Tag Archives: Citrix

Citrix XenApp Cut-over 4/13/2017

This notice applies to the apps.oregonstate.edu service.

New troubleshooting steps have been added to the Citrix XenApp Service InfoSheet.

On Thursday, 4/13 at 11:00AM-Noon, we will be cutting over from the College of Engineering Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop infrastructure to the Information Services infrastructure.

This is NOT an outage and should not impact any currently connected users.

With this cut-over, we will be upgrading from XenApp 6.5 to XenApp 7.12.  With this deployment; the Service Desk will gain access to two powerful tools to assist in troubleshooting customer issues when using http://apps.oregonstate.edu.  These two tools can be reached by connecting via remote desktop to nws-term4.nws.oregonstate.edu and launching them from the start menu.

Service Desk technicians have the role of “Helpdesk Administrator” scoped to “Campus Labs – Applications” and “Campus Labs – Virtual Lab”.   With these permissions you should be able to assist customers with various common tasks.

Broker: OSU-CTX-DDC-01.OREGONSTATE.EDU

Citrix Director

The Citrix Director tool is a perfect companion to XenApp for Service Desk employees.  When you log into Director you are immediately prompted about looking up either a user, machine, or endpoint.  Select User and then type in the customer that is calling in with an issue.  You will be presented with all of the details about all connections that the customer is using (there can be multiple applications, desktops, etc.) as well as the ability to restart, shadow, reset, or list the processes that my session is currently using.

 Citrix Studio

“Citrix Studio is the primary management console for administering XenApp and XenDesktop sites.  This console is used for tasks such as initial site setup, machine provisioning, and application and desktop publishing.” In your role as a Service Desk employee you won’t use this tool as often as Citrix Director but it still has important features that may be beneficial when answering questions for customers or assisting them with their support issues.

Search

The search window allows you to search for any items within the Citrix infrastructure that you have permissions to.  This includes Desktops, Servers, and Sessions currently in the system.

Delivery Groups

Delivery Groups are the set of resources (servers, desktops, applications, and users) that have been configured for a specific purpose.  Your permissions grant you the ability to see a “Campus Labs – Applications” and “Campus Labs – Virtual Lab” delivery group.  For now we can ignore the “Campus Labs – Virtual Lab”; that’s for XenDesktop that we’ll be deploying at a later date.  By clicking on the “Campus Labs – Applications” you’ll be able to see that it consists of 10 servers.  From here you can see all the details about delivery group configuration and which applications have been assigned to this delivery group.  You can also right-click on the delivery group and select “View Machines” or “View Applications” to see the resources allocated to this delivery group.

View Machines – You will see a list of the Windows 2012 R2 servers that we have configured to host the applications running on http://apps.oregonstate.edu. You can see the status of each machine (is it on, is it registered, and the number of sessions attached to it).  If a machine has sessions on it you can view the session, send a message to the customer, and log off those sessions (in the cases that the session is hung).

Note:  You also have the ability to put a server into “Maintenance Mode”. This temporarily stops new connections to a machine to perform administrative tasks (fixing problems, applying updates, etc.).  You should only do this if you are receiving calls from several users about a specific server.  You should immediately begin working with Endpoint Management to determine the cause of the errors and ensure a speedy return to service for that server.

Applications

The application section is where you can dig into the details about the applications that are deployed to XenApp (http://apps.oregonstate.edu).  You’ll be able to see items like who has access, who’s using it now, and is the application enabled (available for customers to use).

Configuration Settings:

The configuration settings won’t be much use to you as a Service Desk employee as they are site-wide and managed by the Endpoint Management team.  The Controllers section lists the servers that are configured as Citrix controllers for our environment.  We have two currently to ensure that Citrix continues to function should one of the servers experience an issue and/or to allow maintenance on one while still providing uptime.  The AppDNA and Zones sections aren’t really implemented at this time.

Citrix Universal Profile Manager

The Citrix Universal Profile manager is a tool that we are using to keep a central profile for customer interactions with Citrix.  This ensures that the customer experience between XenApp applications and XenDesktop desktops are kept synchronized.  The data stored in these profiles is not customer data; it entails the settings and preferences of the various applications and desktops in use.  This profile location is generally hidden and not visible to the customer and we’re hoping to keep the size of this profile very limited.

Profile Location: \\ctx-profiles.sig.oregonstate.edu

Profile Naming: \\ctx-profiles.sig.oregonstate.edu\profiles\username.domain\windows-os-version (e.g.: \\ctx-profiles.sig.oregonstate.edu\powern.onid\Win7v2) (versioning details).

