What’s new

A goal of Citrix is to deliver new features and product updates to Citrix DaaS customers when they are available. New releases provide more value, so there’s no reason to delay updates. Rolling updates to Citrix DaaS release approximately every three weeks.

This process is transparent to you. Initial updates are applied to Citrix internal sites only, and are then applied to customer environments gradually. Delivering updates incrementally in waves helps ensure product quality and maximize availability.

For details about the Service Level Agreement for cloud scale and service availability, see Service Level Agreement. To monitor service interruptions and scheduled maintenance, see the Service Health Dashboard.

Virtual Delivery Agents (VDAs)

VDAs for Windows machines generally release at the same time as the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops product.

• For information about new VDA and HDX features, see the What’s new and Known issues articles for the current Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops release.
• For information about VDA platforms and features that are no longer supported, see Deprecation. That article also includes platforms and features that are scheduled to be unsupported in a future release (such as which operating systems support VDA installation).

Important:

If the Personal vDisk (PvD) component was ever installed on a VDA, that VDA cannot be upgraded to version 1912 LTSR or later. To use the new VDA, you must uninstall the current VDA and then install the new VDA. (This instruction applies even if you installed PvD but never used it.) For details, see If the VDA has Personal vDisk installed.

November 2022

New and enhanced features

Support for changing the storage type to a lower tier when a VM is shut down in Azure environments. In Azure environments, you can now save storage costs by switching the storage type of a managed disk to a lower tier when you shut down a VM. To do this, use the StorageTypeAtShutdown custom property. The storage type of the disk changes to a lower tier (as specified in the StorageTypeAtShutdown custom property) when you shut down the VM. After you power on the VM, the storage type changes back to the original storage type (as specified in StorageType or WBCDiskStorageType custom property). For more information, see Change the storage type to a lower tier when a VM is shut down.

Access Citrix Analytics for Performance - Session Details from Monitor. The Session Details page from Citrix Analytics for Performance is now integrated in Monitor. Click View Session Timeline in the Sessions page in Monitor to view the Sessions Details page from Citrix Analytics for Performance within Monitor. This requires you to have a valid Citrix Analytics for Performance entitlement. The Session Details are available for sessions that are categorized as Excellent, Fair, or Poor in Citrix Analytics for Performance.

You can view a trend of the session experience for the session for up to the last three days along with the factors contributing to the experience. This information complements the live data available in Monitor, used by the helpdesk admin while troubleshooting issues related to session experience.

For more information, see the Site Analytics article.

Updates in Filters View. The Filters page in Monitor is updated to include separate Saved and Default filters lists for better visualization and accessibility to the filters. You can select a view from among Machines, sessions, Connections, or Application Instances. Then, you can select a filter from the list of Saved filters or Default filters to view the filtered list of data. You can use the drop-down lists to refine the filter criteria or edit existing criteria. You can save your filter in the Saved Filter list. For more information, see the Filters article.

Ability to reset the OS disk of a persistent VM in an MCS created machine catalog. In VMware virtualization environments, you can now use the PowerShell command Reset-ProvVMDisk to reset the OS disk of a persistent VM in an MCS created machine catalog. The feature automates the process of resetting the OS disk. For example, it helps in resetting the VM to its initial status of a persistent development desktop catalog created using MCS.

For more information on using PowerShell command to reset the OS disk, see Reset OS disk.

Support for updating machine profile and additional custom properties of MCS provisioned machines in Azure environments. Previously, in Azure environments, you could use Request-ProvVMUpdate to update ServiceOffering custom property of an MCS provisioned machine. Now, you can also update the machine profile and the following custom properties:

• StorageType
• WBCDiskStorageType
• IdentityDiskStorageType
• LicenseType
• DedicatedHostGroupId
• PersistWBC
• PersistOsDisk
• PersistVm

For more information, see Update provisioned machines to current provisioning scheme state.

Support for machine profile in GCP. When you create a catalog to provision machines using Machine Creation Services (MCS) in Google Cloud Platform (GCP) environments, you can now use a machine profile to capture the hardware properties from a virtual machine and apply them to the newly provisioned VMs in the catalog. When MachineProfile parameter is not used, the hardware properties are captured from the master image VM or snapshot.

Machine profiles work with both Linux and Windows operating systems.

For information on how to create a machine catalog with a machine profile, see Create a machine catalog using a machine profile.

Support for updating MCS provisioned machines in GCP environments. In GCP environments, Set-ProvScheme changes the template (provisioning scheme) and does not affect existing machines. Using the PowerShell command Request-ProvVMUpdate, you can now apply the current provisioning scheme to an existing machine (or set of machines). Currently, in GCP, the property update supported by this feature is machine profile. For more information, see Update provisioned machines using PowerShell.

October 2022

New and enhanced features

Support for using machine profiles and host groups at the same time. When creating a catalog using an Azure Resource Manager master image, you can now use a machine profile and a host group at the same time. This is useful in scenarios where you want to use trusted launch for improved security and at the same time run the machines on dedicated hosts. For more information, see Microsoft Azure Resource Manager virtualization environments.

Support for organizing delivery groups using folders. You can now create a folder tree to organize delivery groups for easy access. For more information, see Organize delivery groups using folders.

Support for scheduling a one-time restart for machines through Full Configuration. A new option, Once, is now available when you create restart schedules for delivery groups. With this option, you can schedule machines in a delivery group to restart once, at a specified date and time. For more information, see Create a restart schedule.

Advanced Probe Scheduling. Improved scheduling of Application and Desktop Probes can now be done from Monitor. Using this feature, Citrix Probe Agent can be configured to run the probe tasks on specific days of the week and repeated at specified intervals during the day. This allows you to schedule a single probe task to repeat at specific times of the day and the week. You can now proactively check your site health with probes set to run regularly at suitable times. This feature simplifies probe setup and management in Monitor. For more information, see Application Probing and Desktop Probing.

September 2022

New and enhanced features

Older versions of the Remote PowerShell SDK are now deprecated. If you are using a deprecated version, the SDK stops working and you see an error message prompting you to download the current version. If this happens, download the latest Remote PowerShell SDK from the Citrix website.

Machine catalogs with Trusted launch in Azure. In Azure environments, you can create machine catalogs enabled with Trusted launch, and use the SupportsTrustedLaunch property of the VM inventory to determine the VM sizes that support Trusted launch.

Trusted launch is a seamless way to improve the security of Generation 2 VMs. Trusted launch protects against advanced and persistent attack techniques. For more information, see Machine catalogs with Trusted launch.

Support for identifying Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager resources created by MCS. You can now identify Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) resources created by MCS using tags. For more information on the tags that MCS adds to the resources, see Identify resources created by MCS.

Support for identifying VMware resources created by MCS. You can now identify VMware resources created by MCS using tags. For more information on the tags that MCS adds to the resources, see Identify resources created by MCS.

Support for optimizing AWS Workspace throttling. You can now power on and off a large number of machines in an AWS Workspace without encountering throttling issues. Throttling issues occur when the number of requests sent to AWS Workspace exceeds the number of requests that the server can handle. Therefore, Citrix now groups multiple requests into one single request before sending it to the AWS Workspace SDK.

Ability to check machine details when viewing machine counts in Home. When viewing machine counts by availability state in Home, you can now click a state to view details of machines in that state. For more information, see Home page for the Full Configuration interface.

Support for machine catalog creation using an image from a different subscription in the same Azure tenant. Previously, in Azure environments, you could only select an image within your subscription to create a machine catalog. With this feature, you can now select an image in Azure Compute Gallery (formerly Shared Imaged Gallery) that belongs to a different shared subscription to create and update MCS catalogs.

For more information on creating a catalog, see Create a machine catalog using an Azure Resource Manager image.

For information on sharing image with another service principal in the same tenant, see Image sharing with another service principal in the same tenant.

For information on PowerShell commands to select an image from a different subscription, see Using PowerShell to select an image from a different subscription.

For more information on Azure Compute Gallery, see Azure Shared Image Gallery.

August 2022

New and enhanced features

Support for identifying Citrix hypervisor resources created by MCS. You can now identify Citrix hypervisor resources created by MCS using tags. For more information on the tags that MCS adds to the resources, see Identify resources created by MCS.

Support for using host groups and Azure availability zones at the same time. In Azure environments, there is now a pre-flight check to assess whether the creation of a machine catalog will be successful based on the Azure availability zone specified in the custom property and the host group’s zone. Catalog creation fails if the availability zone custom property does not match the host group’s zone.

A host group is a resource that represents a collection of dedicated hosts. A dedicated host is a service that provides physical servers that host one or more virtual machines. Azure availability zones are physically separate locations within each Azure region that are tolerant to local failures.

For more information on the various combinations of availability zone and host group zone that result in successful or failed the machine catalog creation, see Using host groups and Azure availability zones at the same time.

Support for updating the folder ID of a machine catalog in VMware. In VMware virtualization environments, you can now update the folder ID of an MCS machine catalog using the custom property FolderID in Set-ProvScheme. The VMs created after updating the folder ID are created under this new folder ID. If this property is not specified in CustomProperties, then VMs are created under the folder where the master image is located. For more information on updating the folder ID, see Update the folder ID of a machine catalog.

Time zone setup. You can now configure the date and time format of the interface to suit your preferences using the Date and time setting. For more information, see Time zone setup.

Image Portability Service (IPS) now supports Amazon Web Services (AWS). By configuring the required permissions and components for AWS, IPS workflows can be used with an AWS account. See Migrate workloads to public cloud for more details.

Page file setting during image preparation in Azure environments. In Azure environments, you can now avoid potential confusion with the page file location. To that end, MCS now determines the page file location when you create the provisioning scheme during image preparation. This calculation is based on certain rules. Features like ephemeral OS disk (EOS) and MCS I/O have their own, expected page file location, and are exclusive to each other. Also, if you decouple image preparation from provisioning scheme creation, MCS correctly determines the page file location. For more information on page file location, see Page file location.

