option 6 (DNS Server), enter the following required information:
- Primary DNS Server Address
- Secondary DNS Server Address
- Domain Name
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Configure the Boot Device properties. Options are:
- Citrix ISO Image Recorder: the tool generates an ISO file that can be attached to the CD drive of the target. In this case, configure the target device to boot from the CD drive.
- Citrix VHD Image: the tool creates a VHD boot disk image that can be attached to the target device as the disk to boot from. In this case, configure the target VM to boot from hard disk.
- Existing boot disk: this option allows you to update the current hard disk that the device boots from to add a new boot option. In this case, no change to the boot order is required and on next boot the VM boots form the network using the configured parameters. The name here reflects the Windows device name of the boot disk.
- If the device has multiple network adapters, you can choose which one to boot from when streaming. The default is the first NIC.
- Click Burn. A message appears to acknowledge that the boot device was successfully created.
- Click Exit to close the utility.
- If the boot order must be changed, boot the target device and enter the UEFI Setup. Under the Boot Sequence, move the boot device to the top of the list of bootable devices. Save the change and boot the target device.
After the boot device is programmed, configure a target device boot sequence using the console’s Target Device Properties dialog. These boot behaviors are used after a target device connects to a provisioning server.