We have been using the PAU tool for sometime now. We had an issue the other day and I ran DSCheck to clean up the Datastore. It wasn't to the next morning that the apps disappeared from the AMC. Everything was still working (not sure how) as we us WI that we push down to users desktops when they log in. We restored the Datastore from a backup and all was fine. We ran DSCheck again and everything went down hill again with the apps disappearing from the AMC. We need to be able to run DSCheck regularly so we need to find a fix. We are running PS 4.5 rollup 2 on W2k3 sp2. We have about 100 servers / different silos and we have 3 different farms. Please feel free to send feedback.
Thks
Not sure about doing a dscheck without the clean option. I would imagine that analyzing with dscheck wouldn't be a problem. We are looking at setting up a test datastore to bang on and test some configurations.
To go a little deeper here is what we originally did with Pau. We setup the published apps manually. We then exported the apps out into a text file. We then imported them back in. We also made a "test" silo which consisted of a replicate of the original apps that we imported. We changed the entry under "Name" in the applications properties to test and then imported the apps with Pau to a folder labeled Test. We also did this again for our remote access apps since they were the same as our internal apps and of course they are in a different folder with a different entry under Name in the application properties.
Our patch level is the same on all our servers in this farm. We are on rollup 2, no additional single patches. We are on sp 2 for W2k3 and keep our security patches up to date.
-can you still paste the outcome of the analize in here, does it mention what is faulty?
How did you get the applications imported back into the test silo?, did you change the text files manually?
Gourami support
I can get you a copy of the analize but will need to do this on test datastore. Will need to set this up.
We exported the apps to a text file and the setup another folder in the Citrix console and named it test. We then imported the apps into that folder. We manually change the discription. Our application discription is used as a pointer in our Web Interface servers. There is some programing in the WI that looks at the pointer in the app description.
Have you also considered, changing the 'disguised name', in the text file, this must be unique withing the farm...
There is not a disguised name in the text / xml file - see below typical save application file. Just to summarize this issue occurs when attempting to "clone" applications. We save the apps (using your save function), exit pau, using the AMC rename the folder for the apps we want to clone, build a new empty folder with same folder as the saved apps, start pau and restore the apps. The apps are now duplicated and function perfectly. When running dscheck all applications that were "cloned" in this manner disappear. Since we are talking about over 100 applications we need the ability to easily clone applications. There appears to be an issue in the save function that is not creating the entry correctly. Thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
Sorry,
Our bad, we ment DistinguishedName, this should be unique within the farm.
And it has to match:
So you you wanna clone the app, you should alter both these value's.
Can you place an example of the original .pap file, and the one you altered?
XML tags are gone...
We have run a test, did the same as you told.
a-save a app
b-change both these value's:
DistinguishedName Applications/test/calc2 DistinguishedName
ParentFolderDN Applications/test/ ParentFolderDN
c-saw the apps in the CMC
d-ran a dscheck /clean
And the apps were still there...
The DistinguishedName is unique. I did not alter the DistinguishedName in the text files (with over 100 apps wanted to use your tool for the cloning) Try this simple test:
1. Create an app folder "test"
2. Copy / create app(s) into folder "test"
3. Launch PAU and save app(s) from folder test
4. Exit PAU
5. Using AMC rename folder test to test1 (any name will do)
6. Using AMC create new empty folder "test"
7. Launch PAU and restore apps into folder test that you saved from step #3
Now have duplicated apps with unique DistinguishedName in folder test and folder test1.
8. Run dscheck /clean - apps in test go away (in our case 100+ apps disappear) and PAU now errors out trying to enumerate the apps.
Thanks again for your help!!
We have tested just that, and for us it worked.
We did tested in a ps4.0 farm. Do you use 4.5?
We've recorded the proces; this is what you mean right
We are using 4.5 and what you described above is exactly what caused the issue we are having.
Another question: In an attempt to further debug the issue we did the following:
1. Took a snapshot of existing datastore
2. Changed Citrix server to point to new datastore
3. Installed PAU on Citrix server pointing to this "offline" datastore
4. Deleted an application from "offline" datastore
5. Started up PAU and this is where it gets a little unclear (I was not the one doing this) - but just by starting PAU appeared to remove app from production datastore. This is confusing on several fronts - why would it delete an app without doing a save from the menu? Why would it even connect to production datastore? How does the app determine the path to the datastore (assumption - it would just use the local dsn - correct?)
Needless to say we are a little terrified of the tool right now. We need to address this issue and really don't want to manually recreate 100+ apps but not sure what else to do. We need to be able to run dscheck against our datastore.
If you take a look at the movie, this is exactly what you are doing right?
We will test the same procedure on a 4.5 farm. As you run the DScheck, what message does it give?, is there anny output?, paste it in here please...
Only subtle difference - create empty folder (in your case "test") before restoring applications. Didn't realize your app would create the folder structure or I tried it and it failed (again 4.5 not 4.0)
Don't recall seeing any messages with dscheck. I'll pursue further.
We have also tested this proces in a 4.5 environment, again, it worked fine,we will post the movie soon...
What version of dscheck are you running? Also what version of PAU - i'm running 4.5.1.6.
Also - not sure if noted but once run dscheck the PAU tool errors out trying to do a full scan of applications. Apparently the orphaned objects created by dscheck also create a problem for your tool (along with not displaying in the AMC)
We use version 5.9 of DSCHEK.
Have a look at this movie, we cannot reproduce the error.
Is there annything we are doing wrong?
The only subtle difference is that I recreated the "test" folder (empty) before restoring the apps using your tool.
In post #8: step 8.
8. Run dscheck /clean - apps in test go away (in our case 100+ apps disappear) and PAU now errors out trying to enumerate the apps.
You say PAU crashes after you did a dscheck. This also seems a bit odd to me, normally the software runs better if you do a dscheck.
Can you please specify when goes wrong exactly, when error code do you get, and what are the last view lines in the log?
Dear Kar,
Thanks for reporting this, can you do a dscheck without the clean option, so it will analize only, and paste the outcome in here?
Can you also answer these questions:
-is patch level on each server equal?
-What patch level do you use?
We are going to help you find the problem, no one ever reported this kind of issue before, so keep an open mind for other causes!
Gourami Support