Citrix XenApp

Your Journey towards cloud.

Virtualization Picking up Speed

Are your Skills keeping up? Skill up. Be Relevant

Are you a System Admin

Learn Citrix XenApp, Its future.

Citrix XenApp

Industry-leading virtualization platform for building cloud.

Cloud Computing in Demand

Learn how to build cloud on Citrix XenApp.

Sunday, 24 June 2012

How to create a disk image of a DVD or CD using the terminal


This is a little bit advanced, but useful.
1. Insert the DVD/CD into your drive.
2. Run the TERMINAL application (In your Appplications Utilities Folder)
You will get a little window with a prompt something this: Macintosh:~ wayne$
3.Type the following and then hit return:
drutil status
It will give you some info like this:
Vendor Product Rev
SONY DVD RW DW-U21A AADB
Type: DVD-R Name: /dev/disk2
Cur Write: 4x DVD Sessions: 1
Max Write: 4x DVD Tracks: 1
This is information about your DVD/CD drive and the important thing to notice is the name, it will be /dev/disk1 or /dev/disk2

4. If it is disk1 type this: (If the name is different (eg disk2) then just replace all the disk1 references with disk2.)
diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk1
This will make the DVD icon disappear from the desktop.
5. Type the following:
dd if=/dev/disk1 of=~/Desktop/file.iso bs=2048
6. Wait about 10 or 20 minutes while it now makes an image of the CD/DVD onto your desktop.
When it’s finished it will give a message like this:
2170784+0 records in
2170784+0 records out
4445765632 bytes transferred in 1335.111379 secs (3329884 bytes/sec)
7. Type this to make the DVD reappear on the desktop and you are done:
diskutil mountDisk /dev/disk1

How to turn on automatic logon in Windows XP

Method 1:
You can use Registry Editor to add your log on information. To do this, follow these steps:
  1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
  2. Locate the following registry key:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
  3. Using your account name and password, double-click the DefaultUserName entry, type your user name, and then click OK.
  4. Double-click the DefaultPassword entry, type your password under the value data box, and then click OK.

    If there is no DefaultPassword value, create the value. To do this, follow these steps:
    1. In Registry Editor, click Edit, click New, and then click String Value.
    2. Type DefaultPassword as the value name, and then press ENTER.
    3. Double-click the newly created key, and then type your password in the Value Data box.
    Note: If the DefaultPassword registry entry does not exist, Windows XP automatically changes the value of the AutoAdminLogonregistry key from 1 (true) to 0 (false) to turn off the AutoAdminLogon feature after the computer is restarted.
  5. Double-click the AutoAdminLogon entry, type 1 in the Value Data box, and then click OK.

    If there is no AutoAdminLogon entry, create the entry. To do this, follow these steps:
    1. In Registry Editor, click Edit, click New, and then click String Value.
    2. Type AutoAdminLogon as the value name, and then press ENTER.
    3. Double-click the newly created key, and then type 1 in the Value Data box.
  6. Exit Registry Editor.
  7. Click Start, click Restart, and then click OK.
After your computer restarts and Windows XP starts, you can log on automatically.

If you want to bypass the automatic logon to log on as a different user, hold down the SHIFT key after you log off or after Windows XP restarts. Note that this procedure applies only to the first logon. To enforce this setting for future logoffs, the administrator must set the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon


Value:ForceAutoLogon
Type: REG_SZ
Data: 1

Method 2:

You can also turn on automatic logon without editing the registry in Windows XP Home Edition and in Windows XP Professional on a computer that is not joined to a domain. To do this, follow these steps:
  1. Click Start, and then click Run.
  2. In the Open box, type control userpasswords2, and then click OK.

    Note When users try to display help information in the User Accounts window in Windows XP Home Edition, the help information is not displayed. Additionally, users receive the following error message:
    Cannot find the Drive:\Windows\System32\users.hlp Help file. Check to see that the file exists on your hard disk drive. If it does not exist, you must reinstall it.
  3. Clear the "Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer" check box, and then click Apply.
  4. In the Automatically Log On window, type the password in the Password box, and then retype the password in the Confirm Password box.
  5. Click OK to close the Automatically Log On window, and then click OK to close the User Accounts window.

Friday, 22 June 2012

How to connect your iPhone or iPod to your home stereo.


To connect your iPhone, iPad or iPod to your home stereo you just need a 3.5mm to RCA cable like this cable here. The RCA cable plugs into the rear of your stereo and the 3.5mm plugs into your iPhone headphone jack.
When plugging into the back of the Stereo Amplifier, you can use almost whatever inout you want: CD-INPUT, TAPE-IN, TV-IN, DVD-IN or the AUX-IN,  but do not use the PHONO-IN as it is designed specifically for a record player and won’t sound as good.
For the best results set your iPhone volume to about half. If it’s too quiet you may get noise and hiss. If it’s too loud you may get some distortion.
You can have the USB charger plugged into the iPod at the same time.
If you want you can use an Apple iPod dock, and leave the audio and charger cable plugged into the dock permanently. The dock has a line out so that it doesn’t matter what volume the iPod is set to, and it will also charge your iPod, and has a remote control.


If you are buying a new Stereo, Pioneer and others are now including AIRPLAY into some of their amplifiers. The amplifiers have a Wi-Fi receiver built in which means you can play from your iOS device over your Wi-Fi (Airport) network directly to your Stereo with no loss of quality. You don’t need to connect any cables.

