We are looking at a new installation of Horizon View 6 with 40 workstations.  We would be putting in new thin clients.  I went to the demo of Horizon View 6 last week and would love to use the unified workspace for our users.  We are a healthcare facility and we have several users that would just need to see their applications and have no need to see a full RDP desktop.  So my question is, what type of thin client would work for Horizon View 6 that would not require you to launch a desktop session first?  If there is not such a beast out there, then what are my options for making this a seamless as possible?  We have users that are not very savvy and they just want their applications without messing around with other "stuff" that they don't want or need.  Any help would be great!

Thanks,

Peter

Hi,

I have a general question with View 5.3

If I am right, during a PCoIP session the default printer only is redirected to the View desktop. During a RDP session ALL printers are redirected to the View desktop.

Exists a possibility to redirect ALL printers from the View client to the View desktop during a PCoIP session?

Best Regards,

Andre

Hi all!

We can really see the benefits of using VDI clients rather then using traditional physical machines. I have been at several VDI workshops (VMware, Citrix, MS etc) and now we finally running a POC with VMware Horizon View 5.3 and HP Thin Clients.

Our scoop is to running 3D CAD in VDI and quick deploy 50-100 clients.

When everything is up and running it works like a charm. It's a very good performance when running 3D CAD from the VDI client.

But, the issue is along the way from scratch to a running Windows OS. The deploy of VMs, recomposing, quick prep/sysprep, manage thin clients etc etc etc.

How do you manage all this?

We start with Thin client.

We are running HP clients with Windows 7 Embedded OS pre-installed. How do you manage theese? Using GPO?, virus protection?, OS patching?, corporate OS-deplyment? One of the benefits (according to sales) of VDI is the simplicity vs. psycical machines. But, instead you have to manage thin clients in a similar way. If you choose to use thin clients.

How does GPO working when the thin clients write lock is on?

Further, VDI clients

Quick prep vs. Sysprep?

Spontaneously I would say sysprep to avoid eventually future problem. But it's taking longer time and not working perfectly with full clones.

Which method do you use? Do you get a lot of problems not using sysprep? A lot of VMs with same SID etc. Has anyone had problems with MS, support and so on?

How do you use the user profile? Desktop, Documents, Favorites? Do use folder redirection or do you only use the persistent disk?

OT: Why the heck has not VMware yet released a serious deployment tool for VMs? That's a big joke according to me....or my ignorance.

Why the heck is the deployment tool for Linked Clone and Full Clone not the same? For Linked Clone there's no problem joining domain and a specific OU, for fully clones it's a nightmare.

According to sales, VDI is a quick process to implement. Sure, just for a try. But for a serious corporate POC there's a lot of hours behind. Now I feel it's more job to administrate VDI/TC then managing phys. machines today. And the recomposing is not so smooth that i thought.

BR

I just recently upgraded to View 5.3 from View 5.1.  Everything is green and working normally in my dashboard.  Prior to my upgrade to 5.3, when a view user tried to connect to their desktop and it was off, vcenter would turn it on for them and they would be able to connect.  After my upgrade, when a view desktop is shutdown, view cannot turn it back on.  The end user gets the error:

"The assigned desktop source for this desktop is not currently available"

Anyone know why this could be?  I am on vcenter 5.5 and ESXi 5.5.

Thanks in advance.

Because we are using Persona Management, we choose to use 1 pool entitlement and one session per user. We also refresh on logoff. This prevents persona management from failing on a second session if the first isnt logged off yet. Unfortunately, if a user logs off and tries to immediately log back in, they get the following two error messages:

I assume that this is because the computer is still logging them off, persona management is still syncing their profile and or the broker is trying to connect them to the machine that is being refreshed and isnt aware yet of the users logoff.

Regardless of the reason, isn't there a more graceful way to notify the user that they need to wait or couldn't the view client report when the computer is done logging off? Nobody wants to see these red bars and it shines badly on IT.

I am using a powershell script that uses get-credential to prompt for credentials and then launches the view client with the "-username" and "-password" switches. (For various reasons) I don't want the view client to launch until after credentials have been submitted. The script waits for the view client to exit, and then based on whether the exit code was zero or non-zero, it performs actions. Unfortunately, if neither "-unattended" or "-noninteractive" are specified, the exit code is always 0, regardless of whether or not the connection was successful.

I tried the "-unattended" switch, and if the view client fails to connect, it exits with the appropriate code and the error message can be read from standardoutput. This allowed me to catch the error message and read it back to the user so they would know why it failed to connect. Also, the view client shows the steps of the connection process to let the user know what is going on. Prefect! However, the option can only be used for kisok mode, so specifying the correct "-username", "-password", and "-desktopname" fails to connect. Boo.

