Basic Guide To vDisk Update Management

Document ID: CTX137757   /   Created On: May 31, 2013   /   Updated On: May 31, 2013

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Summary

This article describes how to set up a managed vDisk for automatic updates in Provisioning Services 6.x.

Basic Guide To vDisk Update Management

This section provides a procedure for setting up a managed vDisk for automatic updates in Provisioning Services 6.x.

Before getting started, you must review the following steps that occur when a scheduled automatic update is initiated:

A new version of the managed vDisk is auto-created in maintenance (read/write) access mode by Update Services.
Your designated Update Virtual Machine (VM) powers on and attaches to its associated vDisk, incorporating the new vDisk version just created by Update Services. Boot up begins and the vDisk performs the update you have configured in the task (SCCM. WSUS, Other Scheduled Task, etc.).
Upon completion of the scheduled update, the VM will shut down and the newly created version will be placed in the Access status that you pre-selected when creating the task (Maintenance-Test-Production).

Note: The following steps outline the procedure for creating a designated diskless VM, adding the host to the host node, adding a managed vDisk for auto updates, and creating a scheduled task. In this example, we are using a XenServer environment, but you should have no trouble adapting the instructions to your hypervisor environment.

Creating your Designated Update Virtual Machine and Adding a Host Connection to vDisk Update Management

Create a diskless VM on a hypervisor, for example AutoUpdateVM.
This VM will attach to your production vDisk, so configure this to start from network only. As you will see later, an Active Directory machine account will be created with the same name as the VM you created.
In your Provisioning Server Console, expand the vDisk Update Management node.
Right-click on the Hosts node as shown in the following screen shot and select Add host...

Select the appropriate hypervisor type. Click Next.

Enter an arbitrary Name and optional Description for your host connection. Click Next.

Enter the Hostname or IP Address of your hypervisor and click Next:

Enter the administrator credentials for your hypervisor, then select Verify Connection.

Click OK and if connection is successful, click Next.

Click Finish:

Your hypervisor host should now appear in the right pane, as shown in the following screen shot:

Adding a Managed vDisk to the vDisks Node Under vDisk Update Management

Right-click on the vDisk node and select Add vDisk. Click Next on the initial screen.
On the following screen, make your desired selection for Store and Provisioning Services Server (or leave default of All) and highlight the desired vDisk to be added. Click Next:

Choose the desired Host Connection from the list and type in the name of the designated VM you created in Step 1 at the beginning of this tutorial.
Note: The name is case sensitive and a machine account with that name cannot already exist in Active Directory.
Click Next.

Select the OU that you would like the machine account for your designated VM to be placed in. It will have the same name as the VM itself. Click Next.

After reviewing the settings (as in the following screen shot), click Finish.

Your vDisk node should display similar to the following in the right pane:

Creating an Update Task to be Performed at a Scheduled Time

Right-click on the Tasks node, select Add Task… and click Next on initial screen:

Give the task a Name and enter an optional Description of the task to be performed:

Note: The vDisk must already be configured to receive its Windows Updates from a WSUS Server before beginning this procedure. If not, before allowing this task to run, start your vDisk in Private Mode and make the necessary changes. Afterward, shut down vDisk and place it back in Standard Mode. See http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/provisioning-61/pvs-vdisks-update-vm-create-configure-esd.html for details regarding the steps to setup the vDisk for WSUS or consult Microsoft.

Schedule the task according to your preference, (for example, if you always want to run the task manually, select None), and click Next:

In the following screen, click Add to select the managed vDisk(s) this task applies to:

Select the vDisk(s) you want this task to update and click OK.
Notice the vDisk listed below. It shows the host and the VM associated with it for auto-updates. This tells you that each managed vDisk must have a unique update VM associated with it. Keep this in mind when naming your Update VMs in the early steps of this tutorial. Consider using a name that tells you which vDisk it is for. If you had forgotten to add a vDisk in the Adding A Managed vDisk To The vDisks Node Under vDisk Update Management section previously covered, you can add it here using the Add Managed vDisk button. You will be returned to this same step when finished. Click OK then Next on the Update Task Wizard screen:

Select the appropriate ESD task from the list, as displayed in the following screen shot: 
Note: In this tutorial, WSUS is selected.

Note: If selecting None as your option, you must create and install a batch file called update.bat. Place this file in the product folder of your Provisioning Services software under C:\program files\citrix\provisioning services (or Program Files (x86) for 64-bit machines.).
Update.bat can contain anything you want. If it is not there, you will see an error in the Provisioning Services Server event log saying that update.bat was missing and an error will be returned. If missing, the automatic versioning will not take place. If using WSUS or SCCM updates, update.bat is not required. "None" is generally selected when the users have a Windows Scheduled Task configured they want to run when the task is run.

In the following screen shot, there are optional scripts you can specify to run at specific times during the task execution as per the information in the following link: 
http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/provisioning-61/pvs-vdisks-wizards-task-create.html.

For this tutorial, leave the optional scripts blank.

Note: If using the optional scripts, place the scripts in a new folder called Scripts that you must create under C:\program files\citrix\provisioning services\scripts (or Program Files (x86) for 64-bit machines.)

Select the Access Mode from the given option for the new vDisk version being created. Click Next.

Review the information on the following screen. If all is satisfactory, click Finish.

In the right pane, if you right-click, on the Task you just created, you will see the following options.
Using Properties, you can modify your current settings. This includes your scheduled time and frequency for the task to run. You can also choose to run the task immediately.