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Citrix-RAS Migration

README.md

Parallels RAS Citrix Migration Tool

Prerequesites

Citrix XenApp version & components

  • Citrix XenApp 6.*
  • XenApp SDK 6.*
  • PowerShell v2

Parallels RAS version & components

  • Parallels RAS PowerShell 16.5
  • .Net 4.5
  • PowerShell v3

Preparing target RAS farm

  • Create VM with Windows 2008 R2 or later
  • Download RASInstaller
  • Deploy RAS components on a single host following installer steps
  • Configure RAS farm and activate license (trial can be used)

Migration Process

Export Citrix XenApp settings

Migration tool requires 4 XML settings files to operate. These are obtained using Citrix XenApp PowerShell SDK. Run the following commands to extract the settings.

Add-PSSnapin citrix.xenapp.commands # load Citrix PowerShell Cmdlets

# OPTIONAL export all farm settings. Used to add more information
# to the header of the generated script.
Get-XAFarm | Export-Clixml "./farm.xml"

# Export all application settings
Get-XAApplicationReport * | Export-Clixml "./applications.xml"

# Export all zone settings
Get-XAZone | Export-Clixml "./zones.xml"

# Export all server settings
Get-XAServer * | Export-Clixml "./servers.xml"

# Export all workergroup settings
Get-XAWorkerGroup | Export-Clixml "./workergroups.xml"

Running the Citrix-RAS Migration tool

  1. Download Parallels RAS Citrix Migration Tool, and move the exported settings into its directory.

  2. Launch PowerShell and change current path to the Citrix-RAS Migration Tool directory.

  3. In PowerShell console window, execute Run.ps1 script as below.

    .\Run.ps1 -XmlPathWorkgroups ./workergroups.xml -XmlPathZones ./zones.xml -XmlPathServers ./servers.xml -XmlPathApplications ./applications.xml -XmlPathFarm ./farm.xml

    Running this script will generate a MigrationScript.ps1 script along with the exported icons in the icons folder. MigrationScript.ps1 can be then modified to your needs if required. If the script is going be executed on a different machine, the icons folder must be available too.

Migrating Citrix XenApp settings to Parallels RAS

  1. Execute MigrationScript.ps1 script and provide your RAS server hostname/ip and credentials when prompted.

  2. If the Parallels RAS version is supported, the migration will begin. Minimal supported version is 16.2. Note icon support is available in 16.5 and above. Parallels RAS 16.2 does not support file extension filtering, and setting of color depth through PowerShell.

Migrating RDS host servers to RAS

Uninstalling Citrix components.

Refer to this document for more details on how to remove Citrix XenApp 6.5

Installing RAS Agents.

  • Open RAS Console
  • Click Upgrade all agents from the Tasks menu.
  • Select the hosts you want to push the "RAS RD Session Host Agent" to.
  • Click OK, to start installation process.

As soon as RAS RD Session Hosts Agent are installed on the target, hosts and their status is verified, the servers are ready to host RDP connections.

Migration details

Migrated components.

Citrix XenApp Parallels RAS
Zones Sites (Partial)
Server RDS hosts
Worker Groups RDS groups
Applications Published applications

Components that are not migrated.

Citrix XenApp Parallels RAS
Administrator Different permissions schema
Load Balancing Policies Not Available
Load Evaluators Not available
Policies Not available

Migration process of Sites (Zones)

This version only migrates the first site that appears in the zones.xml, with the site name updated. This is because it is not possible to resolve under which zone certain components reside. i.e. A workgroup can have multiple farm servers that belong to different zones, similiarly, applications being published from worker groups have no way of knowing to which zone they belong.

Migration process of Servers

The servers are migrated to RAS as RD Session Hosts set with the primary site.

Migration process of Application Folders

The folder strucutre for Administrative folder and Client Application folders are merged. To make a distinction, Administrative folders are marked as Use for administrative purpose

Migration process of Worker Groups

Citrix XenApp worker groups are adjusted to the Parallels RAS RD Session Host Groups structure due to their differences.

Key differences

  • Citirx XenApp allows sharing servers between 2 or more workgroups (Not allowed in Parallels RAS 16.5) Solving this problem required to extract servers that are common to 2 or more groups into their own server group. Such servers are extracted into a group prefixed GRP_<servername>. This adaptation allows to have a similar configuration on RAS for RDS Groups. Also note, that OUs, and AD groups are prefixed with OU_<oiGUID> and ADG_<groupName> respectively.

  • Ctirix XenApp worker groups are not bound to zones. This makes it difficult to have a 1:1 mapping to Parallels RAS. In this version of migration tool the issue is solved by using the first zone name that appears in the zones.xml. Everything is migrated under one zone.

Migration process of Applications

Parallels RAS Citrix Migration Tool was tested with Parallels RAS 16.2, Parallels RAS 16.5, Citrix XenApp 6.0, Citrix XenApp 6.5

All the settings that are available to Parallels RAS in xml settings were migrated.

Property Status
Name Migrated
Description Migrated
Application Type Migrated
Command Line Migrated
Working directory Migrated
Servers Migrated
Groups Migrated
User Filtering Migrated
Shortcut presentation Migrated
File types Migrated (16.5)
Licence limits Migrated
Printer settings Migrated
Color Migrated (16.5)
Resolution Migrated
Start up settings Migrated
App state Migrated

For more information please see this document

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE.md file for details