Jeff's Citrix certification preparation blog

According to best practices in the Citrix Provisioning Server Administrator’s Guide, page 187, there are two prerequisites to integrating Active Directory and Provisioning Server 5. These prereqs are:

1. Prior to integrating Provisioning Server with Active Directory, the Disable Machine Account Password Changes option must have been selected in the image optimization wizard.

and….

2. The Master Target Device must have been added to the domain AFTER building the vDisk.

Will this be on the 1Y0-A06 Implementing Provisioning Server 5.0 exam? I don’t know, but there is an objective in the 1Y0-A06 Exam Enablement Guide that “Given an environment with Microsoft Active Directory, determine how to configure Active Directory to function with Provisioning Server 5.0.”

I figure it can’t hurt to know it.

One objective in the 1Y0-A06 Implementing Citrix Provisioning Server 5 Exam Enablement Guide states that you should know how to “view vDisk properties using the Console”. So here are three ways to do so:

To view the properties of a vDisk using the Console:

1) Highlight a vDisk and select Properties from the Action menu.

2) Right-click on a vDisk and select Properties.

3) Double-click on a vDisk in the details pane.

Not rocket science, but knowing these will more than likely come in helpful on at least one question on the 1Y0-A06 exam.

For more information, see Citrix Provisioning Server 5.0 Administrator’s Guide, Page 86.

Follow Citrixxperience on Twitter where at least once a week I will give out discount codes of 10% off or better of Citrixxperience exam prep products.

To win, be the first person to answer a specific question correctly. The question can be asked anytime during the week and will be on the subject of the prep product that I am currently working on. I will pre-empt the questions with something like “For a 15% discount code:”

For about the next week or so, I am working on the 1Y0-A06 Implementing Citrix Provisioning Server 5.

Be sure to follow Citrixxperience because I also ask a question of the day almost every day of the week.

One of the objectives in the 1Y0-A06 Implementing Provisioning Server 5.0 Exam Enablement Guide states that you should know how to create a vDisk. Following are the steps to create a new vDisk in the Provisioning Server Console:

1. Right-click a store or vDisk pool, and click Create vDisk.

2. Select the site that will contain the vDisk.

3. Select the server to use to create the vDisk.

4. Type a filename and optional description.

5. Type the size in MB of the vDisk.

6. Select either a fixed or dynamic format for the vDisk.

7. Click Create vDisk.

You can find this information on page 158 of the CPV-200-1I Implementing Citrix Provisioning Server 5.0 courseware or page 92 of the Citrix Provisioning Server 5.0 Administrator’s Guide.

It’s well known that in all Citrix exams you need to have a few ports memorized. I’ll cover a couple of them today that you’ll need for the 1Y0-A06 Citrix Provisioning Server 5.0 exam.

DHCP and Proxy DHCP can use the same port or separate ports, depending on if they are on the same server or separate servers. Below are three different configurations you should know for the exam.

Configuration 1 –> DHCP stand alone with no PXE Service — uses port 67

Configuration 2 –> DHCP and Proxy DHCP hosted on the same server — DHCP uses port 67, Proxy DHCP uses port 4011

Configuration 3 –> DHCP and Proxy DHCP hosted on separate servers — both DHCP and Proxy DHCP use port 67

Remember to open those ports on the firewall if there is a firewall between the DHCP / Proxy DHCP server(s) and target devices!

According to the 1Y0-A06 Exam Enablement Guide – “Given a description of an environment, determine whether to set a vDisk to standard or private image mode” - this should come in handy for at least one question. Probably a couple.

There are three mode options for vDisks in Provisioning Server. I’m only going to elaborate on two of them. You can find more information on all of them in the Citrix Provisioning Server 5.0 Administrator’s Guide on pages 32 – 36:

Standard Image Mode: The vDisk is set to read-only, allowing multiple target devices use of a single vDisk at one time. By using Standard Image mode, there is a big reduction in the requirements for storage space and management. The downsides are: Users can’t personalize their applications and desktops, and administrators must determine the best place to store the write cache (not really a big deal).