Lock User Accounts After Too Many Login Failures

Add the following two lines highlighted in blue to the /etc/pam.d/system-auth file as shown below:
 
auth        required      /lib/security/$ISA/pam_env.so
auth required /lib/security/$ISA/pam_tally.so
                           onerr=fail no_magic_root
auth sufficient /lib/security/$ISA/pam_unix.so likeauth
                           nullok
auth required /lib/security/$ISA/pam_deny.so
account required /lib/security/$ISA/pam_unix.so
account required /lib/security/$ISA/pam_tally.so 
                           per_user deny=5 no_magic_root reset
account sufficient /lib/security/$ISA/pam_succeed_if.so uid
                           < 100 quiet
account required /lib/security/$ISA/pam_permit.so
password requisite /lib/security/$ISA/pam_cracklib.so retry=3
password sufficient /lib/security/$ISA/pam_unix.so nullok
                           use_authtok md5 shadow
password required /lib/security/$ISA/pam_deny.so
session required /lib/security/$ISA/pam_limits.so
session required /lib/security/$ISA/pam_unix.so


The first added line counts failed login and failed su attempts for each user. 
The default location for attempted accesses is recorded in /var/log/faillog.

Thursday, 21 June 2012

Web Interface Logon process in Citrix

Web Interface(WI) logon process:

1. User enter URL of WI server and logs on.
2. Web Interface server contacts XML broker, xml broker authenticates user and returns application list
3. User clicks on application
4. Web Interface server contacts XML broker
5. XML broker contacts ZDC to find least loaded server,
6. ZDC returns IP of least loaded server to XML broker
7. XML broker returns IP address of least loaded server to Web Interface
8. Web Interface creates ICA file with IP of least loaded server and returns it to client
9. Browser launches ICA client and connects directly to server using ICA files sent from Web Interface

Tuesday, 19 June 2012

Adding Second Farm to web Interface

Open the first farm and:

Open the Access Management Console at Web Interface Server,
click “Configuration Tool” 
-> “Web Interface” 
--> right click on the site you created 
and select “Manage Server Farm” 
-> Add second Farm

Monday, 18 June 2012

Backup Access Data Store and Restore

While there is no built-in backup scheduler with Access, Presentation Server includes the DSMAINT BACKUPcommand for backing up Access Data Stores only. Citrix recommends that this command be executed daily using a scheduler script.
WARNING!
Do not attempt to backup Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle databases using this command.
MDB: A file with the MDB file extension is a Microsoft Access Database file.
Moving / Restoring an Access Database
Access to a valid backup or Copy of the Data Store is assumed before the following procedure is started.
Moving an Access Database
To move an Access database, complete the following procedure:

  1. Copy the Data Store file named “MF20.mdb” in the %system%\Program Files\Citrix\Independent Management Architecture\ folder from the source server to the target server, which will be the new Data Store host.
  2. On the new host server, create a new File DSN by using the Microsoft ODBC manager pointing to the Data Store, as shown in the following screen shots:




  1. Close the ODBC manager because you have created the required DSN file.
    The next task requires you to edit the registry settings.
    Caution
    ! This fix requires you to edit the registry. Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious problems that might require you to reinstall your operating system. Citrix cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use Registry Editor at your own risk. Be sure to back up the registry before you edit it.

  2. Run the Registry Editor and change the value of the following registry key from <blank> to ImaAccess.dll
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Citrix\IMA\DatabaseDriver

  3. Open a command prompt and run the following command to configure IMA and use the new DSN file.
    dsmaint config

  4. is a sample for your reference:
    dsmaint config
    /user:citrix /pwd:citrix /dsn:<full path to the newly created DSN file from Step 2>
    .
    Note: You can drag and drop the DSN file into the command prompt to avoid typing the wrong path.

  1. Run the following command from the command prompt to stop the IMA Service and recreate the Local Host:
    dsmaint recreatelhc

  2. On all the remaining servers in the farm, run the following command, where <DirectServername> is the name of the new host server.
    dsmaint failover <DirectServername>
Restoring an Access Database
It is assumed that the following tasks are completed before starting the procedure to restore an Access database:
  • You have rebuilt or reinstalled XenApp to recover from a failure.
  •  You have a working XenApp server up and running with IMA started.
  • You have access to a backup copy of the old Access Data Base (MF20.mdb) created by the DSMAINT BACKUP command or some other method.
To restore an Access database, complete the following procedure:

  1. Stop the IMA Service and copy the existing MF20.mdb file to a safe location.
    Note: You will be replacing this file with your backup MF20.mdb.

  2. Copy the Data Store file named “MF20.mdb” from the backup source to the target server and save it in the %system%\Program Files\Citrix\Independent Management Architecture\ folder.
    Note
    : The IMA Service must be stopped before starting the next task.

  3. Open a command prompt and run the dsmaint config command to configure IMA and use the existing MF20.dsn file.
    Following is a sample of the preceding command:
    dsmaint config /user:citrix /pwd:citrix /dsn:<full path to the .dsn file >.
Note: You can drag and drop the DSN file into the command prompt to avoid typing the wrong path.
     4.    Run the following command from the command prompt to recreate the Local Host cache and any other servers in the farm so they are aware of the new information:
            dsmaint recreatelhc
            Note: Do not forget to stop IMA before you run the preceding command.