I tried the "-noninteractive" switch, and if the view client fails to connect, it exits with the appropriate code, but the error message is not passed to standardoutput nor is it displayed. I can't tell the user why it failed to connect. Also, the view client does not show anything while it is trying to connect like "-unattended" does.

Is there some other way/place to get the exit code of the last attempted connection somewhere other than by specifying "-unattended" or "-noninteractive". It would be nice if, by default, the view client would at least give the correct exit code without needing to use one of those switches. That would give me the optimal behavior I am looking for.

We are currently on 5.1 and want to upgrade to 5.3.

Looking online, the only difference between 5.3 and 5.3.1 is vSAN support. Can anyone confirm this?

Since we don't need vSAN, I'm thinking of sticking with 5.3

Thank You

Under ESXi 5.1 and View 5.2 we always disabled change block tracking on our master image before recompose per this article
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2032214

We are now running ESXi 5.5 and View 5.3. When I change ctkEnabled to false, this setting never sticks. If I change it to false and go back in to look at this setting it shows as true
This has led to recompose errors which is exactly what the KB describes. I opened a case with VMWare but so far they have not figured out how to set ctkEnabled to false

Has anyone else experienced this?

I've been seeing errors where space reclamation was failing on all my linked clone VMs.  I tracked the problem down to the fact that CBT is enabled on all the linked clone VMs.  However, it is not enabled on the parent VM.  When I recompose from the parent, CBT gets enabled on the linked clone VMs.

Some background:

CBT was enabled at one time on the parent VM, so it does have both the "ctkEnabled" and "scsi0:0.ctkEnabled" rows in the configuration parameters.  But they are both set to "False", which according to VMware 1031873 is how you disable CBT:

To disable CBT:

1. Power off the virtual machine. 
2. Right-click the virtual machine and click Edit Settings. 
3. Click the Options tab. 
4. Click General under the Advanced section and then click Configuration Parameters. The Configuration Parameters dialog opens. 
5. Set the ctkEnabled parameter to false for the corresponding SCSI disk.

I'm thinking this could be a bug, where if the parent VM has the parameter set in the .VMX, it will enable CBT on the linked clones regardless of whether it was set to "False".

View 5.3.0

ESXi 5.5.0

Parent VM: Win7 x64 (HW version 9)

Quick question.

If I have VMWare View agent installed on a physical machine, when someone is logged on to that machine at the console, it shows in View Manager - Given that the user is at the console, and therefore no part of VMWare View is being used in this process, is a VMWare View license being consumed?

Hi,

I have to install a very small View environment (about 10-20 Users).

Now I have installed one View Connection Server and connected it with one View Security Server (in DMZ) for remote access and everything works fine - connections from our LAN and out of the internet are possible per one single URL (Pin-Point-DNS).

So why should I install one Connection Server for local and one Connection Server in combination with a Security Server for remote access?

Ok, if we want to activate Two-Factor-Authentication then we have to do so, but apart from that?

Thanks for your help!

Hi,

Hoping someone can help.

We have 1 pool with 100 desktops that has 20 desktops that are missing and 1 desktop that is stuck at deleting.

Can someone advise why the desktop is stuck at deleting, can these be removed?

Why are the desktops missing?

Any help would be appreciated?

Kind Regards.

Stephen

We've deployed Windows 7 32bit persistent linked clones in a VMWare View 4.5 environment and occasionally users will report that their desktop icons will disappear.  The user profiles are redirected to a DFS path on a file server.  The DFS configuration consists of 2 root targets (both AD domain controllers) pointing to 1 target (file server).  Status on all the DFS targets shows as Online and no errors appear in the event logs on any of the servers.  The Windows 7 desktops, domain controllers, and file server are all in the same subnet, not separated via any slow links or routers.  Same subnet.

None of our Windows XP persistent linked clones have ever exhibited this behaviour.  I've tried pointing the Windows 7 desktops to the file server via the IP address of the file server, but that didn't solve the issue.  I've adjusted the MaxCachedIcons setting in the registry which didn't help either.  When the icons disappear a reboot of the desktop usually solves the issue.

In testing yesterday I noticed some very odd behaviour.  User calls and states icons are gone.  I remote to their machine and there are only the My Computer, Recycle Bin on the desktop.  I browse to the redirected DFS path which we'll call \\dfspath\corp\fldredir\username\desktop where their icons should be.  The shortcuts all appear in that directory, yet they don't appear on the desktop.  I create a new icon and it shows on their desktop.  I then login to the file server, pull up the \\dfspath\corp\fldredir\username\desktop directory, but don't see the icon the user just created.  I then create a new icon in the users desktop directory from the file server.  Icon shows up on the Windows 7 desktop.

