Introduction

This article is for anyone who uses FlexNet Manager Suite to inventory Citrix XenApp and/or XenDesktop. Note that Citrix has re-branded these from Citrix XenApp to Citrix Virtual Apps, and from Citrix XenDesktop to Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktop. However, for the sake of matching the current FlexNet Manager Suite user interface terminology, this article retains the XenApp/XenDesktop terminology. 

The article applies to FlexNet Manager Suite cloud implementations and on-premises implementations. And it is designed to help you properly set up FlexNet Manager Suite in order to inventory XenApp and/or XenDesktop. Most questions relating to XenApp or XenDesktop evidence recognition within FlexNet Manager Suite will most likely be answered or resolved by properly configuring FlexNet Manager Suite so that it can correctly inventory XenApp or XenDesktop within your organization.

One of the most basic questions some users have is, what is the difference between XenApp and XenDesktop? The easiest answer is this: if you just want to use an individual application and nothing more, XenApp is the choice. Conversely, XenDesktop lets users access physical machines (and have access to all applications on that machine) from anywhere. You just login to the Citrix from your device in either case.

Related information

For more information, refer to the “XenApp Server Adapter” topic in the FlexNet Manager Suite Inventory Adapters and Connectors Reference, available on docs.flexera.com. Also see the “Discovery and Inventory Rules” topic within the online help.

How to inventory Citrix XenDesktop and XenApp using FlexNet Manager Suite

Delivery of XenDesktop is backed by machines, physical or virtual, that exist in a data center. End users remotely log into one of these machines and have access to all applications on that machine.

Delivery of XenApp is through applications installed on machines that exist somewhere in a data center. When users launch an application, a session on these machines is launched, and the application is then delivered to the client device and users can use it just as if the app were installed on their own machine. Users can launch multiple applications assigned to them but do not always have access to all the applications installed on the machine.

FlexNet Manager Suite requires inventory data from the images or desktops used in Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop delivery groups in order to recognize installed software and calculate license compliance. There is no requirement to use a specific inventory collection method. Inventory can be collected using any supported approach, including:

• Running the FlexNet inventory agent on the images or desktops.
• Importing inventory from a supported third-party inventory source.

As long as inventory data for the images or desktops is available in FlexNet Manager Suite, applications deployed through Citrix can be correctly identified and included in license consumption calculations.

If inventory is not collected from these images or desktops, software deployed through Citrix delivery groups cannot be accounted for in FlexNet Manager Suite.

IMPORTANT: Remote inventory techniques are not required and are not commonly used. This article assumes that inventory for Citrix images or desktops is already being collected by an existing, supported method

XenAppAgent information

This section provides supplemental information regarding the XenAppAgent. For information about how to set up FlexNet Manager Suite to inventory XenApp, refer to How to Inventory Citrix XenDesktop and XenApp using FlexNet Manager Suite.

NOTE: The XenAppAgent was released in 2019 R1.3 for cloud implementations and will be released in FlexNet Manager Suite 2019 R2 for on-premises implementations.

Beginning with FlexNet Manager Suite R1.3 (for cloud implementations) and FlexNet Manager Suite R2 (for on-premises implementations), support for XenApp Applications Groups was added. To take advantage of support for Application Groups and the collection of user filters, you must use the new XenApp server agent, XenAppAgent. In addition, a one-time staging database update is required to use XenAppAgent to collect Application Group data and user filters from Application Groups.

Note: The XenAppAgent installer can be found within the XenAppAgent folder of the Citrix XenApp Server Agent subdirectory that is provided in the Adapter Tools for FlexNet Manager Suite archive.
For on-premises implementations, the Adapter Tools for FlexNet Manager Suite is available in a zip archive in the Product and License Center. For cloud implementations, the zip archive can be downloaded from the Adapter Tools for FlexNet Manager Suite, Flexera One IT Visibility, and Flexera One ITAM article.

FlexNet Manager Suite’s XenApp server agent, XenAppAgent, is run on a Delivery Controller, which reads application assignment and populates a staging database. Then XenApp server adapter on FlexNet Beacon reads data from this staging database and uploads it to FlexNet Manager Suite, where it is processed with data from other components.

The XenAppAgent requires that the machines in the machine catalog are power-managed (so they can be powered on), and their Windows Admin share is not disabled (by default it is enabled).