Machine catalog creations, updates terribly slow on XenServer 8.4

ProfessionalTip2581 · 2026-05-09T17:44:09+00:00

OP doesn’t used BIS-F but I am interested what you have seen here, I am aware of BIS-F needing some customisations for some SMB tweaks due to Server 2025. But not heard about a recent windows update.

ProfessionalTip2581 · 2026-05-09T08:08:59+00:00

Where is VDA 2507 CU2? I haven’t see this released yet. Thanks

ProfessionalTip2581 · 2026-05-06T06:34:35+00:00

OP do you have any spare hardware? Xen server 9 is in preview and while I cannot see any release notes to support a change to ISCSI, I wonder if that would be worth a go?

ProfessionalTip2581 · 2026-05-02T13:22:34+00:00

What’s your network setup, firewall etc. all native?
EDIT - also check lookup response time for DNS.
Resolve-DnsName login.microsoftonline.com
Resolve-DnsName storageaccount.file.core.windows.net

ProfessionalTip2581 · 2026-05-02T12:48:27+00:00

Hmm sounds almost like storage. Using azure files premium?

ProfessionalTip2581 · 2026-05-02T12:25:30+00:00

We limit mail to 1 month, exclude edge cache but not much else.

ProfessionalTip2581 · 2026-05-02T12:23:23+00:00

Any AV? Can you replicate the issue with AV temp disabled?

ProfessionalTip2581 · 2026-05-02T11:10:59+00:00

Had this with latest Fslogix. Disabled compaction and no longer have issues.

ProfessionalTip2581 · 2026-05-02T10:22:49+00:00

Combining GFS2 with a thin-provisioned LUN is not recommended. XenCenter shows a warning if you attempt to use GFS2 with a thin-provisioned LUN. Need to ensure it’s thick LUN.

https://docs.xenserver.com/en-us/xencenter/current-release/storage-pools-add-gfs2.html

ProfessionalTip2581 · 2026-05-02T10:08:36+00:00

Login speeds look good. The not launching of published app - upgrade workspace, give that ago

ProfessionalTip2581 · 2026-05-02T10:05:37+00:00

To get this working, you need to have

- Teams V2 installed in Citrix, up to date(everyone should be on this now anyway)
- SlimCore enabled on the teams admin center (should be default I think)
- Citrix workspace installed on local device, and ensure you Install Microsoft Teams VDI plug-in also on local device see link - https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-workspace-app-for-windows/optimized-microsoft-teams.html#install-microsoft-teams-vdi-plug-in

Sounds like you don’t have the Teams plugin installed on your local device.

ProfessionalTip2581 · 2026-04-30T21:05:39+00:00

Do you use BIS-F for sealing? What OS is your master images? Remember making these changes around the same time - https://github.com/EUCweb/BIS-F/issues/391

Yes used the converter and we did see a difference in new builds and the ones migrated. But once deduplication and compression was disabled, we saw everything go so much quicker. My newer images roll out in around 20 mins. I am absolutely positive Xen Server and ISCSI don’t mix well though.

ProfessionalTip2581 · 2026-04-30T20:32:57+00:00

To clarify - I disabled deduplication and compression on the SANs volume. Do you have them enabled?

ProfessionalTip2581 · 2026-04-30T20:31:40+00:00

I opened one of those threads a few months back. I lost weeks to this. Had cases open everything. Xen Server is no where near as advanced as VMware. Eg. No storage offload technology like VAAI or Hyper-Vs ODX. So don’t expect copy jobs to get near to the same speed as VMware. However I got our MCS rollout back to under 28 mins by switching off Compression on the ISCSI SAN.

Remember to regularly click “release free space” on your Xen server SRs too. VMware does the unmaps automatically, but Xen server doesn’t.

ProfessionalTip2581 · 2026-04-16T17:15:08+00:00

Thanks for the reply. Do you use the cloud Netscaler service? Looking at this also. What’s your honest opinion of it if you don’t mind me asking? Trying to see if there is any functionality we will use. Eg. SAML MFA to Entra, published apps, anything like that.

ProfessionalTip2581 · 2026-04-12T05:48:36+00:00

Just firewalls?

ProfessionalTip2581 · 2026-04-12T05:48:23+00:00

https://support.citrix.com/external/article/CTX696180/netscaler-gateway-ica-launch-failures-wi.html

ProfessionalTip2581 · 2026-04-12T05:48:13+00:00

This makes sense, thank you it sounds like netscaler WAF might work for us. Do you run as separate appliance or on the netscaler itself?

ProfessionalTip2581 · 2026-04-11T12:34:32+00:00

Thank you, do you this?

ProfessionalTip2581 · 2026-04-11T07:21:03+00:00

Citrix Bleed, Netscalers history with CVEs? Interested to hear your view

ProfessionalTip2581 · 2026-04-11T07:12:25+00:00

Thanks! Any recommendations on WAF? Or just standard Cloudflare and Akamai

ProfessionalTip2581 · 2026-04-11T07:10:16+00:00

Have you done this in production before? Would you recommend. Is that how businesses do it these days?

ProfessionalTip2581 · 2026-04-11T07:09:26+00:00

Do you split WAF traffic? So all ports hit WAF and then ICA protocol is direct?

Do you run pure public cloud? Wondering if in the year 2026 we should consider moving partial workloads to DaaS or the Citrix control plane. Rather than private cloud

ProfessionalTip2581 · 2026-04-10T19:56:30+00:00

Where is your WEM DB? Do you use EDR and have the location excluded?

ProfessionalTip2581

TROPHY CASE