VMware View Administration View 5.0 View Manager 5.0 View Composer 2.7 This document supports the version of each product listed and supports all subsequent versions until the document is replaced by a new edition. To check for more recent editions of this document, see http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs.
VMware View Administration You can find the most up-to-date technical documentation on the VMware Web site at: http://www.vmware.com/support/ The VMware Web site also provides the latest product updates. If you have comments about this documentation, submit your feedback to: docfeedback@vmware.com Copyright © 2011 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. This product is protected by U.S. and international copyright and intellectual property laws.
Contents VMware View Administration 7 1 Configuring View Connection Server 9 Using View Administrator 9 Configuring vCenter Server and View Composer 12 Backing Up View Connection Server 17 Configuring Settings for Client Sessions 17 Disable or Enable View Connection Server 21 Edit the External URLs 22 View LDAP Directory 23 Configuring View Connection Server Settings 23 2 Configuring Role-Based Delegated Administration 25 Understanding Roles and Privileges 25 Using Folders to Delegate Administration 26
VMware View Administration 5 Creating Desktop Pools 71 Automated Pools That Contain Full Virtual Machines 72 Linked-Clone Desktop Pools 75 Manual Desktop Pools 93 Microsoft Terminal Services Pools 97 Provisioning Desktop Pools 99 Setting Power Policies for Desktop Pools 110 6 Entitling Users and Groups 115 Add Entitlements to Desktop Pools 115 Remove Entitlements from a Desktop Pool 115 Review Desktop Pool Entitlements 116 Restricting View Desktop Access 116 7 Setting Up User Authentication 121 Using
Contents 12 Managing Physical Computers and Terminal Servers 219 Add an Unmanaged Desktop Source to a Pool 219 Remove an Unmanaged Desktop Source from a Pool 220 Delete a Pool That Contains Unmanaged Desktops 220 Unregister an Unmanaged Desktop Source 221 Desktop Status of Physical Computers and Terminal Servers 221 13 Managing ThinApp Applications in View Administrator 223 View Requirements for ThinApp Applications 223 Capturing and Storing Application Packages 224 Assigning ThinApp Applications to Desk
VMware View Administration Troubleshooting USB Redirection Problems 315 Troubleshooting QuickPrep Customization Problems 316 View Composer Provisioning Errors 317 Windows XP Linked Clones Fail to Join the Domain 319 Troubleshooting GINA Problems on Windows XP Desktops 319 17 Using the vdmadmin Command 321 vdmadmin Command Usage 322 Configuring Logging in View Agent Using the -A Option 325 Overriding IP Addresses Using the -A Option 326 Setting the Name of a View Connection Server Group Using the -C Optio
VMware View Administration VMware View Administration describes how to configure and administer VMware View™, including how to configure View Connection Server, create administrators, provision and deploy View desktops, set up user authentication, configure policies, and manage VMware ThinApp™ applications in View Administrator. This information also describes how to maintain and troubleshoot VMware View components.
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Configuring View Connection Server 1 After you install and perform initial configuration of View Connection Server, you can add vCenter Server instances and View Composer services to View Manager, set up roles to delegate administrator responsibilities, and schedule backups of your configuration data.
VMware View Administration You also use View Administrator to manage security servers and View Transfer Server instances associated with View Connection Server. n Each security server is associated with one View Connection Server instance. n Each View Transfer Server instance can communicate with any View Connection Server instance in a group of replicated instances. Log In to View Administrator To perform initial configuration tasks, you must log in to View Administrator.
Chapter 1 Configuring View Connection Server Table 1-1. View Administrator Navigation and Display Features View Administrator Feature Description Navigating backward and forward in View Administrator pages. Click the Back button in the upper left corner of a View Administrator page to go to the previously displayed View Administrator page. Click the Forward button to return to the current page. Do not use your browser's Back button. This button displays the View Administrator log-in page.
VMware View Administration This problem occurs when you change this setting in View Administrator by navigating to View Configuration > Global Settings and deselecting the Require SSL for client connections and View Administrator check box. Solution Use the following URL to connect to View Administrator, where server is the host name or IP address of the View Connection Server instance.
Chapter 1 Configuring View Connection Server Procedure 1 In View Administrator, click View Configuration > Servers. 2 In the vCenter Servers panel, click Add. 3 In the server address text box, type the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) or IP address of the vCenter Server instance. The FQDN includes the host name and domain name. For example, in the FQDN myserverhost.companydomain.com, myserverhost is the host name and companydomain.com is the domain.
VMware View Administration Remove a vCenter Server Instance from View Manager You can remove the connection between View Manager and a vCenter Server instance. When you do so, View Manager no longer manages the View desktops created in that vCenter Server instance. Prerequisites Delete all the View desktops that are associated with the vCenter Server instance. See “Delete a Desktop Pool from View Manager,” on page 209. Procedure 1 Click View Configuration > Servers.
Chapter 1 Configuring View Connection Server What to do next Specify the account in View Administrator when you configure View Composer for vCenter Server and when you configure and deploy linked-clone desktop pools. Configure View Composer Settings for vCenter Server To use View Composer, you must configure View Manager with initial settings that match the settings for the View Composer service that is installed in vCenter Server.
VMware View Administration Remove View Composer from View Manager You can remove the connection between View Manager and the View Composer service installed in a vCenter Server instance. When you do so, View Manager no longer manages the linked-clone desktops created by View Composer in the vCenter Server instance. Before you disable the connection to View Composer, you must remove from View Manager all the linkedclone desktops that were created by View Composer.
Chapter 1 Configuring View Connection Server 2 Type a new unique ID and click OK. For details about editing vCenter Server unique ID values, see the vSphere documentation. Backing Up View Connection Server After you complete the initial configuration of View Connection Server, you should schedule regular backups of your View Manager and View Composer configuration data.
VMware View Administration Global Settings for Client Sessions and Connections Global settings determine session time-out length and whether SSL is used, clients are reauthenticated after interruptions, View components use secure internal communications, prelogin and warning messages are displayed, and SSO is used for local-desktop operations. Table 1-2.
Chapter 1 Configuring View Connection Server Table 1-2. Global Settings for Client Sessions and Connections (Continued) Setting Description Display a pre-login message Displays a disclaimer or another message to View Client users when they log in. Type your information or instructions in the text box in the Global Settings dialog window. To display no message, leave the text box blank.