Support for updating page file setting in Azure environments. While creating a catalog in an Azure environment, you can now specify the page file setting, including its location and the size, using PowerShell commands. This overrides the page file setting determined by MCS. You can do this by running the New-ProvScheme command with the following custom properties:

• PageFileDiskDriveLetterOverride: Page file location disk drive letter
• InitialPageFileSizeInMB: Initial page file size in MB
• MaxPageFileSizeInMB: Maximum page file size in MB

For more information on updating the page file setting, see Update page file setting.

Updates to the Home page. The Get Started widget now has a new look and feel. Other updates to the Home page include:

• The newly added Refresh and Help icons in the upper right corner.
• Clickable resource counts, providing quick access to relevant resource pages.
• Enhancement to the Dislike icon. If you dislike a recommendation, the recommendation disappears. If you dislike the recommendation widget, the widget disappears.

For more information, see Home page.

Support for enabling Azure VM extensions. When using an ARM template spec as a machine profile to create a machine catalog, you can now add Azure VM extensions to the VMs in the catalog, view the list of supported extensions, and remove extensions you added. Azure VM extensions are small applications that provide post-deployment configuration and automation tasks on Azure VMs. For example, if a VM requires software installation, antivirus protection, or the ability to run a script inside it, you can use a VM extension. For more information on how to enable Azure VM extensions, see Use PowerShell to enable Azure VM extensions.

Trusted launch support for ephemeral OS disk. You can now create provisioning schemes using ephemeral OS disk on Windows with trusted launch. Trusted launch is a seamless way to improve the security of generation 2 VMs. It protects against advanced and persistent attack techniques by combining technologies that can be independently enabled like secure boot and virtualized version of trusted platform module (vTPM). For more information on creating a machine catalog, see Create a machine catalog using an Azure Resource Manager image.

July 2022

New and enhanced features

Dynamic session timeouts for single-session OS machines. Dynamic session timeouts now support single-session OS machines. A delivery group with at least one VDA of version 2206 or later is required. Ensure that those VDAs have registered with Citrix Cloud at least once. For more information, go to Dynamic session timeouts.

Send logoff reminders without forcing user logoff in Autoscale. A new feature is now available in User Logoff Notifications (formerly Force User Logoff) in Autoscale. The feature lets you send logoff reminders to users without forcing them to log off. Doing that avoids potential data loss caused by forcing users to log off from their sessions. See User logoff notifications for details.

Ability to set the Linux OS license type when creating Linux VM catalogs in Azure. Using the Full Configuration interface, you can now choose the Linux OS license type when creating Linux VM catalogs in Azure. You have two choices for bring-your-own Linux licenses: Red Hat Enterprise Linux and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. For more information, see Create a machine catalog using an Azure Resource Manager image.

Enhanced search experience in Full Configuration. The Search node provides the following new features and enhancements:

• Ability to export search results. You can now export search results. To do that, click the export icon in the upper right corner.
• New filter available. A filter, Pending Power Action, is now available for use. Use the filter to refine your search.
• “Does not contain” search support for certain items. Items such as machine names and tags now support “Does not contain” search criteria.
• Support for searching for objects when adding filters. When adding filters for the following objects, you can now search for them: connections, machine catalogs, delivery groups, application groups, and tags.

For more information, see Use Search in the Full Configuration management interface.

Support for VMware Storage Profiles. When you create a machine catalog using a master image on a vSAN Datastore, you can now copy the storage policy such as the RAID-1 or RAID-5 information from the master image to the created target devices. For existing catalogs, the storage policy remains unchanged even if you update the catalog.

Support for RestrictedKrbHost SPN registration. All the Citrix MCS created computer accounts are now registered with RestrictedKrbHost Service Principal Names (SPN). This avoids the requirement to run the setspn command to register the SPN for the computer accounts after MCS creates them.

App Packages in Full Configuration for delivering Microsoft packaged applications. The App-V node is renamed to App Packages and redesigned to accommodate more types of Microsoft packaged apps. Previously, you had to use the discovery module to add App-V packaged apps to your environment for delivery. You can now add and deliver the apps in one place by using the App Packages node. For more information, see App packages.

Note:

This feature is being rolled out in phases. It might not yet be activated for your account.

Support for using ARM template specs as machine profiles. Previously, you could use only VMs as machine profiles. You can now use ARM template specs as machine profiles as well when creating Azure machine catalogs. This feature lets you take advantage of Azure ARM template features such as versioning. To ensure that the selected spec is configured correctly and contains required configurations, we perform validation on it. If the validation fails, you are prompted to select a different machine profile. For more information, see Create a machine catalog using an Azure Resource Manager image.

Support for validating ARM template spec. You can now validate the ARM template spec to make sure that it can be used as a machine profile to create a machine catalog. There are two ways to validate the ARM template spec:

• Using the Full Configuration management interface.
• Using the PowerShell command.

For more information on validating the ARM template spec, see Create a machine catalog using an Azure Resource Manager image.

June 2022

New and enhanced features

Restart schedule support for single-session OS machines. Previously, the restart schedule feature was available only for multi-session OS machines. It’s now also available for single-session OS machines. You can now create restart schedules for delivery groups containing single-session OS machines. For more information, see Create and manage restart schedules for machines in a delivery group.

Option to perform user name pre-checks. An option, Check name, is now available when you enter domain credentials. With the option, you can check whether the user name is valid or unique. The option is useful, for example, when:

• The same user name exists in multiple domains. You are prompted to select the desired user.
• You can’t remember the domain name. You can enter the user name without specifying the domain name. If the check passes, the domain name populates automatically.

For more information, see Domain credentials.

Ability to change the network setting for an existing provisioning scheme. You can now change the network setting for an existing provisioning scheme so that the new VMs are created on the new subnetwork. Use the parameter -NetworkMapping in the Set-ProvScheme command to change the network setting. Only the newly provisioned VMs from the scheme will have the new subnetwork settings. You must also make sure that the subnetworks are under the same hosting unit. For more information, see Change the network setting for an existing provisioning scheme.

Retrieve region name information for Azure VMs, managed disks, snapshots, Azure VHD, and ARM template. You can now display the region name information for an Azure VM, managed disks, snapshots, Azure VHD, and ARM template. This information is displayed for the resources on the master image when a machine catalog is assigned. For more information, see Retrieve region name information for Azure VMs, managed disks, snapshots, Azure VHD, and ARM template.

Ability to use machine profile property values in Azure environment. While creating an Azure catalog with a machine profile, you can now set the property values from the ARM template spec or VM, whichever is used as a machine profile, if the values are not explicitly defined in the custom properties. The properties affected by this feature are:

• Availability zone
• Dedicated Host Group Id
• Disk Encryption Set Id
• OS type
• License type
• Service Offering
• Storage type

If some of the properties are missing from the machine profile and not defined in the custom properties, then the default value of the properties takes place wherever applicable. For more information, see Use machine profile property values.

Extended support for VDA upgrade. Using the Full Configuration interface, you can now upgrade MCS-provisioned persistent machines. You can upgrade them on a per-catalog or a per-machine basis. For more information, see Upgrade VDAs using the Full Configuration interface.

Citrix Probe Agent in Citrix Cloud Japan and Citrix Cloud Government Control Planes. Citrix Probe Agent now supports sites hosted on Citrix Cloud Japan and Citrix Cloud Government Control Planes. To use the probing agent in these planes, set the registry value in the path, “\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Citrix\ProbeAgent\AGENT\region” to 2 for Japan and 3 for the Government region. Citrix Probe Agent automates the process of checking the health of virtual apps and desktops that are published in a site. For more information, see Application Probing and Desktop Probing.

Customize the port used for communication between VDAs and Cloud Connectors. You can now customize the port that the VDA uses to communicate with Cloud Connectors based on your specific security requirements. This feature is useful if your security team doesn’t allow the default port (port 80) to be open or if the default port is already in use. For more information, see Customize the port for communicating with Cloud Connectors.

Support for organizing machine catalogs using folders. You can now create nested folders to organize machine catalogs for easy access. For more information, see Organize catalogs using folders.

Support for SCVMM 2022. Citrix DaaS now supports Microsoft’s System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) 2022. SCVMM provides a range of services to include maintaining the resources you need to deploy VMs. For more information about the new features supported in SCVMM 2022, see What’s new in System Center Virtual Machine Manager.

Support for configuring maximum concurrent provisioning operations parameter on AWS. Citrix DaaS now supports MaximumConcurrentProvisioningOperations as a configurable custom property for MCS on AWS. MaximumConcurrentProvisioningOperations is the property that determines the number of VMs you can create or delete simultaneously. While MCS supports 100 maximum concurrent provisioning operations by default, you can now enter PowerShell commands to customize this value. You can enter a range from 1-1000. Setting this property to your preferred value allows you to control the number of parallel tasks you can perform when creating or deleting VMs. For details about configuring the maximum concurrent provisioning operations, see Host Connection Default Values.

May 2022

New and enhanced features

Enhanced Session launch diagnostics. Citrix DaaS now supports detailed session launch failure diagnostics. You can now view the components involved in the session launch sequence. The components which failed with last generated error codes are highlighted. This helps identify the exact reason for a session launch failure and take the recommended action.

The Transaction page is extended with the Transaction Details panel that contains a list of components indicating the error occurrence. Clicking on the component name displays the Component Details and the Last Known Failure Details. The Failure Reason and Error Code are displayed. Clicking the Learn more link leads to the specific code on Error codes containing a detailed description and recommended action. For more information, see Session Diagnostics.