Private Image Mode: The vDisk is set to read-write, allowing only one target device to use the vDisk at a time. This creates a big increase in the Provisioning Server load and vDisk storage space. Some upsides include: Users can install and personalize their own applications, hard drive failures are eliminated and better security than PC hard drives.

Different Disk Image Mode: Allows for the saving of changes between reboots.

In Citrix Provisioning Server, administrative roles determine what permissions an administrator has in the Provisioning Server farm. The following are the roles and the permissions with each role, as described in the CPV-200-1I Implementing Citrix Provisioning Server 5.0 courseware:

Device Operator: View properties of a vDisk assigned to a target device, view target device properties, boot target devices, shut down target devices, and send messages to target devices.

Device Administrator: The same tasks as Device Operator and: Assign and unassign vDisks to a target device, modify properties of a target device and device collection, modify device templates for a device collection, move a target device from one device to another within a site, remove a target device from a device collection, and delete a target device from a device collection.

Site Administrator: The same tasks as Device Administrator and: Manage all objects within a site,  and manage Device Administrator and Device Operator memberships.

Farm Administrator: The same tasks as Site Administrator and: Manage all objects within a farm and manage role memberships throughout the farm.

This information is useful for the Planning a Citrix Provisioning Server 5.0 Implementation section of the 1Y0-A06 exam, according to the 1Y0-A06 Exam Enablement Guide, Section 5.4, Exam Objectives.

The people have spoken. I will be writing the 1Y0-A06 Implementing Citrix Provisioning Server 5.0 exam prep next. Of course, the release date is always a guess-timate when I first start writing, but I will guess that it should be released by the first week of June.

Thanks for all who voted. I was actually kind of surprised — I thought that the 1Y0-A08 would have a bigger demand. Glad I did the poll.

I’ve set up a new poll on the side. I already have in mind which one I am going to start, but I just want to make sure that I’m not off the mark here. Please vote on the right-hand side. The choices are:

Exam A04 – Citrix Access Gateway 8.1 Enterprise Edition: Administration 

Exam A06 – Implementing Citrix Provisioning Server 5.0 

Exam A08 – Advanced Administration for Citrix XenApp 5.0 for Windows Server 2008 

Exam A11 – Basic Administration for Citrix NetScaler 9.0 

Exam A13 – Implementing Citrix Access Gateway 9.0 Enterprise Edition 

Thanks for your vote!

The 1Y0-A09 Implementing Citrix XenServer Enterprise Edition 5.0 exam prep products have been released today.

The practice exam contains 202 multiple choice questions, while the study guide contains 41 pages focusing solely on information you need to know for the exam.

This exam prep qualifies for the First Time Pass Guarantee.

The 1Y0-A09 exam is the only exam required for the CCA for XenServer 5 Enterprise Edition certification.

To purchase, login and browse to the Products page.

I finished writing the 1Y0-A09 Implementing Citrix XenServer Enterprise Edition 5 yesterday. I’ll be proofing and QCing it today and I’ll start on the study guide. I’m planning to release it by Wednesday, April 29th at the latest.

I posted a new poll focusing on application delivery / virtualization conferences coming up in 2009, and whether you will be able to or are interested in attending this year. Please take a moment and choose on the right. There is also an option to add an answer. I’ll see how that goes and hopefully I can keep that option available. Thanks for your time.

I’m about halfway done with the 1Y0-A09 Implementing XenServer Enterprise Edition 5.0 practice exam. Much to my surprise, unlike the last few preps that I’ve written, most of the information can be found in the courseware – CXS-200-1I Implementing Citrix XenServer Enterprise Edition 5.0. I should mention that I haven’t taken the real exam yet and I am just creating questions based on the information in the 1Y0-A09 Enablement Guide. But so far, so good as far as the courseware is concerned.

Another great resource for this exam is one that I have never used this fully before —  the help files in XenCenter 5. If you haven’t already, I would suggest reading through the XenCenter help files along with the exam objectives, which can be found in the aforementioned 1Y0-A09 Enablement Guide.

