Jump to content
  • 1

XenApp VDA 2303 Reconnecting to disconnected session problems

Anthony Dennien

Asked by Anthony Dennien,

Question

Anthony Dennien Rookie

Anthony Dennien

Posted
Posted

Hi, If anyone is testing the latest VDA 2303 could you please check if reconnecting to a disconnected session is working OK for you?
I am seeing a problem on our test servers where the session will reconnect but gets stuck/frozen on the Windows "Welcome" spinning circle and does not proceed any further.

The session shows "Active" from both the DAAS Monitor Console as well as in Task Manager Users tab on the server, however on the client end it is stuck on the Welcome screen.

 

The only change has been VDA 2212 -> VDA 2303 and WEM Agent 2212 -> WEM Agent 2303 in the MCS master image.

Our FAS Server has also been upgraded from 2212 to 2303

Our Production servers are still running with VDA 2212 and they are working fine with session reconnects.

So it seems like a problem with VDA 2303?

 

Windows Server 2016 Standard

Version 1607

OS Build 14393.5717

Link to comment

41 answers to this question

Recommended Posts

  • 0
STB Informatik Newbie

STB Informatik

Posted
Posted

I got this info from Citrix

 

I checked with my Team and as of now there is no ETA on this. We are still waiting for the fix form the Backend Team.

The solution for now is to rollback the VDA to the previous version.

In order to do that, we have to remove the VDA using the VDA cleanup tool (https://support.citrix.com/article/CTX209255/vda-cleanup-utility)

Then install the older VDA version.
 

Link to comment
  • 0
Mike Engel1709161550 Newbie

Mike Engel1709161550

Posted
Posted

If you can't roll back right away for any reason...I've noticed, if someone is stuck on Welcome after a reconnect, you can kill the VDARedirector.exe running under their user session from Director.  Once you do that, they'll be presented with the desktop and everything they left off on.  It's dirty, but it'll get your users back to where they left off and you wont have to forcefully sign them out.

Link to comment
  • 0
Patrick Green1709163848 Newbie

Patrick Green1709163848

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, Mike Engel1709161550 said:

If you can't roll back right away for any reason...I've noticed, if someone is stuck on Welcome after a reconnect, you can kill the VDARedirector.exe running under their user session from Director.  Once you do that, they'll be presented with the desktop and everything they left off on.  It's dirty, but it'll get your users back to where they left off and you wont have to forcefully sign them out.

We found that if you disconnect the user session and then kill the CtxGfx.exe process from the affected session, that process will be restarted almost immediately, and the user can sign in without issue.  It also fires off less AV/Security alerts for malicious process behavior.  

Link to comment
  • 0
Anthony Dennien Rookie

Anthony Dennien

Posted
  • Author
Posted
11 hours ago, Serge Bouwens said:

We are running VDA 2305 and are now having this exact issue. @Anthony How are you so sure this fix has been implemented in 2305?

@Serge Bouwens well I am sure it is working for us as we are now running 2305 in Production and we are no longer have the problem.
Plus if you read the Fixed Issues in the 2305 Documentation it clearly states:

Graphics
When you try connecting to a disconnected VDA session on Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops version 2303, the screen is stuck on the Welcome screen.
https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-virtual-apps-desktops/whats-new/fixed-issues.html#graphics

Not sure if you have tried the hotfix for 2303?
https://support.citrix.com/article/CTX547782

We first applied the hotfix to 2303 and it was working fine. When 2305 became available, we upgraded to 2305 from the hotfix and reconnecting to disconnected sessions was still working OK.

Link to comment
  • 0
Serge Bouwens Rookie

Serge Bouwens

Posted
Posted

@Anthony Thanks for the info. Although it seems it should be fixed, in our case it's not. We actualy did not have the issue in 2303 but do in 2305. We've been working with Citrix on this but without succes. I did set FastReconnect to 1 in the registry and that seemed to work but only for a while.

 

In our case it does seem like a combination of things but it's not all that clear.

  1.  We alter the Ctxhook\ExcludedImageNames registry value at startup using Ivanti EM. No problems with this up to version 2205. I did read that CTXUVI will disable itself if you do so starting version 2112 or something. So we've disabled this action and only apply it in the base image.
  2. We alter the AppInit_DLLs entry the same way. Disabled this as wel.
  3. And the same as above for the SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\CtxUvi\UviProcessExcludes entry
  4. We have FastReconnect set to 0. 0=Hangs on Welcome screen at reconnect 1=Grey screen at reconnect. Has been set to 0 for years btw.

Now I did the earlier mentioned registry setting:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\citrix\Graphics]
"PermitRunAsLocalSystem"=dword:00000001

 

Before setting this I got the hanging Welcome on reconnecting to a session. Logged of the session and set the above key. Logged on again...disconnected and reconected. No issue anymore.

 

All our delivery groups are affected at the moment so I'm going to set the above key on some of them and see if this fixes things as a work arround.

 

Btw It does seem that our Server 2022 environment is not affected but can't say for sure.

 

Link to comment
  • 0
Cory Allen1709157910 Apprentice

Cory Allen1709157910

Posted
Posted
On 6/29/2023 at 12:46 AM, Serge Bouwens said:

@Anthony Thanks for the info. Although it seems it should be fixed, in our case it's not. We actualy did not have the issue in 2303 but do in 2305. We've been working with Citrix on this but without succes. I did set FastReconnect to 1 in the registry and that seemed to work but only for a while.

 

In our case it does seem like a combination of things but it's not all that clear.

  1.  We alter the Ctxhook\ExcludedImageNames registry value at startup using Ivanti EM. No problems with this up to version 2205. I did read that CTXUVI will disable itself if you do so starting version 2112 or something. So we've disabled this action and only apply it in the base image.
  2. We alter the AppInit_DLLs entry the same way. Disabled this as wel.
  3. And the same as above for the SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\CtxUvi\UviProcessExcludes entry
  4. We have FastReconnect set to 0. 0=Hangs on Welcome screen at reconnect 1=Grey screen at reconnect. Has been set to 0 for years btw.

Now I did the earlier mentioned registry setting:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\citrix\Graphics]
"PermitRunAsLocalSystem"=dword:00000001

 

Before setting this I got the hanging Welcome on reconnecting to a session. Logged of the session and set the above key. Logged on again...disconnected and reconected. No issue anymore.

 

All our delivery groups are affected at the moment so I'm going to set the above key on some of them and see if this fixes things as a work arround.

 

Btw It does seem that our Server 2022 environment is not affected but can't say for sure.

 

As a follow up to the PermitRunAsLocalSystem registry entry.  We were able to determine that this was occurring due to the fact that we had defined AppLocker Dll Rules as part of our AppLocker configuration.  Even changing the rules to Allow all Dlls made no difference.  If you disable the enforcement or change it to audit only it starts working again.  We decided to remove Dll rules altogether from our configuration and it has been working fine ever since.  I will mention that the same AppLocker rules were in place prior to the upgrade of the VDA and worked as expected then.  We were asked to open a case with Microsoft to continue troubleshooting but decided that the Dll enforcement was no longer required so we closed our case with Citrix based on that decision.  We have since removed the PermitRunAsLocalSystem entry and it works as Citrix intended.

Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Go to question listing

© Cloud Software Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

×
×
  • Create New...