Unable to Connect to Amazon EC2 Host from Delivery Controller

[Lee Murphy]

Hi

 

We have built a new XenApp 7.8 environment into AWS and I am trying to add an EC2 Resource location (VPC) as a host and it fails to connect

 

The environment sits behind a proxy and I found when I launch Scout I can configure that proxy (to use the same as IE) but I cant in Studio

 

I think this might be related to the proxy (I can access AWS EC2 using the same Access Key from the Powershell module). Is there a way to ensure Citrix XenApp is using the proxy of the Browser when connecting?

 

 

the below error appears (removed private information)

 

  Set-HypAdminConnection  -AdminAddress "DDCNameRemoved"

    New-Item  -AdminAddress "DDCNameRemoved" -ConnectionType "AWS" -HypervisorAddress @("https://ec2.amazonaws.com") -Path @("XDHyp:\Connections\a3f9b1ad-27f6-4e01-88e4-a7ee1326e9f1") -Scope @() -SecurePassword "System.Security.SecureString" -UserName "removed"

    New-Item : The hypervisor was not contactable at the supplied address. (Reason = Exception of type 'PluginUtilities.Exceptions.HostingInfrastructureCommunicationsFailureException' was thrown.)

    + CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (:) [New-Item], InvalidOperationException

    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : Citrix.XDPowerShell.HostStatus.HypervisorNotContactable,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.NewItemCommand

    New-Item : The hypervisor was not contactable at the supplied address. (Reason = Exception of type 'PluginUtilities.Exceptions.HostingInfrastructureCommunicationsFailureException' was thrown.)

    + CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [New-Item], InvalidOperationException

    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : System.InvalidOperationException,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.NewItemCommand

 

[Paul Howard]

Hello, Lee.

 

You can create AWS hosting connections through proxies. However, the downside is that you have to set up the connection using Powershell cmdlets rather than doing it within Studio.

 

In addition to that, please be aware that version 7.8 has a defect in MCS such that machine provisioning will not work via a proxy. This issue has been fixed in 7.9. If your intention is to provision machines with MCS, then I would recommend moving to 7.9. However, if you are planning to provision your workloads separately and import them into XenDesktop for brokering, then 7.8 should work.

 

Here is a script for setting up the hosting connection using powershell. Please note that only unauthenticated proxies are supported at the moment. This script assumes that you know the hostname and port of the proxy. You also need to explicitly specify the correct regional EC2 endpoint (Frankfurt in the example below) - this is because we are not using Studio so we won't get the chance to select a region from the drop-down list.

 

# Configure the proxy host and port that you are intending to use. These are examples.

$server = "myproxy.mydomain.com"

$port = "8080"

 

$options = "ProxyHost=$server,ProxyPort=$port"

 

# This is the API endpoint for the Frankfurt region. Substitute another region here, if you wish.

$hypAddress = "https://ec2.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com"

 

$hypType = "AWS"

 

# Choose a name for your hypervisor connection. This can be anything you like.

$hypConnName = "AWSConnection"

 

# Insert API key and secret key here

$apiKey = "*********************"

$secretKey = "***********************************************"

 

Add-PSSnapin Citrix.Host.Admin.v2

Add-PSSnapin Citrix.Broker.Admin.v2

 

$hypHc = New-Item -Path xdhyp:\Connections -Name $hypConnName -HypervisorAddress $hypAddress -UserName $apiKey -Password $secretKey -ConnectionType $hypType -Metadata @{ "Citrix_MachineManagement_Options" = $options } -Persist

 

$bhc = New-BrokerHypervisorConnection -HypHypervisorConnectionUid $hypHc.HypervisorConnectionUid

 

 

Once you have executed the script, you can go back to Studio and you should find that the hosting connection is displayed as normal. You can continue using Studio as normal from this point on.

 

If you want to deduce the proxy host and port values automatically from your current internet settings, you can do it like this:-

 

$proxyKey = Get-ItemProperty 'Registry::HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings' | Select-Object *Proxy*

$server, $port = $proxyKey.ProxyServer.Split(":")

 

I hope this helps.

 

Paul.

[Lee Murphy]

Thank you very much Paul

 

Thats exactly what I was looking for

 

I thought it was Powershell that might be able to sort it out but I couldnt work out the exactly command structure.

[Balaji Muthukrishnan]

Thanks Paul.

 

powershell script helped me in creating Amazon EC2 host connection.

[Ankit Nautiyal1709159840]

Hi Paul,

 

We are using the Lift and Shift Model in AWS Cloud, we have our own Delivery Controller in EC2 instances(Not using Citrix Cloud) in our own Dedicated VPC account for Citrix.

Will the PowerShell script also help, if we are getting the same Error message mentioned by you while Site Creation in the screen shot pasted below.

 

 

 

What will be $hypAddress for Stockholm region.

How to get the API Key and Secret Key.

 

Thanks 

Ankit Nautiyal

Edited April 9, 2022 by Ankit Nautiyal
Added few more points