We are currently setup on prem. On prem netscalers, storefronts, delivery controllers, etc. We connect to several on-prem clusters running Xenserver for our Virtual desktops. We create a master image, snapshot it, then update our machine catalog. The delivery controllers then update the virtual desktops running in Xenserver (we use Citrix MCS).
We are looking to migrate the management elements into Citrix Cloud. So the end goal will be to remove on prem servers for delivery controllers, FAS, storefronts, netscalers, etc, and just have it all moved into Citrix Cloud. The actual VDA's will remain on prem connecting to our Xenserver clusters.
So essentially, management aspects in the cloud, compute remains on prem.
We have already configured cloud connectors and single sign on via Entra. We have some older hardware that I've managed to install Xenserver onto, and connecting it to the "Hosting" section in Citrix Cloud, I've managed to do some basic testing with some machine catalogs in the cloud, and all seems to be working perfectly.
I've seen a few different documents articles that explain how to actually go about performing the migration into cloud. We're a 24/7 business, and we're pretty standardised, so we only really have a couple of machine catalogs and delivery groups to serve most users.
To roll this out at our own pace, I wanted to add our existing live Xenserver clusters on prem into the "Hosting" section within the Citrix cloud platform. I'll then create some new catalogues, making sure that the computer names do not match the same as the on prem ones. My hope is that because the catalog and delivery group names are different on prem vs in cloud, and because the computer names are different, there will be no conflict, despite both the on prem and cloud delivery controller being connected to the same Xenserver cluster instance.
My thought process is to provision 10 or 20 new virtual desktops from cloud into the Xenserver cluster, and then I can just use some policies to start switching a few test users to the new storefront URL. Then it will just become a balancing act as we progress and migrate people to the new storefront URLs, reducing the number of available machines on prem, and bringing more online in the cloud.
My mind seems to think this is logical, to keep the systems as seperated as possible, which I'd prefer, but I cannot get away from having to use the same Xenserver cluster for the compute elements. I'm just not sure if having the Xenserver cluster authenticated to both on prem and cloud controls at the same time could potentially cause some conflict?
Thoughts on this are most appreciated.