VMware View Administration Configure the Secure Tunnel Connection and PCoIP Secure Gateway When the secure tunnel is enabled, View Client makes a second HTTPS connection to the View Connection Server or security server host when users connect to a View desktop. When the PCoIP Secure Gateway is enabled, View Client makes a further secure connection to the View Connection Server or security server host when users connect to a View desktop with the PCoIP display protocol.
Chapter 1 Configuring View Connection Server Set a Single Sign-on Timeout Limit for View Users By default, when a user logs in to View Connection Server from View Client, single sign-on (SSO) is enabled. The user does not have to log in again to connect to the View desktop. During a desktop session, a user can leave the desktop, allow it to become inactive, and return without having to authenticate again.
VMware View Administration Procedure 1 In View Administrator, click View Configuration > Servers. 2 In the View Connection Servers panel, select the View Connection Server instance. 3 Click Disable. You can enable the instance again by clicking Enable. Edit the External URLs You can use View Administrator to edit external URLs for View Connection Server instances and security servers.
Chapter 1 Configuring View Connection Server View LDAP Directory View LDAP is the data repository for all View Manager configuration information. View LDAP is an embedded Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) directory that is provided with the View Connection Server installation. View LDAP contains standard LDAP directory components that are used by View Manager.
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Configuring Role-Based Delegated Administration 2 One key management task in a View environment is to determine who can use View Administrator and what tasks those users are authorized to perform. With role-based delegated administration, you can selectively assign administrative rights by assigning administrator roles to specific Active Directory users and groups.
VMware View Administration To create administrators, you select users and groups from your Active Directory users and groups and assign administrator roles. Administrators obtain privileges through their role assignments. You cannot assign privileges directly to administrators. An administrator that has multiple role assignments acquires the sum of all the privileges contained in those roles.
Chapter 2 Configuring Role-Based Delegated Administration Different Administrators for the Same Folder You can create different administrators to manage the same folder. For example, if your corporate desktop pools are in one folder, you can create one administrator that can view and modify those pools and another administrator that can only view them. Table 2-2 shows an example of this type of configuration. Table 2-2. Different Administrators for the Same Folder Administrator Role Folder view-domain.
VMware View Administration Table 2-5. Permissions on the Role Tab for Inventory Administrators Administrator Folder view-domain.com\Admin1 /MarketingDesktops Manage Administrators Users who have the Administrators role can use View Administrator to add and remove administrator users and groups. The Administrators role is the most powerful role in View Administrator. Initially, members of the local Administrators group (BUILTIN\Administrators) on your View Connection Server host are given the Administra
Chapter 2 Configuring Role-Based Delegated Administration 5 Select a role to assign to the administrator user or group. The Apply to Folder column indicates whether a role applies to folders. Only roles that contain objectspecific privileges apply to folders. Roles that contain only global privileges do not apply to folders. 6 Option Action The role you selected applies to folders Select one or more folders and click Next.
VMware View Administration 2 Create the permission. Option Action Create a permission that includes a specific administrator user or group a b c d Create a permission that includes a specific role a b c d e Create a permission that includes a specific folder a b c d On the Administrators and Groups tab, select the administrator or group and click Add Permission. Select a role. If the role does not apply to folders, click Finish.
Chapter 2 Configuring Role-Based Delegated Administration Review Permissions You can review the permissions that include a specific administrator or group, a specific role, or a specific folder. Procedure 1 Select View Configuration > Administrators. 2 Review the permissions. Option Action Review the permissions that include a specific administrator or group Select the administrator or group on the Administrators and Groups tab.
VMware View Administration 3 Type a name and description for the folder and click OK. The description is optional. What to do next Move one or more desktop pools to the folder. Move a Desktop Pool to a Different Folder After you create a folder to subdivide your desktop pools, you must manually move desktop pools to the new folder. If you decide to change the way your desktop pools are subdivided, you can move desktops pools from one folder to another.
Chapter 2 Configuring Role-Based Delegated Administration 2 Select the folder from the Folder drop-down menu. The Desktops page shows the pools in the folder that you selected. Manage Custom Roles You can use View Administrator to add, modify, and delete custom roles. n Add a Custom Role on page 33 If the predefined administrator roles do not meet your needs, you can combine specific privileges to create your own roles in View Administrator.
VMware View Administration Remove a Custom Role You can remove a custom role if it is not included in a permission. You cannot remove the predefined administrator roles. Prerequisites If the role is included in a permission, delete the permission. See “Delete a Permission,” on page 30. Procedure 1 In View Administrator, select View Configuration > Administrators. 2 On the Roles tab, select the role and click Remove Role.
Chapter 2 Configuring Role-Based Delegated Administration Table 2-6. Predefined Roles in View Administrator Role User Capabilities Applies to a Folder Administrators Perform all administrator operations, including creating additional administrator users and groups. Administrators that have the Administrators role on the root folder are super administrators because they have full access to all of the inventory objects in the system.
VMware View Administration Table 2-7. Global Privileges Privilege User Capabilities Predefined Roles Console Interaction Log in to and use View Administrator. Administrators Administrators (Read only) Inventory Administrators Inventory Administrators (Read only) Global Configuration and Policy Administrators Global Configuration and Policy Administrators (Read only) Direct Interaction Run all PowerShell commands and command line utilities, except for vdmadmin and vdmimport.
Chapter 2 Configuring Role-Based Delegated Administration Internal Privileges Some of the predefined administrator roles contain internal privileges. You cannot select internal privileges when you create custom roles. Table 2-9 describes the internal privileges and lists the predefined roles that contain each privilege. Table 2-9. Internal Privileges Privilege Description Predefined Roles Full (Read only) Grants read-only access to all settings.
VMware View Administration Table 2-11. Desktop Management Tasks and Privileges Task Required Privileges Remove a virtual machine Manage Pool on the pool. Reset a virtual machine Manage Reboot Operation on the desktop. Cancel, pause, or resume a task Manage Composer Pool Image Assign or remove user ownership Manage Desktop on the desktop. Enter or exit maintenance mode Manage Desktop on the desktop. Roll back or initiate replications Manage Local Sessions on the desktop.
Chapter 2 Configuring Role-Based Delegated Administration Privileges for General Administration Tasks and Commands An administrator must have certain privileges to perform general administration tasks and run command line utilities. Table 2-14 shows the privileges that are required to perform general administration tasks and run command line utilities. Table 2-14.
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Preparing Unmanaged Desktop Sources 3 Users can access View desktops delivered by machines that are not managed by vCenter Server. These unmanaged desktop sources can include physical computers, terminal servers, and virtual machines running on VMware Server and other virtualization platforms. You must prepare an unmanaged desktop source to deliver View desktop access.
