Citrix CCA MetaFrame Presentation Server 3. 0 and 4. 0 Exam CramT (Exams 223 and 256)
The actual installation steps for the MASL server are as follows :
| 1. | Begin by logging on to the server that will host MASL and launch the Autorun feature from the installation CD-ROM. This feature usually launches automatically when you insert the CD-ROM, but if not, you can double-click the CD-ROM icon under My Computer or the Autorun.exe file on the CD itself.
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| 2. | When the setup window appears, select MetaFrame Access Suite Installations and then click the Install MetaFrame Access Suite License Server option.
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| 3. | Click Next to move past the first couple of informational screens until you come to the screen titled Select Components (see Figure 4.4). Ensure only the license service option has been enabled and then click Next . The Windows Installer component for the license server immediately begins.
Figure 4.4. The MetaFrame Presentation Server Select Components dialog box.
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| 4. | When the Welcome to the Citrix MetaFrame Access Suite Licensing Installation Wizard dialog box appears, click Next to proceed. If you agree with the terms of the license agreement, click the appropriate radio button and then Next to proceed.
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| 5. | Choose the desired destination folder for the application and then click Next.
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| 6. | The Select Features dialog box for the Licensing setup appears. IIS must have already been installed for the License Management Console Web Service option to be enabled. Select the desired options to install and then click Next to continue.
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| 7. | You are prompted to define a folder to store the license files downloaded from Citrix. The default license location is usually adequate, but you can change it if desired. Click Next to proceed.
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| 8. | If you are installing the web interface, the next dialog box requires you to authorize the restart of the IIS service to complete the installation.
Stopping and restarting the IIS service impact any other web services that may be running on this server. If this machine is currently in production, make certain that stopping the IIS service will not affect the currently active production users. A complete server reboot is not required to enable the licensing services, and after the IIS service has restarted, the installation is nearly complete.
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| 9. | Upon completion, an installation summary is presented for your review. After you click Finish, the Licensing Server is available for use, allowing you to download and assign server licenses, as well as providing this server's information when requested during the MetaFrame Presentation Server installation.
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You can easily determine the current status of the licensing service (running or not) by viewing the CitrixLicensing service entry through Computer Management. If it is operational, the service's status is set to Started (see Figure 4.5).
Figure 4.5. You can verify that the license service is running by checking that the CitrixLicensing service is set to Started.
Uninstalling MetaFrame Access Suite Licensing
The task of removing MASL is straightforward. You simply select Citrix MetaFrame Access Suite Licensing from Add/Remove Programs under the Start menu and follow the wizard to complete the uninstall. Note the following after MASL has been uninstalled :
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If you're going to be reinstalling MASL on a server with a different hostname, you need to download new license files from Citrix to install on that server. The existing license files will not operate on a server with a different hostname.
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If license files were downloaded in the past, all MetaFrame servers that use this license server have the 30-day grace period in which to operate before a new license server must be built and available.
If the license server did not previously license files, any MetaFrame servers that point to this license server have only the 96- hour startup grace period (minus any time that may have already expired for that period) in which to work.
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Any license files along with the Options file and the usage logs are not deleted as part of the uninstall process. In addition to reusing the license files if the hostname remains the same, you can reuse the existing Options file simply by copying it to the proper location on the new license server. Table 4.3 lists the names and locations of these files.
Table 4.3. MetaFrame Access Suite License Server File Locations
| Filename | Location and Purpose |
|---|---|
| *.lic | The default location is %Program Files%\Licensing\MyFiles\ However, this location can be modified during the MASL installation. The file citrix_startup.lic represents the startup license, whereas MetaFrame CAL files can have any name desired, which can be set during the download or renamed at any time. |
| CITRIX.opt | Same location as the license files. This is the Options file where special MASL settings can be defined. |
| reportlog.rl | %Program Files%\Licensing\LS\ This file contains the usage history for the license server. If the license server will retain the same hostname, you can preserve the usage history by copying this file to the same folder on the new license server. |
Providing License Server Fault Tolerance
Because of the inability to pool licenses between MASL servers, an inherent single point of failure exists with the MASL server in an MPS implementation. Citrix provides the following safeguards to minimize the impact of a license server failure and help to ensure a seamless recovery of the licensing server without an impact to the MetaFrame administrator:
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The failover grace period for licensing has been extended from 96 hours to 30 days. By increasing this time interval to 30 days, Citrix has ensured that more than adequate time exists to build a new license server or correct the issues with the existing server that are preventing its proper operation. During the 30-day time period, each MetaFrame server is capable of issuing licenses without requiring the presence of the license server. Each server periodically polls for the license server, so it will automatically be discovered when it does come back online.
To facilitate a quick recovery, backup copies of the current license files should be maintained so that a new host with the same license server name can be created. You could also look to maintain a backup image of the license server using backup or drive imaging software.
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Citrix provides support for running a pair of MASL servers in a Microsoft Cluster operating in Active-Passive mode. This configuration provides automatic failover capabilities to a second MASL server if the first one fails. When you request a license file from MyCitrix for the cluster, the hostname used for the license file must reflect the name of the cluster, and not an individual node name.
Note
Citrix provides a brief Adobe Acrobat document outlining step by step how to configure MASL to operate in a two-server Active-Passive Microsoft Cluster. This document can be found on the Citrix website. It has knowledgebase document ID CTX104878.
If Microsoft Clustering is not an option in your environment, you could maintain a second MASL server with the exact same name but kept offline, ready to be implemented if the existing server fails.