I’m setting up new Provisioning Servers in my lab. Here’s a step by step guide for getting your first Provisioning Server up and running.

Active Directory – Create an Active Directory user account.

Provisioning Server – Add the Active Directory user account to the Provisioning Server’s local administrators group.

Provisioning Server – Create a folder vDisk directory and give the AD user account full control.

Provisioning Server – Create two sub-directories in the vDisk directory.  Label one “Production” and the other “Development”.

SQL Server – Create a SQL database.

SQL Server – Create a new SQL login.

SQL Server – Give the login db_owner.

Provisioning Server – Logon to the Provisioning Server (Windows Server 2008 R2) and install Microsoft .Net 3.5 SP1.  (You can do this with Powershell or Server Manager.)

Provisioning Server – Download the Provisioning Server installation media from Citrix.  Start the installation by running autorun.exe.

Provisioning Server – Select “server installation” and “install server”.  Install “SQLncx64” when prompted.

Provisioning Server – Install the software by clicking next on the Welcome screen, accepting the EULA, filling out the organization information, selecting install the application for all users, and confirming the default installation directory.  Click finish when the installation completes.

Provisioning Server – The Provisioning Services Configuration Wizard will open.  Click next at the welcome screen.

Provisioning Server – DHCP Services – You’ll tell the provisioning server how the target devices are getting IP addresses.  DHCP is used in most enterprises and will be running on another server.  Select “the service that runs on another computer” and click next.

Provisioning Server – PXE Services – We will use Provisioning Server’s PXE service. Select “the service that runs on this computer” and click Next. (You might want to review your network configuration and ensure you do not have other PXE servers that could conflict with this configuration.)

Provisioning Server – Farm Configuration – Select Create a farm and click next.

Provisioning Server – Database Server – Enter your SQL server information and click next.

Provisioning Server – New Farm – Enter the database name, farm name, site name and farm administrators group.  Click Next.

Provisioning Server – New Store – Change the store name to “Production”.  Click browse and select the “Production” directory from step 3.  Click Next.

Provisioning Server – License Server – Enter the Citrix license server and click next.  (I am assuming you already have a Citrix licensing server configured with the proper licenses installed.)

Provisioning Server – User Account – Enter the user account from step 1 and check “configure the database for the account”.  Click next.

Provisioning Server – Network Communications – Select the network adapters used for streaming, leave the default port number and click next.

Provisioning Server – TFTP Option and Bootstrap Location – Check “Enable the Provisioning Services TFTP Service” and click next.

Provisioning Server – Stream Servers Boot List – Verify the servers IP address is in the list and click next.

Provisioning Server – Finish – Review the summary and click finish.

A warning message will be displayed if your firewall is on.

Provisioning Server – Finish – Click Done.

Provisioning Server – Open the Provisioning Services Console and connect to the farm.

Provisioning Server – Expand the servers node, right click the provisioning server and click properties.  Check “Log events to the server’s Windows Event Log”.

Provisioning Server – Click the Options tab.  Check all of the boxes.

Provisioning Server – Click the Logging tab.  Change the log level to Debug.  Click OK.

Provisioning Server – Click yes to restart the streaming service.

Provisioning Server – Create the Development vDisk store.  Right click the “Stores” node and select “Create Store…”

Provisioning Server – Store Properties – Name the store Development.

Provisioning Server – Store Properties – Click the “Servers” tab and select the Provisioning Server.  The server you select will be used to stream Development vDisks.  The store should only use one  Provisioning Server.

Provisioning Server – Store Properties – Click the “Paths” tab and select the Development directory.  Do not enter a write cache path – we will use the default.  Click OK.