Setting Up for Linux Desktops
Table Of Contents
- Setting Up Horizon 6 for Linux Desktops
- Contents
- Setting Up Horizon 6 for Linux Desktops
- Features and System Requirements
- Preparing a Linux Virtual Machine for Desktop Deployment
- Setting Up Active Directory Integration for Linux Desktops
- Configuration Options for Linux Desktops
- Setting Up Graphics for Linux Desktops
- Installing View Agent and Managing Linux Desktops
- Install View Agent on a Linux Virtual Machine
- Enable Reversible Password Encryption
- Create a Desktop Pool That Contains Linux Virtual Machines
- Upgrade View Agent on a Linux Virtual Machine
- Uninstalling and Reinstalling Horizon 6 for Linux Machines
- How to Perform Power Operations on Linux Desktops from vSphere
- Gather Information About Horizon 6 for Linux Software
- Bulk Deployment of Horizon 6 for Linux Desktops
- Overview of Bulk Deployment of Linux Desktops
- Create a Virtual Machine Template for Cloning Linux Desktop Machines
- Input File for the Sample PowerCLI Scripts to Deploy Linux Desktops
- Sample Script to Clone Linux Virtual Machines
- Sample Script to Join Cloned Virtual Machines to AD Domain
- Sample Script to Join Cloned Virtual Machines to AD Domain Using SSH
- Sample Script to Install View Agent on Linux Virtual Machines
- Sample Script to Install View Agent on Linux Virtual Machines Using SSH
- Sample Script to Upload Configuration Files to Linux Virtual Machines
- Sample Script to Upload Configuration Files to Linux Virtual Machines Using SSH
- Sample Script to Upgrade View Agent on Linux Desktop Machines
- Sample Script to Upgrade View Agent on Linux Virtual Machines Using SSH
- Sample Script to Perform Operations on Linux Virtual Machines
- Sample Script to Delete Machines from the Connection Server LDAP Database
- Troubleshooting Linux Desktops
- Collect Diagnostic Information for a Horizon 6 for Linux Machine
- Troubleshooting View Agent Registration Failure for a Linux Machine
- Troubleshooting an Unreachable View Agent on a Linux Machine
- Troubleshooting View Agent on a Linux Machine That Is Not Responding
- Configuring the Linux Firewall to Allow Incoming TCP Connections
- Index
4 Uncompress the VMware Tools tar installer file.
For example:
tar zxpf /mnt/cdrom/VMwareTools-x.x.x-yyyy.tar.gz
5 Run the installer and configure VMware Tools.
The command might vary slightly in different Linux distributions. For example:
cd vmware-tools-distrib
sudo ./vmware-install.pl -d
Usually, the vmware-config-tools.pl configuration file runs after the installer file finishes running.
6 For RHEL and CentOS, map the machine's host name to 127.0.0.1 in /etc/hosts.
This step is not necessary for Ubuntu because the mapping is there by default. This step is also not
necessary when you bulk deploy desktops because the cloning process adds this mapping.
7 Ensure that the View Connection Server instances in the pod can be resolved through DNS.
8 On Ubuntu 14.04 machines, disable user switching to ensure that end users cannot switch user sessions
from within the Linux desktop.
a To successfully disable user switching, download and install the latest version of the indicator-
session package, available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/wily/amd64/indicator-
session/12.10.5+15.04.20150327-0ubuntu1.
b Restart the machine.
9 For RHEL 7.1, downgrade the latest graphic drivers that are installed.
yum update
yum downgrade mesa-libxatracker mesa-dri-drivers
yum downgrade mesa-libxatracker.x86_64 xorg-x11-drv-vmware mesa-private-llvm mesa-dri-drivers
10 Configure the Linux machine so that the default runlevel is 5.
The runlevel must be 5 for the Linux desktop to work.
11 Make sure that an HD audio device is not present in the virtual hardware settings for the VM.
If HD audio is configured on the machine, audio out might not work properly when users connect to
the Linux desktop.
12 On an Ubuntu machine that was configured to authenticate with an OpenLDAP server, set the fully
qualified domain name on the machine.
This step ensures that the information can be displayed correctly in the User field on the Sessions page
in View Administrator. Edit the /etc/hosts file as follows:
a # nano /etc/hosts
b Add the fully qualified domain name. For example: 127.0.0.1 hostname.domainname hostname.
c Exit and save the file.
13 For RHEL and CentOS, edit /etc/cron.daily/tmpwatch and add the parameter -X '/tmp/view*' to the
command tmpwatch.
For example,
/usr/sbin/tmpwatch "$flags" -x /tmp/.X11-unix -x /tmp/.XIM-unix \
-x /tmp/.font-unix -x /tmp/.ICE-unix -x /tmp/.Test-unix \
-X '/tmp/hsperfdata_*' -X '/tmp/view*' 10d /tmp
Chapter 2 Preparing a Linux Virtual Machine for Desktop Deployment
VMware, Inc. 15