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windows search in xendesktop 7.6

saphico
saphico asked
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We are running a brand new XenDesktop 7.6, environment with provisioning of applications (not desktop)  on Windows 2012R2 server OS.
Virtual machines are provisioned through Machine Creation Services. On top of the windows, we run the desktop enviroment so users get the feeling they are actually running a desktop platform.
Upon installation of XenDesktop, the software has disabled the indexing and  search services of windows as part of an Optimization of XenDesktop.
Several users are now complaining about the fact that they are not able to perform content based searches in Windows Explorer.

We could reactivate Indexing Services or Windows Search services, but we are wondering if this is not going to have a bad impact on the performance of the VM.
Citrix only mentions this on the subject: http://support.citrix.com/content/dam/supportWS/kA460000000CkwbCAC/XD_Win7_OptimizationGuide.pdf

"Indexing Services: reates an index of local and remote files to allow for faster
searching. As this information is created and stored locally,
the indexes will be destroyed upon each reboot due to the
read
-only configuration of the Provisioning services image.
That means each reboot will start with a blank index.
However, indexing can be redirected to the user’s home
directory to allow for faster searches, but at the expense of
scalability. Disabling this service results in a degraded user
experience. "

Question 1:  Is one of both services going to have an impact on the performance of the users?
Question 2: In the above article citrix  has mentioned that it is possible to redirect the index files to the user's home directory. How and where can we do this? We would like to roam this index data or store it on a redirected folder.
Is this possible using GPO?

Kind regards
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CoralonSenior Citrix Engineer

Commented:
A lot depends on your VM's..

1. Are you using single vm published apps, or server based published apps?  If it's server based, then the hit will not be overly bad, once your indexing is complete.  The indexing will bloat profiles ,so that's why they talk about redirection.  Also, if you are using non-persistent servers, then indexing is a bad idea.. the files will have to be reindexed every single reboot.

2. I'm not aware of any GPO to do it, but you could do it through a Group Policy Preference I'm sure.

If you were using individual desktops, it becomes a bigger hit..

Coralon
saphico

Author

Commented:
Hi Coralon,

We are using dual vm published apps on windows 2012R2. I'm aware that the indexing will have to be rebuild when reprovisioning or after each reboot, that is exactly the reason of my question number 2.
is it possible to redirect (roam) the index files to prevent reindexing after each reboot?

Kind regards
Senior Citrix Engineer
Commented:
It looks like you can.. however -- you can't copy an existing index, you have to build a fresh one.  I think that will likely not help your situation (at least on the first boot).  
http://www.groovypost.com/howto/move-windows-search-index-second-hard-drive/

The key will be if your machines have any form of static drive attached to them.  You could potentially rehome those index files to the secondary drive on the master image, and as you deploy them, they will rebuild the index.  If that is the case, you'd want to have the machines boot early to give them time to build their indexes.

you could try redirecting to the home directory, by my guess would be that each machine the user accesses will try to overwrite the indexes from the other machines.  

Coralon