Citrix XenDesktop 7.9 Adding a Host Connection for VMware vSphere
In order for Citrix XenApp/XenDesktop to interact with the hypervisor a hypervisor connection needs to be created. The connection is used by XenApp/XenDesktop to create virtual machines and manage them. This article goes through the steps of setting it up with VMware vSphere. The configuration work is carried out on the XenApp/XenDesktop Delivery Controllers.
XenApp/XenDesktop makes an https connection to the VMware vCenter Server and therefore needs to trust the certificate issued on the vCenter Server. To get hold of the SSL certificate open up Internet Explorer and go to the vCenter Server URL. Click on Continue to this website.
Click on Certificate in the Address bar.
Click View Certificate.
Click Details tab.
Click Copy to File...
Click Next.
Select either DER encoded binary X.509 or Base-64 encoded X.509 and click Next.
Click Browse.
Locate a folder to save the certificate file into, enter File name and click Save.
Click Next.
Click Finish.
Click OK.
Close Internet Explorer, open MMC and click File > Add/Remove Snap-in...
Select Certificates and click Add.
Select Computer account and click Next.
Leave Local computer selected and click Finish.
Click OK.
Expand Certificates, right click on Trusted People and select All Tasks > Import...
Click Next.
Click Browse, which brings up the Open window, browse to the location of the vCenter Server certificate exported earlier and click Open.
Click Next.
Place all certificates in the following store should be selected and Certificate store will be set to Trusted People and click Next.
Click Finish.
Click OK.
The certificate should have been sucessfully imported into the Trusted People certificate store. These steps need to be repeated for each Delivery Controller in the XenApp/XenDesktop site before adding the host connection via Citrix Studio.
Once the vCenter Server SSL certificate has been imported on to all the Delivery Controllers in the site, launch Citrix Studio and go to Configuration > Hosting. Click Add Connection and Resources.
In Connection type select VMware vSphere from the list.
Enter the vCenter Server URL into Connection address in the format of https://<<FQDN>>/sdk. In User name enter a username that has sufficient permissions to create and manage virtual machines and the password in Password. Enter a description in Connection name and leave Studio tools (Machine Creation Service) selected unless you intend to use different technology for creating and managing virtual machines for XenApp/XenDesktop. Click Next.
Click Browse.
Expand the datacentre, select the cluster and click OK.
To use shared storage on a SAN or NAS select Use storage shared by hypervisors. Optimize temporary data on available local storage when selected will store the virtual machine's write cache on local hypervisor storage to reduce the IOPS placed on the SAN. As the write cache is non-persistent, its lost after a reboot, it's not an issue to have this on local storage for non-persistent random virtual desktops and XenApp session hosts.
Select Use storage local to the hypervisor to store all the VM's virtual disks on local storage for a cheaper alternative to SAN storage. Manage personal data centrally on shared storage stores the Personal vDisk on separate shared storage rather than the local storage.
Click Next.
Select the storage for the OS, Personal vDisk and Temporary virtual disks. The same storage volume can be selected or separate ones for each virtual disk can be selected to spread the disk I/O across the storage. Click Next.
Enter a descriptive name in Name for these resources, select the network(s) from the list (the virtual machines created by XenApp/XenDesktop will be connected to the specified network or networks) and click Next.
Review summary and click Finish.
The vCenter Server should now appear in the Citrix Studio console.
