Updated 19th October 2010…
This is what I call the “bees knees” of scripts for deploying VMware Tools. It will detect if it’s being installed on a Terminal/Citrix Server, and remove the appropriate components that may impede performance, etc.
XenApp
Displaying useful connection information on the desktop wallpaper
Like most IT professionals, I’ve been using Bginfo to embed some useful information in the wallpaper of a users Desktop for some years now. So what you say! Well…not too long ago Warren Simondson of CTRL-ALT-DEL IT Consultancy created a couple of cool utilities called TSBackdrop and PCBackdrop. I was specifically interested in the TSBackdrop utility, as it automatically displays items such as the Client Computer Name, Client IP address, Username and the Server which the Client is logged on to, on the user’s desktop background. This is great for Terminal and Citrix servers, and something that Bginfo lacks.
Scripting updates to the GPT.ini for the Local Group Policy
Updated on 27th October 2010.
I came across a challenge whilst working on a big XenApp deployment in a Novell environment. I needed to make changes to the Local Group Policy Object on all Terminal / Citrix servers. This was specifically required for implementation of a logoff script, as logoff scripts are not supported via Zen Polices in a Terminal Services environment.
As always, I wanted to automate it and found that there was a real lack of information about how this can be easily achieved. Anyway, I thought that modifying the Local Policy on all XenApp servers would be a pain, but it ended up being very simple indeed.
Admittedly, I could have just copied a new gpt.ini and scripts.ini into place, but then it would not have respected any previous changes and settings that had already been made to the gpt.ini. So this script checks existing configuration settings before making any changes to the gpt.ini file.
Enjoy!!
Running Logoff Scripts in Novell Environments
Updated 28th October 2010. Due to a lot of requests and feedback, this script in now included as part of the script posted under Scripting updates to the GPT.ini for the Local Group Policy. Cheers, Jeremy.
Citrix Load Evaluators
It has always been my opinion that the CPU Utilisation and Page Swaps rules are highly variable, and therefore do not often represent the real load of a server. CPU Utilisation can often be too erratic to provide consistent load balancing. Now days you have the CPU Optimisation feature, or a 3rd Party management app controlling this. Once you’ve base-lined your systems, then a custom evaluator with the Server User Load and Memory Usage rule is about the best to receive a consistent balance across all servers.