Firefox Profile (XenApp 7.x)

[Quang Hong Huynh1709152518]

Hi all,

 

Until the Firefox ESR version 38.0.1 the UPM worked with the workaround (http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/user-profile-manager-5-x/upm-firefox-browser-den.html) without any problems.

Now since the latest update 38.1.0 the problem begins...

Since then the Firefox profile is not synced anymore; the FF profile is just stuck in the UPM folder 'Pending'. And when I deinstall the new FF version and install the previous version 38.0.1 again the UPM does not work at all, i.e. the Citrix profile is not synced and just stays on the XenApp Server.

 

After all I have to use the new Firefox version because a almost working Citrix profile (with a not-syncing FF profile) is better than no working profile.

 

Has anyone the same problems? Can you please look at this problem and provide a fix, Citrix?

[Muralidhar Maram]

Hi Quang,

 

Can you provide UPM Logs with latest Firefox? (Enable all Log Levels and get logs of one user full session from logon to logoff). Looks like FF came with new profile model which may need more Exclusions\Inclusions\Mirroring.

If you have the Logs of Non Working UPM (After reverting to 38.0.1), Please share them too.

[Quang Hong Huynh1709152518]

Hi Muralidhar,

 

I have sent you the log files via PM.

I could not reproduce the problem with the non-working UPM since I had to create a new profile in order to reproduce the issue with the new FF version.

[Muralidhar Maram]

Hi Quang,

 

From the Logs, It looks like UPM trying to copy some files that are already deleted and not exists in profile. Not sure on whether it is a Bug in UPM or not. But, you can go for excluding AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\*\*-to_delete\* as a work-around. I had went through all your logs and made sure that all these files are getting deleted in session only. So it is safer to exclude these.

[Quang Hong Huynh1709152518]

Hi Muralidhar,

 

I have added this line to the exclusion file list but it didn't work, FF wouldn't sync.

After multiple logins and logoffs I have managed to have a non-working UPM. I have sent you another PM for the log file...

[Muralidhar Maram]

Great, Firefox went with more changes.

 

Another Exclusion needed. Folder Exclusion: AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\*\sessionstore-backups. 

 

Not sure on what else changed in firefox, I would suggest to traverse the firefox profile (in Local and Roaming AppData) for any files and folders that used for back-ups, and exclude all of them. These Back-up files are help full to Firefox when it crashed to restore it to the last working state. This is very rare scenario (FF Crash) and i feel its ok to loose this functionality as a work-around when compared to user profile loss.

[Quang Hong Huynh1709152518]

Hi Muralidhar,

Ok, this folder exclusion would prevent a user profile loss.
But could you managed to find the cause for the not-syncing FF profile problem?

[Muralidhar Maram]

Hi Quang,

 

Firefox used to save its session info backup as SessionStore.bak in its previous versions and this back-up operation was causing UPM to fail. That's why Citrix recommends the SessionStore.bak exclusion (http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/user-profile-manager-5-x/upm-firefox-browser-den.html). But with latest FF Version, it is saving the back-up as SessionStore-Backups\sessionstore.js. So, We need to exclude this file from UPM Sync-ing.

 

 

When UPM encounters a problem in copying the profile to store, it stops its process of copying the other files to store. In your case also actually UPM would not have synced the files that are in profile after the sessionstore failure. And that why you see Firefox Profile missing in store.

 

So, Please go through the new Firefox AppData Files and add all Back-up related folders\files to exclusion and try. I hope this will work.

[Michael Bartman]

Great, Firefox went with more changes.

 

Another Exclusion needed. Folder Exclusion: AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\*\sessionstore-backups. 

 

Not sure on what else changed in firefox, I would suggest to traverse the firefox profile (in Local and Roaming AppData) for any files and folders that used for back-ups, and exclude all of them. These Back-up files are help full to Firefox when it crashed to restore it to the last working state. This is very rare scenario (FF Crash) and i feel its ok to loose this functionality as a work-around when compared to user profile loss.

I am using version 5.2.1 and having the same issue as the OP, however the wildcard in the folder path does not appear to be functioning. Thoughts?

[Muralidhar Maram]

Hi Micheal,

 

That was a mistake. Please use AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\*\sessionstore-backups* as File Exclusion. File Exclusion supports Wild cards.

[Michael Bartman]

I actually discovered that last night after posting and was just coming back to report my findings :) Thanks!

[Cliff Hogan]

The exclusion which works for me is AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\*\sessionstore-backups\* which might have the same effect as the one posted earlier (without the last backslash).

Has anybody tried to push this configuration in Firefox which would go to the root of the problem?

 

browser.sessionstore.enabled set to false

 

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser.sessionstore.enabled

[Jacob Dixon1709152413]

On 9/18/2015 at 3:55 AM, Muralidhar Maram said:

Hi Micheal,

 

That was a mistake. Please use AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\*\sessionstore-backups* as File Exclusion. File Exclusion supports Wild cards.

 

I don't see how this will work because wildcards are not supported for folders. So \Profiles\*\ wont' work.

[Martin Reis]

FYI, this has become part of the documentation and should be working:
https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/profile-management/current-release/integrate/firefox-browser.html