So I tried to install XCP-ng Windows PV Tools 8.2.2.200-RC1 on a windows vm and got a blue screen of death. I then found a github issue that explained windows needed to be up to date. So I restored a snapshot (love vm’s) and did the following.
I ran windows updates, making sure to go up to the next major version (which was an optional update). Then tried to install it again. On reboot I got an error about “Windows agent could not be installed”.
I did some research and from what I found, there is a reason the XCP-NG is a “beta” agent. The team does a great job, but windows is not one of its strong points and there seems to be a lot of issues around redistribution and signing. I mean this in a totally respectful way – its alot of work, and if the team is not experienced in it of course things will be slower to get done and stable.
So I decided to use the official citrix monitoring agent. Thanks Tom @ Lawrence systems for this video to set me in the right place with the tsv files and such. The video is a bit long winded and I though I would type up the actual steps to get the agent installed in brevity and some things have changed since the video.
First, I restored the snapshot again as I read other issues about mixing agents and uninstalling agents is never really fully uninstalled. So I wanted the VM clean of any agents and remnants of agents.
Next I head over to https://pvupdates.vmd.citrix.com/updates.json and I can see the latest version for x64 and x86. I chose and downloaded the x64 version to my vm and installed it.
It rebooted 2-3x while finishing up, each time I had to click yes to the reboot. And things seem to be working 100% fine now.