VMware View Administration Prerequisites n Verify that you have administrative rights on the unmanaged desktop source. n Familiarize yourself with the View Agent custom setup options for unmanaged desktop sources. See “View Agent Custom Setup Options for Unmanaged Desktop Sources,” on page 43. n Familiarize yourself with the TCP ports that the View Agent installation program opens on the firewall. See the VMware View Architecture Planning document for more information.
Chapter 3 Preparing Unmanaged Desktop Sources View Agent Custom Setup Options for Unmanaged Desktop Sources When you install View Agent on an unmanaged desktop source, you can select certain custom setup options. Table 3-1. View Agent Custom Setup Options for Unmanaged Desktop Sources Option Description USB Redirection Gives users access to locally connected USB devices on their desktops. Windows 2003 and Windows 2008 do not support USB redirection.
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Creating and Preparing Virtual Machines 4 You can use virtual machines managed by vCenter Server to provision and deploy View desktops. You can use a virtual machine managed by vCenter Server as a template for an automated pool, a parent for a linkedclone pool, or a desktop source in a manual pool. You must prepare virtual machines to deliver View desktop access.
VMware View Administration n Familiarize yourself with the custom configuration parameters for virtual machines. See “Virtual Machine Custom Configuration Parameters,” on page 46. Procedure 1 In vSphere Client, log in to the vCenter Server system. 2 Select File > New > Virtual Machine to start the New Virtual Machine wizard. 3 Select Custom and configure custom configuration parameters. 4 Select Edit the virtual machine settings before completion and click Continue to configure hardware settings.
Chapter 4 Creating and Preparing Virtual Machines Table 4-1. Custom Configuration Parameters (Continued) Parameter Description and Recommendations Guest Operating System The type of operating system that you will install in the virtual machine. CPUs The number of virtual processors in the virtual machine. For most guest operating systems, a single processor is sufficient. Memory The amount of memory to allocate to the virtual machine. In most cases, 512MB is sufficient.
VMware View Administration n If you are installing Windows XP and you selected the LSI Logic adapter for the virtual machine, download the LSI20320-R controller driver from the LSI Logic Web site, create a floppy image (.flp) file that contains the driver, and upload the file to a datastore on your ESX server. Procedure 1 In vSphere Client, log in to the vCenter Server system where the virtual machine resides.
Chapter 4 Creating and Preparing Virtual Machines 4 Use the VMware Tools time synchronization function to ensure that the virtual machine is synchronized to ESX. ESX must synchronize to an external NTP source, for example, the same time source as Active Directory. Disable other time synchronization mechanisms such as Windows Time Service. The VMware Tools online help provides information on configuring time synchronization between guest and host. 5 Install service packs and updates.
VMware View Administration Prerequisites n Prepare the guest operating system for View desktop deployment. See “Prepare a Guest Operating System for View Desktop Deployment,” on page 48. n Download the View Agent installer file from the VMware product page at http://www.vmware.com/products/. n Verify that you have administrative rights on the virtual machine. n Familiarize yourself with the View Agent custom setup options. See “View Agent Custom Setup Options,” on page 51.
Chapter 4 Creating and Preparing Virtual Machines View Agent Custom Setup Options When you install View Agent on a virtual machine, you can select custom setup options. Table 4-2. View Agent Custom Setup Options Option Description USB Redirection Gives users access to locally connected USB devices on their desktops. Windows 2000 does not support USB redirection. NOTE You can use group policy settings to disable USB redirection for specific users.
VMware View Administration n Familiarize yourself with the View Agent custom setup options. See “View Agent Custom Setup Options,” on page 51. n If you select the View Composer Agent custom setup option, verify that you have a license to use View Composer. n Familiarize yourself with the MSI installer command-line options. See “Microsoft Windows Installer Command-Line Options,” on page 52. n Familiarize yourself with the silent installation properties available with View Agent.
Chapter 4 Creating and Preparing Virtual Machines Table 4-3. Command-Line Options for a View Component's Bootstrap Program Option Description /s Disables the bootstrap splash screen and extraction dialog, which prevents the display of interactive dialogs. For example: VMware-viewconnectionserver-y.y.y-xxxxxx.exe /s The /s option is required to run a silent installation.
VMware View Administration Table 4-4. MSI Command-Line Options and MSI Properties (Continued) MSI Option or Property Description REBOOT You can use the REBOOT=ReallySuppress option to allow system configuration tasks to complete before the system reboots. This MSI property is optional. /l*v log_file Writes logging information into the specified log file with verbose output. For example: /l*v ""%TEMP%\vmmsi.
Chapter 4 Creating and Preparing Virtual Machines Table 4-5. MSI Properties for Silently Installing View Agent (Continued) MSI Property Description Default Value VDM_SERVER_USERNAME The user name of the administrator on the View Connection Server computer. This MSI property applies to unmanaged desktops only. For example: VDM_SERVER_USERNAME=admin.companydomain.com None This MSI property is required for unmanaged desktops.
VMware View Administration Configure a Virtual Machine with Multiple NICs for View Agent When you install View Agent on a virtual machine that has more than one NIC, you must configure the subnet that View Agent uses. The subnet determines which network address View Agent provides to the View Connection Server instance for client protocol connections. Procedure u On the virtual machine on which View Agent is installed, open a command prompt, type regedit.
Chapter 4 Creating and Preparing Virtual Machines n Delete any hidden uninstall folders in C:\Windows, such $NtUninstallKB893756$. n Delete all event logs. n Run Disk Cleanup to remove temporary files, empty the Recycle Bin, and remove system files and other items that are no longer needed. n Run Disk Defragmenter to rearrange fragmented data. What to do next For Windows 7 guest operating systems, perform additional optimization tasks.
VMware View Administration Services that affect OS disk growth also generate input/output operations per second (IOPS) on the Windows 7 virtual machines. Disabling these services can reduce IOPS and improve performance on full virtual machines and linked clones. Disabling certain services also might benefit Windows XP and Windows Vista operating systems. These best practices for optimizing Windows 7 apply to most user environments.
Chapter 4 Creating and Preparing Virtual Machines Table 4-7. Impact of Windows 7 Services and Tasks on OS Disk Growth and IOPS When OS Is Left Idle (Continued) Default Occurrence or Startup Impact on LinkedClone OS Disks Description Windows Update Service Detects, downloads, and installs updates for Windows and other programs. Automatic startup Medium to high. Causes frequent writes to the linked-clones' OS disks because update checks occur often.