Also a little surprising is how little I’ve used the XenServer 5 Administrator’s Guide. Not that it doesn’t have most of the information, but I’m just finding it more useful or helpful or whatever in the courseware this time. I’m sure if you can’t find or afford the courseware, the Admin Guide will do just fine, so don’t stress if you can’t get your hands on one.

Well, back to writing the 1Y0-A09. It seems I’ve picked up the pace a little this week. My best guesstimate of a completion date at this point is Friday, April 24th. But of course that can always change in either direction.

Yesterday on Twitter, I sent out a 10% off discount code for any of our exam prep products, good through April 30, 2009. It’s not too late for you to grab it if you start following Citrixxperience on Twitter. Sign up to follow at http://twitter.com/citrixxperience.

Also on Twitter I try to “Tweet” at least one question and answer for an exam every day, and give updates about what prep product I am working on and how far along I am. Hope to see you there soon if you are not already!

The following are the questions and answers that I posted on Twitter while I was writing the 1Y0-264 exam. Keep in mind that Twitter has a 140 character limit, so some of the questions might be worded funny, but you’ll get the point.

To follow the newest questions of the day and any other updates from Citrixxperience, subscribe to http://twitter.com/citrixxperience.

1. A firewall must be opened for licensing. Port 27000 opened for License Server. What configuration for Citrix vendor daemon?

Answer:  Since the Citrix vendor daemon uses a random port by default, a static port is set so the firewall can be configured.

2. Using Web Interface, *some* users are having connection issues. Which service is most likely causing the issue?

Answer: Likely, when there are intermittent connection problems using Web Interface, the Citrix XML Service is the issue.

3. The _?_ displays all Citrix policies that apply to a specific session, assisting in the troubleshooting of that session.

Answer: Citrix resultant policy report 

4. What network troubleshooting command would you use to see if the Session Reliability port is open on a server named CTX015?

Answer: Telnet CTX015 2598 – Use Telnet Servername Port Number (2598 for Session Reliability) to verify an open port.

5. Use DSMAINT _?_ to move data from one data store database to another.

Answer: DSMAINT MIGRATE

6. You receive error that the IMA Service could not be started. IMA Service has actually started. How can you resolve this issue?

Answer: Change the default Service Control Manager default time-out value to keep the IMA Service timeout error from appearing.

7. When configuring SSL Relay, a _?_ certificate is installed on Web Interface and port _?_ is used for communication.

Answer: When configuring SSL Relay, a root certificate is installed on Web Interface and port 443 is used for communication.

8. The _?_ policy rule is used to assign network printers to users via a desired policy filter, such as IP address.

Answer: Session Printers

9. _?_ is a Citrix GPO that uses 23 Citrix rules to configure and secure client connections to Presentation Server farms.

Answer: ICACLIENT.ADM

10. The latest _?_ and _?_ should be installed on a client device for application streaming (not using Web Interface).

Answer: Streaming Client and Program Neighborhood Agent – installed on client device for application streaming (not using Web Interface).

11. When streaming to a Presentation Server, what should be installed on the Presentation Server?

Answer: The Streaming Client should be installed on a Presentation Server when streaming to it.

12. What action should an administrator take when a critical alert appears for the Farm Metric Server in Resource Manager?

Answer: Upgrade Presentation Server on the primary Farm Metric Server.

13. Port numbers: SSL _?_ ICA _?_ IMA Server-to-Server _?_ IMA Server-to-Presentation Server Console _?_ Session Reliability _?_

Answer: SSL 443 ICA 1494 IMA ServertoServer 2512 IMA Server-to-Presentation Server Console 2513 Session Reliability 2598

14.  When the policy rule _?_ is enabled, there is a potential for a large number of unwanted print drivers installed in the farm.

Answer:  ‘Native printer driver auto-install’ with the setting ‘Install Windows native drivers as needed’

15. To troubleshoot unexpected policy behavior, generate a _?_ using the Presentation Server Console.

Answer: resultant policy report