How to Configure XenDesktop to Function Properly Without an Organizational Unit in Active Directory

On the Desktop Delivery Controller:

The following registry value on the Desktop Delivery Controller can be used to prevent it from requiring a farm OU:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Citrix\DesktopServer\SupportFarmWithoutOU (REG_DWORD)

If this value is set to 0 (or if you delete the value) the Desktop Delivery Controller will exhibit default behavior. That is, it will require a farm OU.

If this value is set to 1, the Desktop Delivery Controller will not require a farm OU.

After changing the SupportFarmWithoutOU value, you must restart the Citrix Desktop Delivery Controller Service for the change to have an effect.

On the Virtual Desktop Agent:

The following registry values on the Virtual Desktop Agent can be used to prevent it requiring a farm OU:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Citrix\VirtualDesktopAgent\ListOfDDCs (REG_SZ)

This string value takes a space-delimited list of Desktop Delivery Controllers, each specified by Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) (for example, myddc.mydomain.com). If the ListOfDDCs value is set the Virtual Desktop Agent uses this list instead of the farm OU as long as the FarmGUID value (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Citrix\VirtualDesktopAgent\FarmGUID) is not present in the registry. The FarmGUID value is set if a farm OU is specified when the Virtual Desktop Agent is installed.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Citrix\VirtualDesktopAgent\ListOfSIDs (REG_SZ) This is optional.

This string value takes a space-delimited list of Security Identifier (SID) strings �C one for each Desktop Delivery Controller specified in the ListOfDDCs value. If this value is not present the SIDs are obtained automatically.

After changing either of the ListOfDDCs / ListOfSIDs values, you must restart the Citrix Desktop Service for the change to have an effect.

Group Policy:

The registry changes to the Desktop Delivery Controller and Virtual Desktop Agent can be governed by Microsoft Group Policy. In each case simply use HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Policies\Citrix\... instead of just HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Citrix\... The Policies key always takes priority over the standard Citrix key when values are read from the registry.

XenDesktop Setup Wizard:

To use the XenDesktop Setup wizard in a registry based installation where no Farm OU is configured in AD, do the following:

1. Install the XenDesktop Setup Wizard as detailed in CTX119035 - XenDesktop Setup Wizard, Version 2.1.33267 - For Citrix XenDesktop 2.1 - For Windows Server 2003 (32-bit and 64-bit) .

2. Create a file, with a comma separated, or new line separated, list of desktop delivery controller names that belong to the same Farm.

3. Uncomment the following setting in the SetupWizard.exe.config file in the appSettings section.
<!-- <add key="DDCNamesPath" value="c:\ControllerNames.csv"/> -->

4. Ensure that the value attribute (c:\ControllerNames.csv") is set to the correct name and path of the file that contains the desktop delivery controllers names.

5. Run the Setup Wizard, the only changes seen will be that on the Desktops Farm page, all controls will be disabled, and a message will be displayed informing the user of how many controller names were retrieved and whether validation of these names was successful.