Even after rebooting the Windows 7 desktop, their icons may reappear, however the icons they created on the desktop while all the other icons were gone, DO NOT show up on the file server.  It's like the desktop is caching them somewhere, but I've pulled my hair out trying to find where.  I've searched the local disk, the UDD, and the disposable disk for the names of the newly created icons and can't find them.  We don't employ Offline Files and the service is turned off on the desktop, turned off in Group Policy, and the file share where the user profiles are stored doesn't have the option turned on.

Hello

I have a licensing question.

Company A has VDI (Horizon View Add-On).

Company A has a small subsidiary company B.

Is there any licensing violation if company B users connect to/use VDI of company A?

regards

bebris

I have  deployed a VMware horizon suite 5.3. i have created dedicated linked clones. Windows 7 Professional acting as a parent VM. Users are on both View Client as well as Thin clients. Now i want to restrict users from taking screenshots, copy,paste activities from remote sessions of servers to their virtual desktops. How can i make this custom policy in View Agent or View Connection Server. Please help

Hello All,

I am looking for a PowerCLI script where I can define my pool name then get a total count of the status of the desktops in that pool.  I have tried several searches that have led me no where, ideally the script would output to a csv file like so...

Number of Desktops "Available" = 6

Number of Desktops "Connected" = 1

Number of Desktops "Agent Unreachable" = 1

Number of Desktops "Error" = 1

Number of Desktops "Other" = 1

The purpose of this script is when I run my weekly scheduled scripts to refresh a pool(s) I would like to kick off a final script that reports at completion with the above mentioned output.  Can some one please help me from getting any more gray hair?

Thank you

(Will award points for helpful information)

Has anyone had any success getting the view client installed on a Ubuntu 14.04 x64 host? It's not in the canonical repo (it is in 12.04 x32)

I can get the client installed by doing the following:

     dpkg --add-architecture i386

     apt-get update

     wget http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/pool/partner/v/vmware-view-client/vmware-view-client_2.2.0-0ubuntu0.14.04_i386.deb /opt

     wget http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/universe/o/openssl098/libssl0.9.8_0.9.8o-7ubuntu3.1_i386.deb /opt

     (using gdebi [apt-get install gdebi]

     debi /opt//libssl0.9.8_0.9.8o-7ubuntu3.1_i386.deb

     gdebi /opt/vmware-view-client_2.2.0-0ubuntu0.14.04_i386.deb

I can successfully connect using the client, however when I launch a VM I just get a blank console that eventually closes on its own. Error Log below:

May 08 09:45:19.738: vmware-view.bin 22581| Spawn of vmware-view-usb failed: Failed to execute child process "vmware-view-usb" (No such file or directory)

May 08 09:45:19.738: vmware-view.bin 22581| ViewUsblib: mmfw_RegisterClient: error opening connection: error 2 (No such file or directory)

May 08 09:45:19.738: vmware-view.bin 22581| ViewUsblib: ViewUsb_InitLib: cannot connect to vmware-view-usbd: mmfw_ret=1

May 08 09:45:19.738: vmware-view.bin 22581| CdkViewUsb_Init: ViewUsb_InitLib returned ViewUsbStatus_UsbdCommsFailure

May 08 09:45:19.738: vmware-view.bin 22581| CdkViewUsb_Init: (is vmware-view-usbd running?)

May 08 09:45:19.990: vmware-view.bin 22581| PCoIP Client(23151): CreateMKSInterface: forcing mount, Remote MKS already present

May 08 09:45:19.991: vmware-view.bin 22581| PCoIP Client(23151): OnMountUnmount: (0, 0) 1024 X 791.

May 08 09:46:23.152: vmware-view.bin 22581| PCoIP Client(23151): Remote MKS network connection status changed: DISCONNECTED

May 08 09:46:23.152: vmware-view.bin 22581| PCoIP Client(23151): OnMountUnmount: remote MKS not present!

Any thoughts?

I have a new replica that I am trying to recompose existing vms with. but some vms are giving this error and stays shut down

Could not find VC object of type VirtualMachine, and id (please check the master VM/snapshot or its replica)

any idea?

Hi everyone !

I would like to known if it's possible to select printer to map from the client computer.

I want prevent mapping of some printers

We have Vmware Hozrion 5.2 and user use client 5.4

Thanks you

I have a View 5.1 environment I inherited, running on vCenter & ESXi 5.1.  For the most part everything is running ok, such as my link cloned/non-persistent pool can provision/destroy desktops without issue, so I know everything is basically ok.