VMware View Administration Table 4-7. Impact of Windows 7 Services and Tasks on OS Disk Growth and IOPS When OS Is Left Idle (Continued) Default Occurrence or Startup Impact on LinkedClone OS Disks Impact on IOPS Turn Off This Service or Task? Service or Task Description Windows Defender Provides antispyware features. When Windows starts up. Performs a quick scan once a day. Checks for updates before each scan. Medium to high.
Chapter 4 Creating and Preparing Virtual Machines 5 In the Disk Defragmenter dialog box, click Defragment disk. The Disk Defragmenter consolidates defragmented files on the virtual machine's hard disk. 6 In the Disk Defragmenter dialog box, click Configure schedule. 7 Deselect Run on a schedule (recommended) and click OK. Defragmentation operations will not take place on linked-clone virtual machines that are created from this parent virtual machine.
VMware View Administration 8 Click OK. Disable the Prefetch and Superfetch Features on Windows 7 Virtual Machines By disabling the Windows prefetch and superfetch features, you can avoid generating prefetch files and the overhead associated with prefetch and superfetch operations. This action can reduce the growth of linkedclone desktops and minimize IOPS on full virtual machines and linked clones.
Chapter 4 Creating and Preparing Virtual Machines Disable the System Restore on Windows 7 Virtual Machines You do not need to use the Windows System Restore feature if you use View Composer refresh to restore linked-clone OS disks to their original snapshots. When the operating system is idle, System Restore does not have a visible impact on OS-disk growth.
VMware View Administration Procedure 1 In vSphere Client, select the parent virtual machine and select Open Console. 2 Log in to the Windows 7 guest operating system as an administrator. 3 Click Start > Control Panel > Network and Internet > Internet Options. 4 Click the Content tab. 5 Under Feeds and Web Slices, click Settings. 6 Deselect Automatically check feeds and Web Slices for updates and click OK. 7 In the Internet Properties dialog, click OK.
Chapter 4 Creating and Preparing Virtual Machines A parent virtual machine that you use for View Composer must either belong to the same Active Directory domain as the domain that the linked-clone desktops will join or be a member of the local WORKGROUP. IMPORTANT To use features that are supported in View Manager 4.
VMware View Administration What to do next Use vSphere Client to take a snapshot of the parent virtual machine in its powered-down state. This snapshot is used as the baseline configuration for the first set of linked-clone desktops that are anchored to the parent virtual machine. IMPORTANT Before you take a snapshot, completely shut down the parent virtual machine by using the Shut Down command in the guest operating system.
Chapter 4 Creating and Preparing Virtual Machines Prerequisites Familiarize yourself with the Windows hibernation feature. See the Microsoft Support Web site. For information about disabling hibernation on Windows 7 or Windows Vista, see the Microsoft Support Web site and search for how to disable and re-enable hibernation on a computer that is running Windows. Procedure 1 In vSphere Client, select the parent virtual machine and select Open Console.
VMware View Administration 2 When you create the parent virtual machine in vCenter Server, store the virtual-machine swap files on the swapfile datastore on the local ESX/ESXi host or cluster: a In vSphere Client, select the parent virtual machine. b Click Edit Settings and click the Options tab. c Click Swapfile location and click Store in the host's swapfile datastore. For detailed instructions, see the VMware vSphere documentation.
Chapter 4 Creating and Preparing Virtual Machines Increase the Timeout Limit of QuickPrep Customization Scripts View Composer terminates a QuickPrep post-synchronization or power-off script that takes longer than 20 seconds. You can increase the timeout limit for these scripts by changing the ExecScriptTimeout Windows registry value on the parent virtual machine. The increased timeout limit is propagated to linked clones that are created from the parent virtual machine.
VMware View Administration See the vSphere Basic System Administration guide for information on using vSphere Client to create virtual machine templates. See “Automated Pools That Contain Full Virtual Machines,” on page 72 for information on creating automated pools. NOTE You do not create a linked-clone pool from a virtual machine template.
Creating Desktop Pools 5 With View Manager, you create pools of desktops that deliver View desktop access to clients. View Manager deploys pools from desktop sources, which can be virtual machines that are managed by vCenter Server, virtual machines that run on another virtualization platform, or physical computers, terminal servers, or blade PCs. You can create several types of desktop pools. You can also provision an individual desktop by deploying a manual pool with a single desktop source.
VMware View Administration Automated Pools That Contain Full Virtual Machines To create an automated desktop pool, View Manager dynamically provisions desktops based on settings that you apply to the pool. View Manager uses a virtual machine template as the desktop source for the pool and creates a new virtual machine in vCenter Server for each desktop.
Chapter 5 Creating Desktop Pools Table 5-1. Worksheet: Configuration Options for Creating an Automated Pool That Contains Full Virtual Machines (Continued) Option Description Delete desktop after logoff If you select floating user assignment, choose whether to delete desktops after users log off. NOTE You set this option on the Pool Settings page.
VMware View Administration Table 5-1. Worksheet: Configuration Options for Creating an Automated Pool That Contains Full Virtual Machines (Continued) Option Description Template Select the virtual machine template that View Manager uses to create the pool. vCenter Server folder Select the folder in vCenter Server in which the desktop pool resides. Host or cluster Select the ESX host or cluster on which the desktop virtual machines run.
Chapter 5 Creating Desktop Pools 5 Follow the prompts in the wizard to create the pool. Use the configuration information that you gathered in the worksheet. You can go directly back to any wizard page that you completed by clicking the page name in the navigation panel. In View Administrator, you can view the desktops as they are added to the pool by clicking Inventory > Desktops. What to do next Entitle users to access the pool. See “Add Entitlements to Desktop Pools,” on page 115.
VMware View Administration Before you create a linked-clone pool, you must use vCenter Server to take a snapshot of the parent virtual machine that you prepare for the pool. You must shut down the parent virtual machine before you take the snapshot. View Composer uses the snapshot as the base image from which the clones are created. NOTE You cannot create a linked-clone pool from a virtual machine template. Table 5-3.
Chapter 5 Creating Desktop Pools Table 5-3. Worksheet: Configuration Options for Creating a Linked-Clone Desktop Pool (Continued) Option Description Pool Settings Settings that determine the desktop state, power status when a virtual machine is not in use, display protocol, Adobe Flash quality, and so on. For descriptions, see “Desktop and Pool Settings,” on page 106. For a list of the settings that apply to linked-clone pools, see “Desktop Settings for Linked-Clone Desktop Pools,” on page 82.
