Inventory Device Creation - Citrix (Virtual Desktop Templates)

[davidle]

Has anyone been successful in installing the Flexera Inventory Agent on a Virtual Desktop Template?

If so, does it require the full Inventory Agent?

[JohnSorensenDK]

@davidle 

This topic has been discussed in multiple other community threads, e.g., Advice Needed: Collecting Non-Persistent VMs (Microsoft Azure/Citrix Cloud) and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Adapters to VMware Horizon (with non-persistent VDIs) and the recommendation remains the same. I.e., You do not want to have the full agent installed in the template unless your implementation requires that.

Thanks,

[davidle]

We previously deployed the Full Flexera Inventory Agent on a VDI Template in the past. 

However, many duplicate inventory devices (roughly 1,000+) were generated daily on the non-persistent workstations using the VDI Template.

"You do not want to have the full agent installed in the template unless your implementation requires that."

How do we determine if our "implementation" requires that?

[davidle]

The Citrix Cloud Adapter prerequisites state to "Install the FlexNet Inventory Agent" on the VDI Template.

Should that verbiage be changed?

https://docs.flexera.com/fnms/EN/InvAdapConn/index.html#adapters/Citrix/topics/Adp-Prerequisites.html

[JohnSorensenDK]

@davidle 

Please allow me to check up on that verbiage internally (as I'm not up-to-date on Citrix Cloud Adapter specifics...)

To your follow-up question: "How do we determine if our "implementation" requires that?" I would normally think in context of persistent VDI's, i.e., where the end-user may have more software installed than in the original template. Another use case may be if your implementation somehow requires checking up on software usage inside VDI environments...

Thanks,

[davidle]

@JohnSorensenDK 
Ok, now that makes sense.

How about gathering inventory data for Non-Persistent VDIs?

[JohnSorensenDK · Accepted solution]

@davidle 

 For non-persistent VDIs you will merely have to scan all templates once as you then know which software each end-user has access to.

I reached out to Flexera's engineering team on the Citrix Cloud VDI specifics and got confirmed that scanning with the standalone inventory scanner is sufficient, i.e., you can follow the same recommendation about not deploying the full agent in each template for non-persistent VDIs.

Thanks,