Attempting to shadow a user’s session with Citrix XenDesktop 5.6 Desktop Director throws the error: “Failed to initiate Remote Assistance: Machine not responding (error code 104). Refer to documentation for Remote Assistance configuration. View server event logs for further information.”

Problem

You attempt to shadow a user’s session with Citrix XenDesktop 5.6’s Desktop Director but receive the following error message:

Failed to initiate Remote Assistance: Machine not responding (error code 104). Refer to documentation for Remote Assistance configuration. View server event logs for further information.

Logging onto the DDC and reviewing the System logs show that the event ID 10009 error is logged by the DistributedCOM source with the error:

DCOM was unable to communicate with the computer WXPVDEP010.domain.com using any of the configured protocols.

Solution

Note that this can be caused by many issues (usually connectivity between Desktop Director and the virtualdesktop) and prior to proceeding, ensure that you have configured the required Group Policy for remote assistance as well as WinRM on the virtual desktop master image if it’s a Windows XP operating system.  See the following post for more information:

Configuring WinRM for Windows XP SP3 for Citrix XenDesktop 5.5 / 5.6 Desktop Director
http://terenceluk.blogspot.com/2012/05/configuring-winrm-for-windows-xp-sp3.html

If you have validated the configuration yet still unable to connect, one of the reasons that I’ve come across in the past was that the DNS record for the desktop was incorrect.  Note how Desktop Director indicates that my virtual desktop’s IP is 10.12.0.88:

However, when I attempt to ping the desktop, the DNS server returns 10.12.0.79:

If you notice that your DNS server is returning an incorrect IP, correct the problem and try connecting again.