Support for using Set-ProvServiceConfigurationData in Remote PowerShell SDK. You can now run Set-ProvServiceConfigurationData using Remote PowerShell SDK to do the settings on all applicable parameters. You can also skip enabling DHCP during image preparation using this command. Following is the list of settings that is supported with Set-ProvServiceConfigurationData:

• Change Image Preparation Timeout: Set-ProvServiceConfigurationData -Name "ImageManagementPrep_PreparationTimeout" -value 60
• Skip Enable DHCP: Set-ProvServiceConfigurationData -Name ImageManagementPrep_Excluded_Steps -Value EnableDHCP
• Skip Microsoft Windows KMS Rearm: Set-ProvServiceConfigurationData -Name ImageManagementPrep_Excluded_Steps -Value OsRearm
• Skip Microsoft Office KMS Rearm: Set-ProvServiceConfigurationData -Name ImageManagementPrep_Excluded_Steps -Value OfficeRearm
• Disable preparation VM auto shutdown: Set-ProvServiceConfigurationData –Name ImageManagementPrep_NoAutoShutdown –Value true
• Disable domain injection: Set-ProvServiceConfigurationData –Name DisableDomainInjection –Value true

Ability to set the Linux license type when creating Linux machine catalogs using PowerShell commands. Using PowerShell commands, you can set the Linux license type when creating Linux machine catalogs. You have two choices for bring-your-own Linux licenses: RHEL_BYOS and SLES_BYOS. The setting defaults to Azure Linux licensing. For more information, see Create a machine catalog using an Azure Resource Manager image.

Support for identifying all Azure resources created by MCS. You can now identify all Azure resources created by MCS such as Image, ID disk, OS disk, NIC, VM, and so on that are associated with a ProvScheme using a tag called provschemeID. For more information on the tags that MCS adds to the resources, see Identify resources created by MCS.

Support for Azure Stack HCI provisioning through SCVMM. MCS now supports Azure Stack HCI provisioning through Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM). You can manage the Azure stack HCI cluster with your existing tools including SCVMM. For more information, see Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager virtualization environments.

Support for adding non-Active Directory users manually. Using the Full Configuration management interface, you can now enter a semicolon-separated list of user names when adding non-Active Directory users for a catalog. Consider the format when adding users that reside in different directories. For example, if the users are in Active Directory, enter the names directly. If not, enter the names in this format: <identity provider>:<user name>. Example: AzureAD:username. For more information, see Create machine catalog.

April 2022

New and enhanced features

Home page for the Full Configuration interface. Full Configuration now has a home page, which provides an overview of your Citrix DaaS deployment and workloads along with information that helps you get the most from your subscription. The page comprises the following parts:

• Service overview. Provides an overview of your Citrix DaaS deployment and workloads.
• Recommendations. Recommends features that are available with your subscription and collects your feedback.
• What’s new. Shows the latest features.
• Preview features. Shows features that are currently in preview.
• Get started. Shows steps to guide you through the initial setup.

For more information, see Home page.

Show the progress of catalog creation and updates. Full Configuration now lets you stay up to date on catalog creation and updates. You can gain an overview of the creation and update process, view the history of steps performed, and monitor the progress and running time of the current step. For more information, see Start creating the catalog.

Display available hypervisors and cloud services based on the selected zone. In Full Configuration, when creating hosting connections, you’re required to select a zone before selecting a connection type. The Connection type drop-down list displays hypervisors and cloud services available with the zone. Previously, to ensure the Connection type list shows a required hypervisor or cloud service, you had to install its plug-in in every zone. With this new configuration sequence, you can now install the plug-in only in the required zone.

You can also use PowerShell command to get the list of hypervisor plug-in available with the selected zone. For more information, see Create a connection and resources.

Support for non-on-premises-AD-joined users in Full Configuration. A new field, Select identity type, is available in the interfaces where you assign users to provisioned desktops or apps, delivery groups, or application groups. With the field, you can now select user accounts from any of the following identity providers to which your Citrix Cloud is connected:

• Active Directory
• Azure Active Directory
• Okta

Ability to reject invalid custom properties in Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and Azure environments. You can now avoid potential confusion if custom properties set at New-ProvScheme and Set-ProvScheme do not take effect. If you specify non-existing custom property or properties, you get an error message. For more information, see Important consideration about setting custom properties.

Support for creating Azure Active Directory joined machines. In Full Configuration, when you create a catalog, an Azure Active Directory joined identity type, is now available in Machine Identities. With that identity type, you can use MCS to create machines that are joined to Azure Active Directory. You also have an extra option, Enroll the machines in Microsoft Intune, to enroll the machines in Microsoft Intune for management.

For information about creating Azure Active Directory joined catalogs, see Create machine catalogs. For information about requirements and considerations related to Azure Active Directory join, see Azure Active Directory joined.

Support for creating hybrid Azure Active Directory joined machines. In Full Configuration, when you create a catalog, a Hybrid Azure Active Directory joined identity type, is now available in Machine Identities. With that identity type, you can use MCS to create hybrid Azure Active Directory joined machines. Those machines are owned by an organization and signed into with an Active Directory Domain Services account that belongs to that organization.

For information about creating hybrid Azure Active Directory joined catalogs, see Create machine catalogs. For information about requirements and considerations related to hybrid Azure Active Directory join, see Hybrid Azure Active Directory joined.

Azure trusted launch support for snapshots. In addition to images, Azure trusted launch is now available for snapshots as well. If you select a snapshot with trusted launch enabled, using a machine profile is mandatory. Also, you must select a machine profile with trusted launch enabled. For more information, see Microsoft Azure Resource Manager cloud environments.

Export machines. You can now export machines listed on the Machines page of the Machine Catalog Setup wizard to a CSV file, to be used as a template when adding machines to a catalog in bulk. For more information, see Export machines from a catalog.

Option to access Workspace Environment Management web console. An option, Environment Management (Web), is now available in the menu of the Manage tab. The option takes you to the new, web-based Workspace Environment Management console. To access the legacy console, use Environment Management. We are in the process of migrating the full set of functionalities from the legacy console to the web console. The web console generally responds faster than the legacy console. For more information, see Workspace Environment Management service.

Ability to manage ProvScheme parameters. When you use MCS to create a catalog, you will now get an error if you set the New-ProvScheme parameters in unsupported hypervisors during machine catalog creation or update Set-ProvScheme parameters after machine catalog is created. For more information, see Create machine catalogs.

Increased resource location limits. Resource location limits for single-session VDAs and multi-session VDAs are now increased to 10000 and 1000 respectively. For more information, see Limits.

Support for restarting non-power managed machines after draining all sessions. Citrix DaaS now allows you to create restart schedules for machines that are not power managed after all sessions are drained from the machines. In the Full Configuration interface, select Restart all machines after draining all sessions as the Restart duration. For more information, see Create a restart schedule.

Support for upgrading VDA machines (preview). Using the Full Configuration interface, you can now upgrade VDA machines for your Citrix DaaS deployment. You can upgrade them on a per-catalog or a per-machine basis. The feature applies to machines that are not created using MCS (for example, physical machines). For more information, see Upgrade VDAs using the Full Configuration interface.

Machines are not shut down during outages. Citrix DaaS now prevent virtual machines from being shut down by the broker when the zone that the machines are in experiences an outage. The machines automatically become available for connections when the outage ends. You don’t have to take any action to make the machines available after the outage.

Session launch diagnostics. Citrix DaaS now supports enhanced session launch failure diagnostics. Use the Citrix Workspace app-generated 32-digit (8-4-4-4-12) Transaction ID from inside Citrix Monitor (that is, Citrix Director service) to narrow down to the exact component and stage where the problem occurred and apply the recommended actions to resolve the issue. For more information, see Session launch diagnostics.

Option to access the Session Recording service. An option, Session Recording, is now available in the menu of the Manage tab. The introduction of the Session Recording service provides centralized management of policies, playback, and server configurations. It eases the burden on IT administrators by providing a unified entry point to manage and observe the distributed objects across your organization. For more information, see Session Recording service (preview).

Rebranded Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service. Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service has been renamed to Citrix DaaS. Learn more about the name change at our announcement on our blog.

The following offerings of Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service have been renamed.

• Citrix Virtual Apps service Advanced renamed to Citrix DaaS Advanced.
• Citrix Virtual Apps service Premium renamed to Citrix DaaS Premium.
• Citrix Virtual Desktops service renamed to Citrix DaaS Advanced Plus.
• Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service Advanced renamed to Citrix DaaS Advanced Plus.
• Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service Premium now available as Citrix DaaS Premium and Citrix DaaS Premium Plus.
• Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Standard for Azure renamed to Citrix DaaS Standard for Azure.
• Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Standard for Google Cloud renamed to Citrix DaaS Standard for Google Cloud.
• Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Premium for Google Cloud renamed to Citrix DaaS Premium for Google Cloud.

Implementing this transition in our products and their documentation is an ongoing process. Your patience during this transition is appreciated.

• The product UI, in-product content, and the images and instructions in product documentation will be updated in the coming weeks.
• It is possible that some items (such as commands and MSIs) might continue to retain their former names to prevent breaking existing customer scripts.
• Related product documentation and other resources (such as videos and blog posts) that are linked from this product documentation might still contain former names.

Note:

The on-premises Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops product name remains the same.

Tenant support in Full Configuration. You can now create configuration partitions within a single Citrix DaaS instance. You achieve that by creating tenant scopes in Administrators > Scopes and associating related configuration objects, such as machine catalogs and delivery groups, with those tenants. As a result, administrators with access to a tenant can manage only objects that are associated with the tenant. This feature is useful, for example, if your organization:

• Has different business silos (independent divisions or separate IT management teams) or
• Has multiple on-premises sites and wants to maintain the same setup in a single Citrix DaaS instance.

Also, the Full Configuration interface lets you filter tenant customers by name. By default, the interface displays information about all tenants.

The feature is available for both Citrix Service Providers (CSPs) and non-CSPs. The interface in a CSP environment is essentially the same as that in a non-CSP environment except for the method used to create tenants.

• CSPs onboard tenant customers to Citrix DaaS and then configure administrator access to Citrix DaaS. For more information, see Citrix DaaS for Citrix Service Providers.
• Non-CSPs create tenant customers by first creating scopes and then configuring custom access for respective administrators. For more information, see Create and manage scopes.

