Citrix Workspace Environment Management (WEM) agent upgrades are important to maintaining digital infrastructure because they ensure availability of the latest features and compatibility with brokers. This enhances system performance and fosters effective communication among agents and other infrastructure components. But upgrading agents can consume a significant amount of bandwidth and influence the performance of the machine.

Fortunately, Citrix WEM provides advanced features to mitigate these issues. Organizations can selectively upgrade persistent agents, conserving resources while prioritizing essential components. Additionally, Citrix WEM enables organizations to customize and schedule upgrades to occur during low-activity periods, minimizing performance impacts. And with the server message block (SMB) protocol, organizations can substantially minimize network congestion and expedite the agent package download.

Enabling this Automatic Upgrade feature in Citrix WEM is simple. Admins can enable the Automatic Upgrade feature and specify the required parameters through the WEM service web console. For more information, see our product documentation on enabling the Agent upgrade and follow this guidance on configuration:

  • Go to Advanced Settings → Agent Settings under the relevant configuration set and select Enable automatic upgrade in the WEM service web console.

  • Select a version from the list of available versions. To keep the agent up to date, select the “Latest version” option.

  • Select the preferred time window for the agent upgrade.

  • Select Apply agent upgrades only to persistent machines to prevent the application of upgrades to non-persistent machines.

Enabling SMB shares for agent upgrades can lead to a reduction in network traffic and download time for the agent package. Check out these screenshots for the SMB configuration:

  • Go to Advanced Settings → File Shares under the relevant configuration set and add the prepared SMB share by clicking the “Add SMB share” link.

  • Choose the desired SMB share for the Agent Upgrade.

If you’re using Azure File shares, you can get the SMB share path and associated credentials by following these steps:

  • Go to the storage account and navigate to File shares in the Azure portal.

  • Click the Connect button to get the SMB share path and credentials in the script.

Citrix WEM empowers organizations to enhance their digital infrastructure with ease by effectively managing and upgrading agents. By leveraging Citrix WEM’s advanced features, organizations can ensure compatibility, optimize performance, and minimize bandwidth utilization during the upgrade process. Maximize your productivity and streamline your workflow with  Citrix Workspace Environment Management service today!