This is a quick guide to help with evaluating and troubleshooting issues that may arise while using the AppDisk Feature of XenApp and XenDesktop.

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Instructions

AppDisks Review
 
AppDisks separate applications from their base operating system mages, easing administrative overhead. Creating an AppDisk adds a new volume attached to the base image. Applications are installed to this volume and it must be sealed when complete. Once sealed, AppDisks can be assigned to Delivery Groups and can be made available within desktops and as published applications. If updates to an application are required, a new version of the AppDisk is created. The new AppDisk must be assigned to a Delivery Group before the new version of the application is available to users.

• AppDisks separate applications and base OS images
• AppDisks are assigned to Delivery Groups
• AppDNA can analyze compatibility issues
• Be aware of storage and compatibility considerations
• Troubleshoot using AppDNA, CDFControI, Diagnostic Tool

 AppDisks Considerations:

• Not all applications are suitable candidates for AppDisks.
• AppDisks are supported on XenServer and versions of VMware greater than 5.1.
• All machines in a Delivery Group with AppDisks must be from catalogs all linked to the same hosting resources.
• When using AppDisks with Provisioning Services, only one maintenance operation should be performed at a time for a particular catalog or device collection.
• Machine Creation Services has no restriction.
• AppDisks are limited to pooled random and assigned VDI and RDS catalogs - dedicated catalogs do not support this technology.
• AppDisks cannot be used in conjunction with the  Personal vDisk feature.
• Between ten to thirteen AppDisks are allowed per virtual machine.
• Ensure the hypervisor tools are installed on all images prior to creating or using AppDisks
• Administrators have the ability to manually create AppDisks themselves as well as manage AppDisks using the SDK
• Storage requirements must be considered when using AppDisks because the number of volumes can rapidly increase.
• See XenApp and XenDesktop 7.8 documentation for more information.

 
AppDisks Troubleshooting

• Review AppDNA analysis: If an AppDisk application is not available when launching a resource, review the detailed analysis to confirm the application is suitable for AppDisk delivery.  

 

• Change priority order for dependencies: If multiple AppDisks are assigned to a Delivery Group, change the priority within a Delivery Group to see if it has any effect on the behavior.
 


• CDF tracing is available for the AppDisks feature - make sure to include the modules shown here:
  CDF modules AppLibrary*, MachineCreation*, Broker* , DesktopStudio


• PowerShell:  The PowerShell command below can be used to obtain detailed information about a failure state.
 
    Get-AppLibAppDisk -AppDiskName <appdiskname>
 



• CtxAppDisksDiag.exe : Finally. the AppDisk driver on each VDA includes a diagnostic tool which gathers the service logs written during creation and delivery, the DaFsLogFile, metadata for each AppDisk System and Application event logs and MSlnfo output. All of this information may be useful during a troubleshooting scenario.
 

 

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This is a quick guide to help with evaluating and troubleshooting issues that may arise while using the AppDisk Feature of XenApp and XenDesktop.

AppDisk Product Documentation:
https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/xenapp-and-xendesktop/7-8/install-configure/appdisks.html

AppDNA 7.8 Documentation:
http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/dna/7-8.html