VMware View Administration Table 5-3. Worksheet: Configuration Options for Creating a Linked-Clone Desktop Pool (Continued) 78 Option Description List of desktop names If you specify names manually, prepare a text file that lists desktop names and, optionally, the associated user names. Naming pattern If you use this naming method, provide the pattern. View Manager uses your pattern as a prefix in all the desktop names and appends a unique number to identify each desktop.
Chapter 5 Creating Desktop Pools Table 5-3. Worksheet: Configuration Options for Creating a Linked-Clone Desktop Pool (Continued) Option Description vCenter Server folder Select the folder in vCenter Server in which the desktop pool resides. Host or cluster Select the ESX host or cluster on which the desktop virtual machines run. Resource pool Select the vCenter Server resource pool in which the desktop pool resides.
VMware View Administration Table 5-3. Worksheet: Configuration Options for Creating a Linked-Clone Desktop Pool (Continued) Option Description Active Directory container Provide the Active Directory container relative distinguished name. For example: CN=Computers Fill In Your Value Here When you run the Add Pool wizard, you can browse your Active Directory tree for the container.
Chapter 5 Creating Desktop Pools n Take a snapshot of the parent virtual machine in vCenter Server. You must shut down the parent virtual machine before you take the snapshot. View Composer uses the snapshot as the base image from which the clones are created. NOTE You cannot create a linked-clone pool from a virtual machine template. n Gather the configuration information you must provide to create the pool. See “Worksheet for Creating a Linked-Clone Desktop Pool,” on page 75.
VMware View Administration Desktop Settings for Linked-Clone Desktop Pools You must specify desktop and pool settings when you configure automated pools that contain linked-clone desktops created by View Composer. Different settings apply to pools with dedicated user assignments and floating user assignments. Table 5-4 lists the settings that apply to linked-clone pools with dedicated assignments and floating assignments.
Chapter 5 Creating Desktop Pools 3 View Manager creates a snapshot of the linked clone. The snapshot contains the unique SID generated with Sysprep or common SID generated with QuickPrep. 4 View Manager powers on the desktop according to the settings you select when you create the pool. Some applications generate a GUID the first time the desktop is powered on. For a comparison of QuickPrep and Sysprep customization, see “Choosing QuickPrep or Sysprep to Customize Linked-Clone Desktops,” on page 83.
VMware View Administration Table 5-6. Comparing QuickPrep and Microsoft Sysprep QuickPrep Customization Specification (Sysprep) Designed to work with View Composer. Can be created with the standard Microsoft Sysprep tools. For details, see “Customizing Linked-Clone Desktops with QuickPrep,” on page 84. Uses the same local computer security identifier (SID) for all linked clones in the pool. Generates a unique local computer SID for each linked clone in the pool.
Chapter 5 Creating Desktop Pools For guidelines and rules for using QuickPrep customization scripts, see “Running QuickPrep Customization Scripts,” on page 85. NOTE View Composer requires domain user credentials to join linked-clone desktops to an Active Directory domain. For details, see “Create a User Account for View Composer,” on page 14. Running QuickPrep Customization Scripts With the QuickPrep tool, you can create scripts to customize the linked-clone desktops in a pool.
VMware View Administration Recomposing Linked Clones Customized with Sysprep If you recompose a linked-clone desktop that was customized with Sysprep, View Manager runs the Sysprep customization specification again after the OS disk is recomposed. This operation generates a new SID for the linked-clone virtual machine. If a new SID is generated, the recomposed linked clone functions as a new computer on the network.
Chapter 5 Creating Desktop Pools Table 5-7. Example Sizing Table for Linked-Clone Disks Data Type Selected Free Space (GB) Min Recommended (GB) 50% Utilization (GB) Max Recommended (GB) OS disks 184.23 40.00 80.00 130.00 Persistent disks 28.56 4.00 10.00 20.00 The Selected Free Space column shows the total available space on all of the datastores that you selected for a disk type such as OS disks. The Min Recommended column shows the minimum amount of recommended storage for a pool.
VMware View Administration To arrive at a recommendation for storing replicas on a separate datastore, View Manager allows space for two replicas on the datastore. The same value is calculated for minimum and maximum usage. For details, see “Sizing Formulas for Linked-Clone Pools,” on page 88.
Chapter 5 Creating Desktop Pools Table 5-9. Example of a Sizing Estimate for Linked-Clone Disks Deployed on Selected Datastores Data Type Selected Free Space (GB) Min Recommended (GB) 50% Utilization (GB) Max Recommended (GB) OS disks 184.23 10 * (2*1GB) + (2*10GB) = 40.00 10 * (50% of 10GB + 1GB) + (2*10GB) = 80.00 10 * (100% of 10GB + 1GB) + (2*10GB) = 130.00 Persistent disks 28.56 10 * (20% of 2GB) = 4.00 10 * (50% of 2GB) = 10.00 10 * (100% of 2GB) = 20.
VMware View Administration Table 5-11. Example of a Sizing Estimate for Linked-Clone Disks When You Edit a Pool or Store Replicas on a Separate Datastore Data Type Selected Free Space (GB) Min Recommended (GB) 50% Utilization (GB) Max Recommended (GB) OS disks 184.23 10 * (2*1GB) = 20.00 10 * (50% of 10GB + 1GB) = 60.00 10 * (100% of 10GB + 1GB) = 110.00 Persistent disks 28.56 10 * (20% of 2GB) = 4.00 10 * (50% of 2GB) = 10.00 10 * (100% of 2GB) = 20.
Chapter 5 Creating Desktop Pools Storage Overcommit for Linked-Clone Desktops With the storage overcommit feature, you can reduce storage costs by placing more linked-clone desktops on a datastore than is possible with full virtual-machine desktops. The linked clones can use a logical storage space several times greater than the physical capacity of the datastore.
VMware View Administration Configuring replicas and linked clones in this way can reduce the impact of I/O storms that occur when many linked clones are created at once. For example, if you deploy a floating-assignment pool with a delete-desktopon-logoff policy, and your users start work at the same time, View Manager must concurrently provision new desktops for them. IMPORTANT This feature is designed for specific storage configurations provided by vendors who offer highperformance disk solutions.
