Microsoft Teams Citrix Install

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K valence electrons

System drive install prevents auto-updating which allows proper QA of new Teams releases if Microsoft does not enforce that release. At one time system drive was the only way to get Citrix optimizations for teams, however this is no longer the case. VanBragt.Net Virtualization: Reviews, Articles, Blogs, Real Life Experiences and News in the virtualization space based on server based computing, VDI, server virtualization, hypervisors, software virtualization, OS streaming and management. Set up the Citrix ShareFile trigger, and make magic happen automatically in Microsoft Teams. Zapier's automation tools make it easy to connect Citrix ShareFile and Microsoft Teams. System drive install prevents auto-updating which allows proper QA of new Teams releases if Microsoft does not enforce that release. At one time system drive was the only way to get Citrix optimizations for teams, however this is no longer the case. An easier way to install Teams is to install the Teams Installer on every computer. The Teams Installer is placed in the Program Files folder and will run automatically when a new user logs in to the computer. It will then install Teams in the user-profile folder. You can also deploy the MSI file with a Group Policy.

Modern times require modern solutions such as Microsoft Teams. What to do however when your Microsoft Teams user experience is not up to par due to extensive consumption in your organization?
This blogpost will guide you through optimizing Teams on Citrix and your local machines.

Please keep in mind that below text is all based on the full Teams client, meaning this does not apply to the web version. Github markdown link to website.

From a Citrix/Microsoft environment perspective; there are two primary ways to optimize your Microsoft Teams traffic.

  1. Use Quality of Service (QoS) tagging for the ‘Teams' packages that are transmitted over your network.
  2. Use HDX Redirection (optimization) for Microsoft Teams on Citrix to offload CPU consumption.

Quality of Service

Quality of Service works best if this is deployed through your whole organization. If you prioritize a Microsoft Teams package that is less important than ‘Business Application X' you might experience unsatisfying behavior in your network priority. You can say something is important, but you would need to know how important it is in consideration to other things. Otherwise it would always be your top priority, at least for IT devices that is how it works.

Quality of Service needs to be supported (and honored) by your network devices and additional configuration might be required on these devices.

Let's say that you already have QoS setup in your network environment. Then the default Microsoft recommendation would be to setup QoS tagging with the following ranges for Microsoft Teams:

Photodirector 11 ultra. This item:Cyberlink PhotoDirector 11 Ultraby CyberlinkWindows 8.1 / 8 / 10 / 7, Mac OS X$79.99 Only 12 left in stock - order soon. Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. CyberLink PhotoDirector 11.6.3018.0 Ultra. February 11, 2021 - Software. Combining image editing and optimization with portrait retouching, PhotoDirector Ultra is just like having Photoshop, and Lightroom all rolled into one. It delivers professional results without the steep learning curve. It is loaded with exclusive AI tools, features like. PowerDirector 18 Ultra + PhotoDirector 11 Ultra A Value-Packed Video & Photo Editing Combo There's never been a better time to explore your creativity through photo and video editing and produce amazing results, without the steep learning curve of professional editing products. All in one value-priced package. CyberLink PhotoDirector 11 Ultra - Photo editor, photo editing software Combining image editing and optimization with portrait retouching, PhotoDirector Ultra is just like having Photoshop, and Lightroom all rolled into one. It delivers professional results without the steep learning curve.

This can be easily done with a GPO. Optionally you can configure the source/destination addresses.

Microsoft Teams optimization on Citrix

Microsoft Teams redirection is an efficient method for saving VDI/SBC resources. This however only works for the desktop based (a.k.a. fat-client) Microsoft Teams 1.2.00.31357 in combination with the Citrix Workspace client on the local user desktop. (minimum version 1907).

Teams

Ms Teams On Citrix

On the Worker

Microsoft Teams would need to be installed after the VDA Agent has been installed. If you already installed Microsoft Teams and did it in the wrong order, you can always reinstall Microsoft Teams. Depending on your setup (persistent vs non-persistent) you need to set up the installation differently.
As an example you'll find the commands below. To be safe refer to the latest vendor documentation.

In short there are two available installation commands:

Per-User installation (default)

This won't work properly on non-persistent setups. Also, the application will auto-update. This is better for dedicated persistent VM's.

Per-Machine installation

This will work properly on Non-Persistent setups. Also the client won't auto-update with this parameter (saves you the user tickets about update prompts).

Checking the configuration

Microsoft Teams Citrix Support

After being installed, the Microsoft Teams client needs to load in VDI mode, this is done via a policy that is set automatically by default.

No need to configure it unless you manually disabled it in the past.
You can confirm if the policy is enabled by checking if the following key is set to ‘1'.
HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareCitrixHDXMediaStreamMSTeamsRedirSupport

On Microsoft Teams you can check if everything is working correctly by clicking on About > Version, and the Citrix HDX Optimized legend displays:

Microsoft Teams Machine Installer Citrix

Editing the gpo

How

Now it is time to update the GPO you created earlier and add the QoS tagging for the Teams redirection client.

Microsoft Teams On Citrix Vdi

You need to add the MicrosoftTeamsCitrix entries. Depending on your current running version, the service might be named differently.

