XenApp and XenDesktop

Install and upgrade

July 4, 2018

Contributed by:

C L

Personal vDisk 7.x is supported on XenDesktop version 5.6 through the current version. The “System requirements” documentation for each XenDesktop version lists the supported operating systems for Virtual Delivery Agents (VDAs), and the supported versions of hosts (virtualization resources), and Provisioning Services. For details about Provisioning Services tasks, see the current Provisioning Services documentation.

Install and enable PvD

You can install and then enable PvD components when you install or upgrade a VDA for Desktop OS on a machine. These actions are selected on the Additional Components and Features pages of the installation wizard, respectively. For more information, see Install VDAs.

If you update the PvD software after installing the VDA, use the PvD MSI provided on the XenApp or XenDesktop installation media.

Enabling PvD:

If you are using Machine Creation Services (MCS), PvD is enabled automatically when you create a machine catalog of desktop OS machines that will use a personal vDisk.
If you are using Provisioning Services (PVS), PvD is enabled automatically when you run the inventory during the master (base) image creation process, or when auto-update runs the inventory for you.

Therefore, if you install the PvD components but do not enable them during VDA installation, you can use the same image to create both PvD desktops and non-PvD desktops, because PvD is enabled during the catalog creation process.

Add personal vDisks

You add personal vDisks to hosts when you configure a Site. You can choose to use the same storage on the host for VMs and personal vDisks, or you can use different storage for personal vDisks.

Later, you can also add personal vDisks and their storage to existing hosts (connections), but not machine catalogs.

Select Configuration > Hosting in the Studio navigation pane.
Select Add Personal vDisk storage in the Actions pane, and specify the storage location.

Upgrade PvD

The easiest way to upgrade personal vDisk from an earlier 7.x version is to simply upgrade your desktop OS VDAs to the version provided with the most recent XenDesktop version. Then, run the PvD inventory.

Uninstall PvD

You can use one of two ways to remove the PvD software:

Uninstall the VDA; this removes the PvD software as well.
If you updated PvD using the PvD MSI, then you can uninstall it from the Programs list.

If you uninstall PvD and then want to reinstall the same or a newer version, first back up the registry key HKLM\Software\Citrix\personal vDisk\config, which contains environment configuration settings that might have changed. Then, after installing PvD, reset the registry values that might have changed, by comparing them with the backed-up version.

Important considerations when uninstalling PvD

Uninstalling may fail when a personal vDisk with Windows 7 (64 bit) is installed in the base image. To resolve this issue, Citrix recommends that you remove the personal vDisk before upgrading:

Select the appropriate copy of the vDisk installer from the XenApp/XenDesktop media. Locate the latest personal vDisk MSI installer from the XenApp/XenDesktop ISO from one of the following directories (depending on whether the upgraded VM is 32 or 64-bits):
- 32-bits: XA and XD\x86\Virtual Desktop Components\personalvDisk_x86.msi
- 64-bits: XA and XD\x64\Virtual Desktop Components\personalvDisk_x64.msi
Remove the personal vDisk installation. Select the personal vDisk MSI installer package found in step 1. The personal vDisk setup screen appears.
Select Remove personal vDisk.
Click Finish.
The Reboot Requirement page appears. Click Next:
Click Yes to restart the system and to apply your configuration changes:

The official version of this content is in English. Some of the Cloud Software Group documentation content is machine translated for your convenience only. Cloud Software Group has no control over machine-translated content, which may contain errors, inaccuracies or unsuitable language. No warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, is made as to the accuracy, reliability, suitability, or correctness of any translations made from the English original into any other language, or that your Cloud Software Group product or service conforms to any machine translated content, and any warranty provided under the applicable end user license agreement or terms of service, or any other agreement with Cloud Software Group, that the product or service conforms with any documentation shall not apply to the extent that such documentation has been machine translated. Cloud Software Group will not be held responsible for any damage or issues that may arise from using machine-translated content.

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Install and upgrade

July 4, 2018

Contributed by:

C L

July 4, 2018

Contributed by:

C L

Install and upgrade

Install and enable PvD

Add personal vDisks

Upgrade PvD

Uninstall PvD

Important considerations when uninstalling PvD

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