Citrix Smart Tools does not yet officially support deployment of blueprints on Azure Resource Manager (ARM) but with some effort it is possible to deploy component blueprints in ARM and combine these blueprints to implement proof of concept Citrix Solutions such as XenApp and XenDesktop Proof of Concept or XenApp and XenDesktop Service: Resource Location - this article will show you how!

1. Import the component blueprint from catalog

This document is going to describe deployment of the Domain Controller component blueprint (a list of component blueprints that you can deploy in this way is provided later in the article). Click on the Blueprint Catalog tab in the Citrix Smart Tools console, scroll down to the Components section and import the Domain Controller blueprint into your library using the + button:

2. Create a new virtual machine in Azure Resource Manager

To get started with a deployment into Azure Resource Manager you first need to manually provision a new Windows virtual machine. Use the Azure portal at https://portal.azure.com to create a server in your chosen region and resource group. Deploy into a virtual network (a single subnet is recommended) and use the default Network Security group settings. A useful tip is to use the recommendations from the blueprint you wish to deploy to determine the size of virtual machine to create.

3.  Download the latest Citrix Smart Tools agent

Connect and log on to the new virtual machine from the Azure portal, open a browser and log on to your Citrix Smart Tools account at https://smart.cloud.com/. Click on the Resources and Settings tab followed by Add Resource Location:

Select the XenServer resource location type and press Next (note that we are using the XenServer resource location type just to get access to the latest Smart Tools agent – we won’t be actually creating a XenServer resource location…)

Check the box labelled Prepare a new connector and press Next.

Select Windows as the operating system and press Download Agent:

Now press Cancel to exit the Resource Location Wizard.

4. Install the Citrix Smart Tools agent

Locate the file CitrixLifecycleManagementAgent.exe that you downloaded in step 3, and double click on it to run the agent installer. Check the box to accept terms & conditions and press Install to install the Smart Tools Agent.

Make a note of the computer name and IP address for this virtual machine as this information will be required when deploying the blueprint. The computer name can be found from the Control Panel, to find the IP address open a console window and type ipconfig:

You should now log off from the Azure virtual machine as it will shortly be used as the target of a blueprint deployment (and the blueprint may need to reboot the machine as part of the deployment).

5. Check the new virtual machine has registered

From your workstation log on to your Smart Tools account at https://smart.cloud.com/ and click on the Manage tab followed by Servers to check that your new virtual machine has called home and registered into your account. If you don’t see it in the list of managed servers, you may need to refresh the page.

If the server does not register check that you followed the procedure described above – the executable for the Smart Tools agent is pre-configured to register with the account from which it has been downloaded – you must download the agent from the account you wish the server to register with.

6. Deploy the blueprint

Switch to the library view by clicking on the Smart Build tab and select the Deploy option from the drop down Action menu of the imported Domain Controller blueprint:

Click through the Deploy Wizard until you reach the Resource Location step. Here you should select the All Existing Machines option followed by Next

Click through to the Size step of the Deploy Wizard and select the managed server that you created and registered in steps 2 – 4 (check the name and IP address to ensure you select the correct server) and then press Next

Click through to the parameters section of the Deploy Wizard and enter the same computer name, administrator name and password that you chose for when creating the virtual machine in section 2 plus a name and safe mode password for your new domain and press Next. If you are unsure of the value to enter for any parameter click on the “?” symbol by the parameter to obtain help.

Save a deployment profile if you wish and then press Deploy to start the blueprint deployment on your new virtual machine.

That's it! The component blueprint will deploy on your Azure Resource Manager server.

Which blueprints can I deploy in this way?

