ShelfOps

日本語版はこちら

An operations console for Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops (unofficial tool)

ShelfOps is a free Windows GUI tool for checking machines, toggling maintenance mode, managing sessions and performing VDI power operations in a Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops (CVAD) environment — without opening Studio. Available in English and Japanese. Its defining design goal is that it can be distributed and used without granting local administrator rights.

ShelfOps is open source under the Apache License 2.0. The complete source is in this repository: you can audit exactly what a tool that runs with Citrix administrator rights does, and build it yourself with nothing more than Windows and the free Visual Studio Build Tools (see BUILDING.md).

Project site: Infra Tech Shelf

This is an alpha release. It may change without notice and may contain defects. Maintenance mode, session disconnect/log off and VDI power operations affect your live environment. Please verify it in a test environment before using it in production.

• Runs as a standard user: every feature works for a domain user without local administrator rights. You do not have to hand out privileges to your operators' machines
• Credential isolation: connections run in a separate worker process per set of credentials. Passwords for alternate credentials are never written to files or logs
• Write operations always confirm: anything that changes your environment (maintenance mode, session disconnect/log off, power operations) goes through a confirmation dialog that states how many targets are affected
• Bulk results are traceable: if some targets fail, processing continues to the end and you can see which target failed and why, both on screen and in the log
• Audit trail: operations and their results are written to a log file (%APPDATA%\ShelfOps\logs\), in the language you have selected

• Session shadowing — planned for a future release
• Delivery group configuration backup, comparison and restore — in development (see docs/SPEC_phase5_deliverygroups.md)
• Catalog management — under consideration
• Citrix Cloud (DaaS) is not supported. This tool is for on-premises environments only

• Windows 10 / 11, or Server 2016 or later.
• .NET Framework 4.8. Built into Windows 10/11; on Windows Server 2016/2019 you may need to install it separately.
• Run it on an administration machine with Citrix Studio installed. ShelfOps uses the Citrix Broker SDK, so it will not work on a PC without the SDK (you will see "Citrix SDK not found").
• The machine must be domain-joined, and you must be signed in with an AD account that holds a Citrix administrator role.
• Local administrator rights are not required, and no installation is needed.
• Verified on: Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 7 2507 (LTSR) CU1 with Windows 11. Other versions are untested.

1. Download the latest zip from Releases.

2. Before extracting, confirm that the SHA-256 hash of the zip matches the value below and the one shown on the Release page.

   SHA-256: aa50e73a815e4c0b320881c5fbfadb23bfe7ad58ddff0f9d250cf86c2379df98
   

   To check (PowerShell):

   Get-FileHash -Algorithm SHA256 .\ShelfOps-0.8.0-alpha.zip

3. Extract it anywhere and run ShelfOps.exe. There is no installer, and nothing is written to the registry.

Prefer to build it yourself? See BUILDING.md. The build has no NuGet dependencies and does not include any Citrix binaries.

About the SmartScreen warning: this tool is not code-signed, so Windows SmartScreen may warn you the first time you run it. Choose "More info" → "Run anyway". Verify the hash first so you know the file has not been tampered with.

Try it in a test environment first. This tool performs write operations (maintenance mode, session disconnect and log off, power operations). Before using it in production, verify its behaviour in a test environment and follow your organisation's operational rules.

Take particular care with bulk operations. They affect many machines or sessions at once. Always check the target count in the confirmation dialog, and start with a small number of targets.

Power operations target the machine, not the session. The machine hosting the selected session is stopped, so other users on that machine are affected too. The confirmation dialog shows the total number of sessions that will be affected — please read it.

For step-by-step instructions, see QuickStart.md (English) or クイックスタート.md (Japanese) inside the ZIP.

Please report defects and feature requests through Issues. English or Japanese is fine.

• Attaching the relevant part of the log file (%APPDATA%\ShelfOps\logs\) speeds up investigation
• Credentials and passwords are never recorded in logs

Pull requests are welcome — see CONTRIBUTING.md. To report a security issue privately, see SECURITY.md.

• Session shadowing
• Delivery group configuration: save, compare and restore
• Catalog management (under consideration)
• Code signing

ShelfOps is open source under the Apache License 2.0. You may use it freely — including in commercial environments — modify it, and redistribute it under the terms of that license.

The name "ShelfOps" is not covered by the license grant (Apache 2.0, Section 6). If you distribute a modified build, please give it a different name so users can tell it apart from the original.

ShelfOps itself is free, and will stay free. If your organisation wants help deploying it, fitting it into your operating procedures, or adapting it to your environment, paid support and consulting are available from Infra Tech Shelf.

This software is provided AS IS. The author accepts no liability for any damage arising from the use or inability to use this software. Use it at your own risk. In particular, verify write operations thoroughly in a test environment before performing them in production.

Citrix, Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops, XenApp, XenDesktop and NetScaler are trademarks of Cloud Software Group, Inc. or its affiliates. This is an unofficial third-party tool developed by an individual and is not affiliated with Cloud Software Group, Inc. in any way.

Background and design notes: Infra Tech Shelf | About the author: https://infratechshelf.com/profile/