Is it safe/possible to clone XenApp server with VMware cloning??

[tlyczko]

VMware ESXi has an option 'Clone to New Virtual Machine.'
Is it safe/possible to use this to create a new additional XenApp server??

Are there any additional procedures to follow or gotchas to know about??
It would be created with a new SID.

We don't have any specific XenApp cloning software.

Thank you, Tom

[RanjnaAggarwal]

Check this link:-

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/solutions/vmware-citrix-xenapp-best-practices-EN.pdf

[tlyczko]

This is a great article but it doesn't answer any of my questions.

N.B. This is about cloning an existing XenApp server to be able to have one more server in the farm. Too much time has passed to try building a new server.

Thank you, Tom

[RogerSween]

you can.

But you have to make sure when it starts booting up that the NIC on the VM is disconnected.

Login as the local machine, and take the machine off the domain

reboot and rename the vm to what ever the name of the new xenapp server you want (ie XenSvr002)

Reboot, (keep this thing off the domain for right now)

run regedit.

Go through every registry entry and change the old name to the new name (ie search for XenSvr001 and when you find it, change it to XenSvr002)

reboot again, login as local admin, and add the machine to the domain.

Depending on version of Xenapp, (either by command prompt or by setup) re-add this new Xenapp server to the farm.

On your Primary XenApp server, add the new server to the farm.

[tlyczko]

Ohhhhhhhhh...that makes sense.

Someone told me in a XenApp forum about XenApp having issues with server names.

Now I better understand that previous comment.

This regedit stuff is fortunately manageable with a VMware console session...

Thank you, I will try this...

Thank you, Tom

[a_p_]

I'm afraid there's more to do to make this work than just some renaming... You may want to look at Citrix's XenAppPrep tools (e.g. http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX116063) to find out whether this helps you to achieve your goal.

André

[tlyczko]

André Pett wrote:

I'm afraid there's more to do to make this work than just some renaming... You may want to look at Citrix's XenAppPrep tools (e.g. http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX116063) to find out whether this helps you to achieve your goal.

André

We don't have or use Provisioning Server and we're not licensed for it.

Nor do we have or use XenServer.

The article does provide useful information though, thank you for offering it.

Thank you, Tom

[a_p_]

Although the title of the KB is about provisioning, the XenAppPrep tool can also be used to create a XenApp server template (no matter whether this runs on XenServer, ESXi or even on physical hardware). It's actually - as mentioned in the article - comparable to MS's sysprep tool with the necessary additions for XenApp.

André

[tlyczko]

The article isn't clear/helpful to me about how to use XAPrep with an existing production XA server.

Within vSphere I can clone the XA server to a template, but even then it's not clear what to do with the XAPrep tool owing to its XenServer focus.

I'll look on the net, maybe there's something with more detail??

http://support.citrix.com/article/ctx124981 -- appears to say that XenAppPrep does not apply to XA6 or Win2k8 R2 -- further reading indicates I could clone the XA server to a template then create my new server...more reading etc. required.

Thank you, Tom