The problem is that I am having a few issues with other pools, such as a manual/persistent pool to an  is stuck "provisioning", and a manual pool to an existing VM is stuck "waiting on agent".  These aren't major, I'm sure I cold sort them out IF I could read the logs.  And here's the problem I'm requesting help with: 

My logs are being flooded with:

2014-05-08T09:02:15.009-05:00 INFO  (1260-0DA4) <DesktopControlJMS> [Audit] RECONFIGUREDONE:Server:cn=7a1b8c2d-6fa8-4cca-a401-acee4a332036,ou=servers,dc=vdi,dc=vmware,dc=int;Pool:cn=<machinename>,ou=server groups,dc=vdi,dc=vmware,dc=int;DNS:<machinename>

2014-05-08T09:02:15.016-05:00 INFO  (1260-0DA4) <DesktopControlJMS> [Audit] RECONFIGUREDONE:Server:cn=7a1b8c2d-6fa8-4cca-a401-acee4a332036,ou=servers,dc=vdi,dc=vmware,dc=int;Pool:cn=<machinename>,ou=server groups,dc=vdi,dc=vmware,dc=int;DNS:<machinename>

2014-05-08T09:02:15.090-05:00 INFO  (1260-0DA4) <DesktopControlJMS> [Audit] RECONFIGUREDONE:Server:cn=7a1b8c2d-6fa8-4cca-a401-acee4a332036,ou=servers,dc=vdi,dc=vmware,dc=int;Pool:cn=<machinename>,ou=server groups,dc=vdi,dc=vmware,dc=int;DNS:<machinename>

2014-05-08T09:02:15.095-05:00 INFO  (1260-0DA4) <DesktopControlJMS> [Audit] RECONFIGUREDONE:Server:cn=7a1b8c2d-6fa8-4cca-a401-acee4a332036,ou=servers,dc=vdi,dc=vmware,dc=int;Pool:cn=<machinename>,ou=server groups,dc=vdi,dc=vmware,dc=int;DNS:<machinename>

2014-05-08T09:02:15.250-05:00 INFO  (1260-0DA4) <DesktopControlJMS> [Audit] RECONFIGUREDONE:Server:cn=7a1b8c2d-6fa8-4cca-a401-acee4a332036,ou=servers,dc=vdi,dc=vmware,dc=int;Pool:cn=<machinename>,ou=server groups,dc=vdi,dc=vmware,dc=int;DNS:<machinename>

2014-05-08T09:02:15.255-05:00 INFO  (1260-0DA4) <DesktopControlJMS> [Audit] RECONFIGUREDONE:Server:cn=7a1b8c2d-6fa8-4cca-a401-acee4a332036,ou=servers,dc=vdi,dc=vmware,dc=int;Pool:cn=<machinename>,ou=server groups,dc=vdi,dc=vmware,dc=int;DNS:<machinename>

2014-05-08T09:02:15.353-05:00 INFO  (1260-0DA4) <DesktopControlJMS> [Audit] RECONFIGUREDONE:Server:cn=7a1b8c2d-6fa8-4cca-a401-acee4a332036,ou=servers,dc=vdi,dc=vmware,dc=int;Pool:cn=<machinename>,ou=server groups,dc=vdi,dc=vmware,dc=int;DNS:<machinename>

2014-05-08T09:02:15.358-05:00 INFO  (1260-0DA4) <DesktopControlJMS> [Audit] RECONFIGUREDONE:Server:cn=7a1b8c2d-6fa8-4cca-a401-acee4a332036,ou=servers,dc=vdi,dc=vmware,dc=int;Pool:cn=<machinename>,ou=server groups,dc=vdi,dc=vmware,dc=int;DNS:<machinename>

2014-05-08T09:02:15.453-05:00 INFO  (1260-0DA4) <DesktopControlJMS> [Audit] RECONFIGUREDONE:Server:cn=7a1b8c2d-6fa8-4cca-a401-acee4a332036,ou=servers,dc=vdi,dc=vmware,dc=int;Pool:cn=<machinename>,ou=server groups,dc=vdi,dc=vmware,dc=int;DNS:<machinename>

2014-05-08T09:02:15.455-05:00 INFO  (1260-0DA4) <DesktopControlJMS> [Audit] RECONFIGUREDONE:Server:cn=7a1b8c2d-6fa8-4cca-a401-acee4a332036,ou=servers,dc=vdi,dc=vmware,dc=int;Pool:cn=<machinename>,ou=server groups,dc=vdi,dc=vmware,dc=int;DNS:<machinename>

