How to deploy a catalog in a DaaS Flex for Azure account

Last published : Oct 31, 2026
Use REST APIs to deploy a catalog in your DaaS Flex for Azure account.
You can make API requests using the PowerShell code, C# code, or any tool that supports invoking the REST API.
Create catalogs using Quick Deploy for Azure documentation.
DaaS Flex for Azure documentation.
Related information
How to get a site ID

Steps to deploy a catalog in a DaaS Flex for Azure account

To deploy a catalog in your DaaS Flex for Azure account, use the following procedure:
  • Read the Get started with Citrix Cloud APIs section to ensure that you have the customerId and bearer token.
  • Get the siteid from How to get a site ID API.
  • If you want to create a domain-joined catalog, add a VNET peering from the Quick Deploy for Azure UI and then use it in the APIs to deploy a domain-joined catalog.
  • Use the API listed below to deploy the catalog. This is an asynchronous API, so the async query parameter is required to be true.
  • Monitor the deployment status of your catalog using steps listed in how to get catalog information or the URL in the "Location" response header.
  • A state of Processing indicates that the catalog is still being deployed. Keep monitoring the state.
  • A state of InputRequired or Active indicates that the catalog deployment has completed. You can now publish apps and assign subscribers to the catalog.

Deploy a catalog in a DaaS Flex for Azure account using any REST API tool

Learn from the following example to deploy a catalog in your DaaS Flex for Azure account using any REST API tool.

Request

POST https://api.cloud.com/catalogservice/{customerId}/{siteId}/catalogs/$manageddeploy?async=true HTTP/1.1
Accept: application/json
Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
Authorization: CwsAuth bearer=<token-from-prerequisites>

{
    "addCatalog": {
        "name": "Finance Catalog",
        "region": "eastus",
        "type": "MultiSession",
        "isDomainJoined": true,
        "persistStaticAllocatedVmDisks": true
    },
    "addCatalogOnPremConnectivity": {
        "vnetPeeringId": "ebe15c11-056e-..."
    },
    "addCatalogDomain": {
        "domainName": "finance.local",
        "domainOu": "",
        "serviceAccountName": "admin"
    },
    "addCatalogImage": {
        "templateId": "55cab14f-efb7-...",
        "citrixPrepared": true
    },
    "addCatalogCapacity": {
        "computeWorker": {
            "storageType": "Standard_LRS",
            "useAzureHUB": true,
            "maxUsersPerVM": 3,
            "instanceTypeId": "D2sv3",
            "instanceName": "Standard_D2s_v3",
            "useManagedDisks": true
        },
        "scaleSettings": {
            "minInstances": 1,
            "maxInstances": 4,
            "weekdays": {"Monday": true, "Tuesday": true, "Wednesday": true, "Thursday": true, "Friday": true, "Saturday": false, "Sunday": false},
            "peakStartTime": 8,
            "peakEndTime": 17,
            "peakTimeZoneId": "Eastern Standard Time",
            "peakMinInstances": 2,
            "bufferCapacity": 10,
            "offPeakBufferCapacity": 10,
            "peakDisconnectedSessionTimeout": 20,
            "offPeakDisconnectedSessionTimeout": 15,
            "powerOffDelay": 5
        },
        "sessionTimeout": 15,
        "multiSessionDisconnectedSessionTimeout": 15,
    },
    "deploySecrets": {
        "serviceAccountPassword": "password"
    }
}

Response

HTTP/1.1 202 Accepted
citrix-transactionid: 80699539-ae66-4eb7-ae67-370606d12766
location: https://api.cloud.com/catalogservice/{customerId}/{siteId}/catalogs/55cab14f-efb7-4bd6-bd9c-ebe991c9d165/deploymentStatus
content-Length: 38
content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
date: Wed, 22 Nov 2017 15:05:23 GMT

"55cab14f-efb7-4bd6-bd9c-ebe991c9d165"

Interpreting the request

The request JSON body contains all the fields needed to deploy a new catalog. On the Quick Deploy for Azure UI, these fields are split into seven different steps that are described below.

Step 1: Pick a Name (AddCatalog)

Property name Description
name [Required] The name you want to give to your new catalog.
region [Optional] The Azure region to deploy to. Defaults to the region of the CC customer.
type [Optional] Defaults to MultiSession. Decide whether the catalog VDAs run a single session or multiple sessions.
IsDomainJoined [Optional] Decide whether the catalog should be joined to your own domain. True by default.
persistStaticAllocatedVmDisks [Optional] Defaults to true. Decide if catalogs that use statically allocated machines will have the disk contents persisted after shutdown.

