Hard problems.
Clearly documented.
Production troubleshooting and practical engineering builds across virtual desktop infrastructure, Windows, Citrix, cloud and automation.
PRODUCTION CASE LIBRARY
Field cases
Troubleshooting and operational automation from real environments.
PVS targets register only after a user signs in
Windows Server 2019 targets booted successfully, but BrokerAgent remained stopped until login or a manual service restart.
Making a portable log viewer the default application
A portable executable, machine-level registration and a DISM-exported association file made the setting survive into published VDIs.
One target fails PXE boot while the catalog stays healthy
An unreachable address and missing reverse lookup narrowed the fault to one target. Replacing the NIC restored service immediately.
Rebuilding a Windows 11 image path to 25H2
A practical record of EFI, vTPM, Secure Boot, agent lineage, stale NICs and VDA registration across a layered-image rebuild.
Office 2021 activation fails after publishing the App Layer
A stale KMS override embedded in the application layer prevented published Windows Server 2019 images from activating Office.
Automating start-of-shift Citrix capacity and KMS checks
A PowerShell report brings desktop capacity across two Citrix sites and VMware KMS status into one email, scheduled for each of three daily shifts.
FROM REQUIREMENT TO RESULT
Engineering builds
Tools, automation and platform ideas taken through implementation and validation.
Experience is most useful when it can be reused.
SMR Lab is Smrutimaya Mohanty's public engineering notebook: a curated, anonymised record of production incidents, practical fixes and systems built from real requirements. The aim is simple—preserve the details that are easy to forget and share the ones that may help another engineer.
For questions or professional enquiries, email hello@smrlab.au.