Chapter 5 Creating Desktop Pools Separate persistent disks let you preserve user data and settings. View Composer refresh, recompose, and rebalance operations do not affect persistent disks. You can detach a persistent disk from a linked clone and attach it to another linked clone. If you do not configure separate persistent disks, the Windows profile is stored in the OS disk. User data and settings are removed during refresh, recompose, and rebalance operations.
VMware View Administration Table 5-13. Worksheet: Configuration Options for Creating a Manual Desktop Pool Option Description User assignment Choose the type of user assignment: Fill In Your Value Here In a dedicated-assignment pool, each user is assigned to a desktop. Users receive the same desktop each time they log in. n In a floating-assignment pool, users receive different desktops each time they log in. For details, see “User Assignment in Desktop Pools,” on page 100.
Chapter 5 Creating Desktop Pools To prepare virtual machines managed by vCenter Server, see Chapter 4, “Creating and Preparing Virtual Machines,” on page 45. To prepare unmanaged virtual machines, physical computers, and Blade PCs, see Chapter 3, “Preparing Unmanaged Desktop Sources,” on page 41. n Gather the configuration information that you must provide to create the pool. See “Worksheet for Creating a Manual Desktop Pool,” on page 93.
VMware View Administration n Decide how to configure power settings, display protocol, Adobe Flash quality, and other settings. See “Desktop and Pool Settings,” on page 106. Procedure 1 In View Administrator, click Inventory > Pools. 2 Click Add. 3 Select Manual Pool. 4 Select the type of user assignment. Option Description Dedicated Assignment The desktop is assigned to one user. Only that user can log in to the desktop.
Chapter 5 Creating Desktop Pools Table 5-14.
VMware View Administration Create a Microsoft Terminal Services Pool You can create a Microsoft Terminal Services pool that provisions desktops from terminal server desktop sources. You must select the desktop sources that make up View desktops in the pool. Prerequisites n Prepare the terminal server desktop sources to deliver View desktop access. View Agent must be installed and running on each desktop source. See Chapter 3, “Preparing Unmanaged Desktop Sources,” on page 41.
Chapter 5 Creating Desktop Pools Configure Adobe Flash Throttling with Internet Explorer in Terminal Services Sessions To ensure that Adobe Flash throttling works with Internet Explorer in Terminal Services sessions, users must enable third-party browser extensions. Procedure 1 Start View Client and log in to a user's desktop. 2 In Internet Explorer, click Tools > Internet Options. 3 Click the Advanced tab, select Enable third-party browser extensions, and click OK. 4 Restart Internet Explorer.
VMware View Administration User Assignment in Desktop Pools You can configure a desktop pool so that users have dedicated assignments or floating assignments to the desktops in the pool. You must choose a user assignment for automated pools that contain full virtual machines, automated linked-clone pools, and manual pools. With a dedicated assignment, View Manager assigns each entitled user to one desktop in the pool. When a user connects to the pool, the user always logs in to the same desktop.
Chapter 5 Creating Desktop Pools Table 5-16. Naming Desktops Manually or Providing a Desktop-Naming Pattern (Continued) Feature Providing a Desktop-Naming Pattern Naming Desktops Manually Initial customization Available. Available. When a desktop is provisioned, View Manager can run a customization specification that you select. When a desktop is provisioned, View Manager can run a customization specification that you select.
VMware View Administration n You can add a user name to each desktop entry. Use a comma to separate the user name from the desktop name. In this example, two desktops are specified. The second desktop is associated with a user: Desktop-001 Desktop-002,abccorp.com/jdoe NOTE In a floating-assignment pool, you cannot associate user names with desktop names. The desktops are not dedicated to the associated users.
Chapter 5 Creating Desktop Pools Table 5-17. Maximum Length of the Naming Pattern in a Desktop Name If You Set This Number of Desktops in the Pool This Is the Maximum Prefix Length 1-99 13 characters 100-999 12 characters 1,000 or more 11 characters Names that contain fixed-length tokens have different length limits. See “Length of the Naming Pattern When You Use a Fixed-Length Token,” on page 103.
VMware View Administration 2 In View Administrator, create the pool and specify desktop names manually. 3 Click Enter Names and copy your list into the Enter Desktop Names list box. 4 Repeat these steps for the second pool, using the names VDIABC-11 through VDIABC-20. For detailed instructions, see “Specify a List of Desktop Names,” on page 101. You can add desktops to each pool after it is created.
Chapter 5 Creating Desktop Pools Customizing Desktops in Maintenance Mode Maintenance mode prevents users from accessing their desktops. If you start desktops in maintenance mode, View Manager places each desktop in maintenance mode when the desktop is created. In a dedicated-assignment pool, you can use maintenance mode to log in to a desktop without having to reassign ownership to your own administrator account.
VMware View Administration Desktop and Pool Settings You must specify desktop and pool settings when you configure automated pools that contain full virtual machines, linked-clone desktop pools, manual desktop pools, and Microsoft Terminal Services pools. Not all settings apply to all types of desktop pools. Table 5-19. Desktop and Pool Setting Descriptions Setting Options State n n Connection Server restrictions n n Enabled.
Chapter 5 Creating Desktop Pools Table 5-19. Desktop and Pool Setting Descriptions (Continued) Setting Options Delete or refresh desktop on logoff Select whether to delete, refresh, or leave alone floatingassignment, linked-clone desktops. n Never. Virtual machines remain in the pool and are not refreshed after users log off. n Delete immediately. Virtual machines are powered off and deleted as soon as users log off. When users log off, View Manager immediately puts virtual machines in a Deleting state.
VMware View Administration Table 5-19. Desktop and Pool Setting Descriptions (Continued) 108 Setting Options Windows 7 3D Rendering You can select whether to enable 3D graphics rendering if your pool comprises Windows 7 desktops that run on vSphere 5.0 or later, PCoIP is the selected protocol, and the Allow users to choose protocol setting is set to No.
Chapter 5 Creating Desktop Pools Table 5-19. Desktop and Pool Setting Descriptions (Continued) Setting Options Adobe Flash quality Determines the quality of Adobe Flash content that is displayed on Web pages. n Do not control. Quality is determined by Web page settings. n Low. This setting results in the most bandwidth savings. If no quality level is specified, the system defaults to Low. n Medium. This setting results in moderate bandwidth savings. n High.
VMware View Administration Prevent Access to View Desktops Through RDP In certain View environments, it is a priority to prohibit access to View desktops through the RDP display protocol. You can prevent users and administrators from using RDP to access View desktops by configuring pool settings and a group policy setting. NOTE Remote Desktop Services, called Terminal Services on Windows XP systems, must be started on the virtual machine that you use to create pools and on View desktops.