Updates for Autoscale. We have updated Autoscale with a blade style to bring you a better user experience. The workflows for configuring your settings remain the same. Other updates to Autoscale include:

• Renamed Restrict Autoscale to Autoscaling Tagged Machines to make it easy to understand.
• Added a new option, Control when Autoscale starts powering on tagged machines. The option lets you control when Autoscale starts powering on tagged machines based on the usage of untagged machines.

For more information on autoscaling tagged machines, see Autoscale tagged machines.

License validity checks. The Full Configuration interface now automatically checks the validity of licenses in use by host connections. A host connection is placed into maintenance mode if its license is invalid. As a result, you cannot perform certain operations, such as editing the connection and turning off maintenance mode. A license becomes invalid, for example, when:

• The license has expired. In this case, contact your Citrix sales representative to renew it or to purchase new licenses.
• The license has been deleted from the License Server.

Blade style applied to the Machine Catalogs and Policies nodes. Blade styles are now applied to all nodes of Full Configuration.

Support for updating MCS provisioned machines in Azure environments. Set-ProvScheme changes the template (provisioning scheme) and does not affect existing machines. Using Request-ProvVMUpdate command, you can now apply the current provisioning scheme to an existing machine (or set of machines). Currently, the property update supported by this feature is ServiceOffering. For more information, see Update provisioned machines to current provisioning scheme state.

March 2022

New and enhanced features

Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops for Google Cloud available on Google Cloud Marketplace. Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Premium for Google Cloud is now available for purchase on Google Cloud Marketplace. Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Premium for Google Cloud runs the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service control plane on Google Cloud.

Azure trusted launch support. Azure trusted launch is now available for the Full Configuration management interface. If you choose to select an image with trusted launch enabled, using a machine profile is mandatory. Also, you must select a machine profile with trusted launch enabled. For more information, see Microsoft Azure Resource Manager cloud environments.

Blade style applied to wizards in three more nodes in Full Configuration. The nodes are Search, Delivery Groups, and Applications.

Image Portability Service (IPS) has been released for general availability. IPS simplifies the management of images across platforms. This feature is useful for managing images between an on-premises Resource Location and the public cloud. The Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops REST APIs can be used to automate the administration of resources within a Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops site. For more information, see Migrate workloads to public cloud.

February 2022

New and enhanced features

Azure permissions. There are two sets of permissions required for security requirements and to minimize risk.

• Minimum permissions: This set of permissions gives better security control. However, new features that require additional permissions will fail because of using minimum permissions.
• General permissions: This set of permissions does not block you from getting new enhancement benefit.

For more information, see About Azure permissions.

Support for using VM’s temporary disk to host the write-back cache disk in Azure environments. We added an option, Use non-persistent write-back cache disk, to the Machine Catalog Setup > Disk Settings page of the Manage > Full Configuration interface. Select that option if you do not want the write-back cache disk to persist for the provisioned VMs. With the option selected, we use the VM’s temporary disk to host the write-back cache disk if the temporary disk has sufficient space. Doing that reduces your costs. For more information, see Microsoft Azure Resource Manager cloud environments.

Updates to AWS host connection default settings. The AWS host connection default setting values are updated to higher values and most likely same for all AWS cloud platform setup. This helps to create host connections in AWS cloud environments, without evaluating and configuring the default setting values according to individual setup. For more information, see Host connection default values.

Added support for different storage tiers in GCP environments. You can now provide the following custom properties in the GCP environments to set the storage type of the disks attached to the newly created VM:

• StorageType
• IdentityDiskStorageType
• WBCDiskStorageType

For more information, see Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Service SDK.

Change certain VM settings after creating Azure VM catalogs. Using the Full Configuration management interface, you can now change the following settings after creating a catalog:

• Machine size
• Availability zones
• Machine profile
• Windows licenses

To do that, on the Machine Catalogs node, select the catalog and then select Edit Machine Catalog in the action bar. For more information, see Edit a catalog.

Support for storing Azure ephemeral OS disk either on the cache disk or temporary disk. Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service now allows you to store the Azure ephemeral OS disk either on cache disk or temporary disk for an Azure-enabled virtual machine. This functionality is useful for Azure environments that require a higher performant SSD disk over a standard HDD disk. For more information, see Microsoft Azure Resource Manager cloud environments.

Support for Nutanix clusters on AWS. Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service supports Nutanix Clusters on AWS. Nutanix Clusters simplifies how applications are run on private or multiple public clouds. For more information, see Nutanix clusters on AWS.

Support for VMware cloud on Amazon Web Services (AWS). VMware cloud on Amazon Web Services (AWS) enables you to migrate VMware based on-premises Citrix workloads to AWS cloud and your core Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops environment to Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service. For more information, see VMware cloud on Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Support for configuring write-back cache disk for machines running on Google Cloud Platform (GCP). In the Full Configuration management interface, when provisioning machines on GCP, you can now configure the following write-back cache disk settings:

• Disk size
• Memory allocated to cache
• Disk storage type
• Disk persistence

For more information, see Create a machine catalog in the Google Cloud Platform virtualization environments article.

January 2022

New and enhanced features

Support for Nutanix clusters on AWS. Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service now supports Nutanix clusters on AWS. This support provides the same functionality as a Nutanix on-premises cluster. Only a single cluster is supported, Prism Element.For more information, see Nutanix virtualization environments.

New features available in Cloud Health Check. Cloud Health Check has been updated to a new version with features including:

• Automatic fix. Cloud Health Check now supports automatically detecting and fixing certain issues identified on machines where it is running. There is now a results report to show you what specific actions were taken. For more information, see Automatic fix.

• Command line support. Cloud Health Check can now be run from the command line. For more information, see Running Cloud Health Check on the command line.

• Citrix Universal Injection Driver status. Cloud Health Check now shows the Citrix UVI driver status and has a related event log check for Citrix UVI drivers.

• Session launch registry check. Cloud Health check now checks for session launch registry settings.

• Updates to check report. For checked items that have several check points, the final check report now lists all the checks that have been verified to show what actions were performed during the health check.

For more information, see Cloud Health Check.

Troubleshoot VDA registration and session launch issues using Full Configuration. Using the Full Configuration management interface, you can now run checks that gauge the health of VDAs. VDA health checks identify possible causes for common VDA registration and session launch issues. You can run health checks individually and in batches. For more information, see VDA health checks.

Ability to specify the Azure secret expiration date for existing connections. Using the Full Configuration management interface, you can now specify the date after which the application secret expires. For guidance on how to view the expiration date of the secret, see Microsoft Azure Resource Manager cloud environments. When using this feature, consider the following differences:

• For service principals created manually in Azure, you can directly edit the expiration date on the Edit Connection > Connection Properties page.
• For first-time edits of the expiration date for service principals created through Full Configuration on your behalf, go to Edit Connection > Edit settings > Use existing. You can make subsequent edits on the Edit Connection > Connection Properties page.

A button to add administrators. We added a button, Add Administrator, to the Full Configuration > Administrators > Administrators tab. The button offers a quick way to go to Identity and Access Management > Administrators, where you can add (invite) administrators. For more information, see Add an administrator.

New look and feel of wizards in Full Configuration. We have updated the wizards in the following nodes with a new style, including colors, fonts, and other formatting changes, to bring you a better user experience: Administrators, Hosting, StoreFront, App Packages, Zones, and Settings. The new wizards appear in blade views with wider viewports, enabling more content to display. The workflows for configuring your settings remain the same.

Support for retaining system disk when MCS I/O is enabled for machines running on Google Cloud Platform (GCP). In the Full Configuration management interface, when provisioning machines on GCP, you can now retain system disk during power cycles when MCS storage optimization (MCS I/O) is enabled. For more information, see Enabling MCS storage optimization updates.

Support for direct upload or download from EBS on Amazon Web Services (AWS). AWS now provides API to allow direct creation of EBS volume with desired content. You can now use the API to eliminate volume worker requirement for catalog creation and VM addition. For information on AWS permissions required for this functionality, see Amazon Web Services cloud environments.

Ability to identify Amazon Web Services (AWS) resources created by MCS. We added a new tag named CitrixProvisioningSchemeID to identify AWS resources created by MCS. For more information, see Identify resources created by MCS.

Ability to configure access to Manage and Monitor. The Full Configuration management interface now provides you with additional options to control whether to grant custom roles access to Manage and Monitor. For more information, see Create and manage roles.

December 2021

New and enhanced features

Support for Google Cloud VMware Engine. The platform now enables you to migrate VMware based on-premises Citrix workloads to Google Cloud and your core Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops environment to Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service. For more information, see Google Cloud Platform (GCP) VMware Engine support.

Ability to specify what account names start with when specifying a naming scheme. This release introduces an option to the Machine Catalog Setup > Machine Identities page of the Full Configuration management interface. The option lets you specify numbers or letters the account names start with, giving you more control over how machine accounts are named during catalog creation. For more information, see Machine identities.

Support for creating Nutanix AHV XI and Nutanix AHV Prism Central (PC) connections. In the Full Configuration management interface, you can now create Nutanix AHV XI and Nutanix AHV PC connections. For more information, see Nutanix virtualization environments.

Support for selecting the storage type for OS disks when provisioning VMs on GCP. In the Full Configuration management interface, when provisioning VMs on GCP, you can now select the storage type for the OS disk. Available storage options on the Machine Catalog Setup > Storage page include Standard persistent disk, Balanced persistent disk, and SSD persistent disk. For more information, see Create a machine catalog.

Full Configuration management interface now supports Azure ephemeral disk. Previously, PowerShell was your only choice to create machines that used ephemeral OS disks. We now add an option, Azure ephemeral OS disk, to the Machine Catalog Setup > Storage and License Types page. Select the option if you want to use the VM’s local disk to host the operating system disk. For more information, see Create a machine catalog using an Azure Resource Manager image.

Protect Machine Creation Services (MCS) managed resources from accidental deletion. You can now protect MCS managed resources on the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) by applying GCP’s deletionProtection flag enabled for the VMs. Using the compute.instances.setDeletionProtection permission or the IAM Compute Admin role, you can reset the flag to allow the resource to be deleted. This functionality is applicable for both persistent and non-persistent catalogs. For more information, see Protect accidental machine deletion.

