Migration to Citrix XenApp 6

XenApp 6 Technical Changes:

In addition to a unified management console, XenApp 6 includes several technical changes:

1. All XenApp 6 prerequisites are automatically installed during the installation process. As such, only the base Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system must be installed on the server. Automatic reboots will occur during the XenApp installation process.
2. Data Store database can only be based on SQL Server 2005/2008, SQL Server Express 2008 or Oracle.
3. Citrix policies and farm settings are configured and applied universally as Group Policy Objects (GPOs) that have precedence over other local machine policies.

Implementing XenApp 6:

1. XenApp 6 implementations must be based on clean Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system installations as Citrix does not support operating system upgrades.
2. Thus, there is no path for upgrading existing XenApp 5 servers, even if based on Windows Server 2008 x64.
3. In addition, a XenApp 6 farm can only encompass XenApp 6 servers; mixed farms are not supported for XenApp 6.

Migration to XenApp 6:

1. There is no direct upgrade path exists for upgrading to XenApp 6 from XenApp 5
2. Create a new XenApp 6 farm and designate all settings manually
3. Migrate settings from an existing XenApp 5 farm into a new XenApp 6 farm using XenApp 6 Migration Tool

XenApp 6 Migration Tool

The XenApp 6 Migration Tool can be used to export settings from the XenApp 5 farm and import into the new XenApp 6 farm. Specifically, the following items are/are not transferred:

 

Settings Transferred	Settings Not Transferred
Applications	Zones
Application and server folders	Printer management
Load evaluators	Configuration Logging settings
Policies	Health Monitoring and Recovery
Server configuration	Deprecated settings, such as Application Isolation
Farm configuration
Administrator accounts

 

The Migration Tool provides options for excluding or modifying setting prior to importation into the new farm.

Steps to Transfer All Farm Settings via the XenApp 6 Migration Tool:

1. On a XenApp 6 server, install the XenApp 6 Migration Tool (Citrix.XenApp.Migration.Install_x64.msi), including the option to set the PowerShell execution policy to AllSigned
2. On the XenApp 6 server, access the tool via the Start –> Programs –> Citrix –> XenApp Migration Tool menu or open PowerShell and execute:
   1. To import the Migration Tool (necessary if accessed directly via PowerShell): Import-Module citrix.xenapp.migration
   2. To enable the unsigned scripts to run (necessary if PowerShell execution policy not set to AllSigned): Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned
   3. To designate the XenApp 5 server name: Set-XAMigrationOption -RemoteServerName [servername] –Passthru
   4. To map a server in the XenApp 5 farm to a worker group in the XenApp 6 farm: Add-XAServerMapping [servername] [worker group name]
   5. To transfer all settings: Start-XAMigration
      3. Perform post-migration steps

   Post-migration steps include: 

1. Attaching load evaluators to servers
2. Associating applications folders with worker groups
3. Associating servers or OUs with worker groups
4. Assigning zones
5. Configuring printer settings
6. Initiating Configuration Logging within the new farm
7. Configuring Health Monitoring settings

 

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