Chapter 5 Creating Desktop Pools Table 5-20. Power Policies Power Policy Description Take no power action View Manager does not enforce any power policy after a user logs off. This setting has two consequences. n View Manager does not change the power state of the virtual machine after a user logs off. n For example, if a user shuts down the virtual machine, the virtual machine remains powered off. If a user logs off without shutting down, the virtual machine remains powered on.
VMware View Administration Table 5-21. When View Manager Applies the Power Policy Desktop Pool Type The power policy is applied ... Manual pool that contains one desktop (vCenter Servermanaged virtual machine) Power operations are initiated by session management. The virtual machine is powered on when a user requests the desktop and powered off or suspended when the user logs off.
Chapter 5 Creating Desktop Pools Power Policy Examples for Automated Pools with Floating Assignments When you configure an automated pool with floating assignments, you can specify that a particular number of View desktops must be available at a given time. The spare, available desktops are always powered on, no matter how the pool policy is set. Power Policy Example 1 Table 5-22 describes the floating-assignment, automated pool in this example.
VMware View Administration Table 5-24. Desktop Pool Settings for Automated Pool with Dedicated Assignments Example Desktop Pool Setting Value Number of desktops (minimum) 3 Number of desktops (maximum) 5 Number of spare, powered-on desktops 2 Remote desktop power policy Ensure desktops are always powered on When this desktop pool is provisioned, three desktops are created and powered on.
Entitling Users and Groups 6 You configure desktop pool entitlements to control which View desktops your users can access. You can also configure the restricted entitlements feature to control desktop access based on the View Connection Server instance that users connect to when they select desktops.
VMware View Administration 3 Select the user or group whose entitlement you want to remove and click Remove. 4 Click OK to save your changes. Review Desktop Pool Entitlements You can review the desktop pools that a user or group is entitled to. Procedure 1 In View Administrator, select Users and Groups and click the name of the user or group. 2 Select the Summary tab. The Pool Entitlements pane lists the pools that the user or group is currently entitled to.
Chapter 6 Entitling Users and Groups n Assign the "External" tag to the desktop pools that should be accessible only to external users. External users cannot see the desktop pools tagged as Internal because they log in through the View Connection Server tagged as External, and internal users cannot see the desktop pools tagged as External because they log in through the View Connection Server tagged as Internal. Figure 6-1 illustrates this configuration. Figure 6-1.
VMware View Administration Table 6-1. Tag Matching Rules (Continued) View Connection Server Desktop Pool Access Permitted? One or more tags No tags Yes One or more tags One or more tags Only when tags match The restricted entitlements feature only enforces tag matching. You must design your network topology to force certain clients to connect through a particular View Connection Server instance.
Chapter 6 Entitling Users and Groups Procedure 1 In View Administrator, select Inventory > Pools. 2 Select the pool that you want to assign a tag to. 3 4 5 VMware, Inc. Option Action Assign a tag to a new pool Click Add to start the Add Pool wizard and define and identify the pool. Assign a tag to an existing pool Select the pool and click Edit. Go to the Pool Settings page. Option Action Pool settings for a new pool Click Pool Settings in the Add Pool wizard.
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Setting Up User Authentication 7 View uses your existing Active Directory infrastructure for user authentication and management. For added security, you can integrate View with smart card authentication and RSA SecurID solutions.
VMware View Administration The View client sends the user certificate to the View Connection Server instance or security server, which verifies the certificate by checking the certificate trust and validity period. Typically, users can successfully authenticate if their user certificate is signed and valid. If certificate revocation checking is configured, users who have revoked user certificates are prevented from authenticating. Display protocol switching is not supported with smart card authentication.
Chapter 7 Setting Up User Authentication Obtain the Root Certificate from the CA You must obtain the root certificate from the CA that signed the certificates on the smart cards presented by your users. If you do not have the root certificate of the CA that signed the certificates on the smart cards presented by your users, you can export a root certificate from a CA-signed user certificate or a smart card that contains one. See “Export a Root Certificate from a User Certificate,” on page 123.
VMware View Administration 7 Click Next > Next and type a name and location for the file that you want to export. 8 Click Next to save the file as a root certificate in the specified location. What to do next Add the root certificate to a server truststore file.
Chapter 7 Setting Up User Authentication 2 3 Add the trustKeyfile, trustStoretype, and useCertAuth properties to the locked.properties file. a Set trustKeyfile to the name of your truststore file. b Set trustStoretype to JKS. c Set useCertAuth to true to enable certificate authentication. Restart the View Connection Server service or security server service to make your changes take effect. Example: locked.
VMware View Administration 3 4 On the Authentication tab, select a configuration option from the Smart card authentication drop-down menu. Option Action Not Allowed Smart card authentication is disabled on the View Connection Server instance. Optional Users can use smart card authentication or password authentication to connect to the View Connection Server instance. If smart card authentication fails, the user must provide a password.
Chapter 7 Setting Up User Authentication Prepare Active Directory for Smart Card Authentication You might need to perform certain tasks in Active Directory when you implement smart card authentication. n Add UPNs for Smart Card Users on page 127 Because smart card logins rely on user principal names (UPNs), the Active Directory accounts of users that use smart cards to authenticate in View must have a valid UPN.
VMware View Administration Add the Root Certificate to the Enterprise NTAuth Store If you use a CA to issue smart card login or domain controller certificates, you must add the root certificate to the Enterprise NTAuth store in Active Directory. You do not need to perform this procedure if the Windows domain controller acts as the root CA. Procedure u On your Active Directory server, use the certutil command to publish the certificate to the Enterprise NTAuth store.
Chapter 7 Setting Up User Authentication 5 Expand the Computer Configuration section and open Windows Settings\Security Settings\Public Key. 6 Right-click Intermediate Certification Authorities and select Import. 7 Follow the prompts in the wizard to import the intermediate certificate (for example, intermediateCA.cer) and click OK. 8 Close the Group Policy window. All of the systems in the domain now have a copy of the intermediate certificate in their intermediate certification authority store.
VMware View Administration n Check the log files in drive:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VDM\logs on the View Connection Server or security server host for messages stating that smart card authentication is enabled. Using Smart Card Certificate Revocation Checking You can prevent users who have revoked user certificates from authenticating with smart cards by configuring certificate revocation checking.
