Background Information
By default XenDesktop provides desktops on a First Come First Serve basis and, with regards to Private Desktops on an “Assignment on First Use” basis. In some scenarios, it’s preferable to pre assign these private desktops based on a client device. This document is only applicable to Delivery Groups with private desktops – the following will not work with shared delivery groups.
Assigning Private Desktops
The “Get-BrokerPrivateDesktop” and “Set-BrokerPrivateDesktop” cmdlets are used to allocate particular desktops to a client.
References:
Use the command as follows:
Set-BrokerPrivateDesktop DOMAIN\DESKTOPNAME –Option1 Option –Option2 Option
The following options are recommended:
-AssignedIPAddress <string>
This is the local IP of the connecting client.
-AssignedClientName <string>
This is the NETBIOS (NB: Not the FQDN) name of the connecting client. NB: Does NOT work if an IP Address is assigned. Clear the IP first.
-PublishedName <string>
This is a custom published name to differentiate the pre-assigned private desktop from the rest of the Delivery Group (NB: As of XenDesktop 7.1, it appears that you are unable to remove a PublishedName attribute once it has been assigned!) e.g:
Set-BrokerPrivateDesktop CONTOSO\VDI001 –AssignedIPAddress 10.12.43.98 –PublishedName “Front Office”
The following can be used to get a quick overview of what has been assigned:
Get-BrokerPrivateDesktop | ft MachineName,AssignedIPAddress,AssignedClientName,PublishedName
Removing the Non-Assigned Desktop
After assigning a client device to a specific VDI Desktop, users will be presented with two desktops – the pre-assigned client-based desktop and their own user-based desktop, from the same delivery group. If all desktops have been pre-allocated, the user will still see a launch icon, though an error will be displayed when attempting to connect.
The “Get-BrokerAssignmentPolicyRule” and “Set-BrokerAssignmentPolicyRule” cmdlets are used to control this.
References:
Use the commands as follows:
Run “Get-BrokerAssignmentPolicyRule” to return a list of rules. Note the “Name” of the assignment policy rule you want to modify (It will almost certainly match your Delivery Group name)
The following command will now disable the ‘default’ user-based desktop:
Set-BrokerAssignmentPolicyRule –Name “Desktop Name” –Enable $false
Where a client has a private desktop assigned by IP or Hostname, only that desktop is displayed. If the user logs on elsewhere, no desktop will be displayed.
Alternatively, the “ExcludedUsers” option may be used to only hide this desktop from particular users.
Delivery Group Authentication
By default, XenDesktop only uses Users and Groups to authenticate against a Delivery Group. If a user is not in the Delivery Group they won’t see any desktop associated with it, even if the desktop has been specifically assigned to their client device.
“Get-BrokerAccessPolicyRule” and “Set-BrokerAccessPolicyRule” can be used to modify Delivery Group authentication beyond what is possible from within the console.
References:
Specific configuration is out of the scope of this document, but it’s possible to base authentication on IP Address or to simply open up the Delivery Group to all users.