Step 3: Provide info of the VNet Peering domain specified in step 2 (AddCatalogDomain)

Property name Description
domainName [Required] The fully qualified domain name to be used by the catalog. The connector and VDA machines will be joined to this domain.
domainOu [Optional] The Active Directory OU. The VDA machine accounts will be created in this OU.
serviceAccountName [Required] The domain service account name in UPN format. Ensure that this account has permissions to join machines to the domain.

Step 4: Choose image (AddCatalogImage)

Property name Description
templateId [Required] The ID of the image you want to use for the catalog. See how to get all images to get the imageId of all your posted images.
citrixPrepared [Optional] This should be set to false for a customer provided image. This should be set to true if you are creating the catalog with a Citrix Prepared image. Default value if false.

Step 5: Select capacity and manage costs (AddCatalogCapacity)

Property: ComputeWorker
Property name Description
storageType [Optional] Default to Standard_LRS. Other options are Premium_LRS and StandardSSD_LRS
useAzureHUB [Optional] Defaults to false. True if you want to use existing on-premises Windows Server licenses to provision the VMs in this catalog at the base compute rate.
maxUsersPerVM [Required] The max number of user sessions on each VDA machine. For SingleSessionStatic and SingleSessionRandom catalogs please set to 1
instanceTypeId [Optional] Internal use only. Do not set it.
instanceName [Required] Azure virtual machine size to provision for the VDA. See virtual machine size for all available azure VM sizes.
useManagedDisks [Required] Use managed disks for VMs in the catalog
Property: ScaleSettings
Property name Description
minInstances [Required] The minimum number of VDA instances running at all times.
maxInstances [Required] The maximum number of VDA instances to provision for the catalog.
weekdays [Optional] Required only if setting a peak schedule. Set true for days you want the peak schedule to be enabled. Example {Monday: true, Tuesday: true, Wednesday: true, Thursday: true, Friday: true, Saturday: false, Sunday: false}.
peakStartTime [Optional] Required only if setting a peak schedule. The hour of the day when peak schedule begins. Any integer number between 0 and 23.
peakEndTime [Optional] Required only if setting a peak schedule. The hour of the day when peak schedule ends. Any integer number between 0 and 23.
peakTimeZoneId [Optional] Required only if setting a peak schedule. The timezone name for the peak schedule. See timezone names.aspx) for a list of valid time zones.
peakMinInstances [Optional] Required only if setting a peak schedule. The minimum number of VDA instances running at peak times.
bufferCapacity [Optional] Defaults to 10%. To ensure that new user sessions have a smooth login experience, the capacity buffer enables extra sessions to be ready for demand spikes, as a percentage of current session demand. For example, if there are 100 active sessions and the capacity buffer is 10%, Citrix provides capacity for 110 sessions. A lower capacity buffer percentage can result in a decreased cost, but could also result in some sessions having an extended login time if several sessions start concurrently.
offPeakBufferCapacity [Optional] Buffer capacity for off peak hours.
peakDisconnectedSessionTimeout [Optional] Required only if setting a peak schedule. Set the time before a disconnected session is shut down during peak hours.
offPeakDisconnectedSessionTimeout [Optional] Set the time before a disconnected session is shut down during off peak hours.
powerOffDelay [Optional] Amount of time to delay powering off machines with no active sessions.
Property: Others
Property name Description
sessionTimeout [Required] The amount of time in minutes an idle session will be disconnected.
multiSessionDisconnectedSessionTimeout [Required] Required for MultiSession catalogs only. Set the time before a disconnected session is shut down.

Step 6: Start Deployment (DeploySecrets)

Property name Description
ServiceAccountPassword [Required] The domain service account password.

Step 7 (Optional): Configure optional fields

Property name Description
cspCustomerId [Optional] Name of tenant customer ID if partner-tenant relationship exists otherwise null.
cspSiteId [Optional] site of tenant customer ID if partner-tenant relationship exists otherwise null.

Interpreting the response

The response is a GUID string that represents the catalogId. You will need this catalogId to query the deployment status of the catalog using how to get catalog information.

