Configuring Citrix StoreFront (XenDesktop 7.x) to use HTTPS, and Configuring Citrix Receiver with "Provisioning File"

If you try and configure Citrix Receiver manually when your Citrix StoreFront is still configured to use HTTP and not HTTPS you will receive the following error "Please enter a secure server address that begins with HTTPS".

You must first configure IIS with a certificate. Open IIS, double click Server Certificates from the host name list. Then click on New Domain Certificate, in this example I am using a wildcard certificate and as this is only internal none of the other details are required.

In an Active Directory domain it will auto detect the Certificate Authority servers, also give the certificate a Friendly Name click Next and you will receive a certificate.

The next step is to configure the site bindings expand Sites and click Default Web Site from there click on Bindings and create a new HTTP Binding using the SSL certificate you just installed. The friendly name of the certificate will appear here.

You now need to reconfigure Citrix to use HTTPS, open the Citrix StoreFront and click Server Group click on the Change Base URL link and append an s onto the existing URL so that it reads HTTPS.

Now if you look throughout the StoreFront the status will have changed to StoreFront using HTTPS.

You should now be able to configured Citrix Receiver.

Although you can do this manually as outlined above, there is also a way to export the configuration for a particular site. This lets you make it available to users so that when Citrix Receiver is installed on their computers all they have to do is double click the link. You export the Provisioning File from the Citrix StoreFront\Stores window.

Citrix XenDesktop 7.x Add Connection and Resources (vSphere 5.5) "Cannot connect to the vCenter server due to a certificate error. Make sure that appropriate certificates are installed on the vCenter server"

I was integrating Citrix XenDesktop 7.5 with my lab vSphere 5.5, and at the point I was configuring my first XenDesktop site XenDesktop throws the error "Cannot connect to the vCenter server due to a certificate error. Make sure that appropriate certificates are installed on the vCenter server" when I point it to my vCenter Server 5.5. This halted the configuration of XenDesktop 7.5, whenever I had installed XenDesktop 7.5 before in my lab I had used Citrix XenServer.

I browsed to C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\SSL and copied the cacert.pem file to the NETLOGON file share on one of my Domain Controllers.

I then imported the cacert.pem file into the Trusted Root Certification Authorities\Certificates store on my XenDesktop 7.5 Delivery Controller. You must use the All Files drop down when you point to the cacert.pem file from the Certificate Import Wizard.

When the vCenter certificate appears in the  Trusted Root Certification Authorities\Certificates store, you can retry the XenDesktop site creation wizard. I have found you have to reload the Citrix Studio in order for it to work.

You should probably be looking to use trusted certificates in a production environment, but as this is only a lab self-signed will do for now.