anyone start testing Server 2025 on MDT yet? @Jeff Riechers @Eric

Hey Guys, we are currently using MDT for our image creation in our on-prems env (XenServer). I am looking to move to a more modern approach, Cloud ready and open source. Also I would like to update our apps running on our persistent images, software delivery type. Create our gold image for PVS (non-persistent) and MCS (persistent) on Xenserver and do the same in the Cloud at some stage. Based on my researches, I'd say Terraform, Ansible and Packer should tick all the boxes. Any advices please?

Terraform and Packer. Also IPS for taking your on-prem image and sending it to cloud as well. Citrix is putting a lot of work into the CVAD portion of Terraform, so that is being innovated now.

Looking to use Start-PvsProvisionXdMachines to automate building Azure PVS machines. However it looks like it has not been updated, as VDA versions are not current, and there doesn't appear to be any documentation on building an Azure BDM. Anyone use this tool to automate machine building?

Hello, I'm asking for any advice or documentation surrounding the management of IaC (Infrastructure as Code) and Git. My company is making rapid progress along these lines and we have a large IT department. I would love to hear about methodologies others have implemented to manage IaC code-bases in Git with a medium to large IT department.

Why have I only just found the enable_tpm function in the Hyper-V builder for Packer?

Anyone noticed any problems with Windows 11 Packer builds and autologon during the process? I set an automatic logon as part of my first OOBE pass (via autounattend.xml) and normally this logs me straight back in and then continues with the SynchronousCommand stuff, but unlike my Windows 10 build, Windows 11 never logs in successfully the second time. During the first logon, I can see the AutoAdminLogon Registry value is correctly set along with username and password, but after a reboot, all the settings are gone. I'm setting EnableLUA to False in the XML file and also have AutoLogon configured in there too, with a LogonCount value of 3, yet still - no joy with the second logon during the build process.

Is there a Packer builder for XenServer?

Hi, Anyone using Chocolatey with packages.config file? I'm having an issue with Checksum of one app and would like to solve it in the packages.config file, but nothing works> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <packages> <package id="googlechrome" packageParameters="--ignore-checksum" /> </packages> Also tested with: • packageParameters="ignore-checksum" • IgnoreChecksums="true" But nothing works

Don't suppose anyone has ever had any luck doing Windows 11 images from Packer using Qemu? Having real trouble getting it to launch setup after creating the VM

Create Hyper-V machines automatically via Powershell. I just sent a pull request to update the module. Check it out! https://github.com/tabs-not-spaces/Intune.HV.Tools/pull/32

Curious for the folks using Packer. Have you ever had to engage vendor support for anything? I know packer support are options are limited, especially if just using Packer.

<Cross-posted to App Layering channel> Has anyone noticed any problems using Chocolatey with App Layered images? When I uninstall or upgrade any Chocolatey packages, the original folder simply stays put on the C: drive. So if I upgrade Paint dotNet from 5.1.4 to 5.1.6, whether through removal/reinstall or simple upgrade, it stays on version 5.1.4. Is this simply because Chocolatey and App Layering can't work together? The original install goes fine - it is the subsequent change or removal that fails.

I've updated my Microsoft 365 Apps packager for Intune with the PSADT 4.0.6 and some other small changes here: https://github.com/aaronparker/m365apps

✋🏻 Hey, I need testers - particularly on various Windows 11 versions (and maybe Windows 10 less then 22H2). What's breaking / not working etc. Here's a new version of my

Remove-AppxApps.ps1

script that simplifies things considerably - this is intended to run on physical (i.e. via Autopilot) and on gold images: https://gist.github.com/aaronparker/ffccc44498a4a33d64721e075c6441c1. Don't run on an existing physical device because it will likely remove apps that users are actively using. Works on Windows 11 and Windows 10. This will be part of the next release of this project: https://stealthpuppy.com/image-customise/

Hi folks! I was tasked to try to move one of my Citrix Master Image Build pipelines, from on-premises MDT to Azure Packer. I already have successfully running Citrix Master Image Build Pipelines in MDT and AzureDevOps Packer. But this time I'm tasked to also move an app, where the setup file doesn't have a silent switch. In MDT I use AutoIt, to click through such setup, which works very well, given that MDT runs an interactive Windows session. But my tries with apps without silent switch through AutoIt in a Packer run failed so far. Does anybody know, if this is possible, or is there an alternative? Normally I have like only one such app per customer, but this would kill my migration from MDT to Packer, because well, I would need all apps or project won't complete.

Has anyone automated the process of building basic availability groups to host the cvad and pvs databases?

So if I'm using Win11 automated builds via Packer, has anyone else noticed it never boots from the ISO first time out? it's always second time. On this note, how the f*ck do you get vSphere to reboot the console straight after it boots? With stuff like Hyper-V I can just send keystrokes, but as vSphere doesn't open a console automatically, this doesn't work....