The following component blueprints have been tested with this approach, but please note that deployment on Azure Resource Manager is not yet officially supported by Citrix Smart Tools. If you encounter difficulties deploying them on Azure Resource Manager - just start a conversation on the Citrix Smart Tools forum and one of the team will do their best to assist you:

1. Domain Controller
2. XenApp and XenDesktop Delivery Controller
3. XenApp and XenDesktop Server VDA
4. XenApp and XenDesktop Service: Cloud Connector
5. StoreFront Server
6. NetScaler VPX (Azure Resource Manager)
7. NetScaler Gateway
8. StoreFront Configuration (NetScaler Gateway)

Building Solutions from Components

The following sections illustrate how to build Citrix Solutions from component blueprints

XenApp and XenDesktop Proof of Concept

Using a combination of the component blueprints listed above you can implement any of the supported XenApp and XenDesktop Proof of Concept variants in Azure Resource Manager

1. Create a new domain using the Domain Controller blueprint – skip this step if you wish to deploy using an existing domain.
2. Create a XenDesktop Delivery Controller using the XenApp and XenDesktop Delivery Controller blueprint
3. Create one or more VDA templates using the XenApp and XenDesktop Server VDA blueprint (e.g. you might wish to create one Server VDI template and one RDS server template). Once the Server VDA has been provisioned you should use the Azure portal to create an Azure Image from the virtual machine.
4. Use the NetScaler VPX (Azure Resource Manager) blueprint to create a NetScaler VPX and prepare it for a NetScaler Gateway deployment (you should deploy this blueprint on the XenDesktop Delivery Controller you created in step 2). When the blueprint completes it will send you an email with details of the IP address of the VPX plus details of the NetScaler Gateway preparation (you will find these values of use in the next step).
5. Deploy the NetScaler Gateway blueprint on the XenDesktop Delivery Controller to create a NetScaler Gateway on the VPX to provide secure remote access to StoreFront and your Azure Resource Manager based desktops using the NetScaler Gateway.
6. Configure StoreFront on the XenDesktop Delivery Controller to inter-operate with the NetScaler Gateway using the StoreFront Configuration (NetScaler Gateway) blueprint. Deploy this blueprint on the XenDesktop Delivery Controller.

XenApp and XenDesktop Service: Resource Location

Using a combination of the component blueprints listed above you can implement any of the supported XenApp and XenDesktop Service: Resource Location variants in Azure Resource Manager like this:

1. Create a new domain using the Domain Controller blueprint – skip this step if you are deploying using an existing domain.
2. Create a Cloud Connector machine to provide connectivity to the Citrix Cloud using the XenApp and XenDesktop Service: Cloud Connector blueprint (note the Citrix Cloud recommendation is to deploy two Cloud Connectors which mean that this blueprint needs to be deployed twice (technical limitations mean that the blueprint cannot deploy on more than one server at once). The two Cloud Connector blueprint jobs may be run in parallel.
3. Create one or more VDA templates using the XenApp and XenDesktop Server VDA blueprint (e.g. one Server VDI template and one RDS server template). Once a Server VDA machine has been provisioned you should use the Azure portal to create an Azure Image from the virtual machine so that you may later use it to create one or more MCS machine catalogs.
4. If you want a StoreFront server in your Citrix Cloud Resource Location use the StoreFront Server blueprint to create a standalone StoreFront server
5. Use the NetScaler VPX (Azure Resource Manager) blueprint to create a NetScaler VPX and prepare it for a NetScaler Gateway deployment. You should deploy this blueprint on one of the Cloud Connector machines that you created in step 2. When the blueprint completes it will send you an email with details of the address of the VPX plus details of the NetScaler Gateway preparation (you will find these values of use in the next step).
6. Use the NetScaler Gateway blueprint to create a NetScaler Gateway on the VPX to provide secure remote access to your Azure Resource Manager based desktops using the NetScaler Gateway blueprint (select option “Desktops only” to create an ICA proxy if you are using the Citrix Cloud hosted StoreFront). You should deploy this blueprint on one of the Cloud Connector machines that you created in step 2.

Failure resilience when using Component Blueprints

One of the advantages of using the component blueprint approach is increased failure resilience when compared with the traditional Citrix Smart Tools Solution blueprints:

1. Each component blueprint step is marked to pause on failure, which gives an opportunity for an experienced deployer to possibly fix the problem that caused a step to fail and then resume the blueprint
2. Each component blueprint is a self-contained entity with its own tear down phase. This means that if a component blueprint fails (and cannot be fixed/resumed) only that blueprint need be torn down – any previous successful component deployments may be retained. This is increasingly useful when building large systems consisting of many components.

Conclusion

Smart Tools does not yet support Azure Resource Manager, but if you are willing to put in a little effort, then you can deploy Citrix Solutions now on the Azure Resource Manager platform.