November 2021

New and enhanced features

Annotate an image when updating machines. In the Full Configuration management interface, you can now annotate an image by adding a note for it when updating an MCS-created catalog. Each time you update the catalog, a note-related entry is created whether you add a note. If you update the catalog without adding a note, the entry appears as null (-). To view note history for the image, select the catalog, click Template Properties in the lower pane, and then click View note history. For more information, see Update a catalog.

Multi-type licensing support. The Full Configuration management interface now supports multi-type licensing, letting you specify which license entitlement you want your site (your deployment of a Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service product) or a delivery group to use.

• At the site level, you determine which license to use site wide when users launch an app or a desktop on their devices. The selected license applies to all delivery groups, except those configured with a different license.
• At a delivery group level, you determine which license you want the delivery group to use, enjoying the multi-type licensing flexibility and benefits.

For more information, see Multi-type licensing.

Support for displaying Azure Marketplace purchase plan information. In the Full Configuration management interface, when creating a machine catalog, you can now view purchase plan information for master images originated from Azure Marketplace images.

October 2021

New and enhanced features

Ability to update persistent MCS catalogs. We introduced the Update Machines option for persistent MCS catalogs in the Full Configuration management interface. The option lets you manage the image or template the catalog uses. When updating a persistent catalog, consider the following: Only machines you add to the catalog later are created using the new image or template. We do not roll out the update to existing machines in the catalog. For more information, see Update a catalog.

Option to provision VMs on an Azure dedicated host. We added an option, Use a host group, to the Machine Catalog Setup > Master Image page of the Full Configuration management interface. The option lets you specify which host group you want to use when provisioning VMs in Azure environments. For more information, see Create a machine catalog using an Azure Resource Manager image.

Improve performance by preserving a provisioned VM when power cycling. We added a setting, Retain VMs across power cycles, to the Machine Catalog Setup > Disk Settings page of the Full Configuration management interface. The setting lets you preserve a provisioned VM when power cycling in Azure environments. For more information, see MCS storage optimization. Alternatively, you can configure the feature by using PowerShell. For more information, see Preserving a provisioned virtual machine when power cycling.

Bind a machine catalog to a Workspace Environment Management configuration set. When creating a machine catalog, you can now bind it to a Workspace Environment Management configuration set. Doing so lets you use Workspace Environment Management service to deliver the best possible workspace experience to your users. You can also choose to bind the catalog after you create the catalog. For more information, see Create machine catalogs and Manage machine catalogs.

September 2021

New and enhanced features

Add informative description for image updates. You can now add informative descriptions about changes related to image updates for machine catalogs. This functionality is useful for administrators who want to add descriptive labels when updating an image used by a catalog, for example, Office 365 installed. Using PowerShell commands, you can create and view these messages. For details, see Adding descriptions to an image.

Azure VMware Solution (AVS) integration. Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service supports AVS, the Azure VMware Solution. AVS provides cloud infrastructure containing vSphere clusters created by Azure. Leverage the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service to use AVS for provisioning your VDA workload in the same way that you would using vSphere in on-premises environments. For more information, see Azure VMware Solution Integration.

Same resource group for multiple catalogs. You can now use the same resource group for updating and creating catalogs in Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service. This process:

• applies to any resource group that contains one or more machine catalogs.
• supports resource groups that are not created by Machine Creation Services.
• creates the VM and associated resources.
• deletes resources in the resource group when the VM or the catalog is removed.

For more information, see Azure Resource groups.

Retrieve information for Azure VMs, snapshots, OS disk, and gallery image definition. You can display information for an Azure VM, OS disk, snapshot, and gallery image definition. This information is displayed for resources on the master image when a machine catalog is assigned. Use this functionality to view and select either a Linux or Windows image. For more information, see Retrieve information for Azure VMs, snapshots, OS disk, and gallery image definition.

New update for Automated Configuration. Automated Configuration has been updated to a new version with features including:

• Machines Creation Services (MCS) support - Automated Configuration now supports MCS catalogs. For more information, see Understanding migrating Machine Creation Services provisioned catalogs.

Other updates to Automated Configuration include:

• Enhanced Zone support by pre-populating the ZoneMapping.yml file with the names of on-premises zones during export and cloud Resource Locations when backing up.
• StoreFront has been made a top level manageable component. Prior to this, StoreFront was managed as part of Delivery Groups. This separation better facilitates site merging.
• Changed AddMachinesOnly to MergeMachines to match the pattern for current and new merge options.
• Added the use of the SecurityClient.csv file to import the ClientId and Secret when creating and updating the CustomerInfo.yml when using the support cmdlets.
• Added User Zone Preferences migration.
• Fixed support for the Japanese Control Plane.
• Other fixes and improvements.

Download Automated Configuration at Citrix Downloads. For more information on Automated Configuration, see Migrate configuration to Citrix Cloud.

More scheduling options available with restart schedules. The Full Configuration management interface now provides you with additional options to control when scheduled restarts occur. In addition to the daily recurring restart schedules, you can now set weekly and monthly recurrence patterns. For more information, see Create a restart schedule.

Preserve custom columns that degrade performance. Previously, on the Search node of the Full Configuration management interface, custom columns that degraded performance disappeared after you refreshed the browser window or signed out of the console and then signed in. You can now control whether to preserve those custom columns. For more information, see Use Search in the Full Configuration management interface.

Use the Automated Configuration tool to back up and restore. We added a node, Backup and Restore, to the Full Configuration management interface. That node aggregates all resources related to the Automated Configuration tool, including information about:

• Scheduling automated backups of your Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops configuration using a single command
• Restoring from a previous backup if necessary
• Performing backups and restores granularly
• Other use cases supported

For more information, see the Automated Configuration documentation.

Support for non-domain-joined catalogs. We added an identity type, Non-domain-joined, to the Machine Catalog Setup > Machine Identities page of the Full Configuration management interface. With that identity type, you can use MCS to create machines that are not joined to any domain. For more information, see Create machine catalogs.

Support for using a machine profile. We added an option, Use a machine profile, to the Machine Catalog Setup > Master Image page of the Full Configuration management interface. The option lets you specify which machine profile you want the VMs to inherit configurations from when creating VMs in Azure environments. The VMs in the catalog can then inherit configurations from the selected machine profile. Examples of configurations include:

• Accelerated networking
• Boot diagnostics
• Host disk caching (relating to OS and MCSIO disks)
• Machine size (unless otherwise specified)
• Tags placed on the VM

For more information, see Create a machine catalog using an Azure Resource Manager image.

Support for Windows Server 2022. Requires minimum VDA 2106.

August 2021

New and enhanced features

Extend the number of sortable items from 500 to 5,000. On the Search node of the Full Configuration management interface, you can now sort up to 5,000 items by any column heading. When the number of items exceeds 5,000, use filters to reduce the number of items to 5,000 or fewer to enable sorting. For more information, see Use Search in the Full Configuration management interface.

Support for additional Azure storage types. You can now select different storage types for virtual machines in Azure environments using MCS. For details, see Storage types.

Support for selecting the storage type for write-back cache disks. In the Full Configuration management interface, when creating an MCS catalog, you can now select the storage type for the write-back cache disk. Available storage types include: Premium SSD, Standard SSD, and Standard HDD. For more information, see Create machine catalogs.

Shut down suspended machines. In the Manage > Full Configuration interface, we added an option, When no reconnection in (minutes), to the Load-based Settings page of the Manage Autoscale user interface for single-session OS delivery groups. The option becomes available after you select Suspend, letting you specify when to shut down the suspended machines. Suspended machines remain available to disconnected users when they reconnect but are not available for new users. Shutting the machines down makes them available again to handle all workloads. For more information, see Autoscale.

Extended support for using CSV files to bulk add machines to a catalog. In the Manage > Full Configuration interface, you can now use a CSV file to bulk add machines already in your data center to a catalog where those machines are power managed. For more information, see Create machine catalogs and Manage machine catalogs.

July 2021

New and enhanced features

Configuration logging. The Logging user interface has changed in Manage > Full Configuration. The following three tabs comprise the interface:

• Events (formerly, configuration logging). This tab lets you track configuration changes and administrative activities.
• Tasks. This tab lets you view tasks related to machine catalog operations.
• APIs. This tab lets you view REST API requests made during a certain time period.

For more information, see Configuration logging.

Autoscale now provides you with dynamic session timeout options. You can configure disconnected and idle session timeouts for your peak and off-peak usage times to achieve faster machine draining and cost savings. For more information, see Dynamic session timeouts.

Support for Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Customer Managed Encryption Keys (CMEK). You can now use Google’s CMEK with MCS catalogs. CMEK provides greater control over keys used to encrypt data within a Google Cloud project. For more information, see Customer-managed encryption keys (CMEK). To configure this feature, see Using Customer Managed Encryption Keys (CMEK). The feature is available on the Machine Catalog Setup > Disk Settings page of the Manage > Full Configuration interface.

Note:

This feature is available as a preview.

Updates to the Manage tab. We have updated options in the menu of the Manage tab:

• Full Configuration: Previously, this option took you to the legacy console. It now takes you to the new, web-based console (Web Studio). The web-based console has full parity with the legacy console and includes several enhancements. We recommend that you start using it now.
• Legacy Configuration: This option takes you to the legacy console, which is scheduled for removal in September 2021. After that, Full Configuration will be the only interface that offers access to the full range of configuration and management actions.

Web Studio now supports choosing a power management connection for a Remote PC Access catalog. Previously, you were able to use Studio to create a Wake on LAN host connection to your resource location (selecting Remote PC Wake on LAN as the connection type). However, PowerShell was your only choice to associate that connection with a Remote PC Access catalog. You can now use Studio to achieve that. For more information, see Configure Wake on LAN in the Full Configuration interface.

