Preparing your master image

In the previous section, we briefly touched on the concept of VM provisioning, but what is a master image, anyway? It is the guest operating system on the hypervisor that serves as a template for creating multiple virtual XenApp servers with MCS. The administrator will typically install all the applications that users need and the required Citrix VDA software on the master image. They will also apply the latest Windows patches, security updates, and any drivers that might be needed for the applications to work properly. A great deal of planning needs to go into the preparation of the master image according to the business purpose of the environment. In our case, the goal is to provide applications to accounting, sales, and human resources users, so we will need to install these apps on a Windows 2012 R2 master image and enable RDS to allow app hosting and remote delivery.

Designing your master image VM

Designing a master image VM involves collecting requirements...