It's widely known that one great benefit made available in Presentation Server 4.5 (and previous versions) is the ability to delegate, in a granular fashion, limited functionality within the Access Management Console (AMC) to help desk administrators and other engineers who may be supporting a Presentation Server / XenApp environment. The most efficient way to distribute the AMC to help desk admins is to publish it like any other app from your Presentation Server farm. However, if you publish the default AMC from "c:\Program Files\Common Files\Citrix\Access Management Console - Framework\CmiLaunch.exe," each new user launching the published application for the first time will be prompted to “Configure and Run Discovery.” This is not something most of us want for our help desk administrators to have to deal with or to be confused by. Launching a pre-configured AMC that automatically runs a discovery to gather current information is much simpler for everyone.
While it turns out it’s very simple to accomplish this, the information is not readily available by doing a quick Google search for a CTX article. In fact, I talked to a couple of engineers at Citrix before finding someone who was able to provide the solution. That said, while the process is actually quite simple, and it could be buried in an admin guide somewhere, the purpose of this article is to provide a quick and easy “how to” resource on publishing a pre-configured AMC for Help Desk Administrators.
Step 1: Add Presentation Server/XenApp Administrators
To begin, launch the AMC and run through the “Add administrator” wizard and add the appropriate user accounts or security groups of those whom you would like to delegate either “View Only,” “Full Administrator,” or “Custom” administration abilities to. In most cases you'll select the “Custom” option and delegate specific functions accordingly.
Step 2: Configure the Microsoft Management Console/Access Management Console
Next, launch the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) from a Presentation Server/XenApp server and add the Citrix Access Management Console snap-in.
Highlight the Citrix Access Management Console in the MMC and you will be prompted to “Configure and Run Discovery.” (If you are not prompted, right-click the Citrix Access Management Console and select “Configure and Run Discovery.”). Complete the wizard accordingly and click “Finish.”
After finishing the discovery, click “File | Options” in the MMC. Select the “Console mode” drop-down arrow and select the desired option. In the case of publishing the AMC to help desk admins I would suggest selecting “User mode - limited access, single window.” Accept the default options leaving “Do not save changes to this console” unchecked and “Allow the user to customize views” checked (if you want them to have the ability to customize the view). Click “Apply,” then “OK”.
Next, save the MMC console (“File | Save As”) and save the console with a descriptive name in a location of your choice with the .msc extension. For example, name it “Access Management Console.msc” and save it in C:\Program Files\Citrix. Close the MMC. If you are prompted to save the console settings click “Yes.” Copy the .msc file to the same location on each Presentation Server in your farm that you intend to publish the console on.
Step 3: Publishing the Newly Configured MMC/AMC
To publish the newly configured MMC/AMC simply go through the application publishing wizard as you normally would. For the command line application location, enter “mmc.exe” followed by the path to the .msc file you saved in the prior steps. For example:
mmc.exe "C:\Program Files\Citrix\Access Management Console.msc"
No working directory needs to be defined.
If you would like to change the icon from the default MMC icon, browse to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Citrix\Access Management Console - Framework\CmiLaunch.exe and select the traditional AMC icon
That’s it! When the published AMC is launched a discovery will run automatically to capture the most recent data without requiring the discovery to be configured.
Troubleshooting Tips
If you receive the following discovery errors when launching the published version of the AMC as an administrator with “Full” or “Custom” privileges, try the following solutions. These issues may or may not apply to you depending on how your environment is configured.
Error:
Errors occurred when using <server name> in the discovery process. An unexpected error occurred. Check that the server name is correct, that the server is on, that Citrix Presentation Server is installed on this server, and that the Citrix MFCOM Service is running.
Solution:
- Enable network COM+ access on each Presentation Server per http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX112808.
- If the enabling network COM+ access on each server does not resolve the issue when launching the published AMC as administrator with “Custom” privileges, there may be an additional required setting in the custom privileges for that user or group. For example it’s common to delegate the ability to administer “Sessions” (Connect Sessions, Disconnect User, Log Off Users etc.). If you do this make sure you also grant “View Published Applications and Content” in the Applications section of the Citrix Administrator Properties, Permissions section. Further, if you have any subfolders defined in the Applications section of the Citrix Administrator Properties, Permissions section, make sure the same setting is configured in the subfolder.
Error:
The My Knowledge features will not be available for farm <farm name>
Solution:
Again, the privileges likely need to be modified for your administrators with “Custom” privileges. For this specific error, try enabling the following two settings of the Citrix Administrator Properties, Permissions section:
- Monitoring Configuration: Check “View Farm Monitoring and Server Default Monitoring Information”
- Resource Manager: Check “View Resource Management Configuration and Alerts”