Currently we have:

  • Teams.exe (local fat client)
  • HDXTeams.exe (offload service before 2009.6)
  • HdxRtcEngine.exe (offload service from 2009.6 and onward)

When all is said and done

Teams

System drive install prevents auto-updating which allows proper QA of new Teams releases if Microsoft does not enforce that release. At one time system drive was the only way to get Citrix optimizations for teams, however this is no longer the case. VanBragt.Net Virtualization: Reviews, Articles, Blogs, Real Life Experiences and News in the virtualization space based on server based computing, VDI, server virtualization, hypervisors, software virtualization, OS streaming and management. Set up the Citrix ShareFile trigger, and make magic happen automatically in Microsoft Teams. Zapier's automation tools make it easy to connect Citrix ShareFile and Microsoft Teams. System drive install prevents auto-updating which allows proper QA of new Teams releases if Microsoft does not enforce that release. At one time system drive was the only way to get Citrix optimizations for teams, however this is no longer the case. An easier way to install Teams is to install the Teams Installer on every computer. The Teams Installer is placed in the Program Files folder and will run automatically when a new user logs in to the computer. It will then install Teams in the user-profile folder. You can also deploy the MSI file with a Group Policy.

Modern times require modern solutions such as Microsoft Teams. What to do however when your Microsoft Teams user experience is not up to par due to extensive consumption in your organization?
This blogpost will guide you through optimizing Teams on Citrix and your local machines.

Please keep in mind that below text is all based on the full Teams client, meaning this does not apply to the web version. Github markdown link to website.

From a Citrix/Microsoft environment perspective; there are two primary ways to optimize your Microsoft Teams traffic.

  1. Use Quality of Service (QoS) tagging for the ‘Teams' packages that are transmitted over your network.
  2. Use HDX Redirection (optimization) for Microsoft Teams on Citrix to offload CPU consumption.

Quality of Service

Quality of Service works best if this is deployed through your whole organization. If you prioritize a Microsoft Teams package that is less important than ‘Business Application X' you might experience unsatisfying behavior in your network priority. You can say something is important, but you would need to know how important it is in consideration to other things. Otherwise it would always be your top priority, at least for IT devices that is how it works.

Quality of Service needs to be supported (and honored) by your network devices and additional configuration might be required on these devices.

Let's say that you already have QoS setup in your network environment. Then the default Microsoft recommendation would be to setup QoS tagging with the following ranges for Microsoft Teams:

Photodirector 11 ultra. This item:Cyberlink PhotoDirector 11 Ultraby CyberlinkWindows 8.1 / 8 / 10 / 7, Mac OS X$79.99 Only 12 left in stock - order soon. Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. CyberLink PhotoDirector 11.6.3018.0 Ultra. February 11, 2021 - Software. Combining image editing and optimization with portrait retouching, PhotoDirector Ultra is just like having Photoshop, and Lightroom all rolled into one. It delivers professional results without the steep learning curve. It is loaded with exclusive AI tools, features like. PowerDirector 18 Ultra + PhotoDirector 11 Ultra A Value-Packed Video & Photo Editing Combo There's never been a better time to explore your creativity through photo and video editing and produce amazing results, without the steep learning curve of professional editing products. All in one value-priced package. CyberLink PhotoDirector 11 Ultra - Photo editor, photo editing software Combining image editing and optimization with portrait retouching, PhotoDirector Ultra is just like having Photoshop, and Lightroom all rolled into one. It delivers professional results without the steep learning curve.

This can be easily done with a GPO. Optionally you can configure the source/destination addresses.

Microsoft Teams optimization on Citrix

Microsoft Teams redirection is an efficient method for saving VDI/SBC resources. This however only works for the desktop based (a.k.a. fat-client) Microsoft Teams 1.2.00.31357 in combination with the Citrix Workspace client on the local user desktop. (minimum version 1907).

Ms Teams On Citrix

On the Worker

Microsoft Teams would need to be installed after the VDA Agent has been installed. If you already installed Microsoft Teams and did it in the wrong order, you can always reinstall Microsoft Teams. Depending on your setup (persistent vs non-persistent) you need to set up the installation differently.
As an example you'll find the commands below. To be safe refer to the latest vendor documentation.

In short there are two available installation commands:

Per-User installation (default)

This won't work properly on non-persistent setups. Also, the application will auto-update. This is better for dedicated persistent VM's.

Per-Machine installation

This will work properly on Non-Persistent setups. Also the client won't auto-update with this parameter (saves you the user tickets about update prompts).

Checking the configuration

Microsoft Teams Citrix Support

After being installed, the Microsoft Teams client needs to load in VDI mode, this is done via a policy that is set automatically by default.

No need to configure it unless you manually disabled it in the past.
You can confirm if the policy is enabled by checking if the following key is set to ‘1'.
HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareCitrixHDXMediaStreamMSTeamsRedirSupport

On Microsoft Teams you can check if everything is working correctly by clicking on About > Version, and the Citrix HDX Optimized legend displays:

Microsoft Teams Machine Installer Citrix

Editing the gpo

Now it is time to update the GPO you created earlier and add the QoS tagging for the Teams redirection client.

Microsoft Teams On Citrix Vdi

You need to add the MicrosoftTeamsCitrix entries. Depending on your current running version, the service might be named differently.

Currently we have:

  • Teams.exe (local fat client)
  • HDXTeams.exe (offload service before 2009.6)
  • HdxRtcEngine.exe (offload service from 2009.6 and onward)

When all is said and done

Microsoft Teams Citrix Optimization

Microsoft Teams should now offload Media traffic to your local machine's HDXTeams.exe or HdxRtcEngine.exe service. saving a lot of those precious SBC/VDI resources and automatically redirects the local host peripherals (microphone, camera etc.) as a bonus.

Sources

  • https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-virtual-apps-desktops/multimedia/opt-ms-teams.html
  • https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/qos-in-teams




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