Citrix Profile Folder Redirection

ONID customers that are logging into XenApp or XenDesktop sessions will have their standard Windows profiles redirected to \\onid-fs.onid.oregonstate.edu\profiles\username\Profile.  We are currently using folder redirection to redirect the Desktop, Documents, Downloads, and Favorites.  On the previous XenApp implementation this information was stored in \\onid-fs.onid.oregonstate.edu\profiles\username\Windows.Documents folder.  As of Spring Break 2017; customers will be pointing to the Profile directory.  If you have customers that need something stored in their old location; work with them to browse their home space and find the files (nothing has been removed).

Service Desk Digest 4/5/2017

Students: Check your WhenToWork preferences

We have had several people miss shifts already this week due to scheduling conflicts. Please check your WhenToWork preferences carefully to ensure you are not set as available to work during a scheduled class.

Remember: it is your responsibility to ensure your WhenToWork settings are correct.

Citrix XenApp update next week

The Citrix XenApp environment will be upgraded and cut-over next week from College of Engineering’s infrastructure to IS’ infrastructure. With this change, we will gain access to some very useful troubleshooting tools. Information will be added to the Citrix InfoSheet shortly.

OSU-Cascades IT phone number

Telecom let me know that the phone menu for the old OSU-Cascades IT number (22051) had been wiped somehow. Customers calling that number heard dead air and were not able to get through to the call center.
This number used to be on a sticker on all OSU-Cascades computers, but no longer is. We started phasing it out about a year ago in favor of the main number (78787).
Fortunately, I still had a copy of the script, so Telecom re-recorded it for us. I have asked that they reprogram it to redirect directly to 78787 and that may be happening next week.

Sierra and ScreenConnect

Call center techs are seeing frequent but intermittent issues with ScreenConnect misbehaving on Sierra machines, making remote control almost impossible in many cases.

We may be able to resolve this with a change to ScreenConnect, or with a different tool. Will keep you all posted.

Floor in front of Milne 201

We had a bit of a surprise this week with the floor being torn up in front of Milne 201 without any notice. Angela is in conversation with Facilities about when the reinstall will happen, and trying to negotiate it for a time the walkup is not open. If the install ends up producing a lot of fumes, we can close the walkup door temporarily. My apologies for the unintended excitement.

 

Service Desk Digest – 8/16/2016

Customer Service Training

On Tuesday 8/9, all full-time staff in Client Services attended a customer service training provided by Kristen Magis from HR. The goal of the session was to work through the training modules and customize them to our needs. Kristen will also be helping us turn this into a Canvas module so that student workers can do the training ad-hoc.


Box Training

Box is slated to be made available to all students and employees in a soft launch on September 7. The Service Desk is the tier 1 point-of-contact for Box support.

All Client Services staff and student workers (everyone who is here this summer) should be able to login to oregonstate.box.com now. If you had trouble accessing the training before, please try again via this method:

  1. Login to oregonstate.box.com.
  2. Click on “Get Training” on the right.
  3. If this is the first time you have gone to the Training site, wait 1 day before doing the next step.
  4. Search for “Helpdesk Essentials”, click on it, and choose “Launch”.
  5. If that doesn’t work, click on your profile at the top-right, then choose “Transcript” – the training should be listed under “Active”.

Walk-up Moving to Milne

There is a project underway to move the repair and tier 1 services of the walk-up desk from the Library to Milne before school starts in September. The checkout and production services will stay in the library. If this move happens, it will be during early to mid September.

The project team is: Andrew, Kirsten, Max, Samuel, Jeff, Richard, Ed. Ping one of us if you have questions or concerns.

I am currently working on the communications plan and CAB request for this change.

Walk-up folks please note: Community Network customers will also be able to bring their OSU-owned computers to the walk-up for assistance, but we will not be promoting this service until later in Fall. For now, if a CN customer comes to the walkup, please DO NOT TURN THEM AWAY. Ask for their ticket number, or look them up in RefTool to find their ticket, and call the 78787 number if you are not sure what to do.


New IS Website

The Information Services website is being redone, and the new one should be going into production either late August or early September.

You can view the dev version of the new IS site here. I am still working with Sher Fenn to update much of our content.


Apps.oregonstate.edu

Citrix XenApp (apps.oregonstate.edu) has replaced RemoteApps. The Service Desk is the tier 1 point-of-contact for all Citrix requests. Escalate issues to the Campus Labs queue in Coho as needed.

The InfoSheet for Citrix is in ITKnows.

The name of this service may change, but for now we seem to be calling it “Citrix” or “Apps”.


OSU-Cascades New Building

The grand opening for Tykeson Hall is September 13. Greg Chilcote and Shannon Osborne were busy last week getting things ready.

With things being very busy in Bend and with OSU-Cascades expanding to more locations, we are encouraging CN customers at OSU-Cascades to call the call center for support rather than arm-grabbing Greg and Shannon for everything. Always make note of where a customer is located when talking to them on the phone. We can send Greg and Shannon to field appointments in Bend just as we do with field techs here in Corvallis. Max C. is working on getting travel time information to assist us with scheduling.


