{"id":3322,"date":"2012-02-14T14:14:34","date_gmt":"2012-02-14T12:14:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ingmarverheij.com\/?p=3322"},"modified":"2013-11-30T13:07:20","modified_gmt":"2013-11-30T12:07:20","slug":"remote-desktop-to-xenserver-vm-via-powershell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ingmarverheij.com\/en\/remote-desktop-to-xenserver-vm-via-powershell\/","title":{"rendered":"Remote desktop to XenServer VM via PowerShell"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently I wrote a PowerShell script<\/a> that connects to the console of a virtual machine on a Citrix XenServer, without using XenCenter or the Web Self Service portal. This allowed me to offer a published application to my users so they can connect to the console session. But what if they want to connect via a Remote Desktop Connection (RDP)?<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve written a PowerShell script that looks up the IP address of the VM and connects via RDP.<\/p>\n

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IP address<\/h4>\n

If I want my users to connect to the virtual machine via a Remote Desktop Connection (RDP) I need to know the IP address. XenCenter shows the IP address of the virtual machine when the XenServer Tools are installed, so the information is available.<\/p>\n

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<\/h4>\n

Query XenServer<\/h4>\n

Before I can setup a connection for the user to the virtual via Remote Desktop Connection (RDP) I need to query the XenServer for the IP address of the virtual machine.\u00a0 To query the XenServer I\u2019m using plink (a component of the PuTTY<\/a> suite) to setup a SSH connection to the specified XenServer, there\u2019s no need to install XenCetner.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately the xe CLI command<\/a> only shows the IP adresses of all available networks.<\/p>\n

[root@XenServer ~]# xe vm-list name-label=\"SERVER01\" other-config:XenCenter.CustomFields.STUDENT=1 os-version:distro=\"windows\" params=networks --minimal\r\n0\/ip: 192.168.0.50<\/pre>\n
This means that if the machine has multiple networks, the output would look like this<\/p>\n
[root@XenServer ~]# xe vm-list name-label=\"SERVER01\" other-config:XenCenter.CustomFields.STUDENT=1 os-version:distro=\"windows\" params=networks --minimal\r\n1\/ip: 192.168.1.1; 0\/ip: 192.168.0.50<\/pre>\n
So before I can setup the connection I need to know which network interface where looking for and extract the IP address.<\/p>\n
$VirtualMachineNetworkID=0 (argument of the script)\r\n$strNICInterface=($VirtualMachineNetworkID)+'\/ip: '\r\n\r\n   #Determine the IP address of the NIC can be found\r\n   foreach ($strVMNetwork in $VMNetworks.Split(\";\")) {\r\n      if ($strVMNetwork.Contains($strNICInterface)) {\r\n\t   $strVMIPaddress=$strVMNetwork.Substring($strVMNetwork.IndexOf($strNICInterface) + $strNICInterface.Length)\r\n      }\r\n   }<\/pre>\n
bla<\/p>\n
Remote Desktop Connection<\/h4>\n
Setting up a connection via the Remote Desktop Connection is very easy. Just call %windir%\\system32\\mstsc.exe<\/em> with the \/v:<hostname><\/em> parameter. The \/f<\/em> parameter starts the session fullscreen.<\/p>\n
%windir%\\system32\\mstsc.exe \/v:192.168.0.50 \/f<\/pre>\n
PowerShell script<\/h4>\n
I\u2019ve written a small PowerShell script that connects to a Citrix XenServer, queries the IP address of the virtual machine and then sets up a connection via a Remote Desktop Connection (RDP). This way I don\u2019t have to know the IP address of the virtual machine, just the name of the VM and optionally the value of a custom field.<\/p>\n
Download:\u00a0\n\tRDPXSConnect.ps1<\/a>\n<\/p>\n
<\/h4>\n
Usage<\/h4>\n
Usage<\/strong>\r\npowershell.exe .\\RDPXSConnect.ps1 (XenServerPoolMaster) (XenServerUsername) (XenServerPassword) (VMName) (Network ID) [CustomFieldName] [CustomFieldValue]\r\n\r\nExample<\/strong>\r\npowershell.exe .\\RDPXSConnect.ps1 172.16.1.1 root Passw0rd WS01 0 STUDENT 1<\/pre>\n
The script requires 5 arguments and has 2 optional arguments<\/p>\n
XenServerPoolMaster: The IP\/FQDN of the XenServer (pool master) host<\/p>\n
XenServerUsername: The username to connect to the XenServer<\/p>\n
XenServerPassword: The password to connect to the XenServer<\/p>\n
VMName: The name of the virtual machine<\/p>\n
Network ID : The ID of the network interface<\/p>\n
CustomFieldName (optional): The name of a custom field<\/p>\n
CustomFieldValue (optional): The value of the custom field<\/p>\n
The custom field can be used to uniquely identify a virtual machine if the name of the machine is reused. In my environment I cloned the virtual machine \u2018SERVER01\u2019 multiple times and added a CustomField \u2018STUDENT\u2019. For each student a virtual machine is published.<\/p>\n
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Additional downloads (required)<\/h4>\n