Install issues combining Citrix Web Interface and other products on x64.

Often times when setting up Citrix environments outside of production, it makes sense to combine multiple pieces onto one server. After recently setting up XenDesktop using an x64 environment, there was an unexpected issue trying to combine the XenDesktop DDC, Web Interface, and the Licensing Management Console. This combination has never been a problem in a 32-bit environment so what could be different in x64? The answer... IIS

It was all very confusing at first because the License Server installation happened at the very beginning and worked without a hitch. Licenses were added and then DDS was installed on the same machine. The complete desktop environment was built without encountering any problems until time to configure Web Interface. At that point, no web pages on that machine were accessible, not even the Licensing Management Console which had worked fine previously. After some research, the cause of the problem was found along with the solution midway through the release notes for Presentation Server 4.5 with Feature Pack 1 which can be found here:

http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX112222

The DDC behaves a lot like XenApp and the same information regarding x64 applies. Quoting from the release notes found above, Citrix points out that "On a 64-bit version of Windows, the Citrix Web Interface installation will enable 32-bit Web extension support in IIS and this will disable 64-bit extension support."

And the solution.... Install Web Interface FIRST.


Still quoting from the above article "Due to this requirement, if you are installing the Web Interface on a 64-bit version of the Windows operating system, ensure that you install Web Interface prior to installing any other Citrix software, including Citrix Presentation Server and Citrix License Management Console. This particular order of installation allows the products to adapt to the 32-bit support in IIS. If you install these products in an incorrect order, the Web server may produce errors messages when it is accessed, such as “Service unavailable.”

So, uninstall and reinstall making sure to do Web Interface first. This will prep IIS for all the subsequent pieces.