New Email Address for Service Desk

Beginning with promotional events this Fall and with changes to the IS website, I will be promoting a new email address for contacting the Service Desk.

The official contact information for the Service Desk is as follows:

IS Service Desk

Phone: 541-737-8787 (Corvallis/Statewide),  541-322-2051 (OSU-Cascades)

Email: Service.Desk@oregonstate.edu

Walk-up: Valley Library, main floor lobby area (until this changes)


Fall Service Desk Hours

With the move of the walk-up to Milne, we will be syncing up the call center hours with the walk-up. Our fall hours for walk-up and call center will be:

IS Service Desk Hours

Monday-Friday: 8am-7PM

Saturday/Sunday: 3PM-7PM


Team Dynamix Update

We are getting ready to reboot the project to roll Client Services to Team Dynamix, our new ticketing system.

Lucas Friedrichsen will be heading up this effort, with Paul Bunn as the project manager.

I can’t give an exact time frame yet, but if all goes well, we will be migrating the Service Desk from Coho to Team Dynamix in mid-to-late Fall term.

We will address other groups who use Coho after the Service Desk operations have moved.

MILNE COMPUTER LAB UPDATES – December 30th

All Dell Windows computers were updated (Citrix PVS image) in Milne on Wednesday, December 30th.

Bug fixes, improvements, and updates:

  • Fixed Adobe After Effects intermittent crash error 0 :: 42.
    • The fix was to update the video drivers.
  • Fixed newly introduced Adobe After Effects error about not having a disk cache configured.
    • I’ve created a folder C:\Temp and have configured the default user profile to point the cache there.
  • Fixed GPU performance error for Adobe Illustrator.
    • I’ve configured the default user profile to disable this feature and stop prompting the user.
  • Removed the Java update application from the run key in the registry. This should stop the update notifications.
  • Applied Windows updates.
  • Applied Ninite updates.
  • Applied Adobe CC updates.

Newly installed applications (by request):

  • TeXnicCenter
  • MiKTeX
  • MPlus
  • Eclipse IDE

Applications removed:

  • Winsent Innocenti

Call Center Digest, Friday 9/4/2015

We have a lot of changes coming up and a lot of information to share. I will be doing a weekly digest from the call centers. If you want more details about any of the below, ping me!

Labor Day weekend maintenance for Banner, Banner Apps, MyOSU – OSU Banner and all Banner Apps, including MyOSU, will be down over the Labor Day weekend for maintenance.

Google logins, Google email addresses, and student UPNs changing 9/12/2015 – Everyone (students and employees) will start logging in to Google Apps as username@oregonstate.edu. Primary email addresses for Google will change to username@oregonstate.edu in Google and in OSU Online Services. The UPN for students will change to username@oregonstate.edu, and this will impact how students log in to Office 365. All of campus will be notified early next week.

More info about Google and UPN changes: http://oregonstate.edu/helpdocs/landing-page-students

OSU Cascades tech support changes 9/16/2015 – Starting mid-September, tech support calls and emails from OSU Cascades in Bend will be directed to OCH and CN call centers in Corvallis. Please be kind to the OSU Cascades folks!

RemoteApps being replaced by Citrix XenApp  – As of start of Fall term, the RemoteApps service will be redirecting to Citrix XenApp. This is the apps.oregonstate.edu service, previously run by College of Engineering, currently managed by IT Infrastructure.

Comcast Infinity (IP TV) coming to OSU Housing – University Housing & Dining is deploying IP TV this Fall term. Only students who live in the residence halls will be able to access the service, and only from on the campus network.

Canvas and TurnItIn integration – The Canvas team will be implementing a piracy prevention component called TurnItIn. This may result in some calls to OCH.


 

Office Moves:

OCH 5PM-7PM shift moving to Service Desk – The evening shift at the OCH call center will be moving downstairs to the Comms desk area at the Service Desk, sometime during Fall term (date TBD).

IS Client Services moving to Milne Computer Center in November – all ISCS employees in the Library will be moving to offices in the Milne Computer Center around November 2015. Exceptions: the Service Desk and Student Multimedia Services will stay in the Library.


 

Upcoming Events

Labor Day, September 7, OSU Closed – The university is closed on Monday. Don’t come to work!

Monday, September 14 – Grad Fair

Saturday, September 19 – Talk Like a Pirate Day

Sunday, September 20 – Housing Move-In Day – The OCH Call Center will be open for a few hours this day.

Monday, September 21 – University Day

Thursday, September 24 – Beaver Fair

Thursday, September 24 – First day of Fall term classes