Just starting to use Images in Citrix DaaS. If I create /attempt to create an image definition from a machine in AWS Workspaces, but it fails, can I safely delete the image version that failed or will it delete the source machine in AWS? It says it will delete the resource, but I can't glean if that is referring to just the item in Citrix

Images isn't supported in AWS yet. Just Azure and VMWare.

Do you mean at all in aws or just ec2?I thought i had to use it for workspaces managed instances

Prepared images is still limited to just Azure, VMWare, and Red Hat OpenShift. with on-prem.https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-virtual-apps-desktops/2507-ltsr/install-configure/create-prepared-image-machine-catalogs With Daas you get a few more. But only Workspace Core right now for AWS. https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-daas/install-configure/create-prepared-image-machine-catalogs

So aws managed instances is supported? All the docs appear to reference it

It works with the traditional Machine Catalog method. Just not the prepared images option.

Maybe I used the wrong terminology? This is the first time I'm using the images tab in citrix at all, be it onprem or daas. The instructions state to create an image definition and then a version. Maybe that's not a 'prepared image'? If the images tab isn't supported, why does the documentation refer to it, and appear to have all the items built out: machine spec, ami, etc.

That is the new MCS process. I don't like how Citrix does their branding. So that tab is for "Prepared images" A new technology that separates the mastering process of MCS separate from the traditional Machine Catalog Creation. For any of the technologies that don't support the new prepared images, you can still do the traditional "Master image" This gets selected during the catalog creation, and work directly with your hypervisor to create snapshots and deploy machines. The traditional method for making MCS machines. It doesn't have as many features as the prepared images, but still is supported and effective on many more platforms.

So the Images tab is the "Prepared Images." If it doesn't work for AWS Workspaces, why does their documentation refer to it? I know their documentation is lacking, but the entirety of the documentation references it. I know workspaces managed instances is only about 2 months old. I guess I'd go a step further and just say, barring any discussion of the hypervisor selected, if I delete the image version and definition within the Images tab, does it delete the resource fully from your choice of selected hypervisor, or just the data within the citrix console?

Are you doing Workspace Core, or traditional EC2 machines?

Workspaces Core is just quick deploy which is more aws than citrix. We're doing Workspace Core Managed instances which is more citrix/mcs than aws

Is your hosting conenctions like this?

yes - amazon workspaces core

So that should work. But you will need a hosting connection, and not use quick deploy for workspace core

I think we're getting things confused. I'm well aware of how to configure the host connection and we're not doing quick deploy. I just have questions around the basic functionality of the images tab

Gotcha. So the images tab is for doing all the mcs steps, with the exception of modifing the machine catalog.

I understand that. All Im trying to figure out: If I delete an image version, does anything happen to the machine in AWS? It says it deletes the resource. I dont want to delete the source machine, and I cant glean from citrix docs if it just deletes the image data from the citrix console.

Gotcha. You can delete old versions without any issue. I do it all the time as I only have limited storage space. That version is tied to the snapshot or image or whatever the hypervisor uses, but it is fully disconnected from any snapshots or vms not using it.

Perfect - thats what I was hoping

I went through a bunch of image versions troubleshooting some issues with mcsio and server 2025. And removing the old versions not used cleared up spaces. It's like PVS, where you can have lots of versions, and remove old versions you aren't ever going to roll back to.

Not sure if this helps, but it’s worth (re)sharing that AWS WorkSpaces Core comes in two variants: • WorkSpaces Core Bundles (based on the v1 API) • WorkSpaces Core Managed Instances (based on the v2 API) So, if Citrix documentation states “We support WorkSpaces Core”, it usually refers to WorkSpaces Core Bundles (v1 API). Supporting WorkSpaces Core Managed Instances (v2 API) requires additional engineering work from Citrix (or any other DaaS/Cloud PC vendor) to integrate with that platform. Blog about pros/cons/use-cases for EC1, Workspaces Core Bundles and Managed Instances - https://www.dizzion.com/post/dizzion-daas-on-aws-infrastructure-options

"Supporting WorkSpaces Core Managed Instances (v2 API) requires additional engineering work from Citrix (or any other DaaS/Cloud PC vendor) to integrate with that platform" I know it's a very new offering, but Citrix does now support Workspaces Managed Instances for nonpersistent workloads. When talking with the MCS Workspaces (Managed Instances) team, I did rib them a bit that Dizzion offers persistent already. 🙂

Prepared Image does work in AWS. It's the only way to work with AWS Workspaces V2 (Managed Instances) and non persistent workloads. This is exactly what we do and it is fully supported (we worked with AWS and Citrix to develop the feature).

yep, Citrix supports V2 (AWS Workspaces Core MI) for GA now as of a few weeks back. Persistent will get there as well (roadmap) so I don't have to use both Quick Deploy for Persistent (V1) and then the regular MCS w/prepared images for V2. Right now, i had to do both for the two different workloads

kinda wish the 2 variants had better naming schemes...

They are aware and actually the V2 stuff was internal naming that was unfortunately reused by Marketing team 😄

Since a few of you are using AWS Workspace MCS method 🙂, is there a way to add AWS tags to the image? We're currently failing on creating an image with the error: Tag value cannot be null. Use empty string instead. Of course it doesn't tell me WHICH tag can't be null, but I know we have some required tags for instances in our org, but I don't see a way to prepopulate them for the prep vm

Ahah, we had the same 😄 You can add tags, but at the beginning they couldn't have an empty value like "MyTag" = . They updated the API (on AWS side, not Citrix). On our side it worked after a few weeks.

But where? I dont see anywhere in Citrix to specify that

on your source on AWS side (the AMI)

Hmm, Im using a machine profile - just pointing it to my Win11 Gold EC2 instance - which has all of the tags required by our org.

can you share a screenshot of the tags?

Do I need to enable some kind of inheritance of tags for that EC2 instance? Unfortunately I can't share as we have super strict data exfil controls

I can only see creating a Launch Template on AWS, and target it as a Machine Profile on Citrix when creating the Image version 😞

So do you do create a new AMI from your gold VM or a template? I think that may be where I was erring

both 😄

Hmm - I created a new AMI from my gold VM, ensured it had the 3 tags that our org requires. I selected that AMI, and also used the Master VM as the machine profile which has a bunch of tags, but still failing with the same error.

sorry, this one doesn't ring a bell 😞

when i built the launch template, i neglected to specify the iam instance profile to use. Trying with an updated template that specifies the iam profile that has the proper permissions.

"Dizzion's article is wrong I am sorry. It's persistent workload that is not currently supported on Managed Instances"

> I double checked with lead engineers and they confirmed that we do support persistent and non-persistent desktops using Workspaces Core v2 API (using Dizzion DaaS here).

"there are no blocks when it comes to creating both persistent and non-persistent accounts using Workspace Managed Instances".

@Ruben Spruijt I thought @Steven Lemonier was referring to Persistent MCS Managed Instances by Citrix not being supported yet, at least that's how I read it.

@Ruben Spruijt My bad, I thought it was about Citrix 😄

No worries 👍 ☀️