Script to make your Citrix XenApp servers run better with SEP antivirus

If you use SEP (Symantec Endpoint Protection) on your Citrix servers, you will notice that performance on your server takes a huge hit if you leave Symantec as is. Specifically increased RAM and CPU usage caused by multiple instances of SmcGui.exe and ccApp.exe processes for all the connected sessions.

Symantec has a great KB article here that addresses this:

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH105060

You can disable SmcGui to prevent multiple instances of it running by adding following DWORD registry value on your Citrix server:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Symantec\Symantec Endpoint Protection\SMC\LaunchSmcGui

and setting the value to 0. You can also disable ccAPP by deleting the ccApp entry at the following keys:

32 bit:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

64 bit:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

I didn’t want to go to each Citrix server and verify and/or make these changes manually so I created this little bat script I can execute remotely on each Server 2008 R2 box (you’ll want to modify for 32 bit boxes):

Now when building a new XenApp server (i.e. not from a template), I wanted to use this same script as a “post-install script” after installing XenApp but with a few other things included. One thing I wanted is to set the Terminal Server roaming profile path (assuming you are not doing it with GPO already). So I add this to the script:

I also want to install my EdgeSight agent at this time. I wrote a a few installs script for this already in my post here:

http://www.jasonsamuel.com/2011/09/13/how-to-deploy-edgesight-5-4-xenapp-agents-using-install-scripts-to-all-your-citrix-farms/

so I will call on these bat scripts from the script I am writing now. But I want it to pause and let me verify that the Symantec changes happened successfully. So I add this first:

then finally I call on the EdgeSight agent install script (which will reboot your system after installing automatically). I have it shared off my EdgeSight server under the “XENAPP_AGENT” share so my script looks like:

So my final script will look like this screenshot:

Hope this helps. Let me know if there is anything that any of you would like to see added.

Jason Samuel

Jason Samuel is a visionary product leader and trusted advisor with a proven track record of shaping strategy and driving technology innovation. With extensive expertise in enterprise end-user computing, security, cloud, automation, and virtualization technologies, Jason has become a globally recognized authority in the IT industry. His career spans consulting for hundreds of Fortune 500 enterprises across diverse business sectors worldwide, delivering cutting-edge digital solutions from Citrix, Microsoft, VMware, Amazon, Google, and NVIDIA that seamlessly balance security with exceptional user experiences.

Jason’s leadership is amplified by his dedication to knowledge-sharing as an author, speaker, podcaster, and mentor within the global IT and technology community. Recognized with numerous prestigious awards, Jason’s contributions underscore his commitment to advancing technology and empowering organizations to achieve transformative results.  Follow him on LinkedIn.