In my earlier post (which you can find here: https://itsolutionsdirect.com/citrix-cloud-connector-installation/798/) we went through the steps required to install and configure the Citrix Cloud Connector which is the connection from Citrix cloud to your on-premise installation.
In this blog post we are going to go through and install the Citrix VDA Agent on a server and ensure that is registers with the Cloud Connector successfully, and then create a Machine Catalog on the Cloud Service.
Step 1: Install the VDA Agent on an existing server
In preparation for this post I have setup and configured a standard Windows Server 2016 and have downloaded the latest Citrix VDA Agent which at the time of writing is 7.14.1. You can download this from the following URL:
https://www.citrix.co.uk/downloads/citrix-cloud/product-software/xenapp-and-xendesktop-service.html
Once you have downloaded the VDA Agent jump onto your server and run the VDA Agent installation wizard.
For this test we are using an existing server (I will cover Machine Creation Services in an additional post) so select “Create a Master Image” selection
For the next few screens follow the standard VDA Installation process. The only step you need to pay attention to is when we get to the Delivery Controller screen. When we get to this where we normally register directly with a DDC we now enter the details of the Citrix Cloud Connector and go through the installation as we normally would
Click through the next few screens as you normally would and the installation should complete and your server is rebooted. Once you have logged back in if you go into the event log we should see that the VDA Agent has successfully registered with the Cloud Connector
Step 2: Create Machine Catalog
So now that we have successfully registered a VDA Agent with the Cloud Connector we are ready to create the Machine Catalog. As you can see from the screenshot below, we currently do not have anything registered with our Citrix Cloud Service.
The next step is to go through the Machine Catalog process are we normally do. The only difference is that we are running this from the Citrix Cloud service rather than a on-premise Desktop Delivery Controller.
Select Next to continue through the installation process.
Select Next to continue.
On the next screen we get to select the server we registered the VDA Agent with. Note at this stage we are in the Citrix Cloud which is talking back to our on-premise Active Directory domain to search for the machine account with. Pretty cool eh 
Once you have selected your server enter the name of the catalog as per the normal process
Now we have a Machine Catalog created in the Citrix Cloud service!
So just to recap we have the following infrastructure now in place:
- Active Directory domain controller running on-premise
- Citrix Cloud Connection Server running on-premise configured with our Citrix Cloud account
- Application Server with VDA Agent installed registered with the Cloud Connector
- Desktop Delivery Controller installed in the Citrix Cloud and managed by Citrix
The next article will cover the creation of the Delivery groups and assigning applications to users.
Till next time!