Last month, Brendan Lin and I were excited to present the Citrix TIPs webinar “Why Citrix Cloud migration is easier than ever.” If you were unable to attend, the on-demand recording is available.

During the session, we discussed leading practices and recommendations for your Citrix Cloud migration, and we presented the Automated Configuration Tool, which was recently released on public Tech Preview, and performed a demo.

We got a lot of great questions during the live Q&A portion of the webinar, and we wanted to share some of the common topics of interest around cloud migration best practices, the Automated Configuration Tool, and more.

Can you use the Citrix Automated Configuration Tool to capture settings from a current Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service deployment (for example, a POC/trial) to import into a production Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service deployment for the same customer? In other words, can it be used in a Citrix Cloud-to-Citrix Cloud scenario?
Yes, this is one of the use cases of the tool. The Automated Configuration Tool is designed to help automate the migration of Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops configuration (policies, applications, catalogs, and others) from one or more on-premises site(s) to Citrix Cloud, as well as cloud-to-cloud migration.

Where is Citrix Cloud available?
All services are globally available, regardless of the region you select for your organization. Certain services, like Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service, have dedicated regional instances. However, some services have U.S.-based instances only. Our recommendation is to have Citrix Cloud setup the proximity of your VDAs and users. Something important to consider is that you can choose a region only once, when your organization is onboarded. You cannot change your region later. Our documentation on service presence in each region documentation lists the service availability per region.

Do you have documentation on how to configure an on-premises access gateway with cloud infrastructure?
Citrix Cloud supports using an on-premises Citrix Gateway as an identity provider to authenticate subscribers signing in to their workspaces. You can use your on-premises ADC or a virtual appliance on a public cloud. We recommend you to follow these steps to integrate your ADC.

I’m interested on the Automated Configuration Tool. What happen if I already started my migration?
You can continue with the migration using the Automated Configuration Tool. I’m sure you are going to save a lot of time and effort. The tool exports the configurations to yaml files and keeps your environment intact. You can “merge” machine catalogs, delivery groups, and other configurations you want to migrate to a cloud environment. Once you migrate what you want, just point your VDAs to the Cloud Connector servers of your cloud environment (ListofDDCs) reg key and you will be all set.

How can we migrate Citrix policies stored in Microsoft GPO?
You can apply your existing GPOs to a new OU dedicated for your Citrix Cloud environment. Also you can use Citrix Workspace Environment Management service (WEM) to import your Group policies. For WEM scenarios, import Group Policy settings (registry-based settings) into WEM. After importing the settings, you can have an itemized view of the settings associated with each GPO before you decide which GPO to assign. You can assign the GPO to different users or user groups.

Does Citrix Cloud support LTSR versions?
Citrix Cloud always features the latest and greatest releases, giving you all the newest features and security enhancements. Our Cloud releases can work with any LTSR version of VDA or the supported Current Release versions of VDA

Do I need a special License to use the Automated Configuration Tool?
The tool is totally free. Citrix developed the tool to help with your migration and cloud adoption strategy. In addition to the tool, we have guides in our Cloud Success Center that walk you through process and show you different use cases such as a basic POC, as well as more complex scenarios. And last but not least, our Customer Success team will be available to you throughout you Citrix Cloud journey.

Do I need Studio PoSH SDK if the tool is run on a machine that is not a deliver controller in my on-premises environment?
Yes, you’ll need a machine with the Citrix PowerShell SDK; this is automatically installed on the DDC. (To run on machine somewhere other than the on-premises DDC, the machine must be domain joined and Studio can be installed, as it installs the correct PowerShell snap-ins.)

Will Citrix Tech Support support this migration tool?
Contact your assigned Citrix representative to coordinate tool feedback. Regular support will be available once the tool goes GA. You can post your questions and feedback at https://support.citrix.com/article/CTX277730.

Do you support Oracle Cloud as a public cloud solution for Citrix?
Yes, we support Oracle Cloud. You can learn more here.

Is the PowerShell “WhatIf” parameter supported with the Citrix Automated Configuration Tool?
We recommend you use “CheckMode” instead because “WhatIf” is not supported. This will perform the import operation but makes no changes. All expected changes are reported before the import completes. You can use this command to test your import before it occurs. When you download the tool, there is a document available that provides detailed information about each command for your reference.

Will the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service recognize PVS farms on-premises?
Yes, it does support migrating PVS provisioned machines. You must edit the CvadAcSecurity.yml file for PVS to work. The UserName and Password fields refer to your PVS Site Server credentials. If you use a DOMAIN\Username password, be sure to specify it as such. Save the file when complete. You can find the step by step process in our POC guide.

Can we get a Citrix Cloud trial account?
Please reach out to your Citrix representative or partner for a Citrix Cloud trial account.

Currently we have 140 on-premises concurrent licenses. I’m planning to migrate to cloud. What kind of license is best for me?
Please reach out to your Citrix representative or partner. They can analyze your specific use case and recommend an option that best fits your needs.

Thanks again to everyone who submitted questions and tuned in to the webinar. Learn about upcoming events — and access previous our webinars on-demand — on our Citrix TIPs resource page. And be sure to keep an eye out for more Citrix TIPs blog posts for all the latest tips, tricks, and tools to optimize your Citrix solutions.