June 2021

New and enhanced features

Access Azure Shared Image Gallery images. When creating a machine catalog, you can now access images from the Azure Shared Image Gallery on the Master Image screen. For details, see Access images from Azure Shared Image Gallery.

Support shielded virtual machines on Google Cloud Platform (GCP). You can provision shielded virtual machines on GCP. A shielded virtual machine is hardened by a set of security controls that provide verifiable integrity of your Compute Engine instances, using advanced platform security capabilities like secure boot, a virtual trusted platform module, UEFI firmware and integrity monitoring. For more information, see Shield VMs.

Enforce either HTTPS or HTTP. Use registry settings to enforce HTTPS or HTTP traffic through the XML service.

Always use standard SSD for an identity disk to reduce cost in Azure environments. Machine catalogs use the standard SSD storage type for identity disks. Azure standard SSDs are a cost-effective storage option optimized for workloads that need consistent performance at lower IOPS levels. For more information about storage types, see Azure Resource Manager master image.

Note:

For more information about Azure managed disk pricing, see Managed Disks pricing.

New feature available in Web Studio. The following features are now available in the web-based console:

• Studio now supports authenticating to Azure to create a service principal. You can now establish a host connection to Azure by authenticating to Azure to create a service principal. This support eliminates the need to manually create a service principal in your Azure subscription before creating a connection in Studio. For more information, see Microsoft Azure Resource Manager virtualization environments.

• Studio now supports cloning of existing machine catalogs. This feature enables you to clone an existing machine catalog to use as a template for a new one, eliminating the need to create a similar catalog from scratch. When cloning a catalog, you cannot change settings associated with operating system and machine management. The cloned catalog inherits those settings from the original. For more information, see Clone a catalog.

• A new node called Settings now available in the Studio navigation pane. The Settings node lets you configure settings that apply to the entire site (your deployment of a Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service product). The following settings are available:

  • Load balance multi-session catalogs. Select the load balancing option that meets your needs. This setting applies to all your catalogs. Previously, you accessed this feature by clicking the gear icon in the upper right corner of the console. For more information, see Load balance machines.

• Enhanced search experience in Studio. This release enhances your Studio search experience. When you use filters to perform an advanced search, the Add filters window appears in the foreground, leaving the background view unchanged. For more information, see Use Search in the Full Configuration management interface.

• Ability to suspend and resume Google Cloud VMs in MCS. You can now suspend and resume Google Cloud VMs in MCS as you would any VM. For details, see Manage delivery groups. To enable this ability, set the compute.instances.suspend and compute.instances.resume permissions in the Google Cloud service account. The Compute Admin role comes with these permissions.

  In Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops, you can also use the New-BrokerHostingPowerAction PowerShell command to suspend and resume the VMs. For details, see New-Brokerhostingpoweraction.

  Google Cloud enforces some limitations on the type and configuration of instances that can be suspended. For additional information, refer to Suspending and resuming an instance on the Google Cloud site.

May 2021

New and enhanced features

Session reconnection after disconnect from machine in maintenance mode. Previously, when pooled (random) single-session desktop (VDI) users were disconnected from a machine in maintenance mode, session reconnection was not allowed to any machine in the pool. Multi-session and static single-session machines always allowed session reconnection in that circumstance.

Now, using PowerShell, you can control at the delivery group level whether session reconnection is allowed after a disconnect occurs on a machine in maintenance mode. This applies to all VDAs in the group (single-session and multi-session).

For details, see Control session reconnection when disconnected from machine in maintenance mode.

Application probing and Desktop probing support in all Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Service editions. In addition to the existing Premium edition support, Application probing and Desktop probing are now available in Citrix Virtual Apps Advanced Service and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Advanced Service editions.

New feature available in Web Studio. The following feature is now available in the web-based console:

• Studio now supports selecting Azure Availability Zones. Previously, PowerShell was your only choice to provision machines into a specific Availability Zone in Azure environments. When using Studio to create a machine catalog, you can now select one or more Availability Zones into which you want to provision machines. If no zones are specified, Machine Creation Services (MCS) lets Azure place the machines within the region. If more than one zone is specified, MCS randomly distributes the machines across them. For more information, see Provision machines into specified availability zones.

Azure emphemeral disk. Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service supports Azure ephemeral disk. An ephemeral disk allows you to repurpose the cache disk to store the OS disk for an Azure-enabled virtual machine. This functionality is useful for Azure environments that require a higher performant SSD disk over a standard HDD disk.

Note:

Persistent catalogs do not support ephemeral OS disks. Also, when using this feature, consider that the extra performant disk incurs an extra cost. It’s beneficial to reuse the cache disk to store the OS disk instead of paying for an extra managed disk.

Ephemeral OS disks require that your provisioning scheme use managed disks and a Shared Image Gallery. For more information, see Azure ephemeral disks.

Improved performance for MCS managed VDAs on Azure. The Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service improves performance for VDAs managed with Machine Creation Services (MCS) on Azure. This enhancement changes the default values for Absolute Simultaneous actions for the hosting connection to 500, and Maximum new actions per minute for the hosting connection to 2,000. No manual configuration tasks are required to take advantage of this enhancement. For details, see Azure throttling.

New features available in Cloud Health Check. Cloud Health Check has been updated to a new version with features including:

• Automatically discovering VDA machines. Cloud Health Check can now automatically discover and retrieve VDAs from your Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service deployments. For more information, see Retrieve VDA machines.

• Scheduling health checks. Cloud Health Check now lets you set up schedules for performing periodic health checks. For more information, see Cloud Health Check scheduler.

• Cloud Health Check version information. You can now check which version of Cloud Health Check you are using. To view version information, click the gear icon in the upper right corner of the Cloud Health Check main window.

• Automatic fix. Cloud Health Check now supports automatically detecting and fixing certain issues identified on machines where it is running. For more information, see Automatic fix.

  Note:

  Automatic fix is available as a preview.

April 2021

New and enhanced features

Retreive dynamic instances using AWS API. The Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service now queries AWS to retrieve instance types dynamically. This functionality removes the need to create a custom InstanceTypes.xml file for those customers wishing to use machine sizes beyond those defined in Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service. This information was previously supplied by the InstanceTypes.xml file. To facilitate this dynamic access to the available AWS instance types, users must update the permissions on their service principals to include ec2:DescribeInstanceTypes permissions. To support backward compatibility for customers who choose not to update their service principal permissions, the AWS instance types listed in the InstanceTypes.xml are used. This process generates a warning message to the MCS CDF log.

Note:

Citrix Studio does not display the warning message contained in the CDF log.

For more information about permissions, see Defining IAM permissions and About AWS permissions.

New feature available in Web Studio. The following feature is now available in the web-based console:

• Studio now displays date and time of your time zone. Previously, Studio displayed only date and time based on the system clock and time zone. Studio now supports displaying date and time local to your time zone when you hover the mouse pointer over an event item. The time is expressed in UTC.

MCS I/O support for Azure VMs without temporary storage. MCS I/O now supports machine catalog creation for VMs that do not have temporary disks or attached storage. With this support:

• The snapshot (managed disk) is retrieved from the source VM without temporary storage. The VMs in the machine catalog have no temporary storage.
• The snapshot (managed disk) is retrieved from the source VM with temporary storage. The VMs in the machine catalog have temporary storage.

For more information, see Machine Creation Services (MCS) storage optimization

New feature available in Web Studio. The following feature is now available in the web-based console:

• Force log off. Autoscale now lets you log off sessions existing on machines by force when the established grace period is reached, making the machine eligible for shutdown. Doing that enables Autoscale to power off machines much faster, thus reducing costs. You can send notifications to users before they are logged off. For more information, see Autoscale.

New update for Automated Configuration. Automated Configuration has been updated to a new version with features including:

• Merging multiple sites – you can merge multiple sites into a single site while avoiding name collisions using prefixes and suffixes. For more information, see Merging multiple sites into a single site.

• Site activation – you can select whether your on-premises or cloud deployment controls resources such as reboot schedules and power schemes. For more information, see Activating sites.

Other updates to Automated Configuration include:

• The ability to migrate administrator roles and scopes.

• A Quiet parameter for select cmdlets to suppress console logging.

• A SecurityFileFolder parameter to allow placing of the CvadAcSecurity.yml file in a secure network file share that requires authentication.

• The ability to filter by machine name in machine catalogs and delivery groups.

• Improvements to component selection parameters to use the switch parameter method, eliminating the need to add a $true after the component name.

• A new cmdlet (New-CvadAcZipInfoForSupport) to zip all your log files to send to Citrix for support.

Download Automated Configuration at Citrix Downloads. For more information on Automated Configuration, see Migrating to cloud.

Preserve GCP instances across power cycles. Non-persistent Google Cloud Platform (GCP) instances are no longer deleted when powering off. Instead, the instances are preserved across power cycles. When a non-persistent instance is powered off, the OS disk is detached and deleted. When the instance is powered on, the OS disk is recreated from the base disk, and attached to the existing instance.

Support for Azure Gen2 images. You can now provision a Gen2 VM catalog by using either a Gen2 snapshot or a Gen 2 managed disk to improve boot time performance. For more information, see Create machine catalogs. The following operating systems are supported for Azure Gen2 images:

• Windows Server 2019, 2016, 2012 and 2012 R2
• Windows 10

Note:

Creating a Gen2 machine catalog using a Gen1 snapshot, or managed disk, is not supported. Similarly, creating a Gen1 machine catalog using a Gen2 snapshot, or managed disk, is also not supported. For more information, see Support for generation 2 VMs on Azure.

Disabling table storage accounts. Machine Creation Services (MCS) no longer creates table storage accounts for catalogs that use managed disks when provisioning VDAs on Azure. For more information, see Azure table storage.

Eliminating locks in storage accounts. When creating a catalog in Azure using a managed disk, a storage account is no longer created. Storage accounts created for existing catalogs remain unchanged. This change is applicable for managed disks only. For unmanaged disks, there is no change in the existing behavior. Machine Creation Services (MCS) continues creating storage accounts and locks.

