Citrix Converge 2020

Use an Azure DevOps pipeline to deploy a Windows VDA using HashiCorp Packer. This produces a gold image ready for Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops.

This repo is part of my Citrix Converge 2020 presentation

Full Video Presentation

Prerequisite

You’ll need the following pre-reqs before getting started.

Azure DevOps

• Account (Can be free version!)
• Access to an existing or new Azure Devops project

Azure

• Service Principal information

az ad sp create-for-rbac --name Converge2020

• Storage Account
  • Document Storage account access key
• Container within Storage Account for media installation files
  • Download and upload Citrix VDA VDAServerSetup_2006.exe
  • Download and upload Citrix Optimizer (CitrixOptimizer.zip)
• Container within Storage Account for built gold images to reside

Steps

Follow the below process to build a Windows 2019 VDA

1. From Azure DevOps. Select Repos
2. Import a Git repository
   • https://github.com/ryancbutler/converge-2020
3. From Pipelines create new
   • Select “Azure Repos Git”
   • Select imported repo (eg Converge2020)
   • Existing Azure Pipelines YAML file
   • Select /pipeline.yml
   • Select Variables and add the below table
4. Run pipeline

Pipeline Variables

Variable	Description	Example
client_id	SPN Client ID (appid)	Secret
client_secret	SPN Client Secret (password)	Secret
goldimage_container	Storage Account Container that will contain gold image	goldimages
location	Location to deploy temp VM	centralus
media_container	Storage account container that contatins install media	media
rg_name	Resource group where storage account is located	rg-converge-central
sa_key	Storage Account Key	Secret
storage_account	Storage Account Name	mysupercoolpackerstorage
subid	Azure Subscription ID	Secret
tenantid	SPN Tenant ID (tenant)	Secret
vda	VDA File Name	VDAServerSetup_2006.exe
vdacontrollers	Comma seperated list of cloud connectors	CTX-CC01.LAB.LOCAL