Setting Up for Linux Desktops

PowerCLI SSH
No need to install additional tools.
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For Ubuntu, you need to install the SSH server with the command
sudo apt-get install openssh-server. For RHEL and CentOS,
openssh-server is installed by default but you need to ensure that the
firewall settings allow ssh.
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Need to download the SSH client applications pscp.exe and
plink.exe and put them in the same folder as the PowerCLI scripts.
Uploading files and command execution
are slower.
Uploading files and command execution are faster.
Need to supply the ESXi host's
administrator credentials.
No need to supply the ESXi host's administrator credentials.
Cannot handle special characters in the
administrator's password when running the
script to install View Agent or the AD user's
password when running the script to join
the domain.
Can handle special characters in the administrator's password when
running the script to install View Agent or the AD user's password when
running the script to join the domain.
NOTE Both PowerCLI-based and SSH-based scripts can handle special characters in the passwords for the
vCenter Server administrator and the Linux administrator. PowerCLI-based scripts can also handle special
characters in the ESXi host administrator's password. In all these cases, an escape character is not necessary.
For more information about vSphere PowerCLI, see
https://www.vmware.com/support/developer/PowerCLI.
The process of bulk deploying a pool of Linux desktops involves the following steps:
1 Create a virtual machine template.
See “Create a Virtual Machine Template for Cloning Linux Desktop Machines,” on page 51.
2 Create a guest customization specification.
See "Create a Customization Specification for Linux in the vSphere Web Client" in the vSphere Virtual
Machine Administration document. When you create the specification, make sure that you specify the
following settings correctly.
Setting Value
Target Virtual Machine OS Linux
Computer Name Use the virtual machine name.
Domain Specify the domain of the View environment.
Network Settings Use standard network settings.
Primary DNS Specify a valid address.
3 Clone virtual machines.
See “Sample Script to Clone Linux Virtual Machines,” on page 53.
4 Join the cloned VMs to the Active Directory (AD) domain.
See “Sample Script to Join Cloned Virtual Machines to AD Domain,” on page 57 or “Sample Script to
Join Cloned Virtual Machines to AD Domain Using SSH,” on page 59.
5 Install View Agent in virtual machines.
See “Sample Script to Install View Agent on Linux Virtual Machines,” on page 63 or “Sample Script to
Install View Agent on Linux Virtual Machines Using SSH,” on page 68.
6 Update configuration options in virtual machines.
Setting Up Horizon 6 for Linux Desktops
50 VMware, Inc.