Disable vs shutdown Horizon Connection Server

[AllBlack]

Hi guys

Been a while since I have done much with Horizon so things are a bit vague or not how I remembered.

When I disable a Connection Server I cannot connect to CS but users who are connected to desktop are not impacted as I would expect.
I was under the impression that when I shutdown a CS it would behave the same and that users are not impacted and their session remains. Is this correct?

However I was doing some testing in development lab after upgrading from 7.7. to 7.9 and it seems that the desktop becomes unresponsive and eventually loses connection when I shutdown CS.
Not sure if it matters but the connection was made through Load Balancer and I have not verified if behaviour differs when I connect to CS directly.

This is not how I remember it and it is left me confused. I am pretty sure that in the production environment we regularly reboot the CS for Windows patching and it has no impact.

Does the connection server stay in the data path between client and virtual desktop at all times?

Also, is there a way that a Netscaler LB (or any other one for that matter) can tell whether a CS is in a disabled state? Right now I need to take one of the CS out of the LB group.
Would be easier if Netscaler could detect it when I put CS in disabled state.

Cheers

[AlIvan77]

Check "Edit Connection Server Settings"  in Settings->Servers-Connection Servers

If you use HTTP(s) Secure Tunnel or Secure Gateways - your clients will be disconnected on CS reboot.

If not - imho - you can reboot CS without users impact.

[cbaptiste · Accepted solution]

However I was doing some testing in development lab after upgrading from 7.7. to 7.9 and it seems that the desktop becomes unresponsive and eventually loses connection when I shutdown CS.

Not sure if it matters but the connection was made through Load Balancer and I have not verified if behaviour differs when I connect to CS directly.

That behavior tells me you are using the connection servers as secure gateways. If this is ended true, shutting down a connection broker would cause users interruption. You will have to drain the user's sessions before you make any changes. Hence the reason why I do not use my connection servers as secure gateways. I simply do client to agent and bypass the brokers once authentication and assignment is completed. With that setup I can shutdown my brokers at will with no user impact.

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[AllBlack]

Thanks mate,

That seems to be the case. I was using them as secure gateways for some of the protocols.
If someone has an answer to my load balancer question that would be much appreciated too

[cbaptiste]

LB can not tell if your broker is in disable state. It does health check monitoring. Up and down base on if the "GET /broker /xml is reachable. That remains true even when the broker is not active but online.