Using Web Interface 5.2 with a Presentation Server 4.0 Farm

We here at Moose have been working with Web Interface 5.2 (hereafter referred to as WI 5.2) more and more these days, and the question was bound to come up, “Can I use the new WI 5.2 with my old Presentation Server 4.0 farm AND my new XenApp 5.0 farm at the same time?”

Yes, you absolutely can.  The Admin guide for WI 5.2 states that it is compatible with the Windows 2003 and UNIX versions of Presentation server 4.0 up through the current XenApp 5.0 versions.  However, it is not 100% compatible right out of the box.

You can configure your old Presentation Server 4.0 farm in the WI 5.2 farm properties and then login to the WI and see all of your published apps, but when you go to launch one you will receive the following message:

“An error occurred while making the requested connection.”

Screenshot courtesy Citrix’s KB article CTX123003

The solution is detailed below.  These exact steps are from Citrix KB article CTX123003

1. On the Web Interface 5.2 server, locate the WebInterface.conf file (InetpubwwwrootCitrixXenAppConf) and open it with a text editor.
2. Locate the following entry around line# 169:
   RequireLaunchReference=On
3. Replace it with the following entry:
   RequireLaunchReference=Off
4. Save the WebInterface.conf file and test.
5. Users should be able to launch applications from the XenApp 4.0 farm successfully.

That said, it is important to note that Presentation Server 4.0 hit “End of Life” on Dec. 31, 2009. (Citrix lists product lifecycle information for all of their products on their Web site.) This means that product downloads and hotfixes are no longer available, and tech support is limited to whatever information you may be able to dig out of the Citrix on-line Knowledge Base. So we sincerely hope that the only time you would ever be using the information in this post is when you’re in the process of transitioning from Presentation Server 4.0 to your new XenApp 5 (or, very shortly, XenApp 6) farm!