One of the great features of Citrix XenMobile is that you can integrate it perfectly with your current Citrix XenApp / XenDesktop environment. When this integration is enabled users will see their XenApp / XenDesktop applications within their WorxHome application on a mobile device. After adding the XenApp / XenDesktop published App or Desktop to WorxHome they can launch it and the user will be authenticated using single sign-on (SSO). The only extra step what’s needed on the mobile device is that the Citrix Receiver has to be installed, but you don’t have to configure it.
This is a great user experience, all their applications and desktop from Citrix on a single place. On the back end you have to configure some things before this fully works. Off cause you need a working XenMobile 10.x environment and also a working Citrix StoreFront environment. If that is the case, the following steps need to be configured for the integration;
Citrix NetScaler
On the Citrix NetScaler open the Gateway vServer that is used for Citrix XenMobile. If you are used the NetScaler 10.5 XenMobile wizard the default name is _XM_XenMobileGateway.
Go to the STA Server Bindings and make sure both the XenApp / XenDesktop controllers and the XenMobile Server are added.
Citrix StoreFront
The next step is to configure some additional settings in Citrix StoreFront. For the following steps, open the Citrix StoreFront console.
Within the Citrix StoreFront console, go to Stores. On the left side of the screen, click on Enable Remote Access
At this moment, the Store is only configured with the current Gateway (for the XenApp/XenDesktop apps). To let it also work with the XenMobile Gateway we have to add that Gateway too. Therefore, click on Add
Fill in the information about the XenMobile Gateway vServer as shown above and click Next
Add the XenApp and or XenDesktop controllers as STA’s. This must be the same as the STA’s configured in the XenMobile Gateway vServer on the NetScaler. Click on Create
Make sure both the “StoreFront” Gateway and the XenMobile Gateway are selected and click OK
Within the StoreFront console and the Stores page, click on Configure XenApp Services Support on the left side. Copy the XenApp Service URL to a Notepad or something. You need this path when enabling the XenApp / XenDesktop integration within XenMobile.
Citrix XenMobile
The final step is to enable the Citrix XenApp / XenDesktop integration within the Citrix XenMobile configuration. After this step the XenApp and / or XenDesktop published Apps and Desktops will be visible within the WorxHome application on the mobile devices. Just like XenApp / XenDesktop, the applications and desktops will only visible when the user has the rights for that particular app / desktop.
To enable the integration, open the Citrix XenMobile console and login as an Administrator.
Open the Configure tab and go to the Setting page and click on XenApp/XenDesktop.
Fill in the Host, Port and Relative Path as shown above (the URL you copied in the previous step). If you are using HTTPS for your StoreFront make sure that you enable the Use HTTPS button.
Click Save
Testing it on a mobile device
Now it’s time to test it on a mobile device to see if it works. In my case I will test it on my iPad. I have already installed the Citrix Receiver app without any configuration. Open the Citrix WorxHome App, click on the + sign to open the Worx App Store.
As you can see the Windows Server 2012 Shared Desktop and the Windows 8.1 Pooled Desktop is visible, click on the + sign to add them to the device.
I will launch the Windows Server 2012 Shared Desktop for this test.
After clicking on the Windows Server 2012 Shared Desktop icon the Citrix Receiver will open and automatically will start making the connection.
After that the Windows Server 2012 Shared Desktop is launched without the need to re-authenticate myself.
NIce! And I’m sure you also had your X1 mouse all ready to go right? 🙂 Which of course helps in justifying the ‘use case’ of desktops on your iPad. For some anyway.
Only a matter of time before WorxHome will be replaced with the X1 Receiver (finally) making the whole experience, including its look and feel even better. One Receiver to rule them all 🙂
What about Web, HTML5 and SaaS apps in StoreFront, the other way around (and ShareFile of course). Also some valid use cases for that. To be used from a ‘normal’ office desktop.
Does this setup still takes care of separate user subscriptions, between StoreFront and the AppController I mean? It’s been a while 🙂
Thanks for the great article Robin. I was actually on the eDOCs looking to do this on XDM10 but it’s missing few steps. This was very helpful.
Thanks the above article.. Its was great to learn integration for XA /XD on XM….
Hi,
have you found a way to integrate / display only selected xenapp / xendesktop apps and not all? We want to see only few selected xenapp apps in Worx Store.
Regards
Dirk
Hi Dirk, No, as far as I know is it not possible to filter that.
Thanks Robin for the article …cheers !!!
hi followed your steps to configure XenMobile 10.1 but i am getting below error when trying to test connectivity
Either port8443/TCP blocked or MDM service is not running on this server (which is storefront) server. but there is no firewall configured between those 2 server
Hi Ven, There are some known bugs in the Connectivity tests (also with the NetScaler). Does the integration itself works?
Hi,
I did everything, and I can see the apps in WorxHome. The problem is when I try to open any app, I have this error message “This app is no longer available from the server or you are no longer permitted to access it”. Is there something missing in my configuration? Thanks!
This is a STA problem most of the time.
can we deploy it for specific users? and the remaining users should see only the xenmobile applications.
Hi Bader, good question. But at this point there is now way to filter the XenApp / XenDesktop. It is a general feature that can be switched on or off. Maybe in one of the next releases of XM..
thanks robin. Waiting for the next release!!! another question: to switch this off, is it enough to clear configuration in the xenmobile console? (and let configuration inchanged in storefront and netscaler).
Yes, that is enough to disable XenApp / XenDesktop integration.
How to use SSO to work with NS and xenmobile without the need for the user to use their AD credentials Everytime and at every password expiry. For WorxMail I have enabled certificate based authentication on NS but I’m not sure how I can enable SSO imprivata to work with WorxWeb and citrix receiver without getting promoted for AD credentials.
We have it configured the way you described it only with loadbalancers. We have configured the two loadbalancers on the netscaler Gateway for XM as STA’s (xx.xx.xx.13 balances 3 XA Servers – http://xx.xx.xx.13:62053 and xx.xx.xx.14 balances 2 XD Servers – http://xx.xx.xx.14:80 ). They are both UP in the NS GW for XM.
On the Storefront our collegues configured both LB’s as STA’s: http://xx.xx.xx.13/scripts/ctxsta.dll and http://xx.xx.xx.14/scripts/ctxsta.dll
We then got 2 Adresses to use for XM: https://citrix-store.xxx.xxx.xx/Citrix/xxxstore/directory (for Receiver) and https://citrix-store.xxx.xxx.xx/Citrix/xxxStoreWeb (for Webbrowser)
We tried to configure both adresses in XM: Host: Citrix-store.xxx.xxx.xx / Port: 443 / Relative Path: /Citrix/xxxsotre/Directory / User HTTPS on and Citrix-store.xxx.xxx.xx / Port 443 / Relative Path: /Citrix/xxxStoreWeb / User HTTPS on
However its not working with neither Settings. We simply dont see our published apps or dekstops. Did we do something wrong?
Hi Chris, Can you try to change the STA’s of the destination hosts (and not the loadbalacing address) on both NetScaler and StoreFront server?
Hi Chris, could you resolve your issue? I am experiencing the same issue
In the last image, the buttons that looks like a turning page, what is that button called? It only appears to change the task bar.