Deploy a catalog in a DaaS Flex for Azure account using PowerShell

Learn from the following example to deploy a single session static and non-domain joined catalog to your DaaS Flex for Azure account using PowerShell code.
function DeployCatalog {
  param (
    [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
    [string] $customerId,
    [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
    [string] $siteId,
    [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
    [string] $bearerToken,
    [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
    [string] $jsonBody
  )
  $requestUri = [string]::Format("https://api.cloud.com/catalogservice/{0}/{1}/catalogs/$manageddeploy?async=true", $customerId, $siteId)
  $headers = @{"Accept"="application/json";
               "Content-Type"="application/json; charset=utf-8"
               "Authorization"="CwsAuth bearer=$bearerToken"}

  $response = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $requestUri -Method POST -Headers $headers -Body $jsonBody
  return $response
}

$body = @{
  "addCatalog" = @{
    "name" = "Finance Catalog";
    "region" = "eastus";
    "type" = "SingleSessionStatic";
    "isDomainJoined" = false;
    "citrixManaged" = true;
  }
  "addCatalogImage" = @{
    "templateId" = "ba75cfe9-c08a-4cd6-9ac5-5cbb39a139a7";
    "citrixPrepared" = $true
  }
  "addCatalogCapacity" = @{
    "computeWorker" = @{
      "useAzureHUB" = $false;
      "maxUsersPerVM" = "16";
      "instanceName" = "Standard_D2_v2"
    }
    "scaleSettings" = @{
      "minInstances" = "1";
      "maxInstances" = "2";
      "weekdays" = @{"Monday" = $true; "Tuesday" = $true; "Wednesday" = $true; "Thursday" = $true; "Friday" = $true; "Saturday" = $false; "Sunday" = $false};
      "peakStartTime" = "9";
      "peakEndTime" = "17";
      "peakTimeZoneId" = "Eastern Standard Time";
      "peakMinInstances" = "2";
      "bufferCapacity" = "15";
      "offPeakBufferCapacity" = "10";
      "peakDisconnectedSessionTimeout" = "20";
      "offPeakDisconnectedSessionTimeout" = "15";
      "powerOffDelay": "5"
    }
    "sessionTimeout" = "15";
  }
  "deploySecrets" = @{
    "serviceAccountPassword" = "..."
  }
}

$customerId = "customer1" #Replace with your customerId
$siteId = "61603f15-cdf9-4c7f-99ff-91636601a795" #Replace with your site ID
$bearerToken = "ey1.." #See Prerequisites for all API calls section for a sample of how to get your bearer token
$response = DeployCatalog $customerId $siteId $bearerToken (ConvertTo-Json -Depth 3 $body)

Deploy a catalog in a DaaS Flex for Azure account using C# code

Learn from the following example to deploy a single session static and non-domain joined catalog to your DaaS Flex for Azure account using C# code.
public class AddCatalogModel
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Name of the catalog
    /// </summary>
    [StringLength(38, MinimumLength = 2)]
    public string Name { get; set; }
}

public class CatalogTemplateImageModel
{
    /// <summary>
    /// ID of the Template image to configure for the catalog
    /// </summary>
    [Required]
    public string TemplateId { get; set; }

    /// <summary>
    /// Whether the image was prepared by Citrix, or provided by the customer
    /// </summary>
    public bool CitrixPrepared { get; set; } = false;
}

public class CatalogCapacitySettingsModel
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Compute settings for the catalog
    /// </summary>
    public CatalogComputeWorkerModel ComputeWorker { get; set; }

    /// <summary>
    /// Scale settings for the catalog
    /// </summary>
    public CatalogScaleSettingsModel ScaleSettings { get; set; }

    /// <summary>
    /// Idle timeout for session in the catalog (in mins)
    /// </summary>
    public int? SessionTimeout { get; set; }

    /// <summary>
    /// Minutes to wait for disconnected sessions to be logged off on multi-session VMs
    /// </summary>
    public int? MultiSessionDisconnectedSessionTimeout { get; set; }
}

public class CatalogComputeWorkerModel
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Indicates type of Storage Account that will be used
    /// </summary>
    public string StorageType { get; set; }

    /// <summary>
    /// Indicates if the catalog VMs should be deployed with Azure HUB license
    /// </summary>
    public bool UseAzureHUB { get; set; }

    /// <summary>
    /// Number of concurrent users per VM
    /// </summary>
    public int MaxUsersPerVM { get; set; }

    /// <summary>
    /// Type of VM to create for VDA machines
    /// </summary>
    public string InstanceName { get; set; }

