Configure beacon points
Important:
http://ping.citrix.comis currently unavailable so you must set an alternative beacon.Do not use third party websites that you do not own as an external beacon. Instead use websites controlled by your organization.
In the Manage Beacons screen, specify URLs inside and outside your internal network to be used as beacon points. Locally installed Citrix Workspace app attempts to contact beacon points and uses the responses to determine whether users are connected to local or public networks. When a user accesses a desktop or application, the location information is passed to the server providing the resource so that appropriate connection details can be returned to Citrix Workspace app. This ensures that users are not prompted to log on again when they access a desktop or application. Beacons are not used by Citrix Workspace app for HTML5.
For example, if the internal beacon point is accessible, this indicates that the user is connected to the local network. However, if Citrix Workspace app cannot contact the internal beacon point and receives responses from both the external beacon points, this means that the user has an Internet connection but is outside the corporate network. Therefore, the user must connect to desktops and applications though Citrix Gateway. When the user accesses a desktop or application, the server providing the resource is notified to provide details of the Citrix Gateway appliance through which the connection must be routed. This means that the user does not need to log on to the appliance when accessing the desktop or application.
By default, StoreFront sets:
- The internal beacon to the base URL of your deployment.
- External beacons to
http://ping.citrix.comand the URL of the first Citrix Gateway deployment you add.
To configure beacon points:
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Select the Stores node in the left pane of the Citrix StoreFront management console and, in the Actions pane, click Manage Beacons.
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Specify the URL to use as the internal beacon point.
- To use the server URL or load-balanced URL of your StoreFront deployment, select Use the service URL.
- To use an alternative URL, select Specify beacon address and enter a highly available URL within your internal network.
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Click Add to enter the URL of an external beacon point. To modify a beacon point, select the URL in the External beacons list and click Edit. Select a URL in the list and click Remove to stop using that address as a beacon point.
You must specify at least two highly available external beacon points that can be resolved from public networks. These must respond to HTTP HEAD requests. The beacon URLs should be fully qualified domain names (
http://example.com) and not the abbreviated NetBIOS name (http://example). This enables Citrix Workspace app to determine whether users are located behind an Internet paywall, such as in a hotel or Internet café. In such cases, all the external beacon points connect to the same proxy. You should use URLs that are controlled by your organization, not third party websites.
If you change any beacon points, ensure that users update Citrix Workspace app with the modified beacon information. Users can obtain an updated Citrix Workspace app provisioning file from Citrix Workspace app for HTML5. Otherwise, you can export a provisioning file for the store and make this file available to your users.
PowerShell SDK
To get the current beacons use Get-STFRoamingBeacon.
To add a beacon use Set-STFRoamingBeacon.
To set the beacons to their defaults, use Clear-STFRoamingBeacon.