FYI, I'm hearing that there will be an official Citrix Xenserver plugin for Packer in the next 2-3 weeks

Ok so I’ve been trying to set up an autoreboot when mcs image update pending and machine user count reaches 0. Haven’t had much luck. We use hyperv for hosting vm Citrix cloud ControlUp Goal is when user count reaches 0 and there is a pending update. to rebooted the vm so that the gold image applies. The reboot needs to come from Citrix cloud it seems otherwise the image update won’t apply. I’ve tried a script called chain reboot but that did not work for us. It seems pretty simple so I’m not sure why I’m struggling. I feel like a control up trigger and script would work. Anyone have success with this?

Big release of the Nutanix Packer Builder today - lots of goodies for EUC workloads https://jkindon.com/deploying-euc-images-with-packer-and-nutanix/

fyi on those using neverred/evergreen to install greenshot in their golden images. https://github.com/greenshot/greenshot/issues/546. TLDR the issue is fixed in a newer 'unstable' version and will get merged into a stable version in the near future, hopefully.

Does anyone know how you can add an EntraID group to a citrix_delivery_group via Terraform? https://registry.terraform.io/providers/citrix/citrix/latest/docs/resources/delivery_group I know it is working for a user but I cannot get it working for a group. It does work via the user interface btw. So I have tried the object_id, display_name, AzureAD\\display_name, display_name@domain.onmicrosoft.com but that is not working. cc: @Jason Samuel & @Alan Goldman

Might be valuable for this channel: https://www.go-euc.com/how-consistent-are-the-azure-deployment-times/

Welp, after moving my lab from ESXI to HyperV (stoopid VMUG), I had to convert all my automation that builds a citrix environment out (all in one VM) from terraform to Packer. Both the terraform/packer modules for HyperV aren't great, but it's working.... Least i didn't have to change my ansible stuff.

Since mid August I suddenly have huge Problems with my Azure DevOps Packer Build Pipeline for a Windows 11 23H2 Multi User Master Image for Citrix DaaS. This Pipe exists since a few years and the problems are quite new to me. Over at #CLKGLR0S0 @James Rankin already helped me with Problem Nr.1 (https://worldofeuc.slack.com/archives/CLKGLR0S0/p1758270865460409) which I circumvented by just deleting this function for now. And a reduced test pipeline, with many apps excluded, finished successfully afterwards. So I re-enabled all the apps, aka the regular build pipeline, and now native Packer functions fail me, but only at the very last steps, so I always have to wait 3,5 hours to see the result.. My build looks like this: 1. Preparation - Install PowerShell 7 and some modules and set some values. 2. Install Language de-DE 3. provisioner "windows-update" 4. provisioner "windows-restart" 5. VcRedist & Microsoft-NET-LTS 6. provisioner "windows-restart" 7. nvidia GPU Driver 8. provisioner "windows-restart" 9. Citrix VDA and companion app 10. provisioner "windows-restart" 11. Office 365 and other LoB apps like AutoCAD // The very last app being installed is Datev, just before the next restart. Important for the screenshots. 12. provisioner "windows-restart" 13. provisioner "windows-update" <-- Nr2. It now breaks during the Restart of the Windows Update provisioner 14. provisioner "windows-restart" <-- Nr3. I also had timeout once here, where the restart didn't work in time, just before the Pester tests. 15. Upload Pester Tests and Invoke Pester 16. Run-BIS-F <-- This was error Nr.1 Nr2: It now breaks during the Restart of the Windows Update provisioner, as the machine suddenly doesn't come back in time anymore. I already tried to increase the timeout, but it doesn't seem to help. This pipeline is old, and reboots always worked during the default timeouts, but when I check the logs the restarts are now much slower then before. Nr3: I also had timeout once here, where the restart didn't work in time, just before the Pester tests. I increased the timeout for all restarts, but since then the restart of step 13. kills me. As a note: I posted the build order to show, that before it breaks, it already did quite some restarts, and all finished without issues. It's only the last two, that suddenly fail. You can see Restart 12 on the screenshots. I'm at a loss right now. Increasing the timeouts to like 30 minutes, for something that worked with defaults values until mid August seems not like a solution.

New major version of #Evergreen coming this week: https://github.com/EUCPilots/evergreen-module/discussions/852. You'll need to update your scripts

Here's some interesting results on language pack install times - I need to dig into more details, but the language pack install times are impacted by configuration states including the number of AppX packages installed on the machine (or image). Additionally, Windows 11 25H2 has improved language pack install times. Anecdotally, I'm hearing that language pack install times are around 40-60 mins and I can replicate long install times on unoptimised Windows installs. I have seen this myself in older Windows versions. In these screenshots you can see the language pack takes 7 mins to install on an image that has been optimised (these test machines include a handful of AppX packages still installed). Cont. in thread