    /// <summary>
    /// Use managed disks for VMs in the catalog
    /// </summary>
    public bool UseManagedDisks { get; set; }
}

public class CatalogScaleSettingsModel
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Max number of concurrent settings for the catalog
    /// </summary>
    public int MaxUsers { get; set; }

    /// <summary>
    /// Min number of active VMs for the catalog
    /// </summary>
    public int MinInstances { get; set; }

    /// <summary>
    /// Number of VMs that will be provisioned for this catalog
    /// </summary>
    public int MaxInstances { get; set; }

    /// <summary>
    /// Number of VMs the admin would like the catalog changed to
    /// </summary>
    public int PendingMaxInstances { get; set; }

    /// <summary>
    /// Days of the week that are included in peak days
    /// </summary>
    public Dictionary<string, bool> Weekdays { get; set; }

    /// <summary>
    /// Hour of day when peak usage begins
    /// </summary>
    public int PeakStartTime { get; set; }

    /// <summary>
    /// Hour of day when peak usage ends
    /// </summary>
    public int PeakEndTime { get; set; }

    /// <summary>
    /// Display of the peak usage timezone
    /// </summary>
    public string PeakTimeZoneId { get; set; }

    /// <summary>
    /// Min number of insances that should be running durring peak hours
    /// </summary>
    public int PeakMinInstances { get; set; }

    /// <summary>
    /// Percentage of buffer capacity during peak hours
    /// </summary>
    public int? BufferCapacity { get; set; }

    /// <summary>
    /// Durring Peak Hours, the time before a disconnected session is shut down
    /// </summary>
    public int PeakDisconnectedSessionTimeout { get; set; }

    /// <summary>
    /// Durring Off Peak Hours, the time before a disconnected session is shut down
    /// </summary>
    public int OffPeakDisconnectedSessionTimeout { get; set; }

    /// <summary>
    /// Amount of time to delay powering off machines with no active sessions
    /// </summary>
    [Range(0, 60)]
    public int PowerOffDelay { get; set; }
}

public class DeploySecretsModel
{
    /// <summary>
    /// The client id that has administrators permissions to Citrix Cloud
    /// </summary>
    public string ClientId { get; set; }

    /// <summary>
    /// The client secret that has administrators permissions to Citrix cloud
    /// </summary>
    public string ClientSecret { get; set; }

    /// <summary>
    /// Service account password for required in domain joining. This will be stored in a azure vault.
    /// </summary>
    public string ServiceAccountPassword { get; set; }
}

public class CitrixManagedCatalogConfigDeployModel
{
    public AddCatalogModel AddCatalog { get; set; }

    public CatalogOnPremConnectivityModel AddCatalogOnPremConnectivity { get; set; }

    public CatalogDomainModel AddCatalogDomain { get; set; }

    public CatalogTemplateImageModel AddCatalogImage { get; set; }

    public CatalogCapacitySettingsModel AddCatalogCapacity { get; set; }

    /// <summary>
    /// Only needed for vnet peered/domain joined catalogs
    /// </summary>
    public DeploySecretsModel DeploySecrets { get; set; }

    /// <summary>
    /// Name of tenant customer ID if partner-tenant relationship exists otherwise null
    /// </summary>
    public string CSPCustomerId { get; set; } = null;

    /// <summary>
    /// Name of tenant customer ID if partner-tenant relationship exists otherwise null
    /// </summary>
    public string CSPSiteId { get; set; } = null;
}
public static async Task<string> DeployCatalog(
    string customerId,
    string siteId,
    string bearerToken,
    CatalogConfigDeployModel model)
{
    var requestUri = string.Format("https://api.cloud.com/catalogservice/{0}/{1}/catalogs/$manageddeploy?async=true", customerId, siteId);
    using (var client = new HttpClient())
    {
        client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.ParseAdd("application/json");
        client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Authorization =
                   new AuthenticationHeaderValue("CwsAuth", "Bearer=" + bearerToken);

        var jsonBody = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(model, new JsonSerializerSettings
        {
            Converters = new JsonConverter[] { new StringEnumConverter() }
        });

        var response = await client.PostAsync(requestUri, new StringContent(jsonBody, Encoding.UTF8, "application/json"));

        if (response != null)
        {
            var content = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
            return content;
        }

        return null;
    }
}
See how to get catalog information or use the URL in "location" header to monitor the deployment status of your catalog.