This documentation supports the 22.1 version of BMC Helix Digital Workplace Basic and BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced. Icons distinguish capabilities available only for the Advanced and External license levels. For more information, see License-types-and-features.

Citrix XenApp and Citrix XenDesktop connectors


The Citrix XenApp and Citrix XenDesktop connectors are service connectors to Citrix XenApp and Citrix XenDesktop servers. 

The XenApp and XenDesktop connectors provide virtual assets for end users. Each virtual application in XenApp and virtual desktop in XenDesktop is represented in Active Directory as a user group. Through these connectors, services can provision or deprovision the virtual applications and virtual desktops, based on the user presence in the Active Directory group.

External account requirements

  • The virtualization environment to host and manage the components of your XenApp or XenDesktop must be set up.
  • The Active Directory must be set up on the Citrix XenServer.
  • The Active Directory connector must be configured on the BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog server.
  • The BMC Helix Digital Workplace users must exist on the Citrix XenServer. 

Configuration parameters for Citrix Xen connectors

Before you can use the Citrix XenApp or Citrix XenDesktop in workflows, you must configure a connection to a Citrix XenServer (App or Desktop server), as described in Configuring-service-connectors. The following table describes the parameters required to create a connection:

Parameter

Examples

Description

Server name

159.8.76.18

Citrix server name

User name

CitrixAdmin

Citrix administrator user name

Password

CitrixAdminPass

Citrix administrator user password

Port

5985

Authentication port

Use https

  • false
  • true

HTTPS or HTTP connection

Working directory

c:\scripts

The directory where all required powershell scripts are located

Catalog import capabilities

With the Citrix XenApp and Citrix XenDesktop connectors, you can import virtual applications from Cirtix XenApp and virtual desktops from Citrix XenDesktop servers as services in BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog. For more information, see Importing-service-catalog-items-from-external-systems.

Workflow actions available through the Citrix Xen connectors

The following table provides an overview of the Citrix Xen connector activities:

Connector

Activity

Description

Input parameters

Possible output

Citrix XenApp

Get XenDesktop Active Directory Group By Service Id

Returns the Active Directory group associated with the service imported from Citrix XenApp.

Returns the Active Directory group associated with the virtual application imported from the XenDesktop server.

Citrix XenDesktop

Get XenApp Active Directory Group By Service Id

Returns the Active Directory group associated with the service imported from Citrix XenApp.

Returns the Active Directory group associated with the virtual application imported from the XenApp server.

Example 1: Workflow for a service that enables a Xen virtual application for an end user

 The following figure shows an example workflow that you can build to enable a Xen virtual application for an end user.  

WorkflowXenVirtualApp.png

To build the workflow shown in the figure, perform the following steps:

  1. Open the workflow designer to build a workflow.
  2. Drag and drop the Get XenApp Active Directory Group By Service Id and the Add Active Directory User To Group activities onto the canvas.
  3. Complete the mandatory process details. For more details about how to build a workflows, see Workflow-design-process-overview.
  4. Create the process context variable. For details, see Adding-a-process-context-variable-to-a-workflow.
  5. Select the Get XenApp Active Directory Group By Service Id activity, and configure the Service Id filed.
  6. Select the Add Active Directory User To Group activity, and configure its mandatory fields. For details about how to configure this activity, see Active-Directory-connector.
    For the Group Name field, specify the Output value from the Get XenApp Active Directory Group By Service Id activity.
  7. Save the workflow.
  8. Import a service from your Citrix XenServer, and attach the workflow that you have created to the imported service.

When you are done, complete other details of the service, and entitle and publish it to end users.   

Input and output parameters for activities

For each action, you must specify the input parameters.

Get XenDesktop Active Directory Group By Service Id

Required

Parameter name

Data type

Example

Description

Required

Service Id

String

Process context variable > External Service ID

ID of the virtual desktop imported from Citrix XenDesktop.

Get XenApp Active Directory Group By Service Id

Required

Parameter name

Data type

Example

Description

Required

Service Id

String

Process context variable > External Service ID

ID of the virtual application imported from Citrix XenApp.