New features available in Web Studio. The following features are now available in the web-based console:

• Use a customer-managed encryption key to encrypt data on machines. Studio now adds a setting called Customer-managed encryption key to the Machine Catalog Setup > Disk Settings page. The setting lets you choose whether to encrypt data on the machines to be provisioned in the catalog. For more information, see Customer-managed encryption key.

• Studio now supports restricting Autoscale to tagged machines. Previously, you had to use PowerShell to restrict Autoscale to certain machines in a delivery group. You can now also use Studio. For more information, see Restrict Autoscale to certain machines in a delivery group.

March 2021

New and enhanced features

Azure dedicated hosts. Azure dedicated hosts allow you to provision virtual machines on hardware dedicated to a single customer. While using a dedicated host, Azure ensures that your virtual machines would be the only machines running on that host. This provides more control and visibility to customers thereby ensuring they meet their regulatory or internal security requirements. A pre-configured Azure host group, in the region of the hosting unit, is required when using the HostGroupId parameter. Also, Azure auto-placement is required. For more information, see Azure dedicated hosts.

Tip:

When using Azure dedicated hosts, selecting the Azure Availability Zone has no effect. The virtual machine is placed by the Azure auto-placement process.

Support for Azure server side encryption. Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service supports customer-managed encryption keys for Azure managed disks. With this support you can manage your organizational and compliance requirements by encrypting the managed disks of your machine catalog using your own encryption key. For more information, see Azure server side encryption.

Provision machines into specified availability zones on Azure. You can now provision machines into a specific availability zone in Azure environments. With this functionality:

• You can specify one or multiple Availability Zones on Azure. Machines are nominally equally distributed across all provided zones if more than one zone is provided.
• The virtual machine and the corresponding disk are placed in the specified zone (or zones).
• You can browse Availability Zones for a given service offering or region. Valid Availability Zones are displayed using PowerShell commands. View service offering inventory items using Get-Item.

For more information, see Provision machines into specified availability zones on Azure.

New features available in Web Studio. The following features are now available in the web-based console:

• Studio now supports associating apps with custom icons. Previously, you had to use PowerShell to add custom icons for use with published applications. You can now also use Studio to do that. For more information, see Manage application groups.

• Studio now supports applying tags to machine catalogs. Previously, you might use Studio to create or delete tags for use with a catalog. However, you had to use PowerShell to apply tags to the catalog. You can now also use Studio to apply or remove a tag to or from a catalog as you do with delivery groups. For more information, see Apply tags to machine catalogs.

• Studio now supports switching between “horizontal load balancing” and “vertical load balancing” modes. Previously, PowerShell was your only choice to switch between horizontal and vertical load balancing modes. Studio now gives you more flexibility to control how to load balance multi-session OS machines. For more information, see Load balance machines.

• Studio now supports including machines in maintenance mode in restart schedules. Previously, PowerShell was your only choice to configure scheduled restarts for machines in maintenance mode. You can now also use Studio to control whether to include those machines in a restart schedule. For more information, see Create a restart schedule.

• Studio now supports configuring Wake on LAN for Remote PC Access. Previously, you had to use PowerShell to configure Wake on LAN for Remote PC Access. You can now also use Studio to configure the feature. For more information, see Configure Wake on LAN.

• Studio now supports applying AWS instance properties and tagging operational resources. When creating a catalog to provision machines in AWS by using MCS, you can specify whether to apply the IAM role and tag properties to those machines. You can also specify whether to apply machine tags to operational resources. You have the following two options:

  • Apply machine template properties to virtual machines
  • Apply machine tags to operational resources

  For more information, see Applying AWS instance properties and tagging operational resources.

Azure Shared Image Gallery. Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service supports Azure Shared Image Gallery as a published image repository for MCS provisioned machines in Azure. Administrators have the option of storing an image in the gallery to accelerate the creation and hydration of OS disks. This process improves the boot and application launch times for non-persistent VMs. For details about this feature, see Azure shared image gallery.

Note:

Shared Image Gallery functionality is compatible with managed disks. It is not available for legacy machine catalogs.

Storage buckets created in same Google Cloud Platform region as the machine catalog. In previous releases, MCS created temporary storage buckets during provisioning as part of the disk upload process. These buckets spanned multiple regions, which Google defines as a large geographic area containing two or more geographic places. These temporary buckets resided in the United States geographic location, no matter where the catalog was provisioned. MCS now creates storage buckets in the same region where you provision your catalogs. Storage buckets are no longer temporary; they remain in your Google Cloud Platform project after you complete the provisioning process. Future provisioning operations use the existing storage bucket, if one exists in that region. A new storage bucket is created if one does not exist in the specified region.

February 2021

New and enhanced features

Support for Azure Gen2 images. You can now provision managed disks using Gen2 VMs in Azure environments to improve boot time performance. The following operating systems are supported:

• Windows Server 2019, 2016, 2012 and 2012 R2
• Windows 10

Note:

With this support, only a subset of VMs is supported. For example, some VMs can be both Gen1 and Gen2 types, while other VMs can only be Gen1. For more information, see Support for generation 2 VMs on Azure.

Machine restart schedules. Citrix Studio now adds an option called Restart all machines after draining sessions to the Restart duration menu. The option lets you choose whether to restart all machines after draining all sessions. When the restart time is reached, machines are put into the drain state and restarted when all sessions are logged off. For more information, see Create a restart schedule.

New features available in Web Studio. The following features are now available in the web-based console:

• Studio now supports using CSV files to bulk add machines to a catalog. This feature enables you to use a CSV file to:

  • Bulk add machines to a multi-session or single-session OS catalog where machines are not power managed through Studio.
  • Bulk add machines to a Remote PC Access catalog. Previously, you had to choose OUs to bulk add machines to a Remote PC Access catalog. Doing that, however, is not easy in scenarios with OU structure restrictions. The feature gives you more flexibility to bulk add machines. You can add only machines (for use with user auto-assignments) or add machines along with user assignments.

  For more information, see Create machine catalogs and Manage machine catalogs.

• Extended support for Citrix Managed Azure. Citrix Managed Azure is now available in the following Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service editions: Standard for Azure, Advanced, Premium, and Workspace Premium Plus.

• Support for placing master images in Azure Shared Image Gallery. Studio now provides you an option to place master images in Azure Shared Image Gallery (SIG). SIG is a repository for managing and sharing images. It lets you make your images available throughout your organization. We recommend that you store a master image in SIG when creating large non-persistent machine catalogs because doing that enables faster reset of VDA OS disks. For more information, see Microsoft Azure Resource Manager virtualization environments.

• Retain system disk for MCS machine catalogs in Azure. Studio now lets you control whether to retain system disks for VDAs during power cycles. Ordinarily, the system disk is deleted on shutdown and recreated on startup. This ensures that the disk is always in a clean state but results in longer VM restart times. If system writes are redirected to the cache and written back to the cache disk, the system disk remains unchanged. To avoid unnecessary disk recreation, use the Retain system disk during power cycles option, available on the Machine Catalog Setup > Disk Settings page. Enabling the option reduces VM restart times but increases your storage costs. The option can be useful in scenarios where an environment contains workloads with sensitive restart times. For more information, see MCS storage optimization.

• Studio now supports creating MCS machine catalogs with persistent write-back cache disk. Previously, PowerShell was your only choice to create a catalog with persistent write-back cache disk. You can now use Studio to control whether the write-back cache disk persists for the provisioned VMs in Azure when you are creating a catalog. If disabled, the write-back cache disk is deleted during each power cycle to save storage costs, causing any data redirected to the disk to be lost. To retain the data, enable the Use persistent write-back cache disk option, available on the Machine Catalog Setup > Disk Settings page. For more information, see MCS storage optimization.

Support for App protection for Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Service with StoreFront. For more information, see the App protection.

January 2021

New features available in Web Studio. The following features are now available in the web-based console:

• Studio now supports associating apps with custom icons. Previously, you had to use PowerShell to add custom icons for use with published applications. You can now also use Studio to do that. For more information, see Manage application groups.

• Studio now supports applying tags to machine catalogs. Previously, you might use Studio to create or delete tags for use with a catalog. However, you had to use PowerShell to apply tags to the catalog. You can now also use Studio to apply or remove a tag to or from a catalog as you do with delivery groups. For more information, see Apply tags to machine catalogs.

• Studio now supports switching between “horizontal load balancing” and “vertical load balancing” modes. Previously, PowerShell was your only choice to switch between horizontal and vertical load balancing modes. Studio now gives you more flexibility to control how to load balance multi-session OS machines. For more information, see Load balance machines.

• Studio now supports including machines in maintenance mode in restart schedules. Previously, PowerShell was your only choice to configure scheduled restarts for machines in maintenance mode. You can now also use Studio to control whether to include those machines in a restart schedule. For more information, see Create a restart schedule.

• Studio now supports configuring Wake on LAN for Remote PC Access. Previously, you had to use PowerShell to configure Wake on LAN for Remote PC Access. You can now also use Studio to configure the feature. For more information, see Configure Wake on LAN.

• Studio now supports applying AWS instance properties and tagging operational resources. When creating a catalog to provision machines in AWS by using MCS, you can specify whether to apply the IAM role and tag properties to those machines. You can also specify whether to apply machine tags to operational resources. You have the following two options:

  • Apply machine template properties to virtual machines
  • Apply machine tags to operational resources

  For more information, see Applying AWS instance properties and tagging operational resources.

• AWS dedicated host. Citrix Studio now adds an option called Use dedicated host to the Machine Catalog Setup > Security page. This setting is suitable for deployments with licensing restrictions or security requirements that need your use of a dedicated host. With a dedicated host, you own an entire physical host and are billed on an hourly basis. Owning that host lets you spin up as many EC2 instances as that host permits, without more charges. For more information, see AWS tenancy.

• Studio now supports running a restart schedule immediately. Studio now lets you run a restart schedule immediately to restart all applicable machines in the schedule. For more information, see Immediately run a restart schedule.