2014-05-08T09:02:15.528-05:00 INFO  (1260-0DA4) <DesktopControlJMS> [Audit] RECONFIGUREDONE:Server:cn=7a1b8c2d-6fa8-4cca-a401-acee4a332036,ou=servers,dc=vdi,dc=vmware,dc=int;Pool:cn=<machinename>,ou=server groups,dc=vdi,dc=vmware,dc=int;DNS:<machinename>

2014-05-08T09:02:15.530-05:00 INFO  (1260-0DA4) <DesktopControlJMS> [Audit] RECONFIGUREDONE:Server:cn=7a1b8c2d-6fa8-4cca-a401-acee4a332036,ou=servers,dc=vdi,dc=vmware,dc=int;Pool:cn=<machinename>,ou=server groups,dc=vdi,dc=vmware,dc=int;DNS:<machinename>

2014-05-08T09:02:15.625-05:00 INFO  (1260-0DA4) <DesktopControlJMS> [Audit] RECONFIGUREDONE:Server:cn=7a1b8c2d-6fa8-4cca-a401-acee4a332036,ou=servers,dc=vdi,dc=vmware,dc=int;Pool:cn=<machinename>,ou=server groups,dc=vdi,dc=vmware,dc=int;DNS:<machinename>

2014-05-08T09:02:15.628-05:00 INFO  (1260-0DA4) <DesktopControlJMS> [Audit] RECONFIGUREDONE:Server:cn=7a1b8c2d-6fa8-4cca-a401-acee4a332036,ou=servers,dc=vdi,dc=vmware,dc=int;Pool:cn=<machinename>,ou=server groups,dc=vdi,dc=vmware,dc=int;DNS:<machinename>

2014-05-08T09:02:15.733-05:00 INFO  (1260-0DA4) <DesktopControlJMS> [Audit] RECONFIGUREDONE:Server:cn=7a1b8c2d-6fa8-4cca-a401-acee4a332036,ou=servers,dc=vdi,dc=vmware,dc=int;Pool:cn=<machinename>,ou=server groups,dc=vdi,dc=vmware,dc=int;DNS:<machinename>

2014-05-08T09:02:15.736-05:00 INFO  (1260-0DA4) <DesktopControlJMS> [Audit] RECONFIGUREDONE:Server:cn=7a1b8c2d-6fa8-4cca-a401-acee4a332036,ou=servers,dc=vdi,dc=vmware,dc=int;Pool:cn=<machinename>,ou=server groups,dc=vdi,dc=vmware,dc=int;DNS:<machinename>

2014-05-08T09:02:15.833-05:00 INFO  (1260-0DA4) <DesktopControlJMS> [Audit] RECONFIGUREDONE:Server:cn=7a1b8c2d-6fa8-4cca-a401-acee4a332036,ou=servers,dc=vdi,dc=vmware,dc=int;Pool:cn=<machinename>,ou=server groups,dc=vdi,dc=vmware,dc=int;DNS:<machinename>

2014-05-08T09:02:15.835-05:00 INFO  (1260-0DA4) <DesktopControlJMS> [Audit] RECONFIGUREDONE:Server:cn=7a1b8c2d-6fa8-4cca-a401-acee4a332036,ou=servers,dc=vdi,dc=vmware,dc=int;Pool:cn=<machinename>,ou=server groups,dc=vdi,dc=vmware,dc=int;DNS:<machinename>

2014-05-08T09:02:15.911-05:00 INFO  (1260-0DA4) <DesktopControlJMS> [Audit] RECONFIGUREDONE:Server:cn=7a1b8c2d-6fa8-4cca-a401-acee4a332036,ou=servers,dc=vdi,dc=vmware,dc=int;Pool:cn=<machinename>,ou=server groups,dc=vdi,dc=vmware,dc=int;DNS:<machinename>

2014-05-08T09:02:15.913-05:00 INFO  (1260-0DA4) <DesktopControlJMS> [Audit] RECONFIGUREDONE:Server:cn=7a1b8c2d-6fa8-4cca-a401-acee4a332036,ou=servers,dc=vdi,dc=vmware,dc=int;Pool:cn=<machinename>,ou=server groups,dc=vdi,dc=vmware,dc=int;DNS:<machinename>

That's 20 times a second, making finding any other log info difficult.  The desktop to which the info refers is a physical desktop running View, and works just fine.  I can't find any info on RECONFIGUREDONE anywhere and would love to have some ideas on how to free my logs of this fluff.

I have done reboots on my broker and vComposer (v3.0) but it persists

thanks!