XenApp 7.5 and Self-Service Session Reset tools for users

[Manuel Morcillo]

Hi Everyone,

 

I have a XenApp 7.5 with various apps working well. However, there are times when things go wrong and users end up having a 'hung' session and have to call helpdesk. In previous versions of XenApp there are various tools that may have worked that allowed regular users to manage their own hung sessions so that they can logon again.

 

Non-working tools in XenApp 7.5

http://blogs.citrix.com/2009/12/11/citrix-support-self-service-tools-citrix-logoff-sessions-tool/

http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX124949

http://www.xirtica.com/ with the tool 'Self-Service Session Reset'

 

I have found various tools that unfortunately don’t work in XenApp 7.5 anymore (see links above), so I have a couple of questions to ask:

 

1)Does anyone have a tool/method/solution to allow regular users to eliminate help desk calls to reset hung XenApp® sessions?

2) Is there a special application out there to lets your users allows them to perform self service XenApp session reset?

3) Has anyone been able to use any of the tools above in XenApp 7.5?

 

Any help is this area would be greatly appreciated

 

 

[William Charnell]

There is a mechanism that offers a user-driven reset option in Receiver. In the VDI case this performs an abrupt power off action but for multi-session VDAs this stops the users' session. See:

 

http://blogs.citrix.com/2014/05/12/storefront-power-management-desktop-restart/

[Joaquin Angel Alonso Alvarez]

Hi,

 

We´ve written a powershell script to search for open sessions and try to close them, it authenticates the user on the domain and looks for his/her sessions.

The script is published on an "admin" delivery group so it´s the only application available there for a standar user.

 

It does not work all the time but it prevents quite a bunch of calls to the helpdesk.

 

I can send it if you want.

[Manuel Morcillo]

Hi Joaquin

 

That would be great. I can test the script and let you know how I go. if you could please email me the script and some instructions that would be very much appreciated

 

email = javier_morcillo[at-symbol-here]yahoo.com

 

Thanks

[Joaquin Angel Alonso Alvarez]

Hi Manuel,

 

Email sent with the script and app publication details.

 

Rgds

[Ronn Martin]

Hey Manuel,

I've recently worked up a version I plan to add to http://www.xirtica.com soon.  If you'd like to beta test for me please let me know and I can get you the beta version for 7.5/7.6.

Thanks,

Ronn

[Dan Dill1709152948]

This is a great feature for VDI, but how about us XenApp customers like the original post indicated?  Are we paying XenApp maintenance to support the development of XenDesktop features?

 

The tool referenced in the original post was great but never worked for 64-bit XenApp, which many people have been running for years upon years.  This is a pretty simple and common need in XenApp environments (self service session logoff/reset for users).  So I'm not sure why Citrix hasn't given us something to address this to date.

 

We've had multiple XenApp versions released since that tool first came out, and yet that tool (which would solve a fair amount of hassle for IT departments and users) isn't updated.

 

It's great Citrix is working to solve my future IT needs by bridging to clouds and such, but sometimes I wish they'd work a little more on the needs affecting me today that I've had for years...

[Ronn Martin]

Hey Dan, the tool I mentioned above works with both XenApp and XenDesktop 7.x. Still waiting for feedback from a handful of people already testing it before I post it at http://www.xirtica.com but if you would like to give it a try please let me know and I'll send you the bits with configuration instructions.

Thanks,

Ronn

[Dan Dill1709152948]

Will your code be rolled into an update to the original Citrix tool by chance?

 

Also my last message was intended as a response to William Charnell's message but somehow the reply/quote button didn't work properly.

[Ronn Martin]

Unfortunately no

[William Charnell]

The built-in mechanism I referred to in my post applies to both XenApp 7.x and XenDesktop 7.x; as mentioned, the behaviour differs between single-session VDA cases (both apps and desktops) and multi-session server OS VDA cases, but the functionality to reset either the whole machine or a single session on the machine should be present.

 

Regards

William

[William Charnell]

Actually, on further investigation you are right and this feature is only available for desktop resources (from both XenApp-style multi-session machines and XenDesktop-style single-session machines) and not available for published applications.  This is something that we should consider extending the functionality for in the future.

 

William

[Dan Dill1709152948]

Yes that functionality would be nice to have today, not to mention years ago :)

[Ronn Martin1709156581]

All, I've posted a XenApp/XenDesktop 7.x compatible version of my user-driven session reset utility along with installation instructions to https://www.xirtica.com.  As with the prior version it can run as a XenApp published app.  The new version can also run standalone from any domain-joined machine.  Hope you find this useful.

Thanks,

Ronn

[Calvin Nghe1709153267]

Ronn, this is a great tool. However does your Session Reset for XenApp 6.5 tool still work? I tried to install it on XA 65 ZDC and it gave me an error message "Error enumerating farm sessions - Network Failure". Any ideas what could be wrong?

[Calvin Nghe1709153267]

sorry duplicated post...

[Ronn Martin1709156581]

Hey Calvin, Yes it should work just fine with 6.5 do you have the XenApp Powershell SDK installed on this server?

Thanks,

Ronn

[Ronn Martin1709156581]

Hey Calvin, just looked at the code and it appears you must have the XA Powershell SDK installed to get to this point in the app's execution.  It's designed to run in the context of an ICA session.  Not sure how you're testing but if you haven't already publish it as an application and run it as you would any other XA-delivered app.  Please let me know what you find.

Thanks,

Ronn

[Calvin Nghe1709153267]

Ronn, thanks for getting back to me. I installed the Session Reset Tool and the XenApp 6.5 SDK on all ZDC. I ran the tool directly on the server and as an XA published app. In both scenario I received the same error message. However it works on our XA 6.5 Test Farm which has R07 installed while the Prod Farm have R05 installed. The .NET version is also different between the two farms. Is the tool dependent on the XA65 Rollup Pack and/or .NET version?

[Ronn Martin1709156581]

Hey Calvin, I don't believe the .NET version should affect it but haven't explicitly testing with R05.  Please ping me directly at ronnmartin@xirtica.com and we can set a time to do some troubleshooting.

Thanks,

Ronn

[Nowshad Ameer]

Hi Joaquin,

 

I have the same requirement. Can you please share the script to my email id?

 

nowshad.ameer@gmail.com

[Jeremy Saunders]

For anyone who comes across this thread, I have released a free tool just for this purpose. You can find it here: https://www.jhouseconsulting.com/2020/08/28/citrix-self-service-session-reset-tool-2106