• Autoscale. Autoscale provides the following new features and enhancements:

  • Studio now supports displaying machines in drain state. Previously, PowerShell was your only choice to identify machines in drain state. You can now use Studio to identify machines that are in drain state. For more information, see Display machines in drain state.

  • Studio now supports defining peak times at a granular level of 30 minutes for VDI delivery groups. Previously, you had to use PowerShell to define the peak times for the days included in a schedule at a granular level of 30 minutes for VDI delivery groups. You can now also use Studio to do that. This support enables you to set the minimum number of machines running in a VDI Delivery Group separately for each half hour of the day.

Azure Shared Image Gallery. Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service supports Azure Shared Image Gallery as a published image repository for MCS provisioned machines in Azure. Administrators have the option of storing an image in the gallery to accelerate the creation and hydration of OS disks from the master image. This process improves the boot and application launch times for non-persistent VMs.

The gallery contains the following three elements:

• Gallery. Images are stored here. MCS creates one gallery for each machine catalog.
• Gallery Image Definition. This definition includes information (operating system type and state, Azure region) about the master image. MCS creates one image definition for each master image created for the catalog.
• Gallery Image Version. Each image in a Shared Image Gallery can have multiple versions, and each version can have multiple replicas in different regions. Each replica is a full copy of the master image. Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service always creates one Standard_LRS image version (version 1.0.0) for each image with the appropriate number of replicas in the catalog’s region. This configuration is based on the number of machines in the catalog, the configured replica ratio, and the configured replica maximum.

Note:

Shared Image Gallery functionality only works with managed disks. It is not available for legacy machine catalogs.

For details about this feature, see Configure shared image gallery.

Storage buckets created in same Google Cloud Platform region as the machine catalog. In previous releases, MCS created temporary storage buckets during provisioning as part of the disk upload process. These buckets spanned multiple regions, which Google defines as a large geographic area containing two or more geographic places. These temporary buckets resided in the United States geographic location, no matter where the catalog was provisioned. MCS now creates storage buckets in the same region where you provision your catalogs. Storage buckets are no longer temporary; they remain in your Google Cloud Platform project after you complete the provisioning process. Future provisioning operations use the existing storage bucket. If one exists in that region, or a new storage bucket is created if one does not exist in the specified region.

PowerShell option that sets default to re-use pooled VDAs during an outage. A new PowerShell command option (-DefaultReuseMachinesWithoutShutdownInOutage) extends the ability to reuse pooled desktop VDAs that haven’t been shut down during an outage, by default. See Application and desktop support.

Google Cloud Platform on-demand provisioning. Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service updates how the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) provisions machine catalogs. When creating a machine catalog, the corresponding machine instance is not created in GCP and the power state is set to OFF. Machines are not provisioned at catalog creation time but rather the first time the machines are powered on. For example, after you create a catalog, the VM power state is set to Off:

December 2020

New and enhanced features

Web Studio is available as a preview. A new, web-based console is now available. We are in the process of migrating the full set of Studio functionalities from the legacy console to the new, web-based console. The web-based console generally responds faster than the legacy console. By default, you automatically log on to the web-based console. You can easily switch between the web-based console and the legacy console from within the Manage tab to perform your configuration or site management tasks. Click the down arrow next to Manage and select an option:

• Web Studio (Preview). Takes you to the new, web-based console.
• Full Configuration. Takes you to the legacy console.

The following features are available only in the web-based console:

• Standard SSD disk type support for Azure. Studio now adds support for standard SSD disk type. Azure standard SSDs are a cost-effective storage option optimized for workloads that need consistent performance at lower IOPS levels. For more information, see Create a machine catalog using an Azure Resource Manager master image.

• Studio now supports configuring the power-off delay for static VDI delivery groups. Previously, you might configure the power-off delay for static VDI delivery groups only through the PowerShell SDK. Studio now lets you configure the power-off delay in the Autoscale user interface for static VDI delivery groups. For more information, see Autoscale.

October 2020

New and enhanced features

Dismiss multiple hypervisor alerts. Citrix Monitor now supports automatic dismissal of hypervisor alerts older than a day. For more information, see Hypervisor Alerts Monitoring.

Remove external IP address. An external IP address on a temporary virtual machine that is used to prepare a provisioned image in the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is no longer required. This external IP address enables the temporary virtual machine to access the Google public API to complete the provisioning process.

Enable Private Google Access to permit the VM to access the Google public API directly from the subnet. For more information, see Enable Google Private access.

New model addresses how machine identities are managed. Machine identities used in machine catalogs have been managed and maintained using Active Directory. All machines created by MCS will now be joining Active Directory. The new Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service model addresses how machine identities are managed. This model allows the creation of machine catalogs using workgroup, or, non-domain joined machines.

Tip:

This functionality supports a new identity service, FMA trust, added to Citrix Cloud for non-domain joined machines.

MCS communicates with the new FMA trust service for identity management. Identity information is stored in the identity disk as a pair of GUID and private key pairs, instead of the domain SID and machine account password paradigm used by Active Directory. VDAs using non-domain joined machines use this GUID and private key combination for broker registration. For more information, see Configure support for non-domain joined catalogs.

Use direct upload for Azure managed disks. This release allows you to use direct upload when creating managed disks in an Azure environment. This functionality reduces costs associated with extra storage accounts. You no longer have to stage the VHD into a storage account before converting it to a managed disk. Also, direct upload eliminates the need to attach an empty managed disk to a virtual machine. Directly uploading to an Azure managed disk simplifies the workflow by enabling you to copy an on-premises VHD directly for use as a managed disk. Supported managed disks include Standard HDD, Standard SSD, and Premium SSD.

For more information on this feature, see the Microsoft Azure blog.

For more information about Azure managed disks, see the documentation page.

Single Resource Group in Azure. You can now create and use a single Azure resource group for updating and creating catalogs in Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops. This enhancement applies to both the full scope and narrow scope service principals. The previous limit of 240 VMs per 800 managed disks per Azure Resource Group has been removed. There is no longer a limit on the number of virtual machines, managed disks, snapshots, and images per Azure Resource Group.

For more information, see Microsoft Azure Resource Manager virtualization environments.

September 2020

New and enhanced features

Quick Deploy. The new Quick Deploy feature replaces the earlier Azure Quick Deploy. The new feature offers a quick way to get started with the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service using Microsoft Azure. You can use Quick Deploy to deliver desktops and apps, and configure Remote PC Access.

Session Administrator (built-in role). Citrix Studio now adds a new built-in role called Session Administrator. The role lets an administrator view delivery groups and manage their associated sessions and machines on the Filters page of the Monitor tab. With this feature, you can configure access permissions of existing administrators or administrators you invite in a way that aligns with their role in your organization. For more information about the built-in role, see Built-in roles and scopes. For information about how to assign the built-in role to an administrator, see Delegated administration and monitoring.

For a more granular level of control over access to the Filters page related to sessions and machines, create a custom role and select one of the following for the Director object: View Filters page - Machines only, View Filters page - Sessions only. For information about creating a custom role, see Create and manage roles.

Support for a new machine type. This release adds support for the NV v4 and the DA v4 series of AMD machines, when configuring Premium Disks for a machine catalog. For more information, see Create delivery groups.

August 2020

New and enhanced features

Limited access to the Remote PowerShell SDK during an outage. Previously, you might not use PowerShell commands during an outage. Now, Local Host Cache allows limited access to the Remote PowerShell SDK during an outage. See What is unavailable during an outage.

Support for two new Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service editions. Citrix Monitor now supports two new Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service editions, namely, Citrix Virtual Apps Advanced service and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Advanced service. For more information, see the Citrix Monitor Feature compatibility matrix.

Support for shared Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) in Google Cloud Platform. The Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service supports Shared VPC on Google Cloud Platform as a host resource. You can use Machine Creation Services (MCS) to provision machines in a Shared VPC and manage them using Citrix Studio. For information about Shared VPC, see Shared Virtual Private Cloud.

Zone selection support for Google Cloud Platform. The Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service supports zone selection on Google Cloud Platform. This feature allows administrators to specify one or multiple zones within a region for catalog creation.

For sole-tenant type VMs, zone selection provides administrators with the ability to place sole tenant nodes across zones of their choice. For non-sole tenant VMs, zone selection provides the ability to place VMs deterministically across zones of their choice thereby providing flexibility in designing the deployment. For configuration information, see Enable zone selection.

Also:

• Sole tenancy provides exclusive access to a sole tenant node, which is a physical compute engine server dedicated to hosting only your project’s VMs. These nodes allow you to group your VMs together on the same hardware or separate your VMs from other project’s VMs.

• Sole tenant nodes help you meet dedicated hardware requirements for Bring Your Own License (BYOL) scenarios. They also enable you to comply with network access control policy, security, and privacy requirements such as HIPAA.

Note:

Sole tenancy is the only route to using Windows 10 VDI deployments on Google Cloud. Server VDI also supports this method. A detailed description for sole tenancy can be found on the Google documentation site.

Improved boot performance for Azure system disks. This release supports improved boot performance for Citrix Cloud implementations using Azure when MCSIO is enabled. With this support, you can retain the system disk. This provides the following advantages:

• VMs and applications now boot and launch with performance similar to how the golden image is served.
• Reduction in API quota consumption, deleting and creating the system disk, and state transition delay caused when you delete a VM.

For example, use the PowerShell PersistOSDisk custom property in the New-ProvScheme command to configure this feature.

-CustomProperties '<CustomProperties xmlns="http://schemas.citrix.com/2014/xd/machinecreation" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<Property xsi:type="StringProperty" Name="UseManagedDisks" Value="true" />
<Property xsi:type="StringProperty" Name="StorageAccountType" Value="Premium_LRS" />
<Property xsi:type="StringProperty" Name="ResourceGroups" Value="benvaldev5RG3" />
<Property xsi:type="StringProperty" Name="PersistOsDisk" Value="true" />
</CustomProperties>'
<!--NeedCopy-->