Chapter 7 Setting Up User Authentication Logging in with OCSP Certificate Revocation Checking When you configure OCSP certificate revocation checking, View sends a request to an OCSP Responder to determine the revocation status of a specific user certificate. View uses an OCSP signing certificate to verify that the responses it receives from the OCSP Responder are genuine.
VMware View Administration Procedure 1 Create or edit the locked.properties file in the SSL gateway configuration folder on the View Connection Server or security server host. For example: install_directory\VMware\VMware View\Server\sslgateway\conf\locked.properties 2 3 Add the enableRevocationChecking, enableOCSP, ocspURL, and ocspSigningCert properties to the locked.properties file. a Set enableRevocationChecking to true to enable smart card certificate revocation checking.
Chapter 7 Setting Up User Authentication Table 7-1. Properties for Smart Card Certificate Revocation Checking (Continued) Property Description enableOCSP Set this property to true to enable OCSP certificate revocation checking. The default value is false. ocspURL Specifies the URL of an OCSP Responder. ocspResponderCert Specifies the file that contains the OCSP Responder's signing certificate. View uses this certificate to verify that the OCSP Responder's responses are genuine.
VMware View Administration If RSA Authentication Manager requires users to enter a new RSA SecurID PIN after entering their RSA SecurID username and passcode, a PIN dialog box appears. After setting a new PIN, users are prompted to wait for the next token code before logging in. If RSA Authentication Manager is configured to use system-generated PINs, a dialog box appears to confirm the PIN.
Chapter 7 Setting Up User Authentication 6 Select Agent Host > Edit Agent Host. 7 Select View Connection Server from the list and deselect the Node Secret Created check box. Node Secret Created is selected by default each time you edit it. 8 Click OK.
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Configuring Policies 8 You can configure policies to control the behavior of View components, desktop pools, and desktop users. You use View Administrator to set policies for client sessions and you use Active Directory group policy settings to control the behavior of View components and certain features.
VMware View Administration n View Policies on page 139 You can configure View policies to affect all client sessions, or you can apply them to affect specific desktops or users. n Local Mode Policies on page 140 You can configure local mode policies to affect all client sessions, or you can apply them to specific desktops or users. Configure Global Policy Settings You can configure global policies to control the behavior of all client sessions users.
Chapter 8 Configuring Policies Configure Policies for Desktop Users You can configure user-level policies to affect specific users. User-level policy settings always take precedence over their equivalent global and desktop-level policy settings. Prerequisites Familiarize yourself with the policy descriptions. See “View Policies,” on page 139. Procedure 1 In View Administrator, select Inventory > Pools. 2 Double-click the ID of the desktop pool and click the Policies tab.
VMware View Administration Table 8-1. View Policies (Continued) Policy Description Remote mode Determines whether users can connect to and use desktops running on vCenter Server instances. If set to Deny, users must check out the desktop on their local computers and run the desktop only in local mode. Restricting users to running desktops only in local mode reduces the costs associated with CPU, memory, and network bandwidth requirements of running the desktop on a back-end server.
Chapter 8 Configuring Policies Table 8-2. Local Mode Policies (Continued) Policy Description Target replication frequency Specifies the interval in days, hours, or minutes between the start of one replication and the start of the next replication. A replication copies any changes in local desktop files to the corresponding remote desktop or View Composer persistent disk in the datacenter. The default value is the No replication setting.
VMware View Administration You use the Microsoft Windows Group Policy Object Editor to manage group policy settings. The Group Policy Object Editor is a Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in. The MMC is part of the Microsoft Group Policy Management Console (GPMC). See the Microsoft TechNet Web site for information on installing and using the GPMC. Creating an OU for View Desktops You should create an organizational unit (OU) in Active Directory specifically for your View desktops.
Chapter 8 Configuring Policies View ADM Template Files The View ADM template files are installed in the install_directory\VMware\VMware View\Server\extras\GroupPolicyFiles directory on your View Connection Server host. Table 8-3. View ADM Template Files Template Name Template File Description VMware View Agent Configuration vdm_agent.adm Contains policy settings related to the authentication and environmental components of View Agent. VMware View Client Configuration vdm_client.
VMware View Administration Table 8-4. View Agent Configuration Template Settings (Continued) 144 Setting Computer User CommandsToRunOnConnect X Specifies a list of commands or command scripts to be run when a session is connected for the first time. See “Running Commands on View Desktops,” on page 145 for more information. CommandsToRunOnReconnect X Specifies a list of commands or command scripts to be run when a session is reconnected after a disconnect.
Chapter 8 Configuring Policies Running Commands on View Desktops You can use the View Agent CommandsToRunOnConnect and CommandsToRunOnReconnect group policy settings to run commands and command scripts on View desktops when users connect and reconnect. To run a command or a command script, add the command name or the file path of the script to the group policy setting's list of commands. For example: date C:\Scripts\myscript.
VMware View Administration Table 8-5. Client System Information (Continued) Registry Key Description Client Systems Supported ViewClient_LoggedOn_Domainname The domain name that was used to log in to the client system. Windows ViewClient_Type The thin client name or operating system type of the client system. Windows Linux Mac ViewClient_Broker_DNS_Name The DNS name of the View Connection Server instance. Windows Linux Mac ViewClient_Broker_URL The URL of the View Connection Server instance.
Chapter 8 Configuring Policies Table 8-6. View Client Configuration Template: Scripting Definitions (Continued) Setting Description DesktopLayout (requires DesktopName) Specifies the layout of the View Client window that a user sees when logging into a View desktop. The layout choices are as follows: n Full Screen n Multimonitor n Window - Large n Window - Small This setting is available only when the DesktopName to select setting is also set.
VMware View Administration Table 8-7. View Client Configuration Template: Security Settings Setting Computer User Description Allow command line credentials X Determines whether user credentials can be provided with View Client command line options. If this setting is enabled, the smartCardPIN and password options are not available when users run View Client from the command line. This setting is enabled by default.
Chapter 8 Configuring Policies Table 8-7. View Client Configuration Template: Security Settings (Continued) Setting Computer Certificate verification mode X User Description Configures the level of certificate checking that is performed by View Client. You can select one of these modes: n No Security. View does not perform certificate checking. n Warn But Allow.
VMware View Administration Table 8-7. View Client Configuration Template: Security Settings (Continued) Setting Computer User Description Default value of the 'Log in as current user' checkbox X X Specifies the default value of the Log in as current user check box on the View Client connection dialog box. This setting overrides the default value specified during View Client installation.
Chapter 8 Configuring Policies Table 8-7. View Client Configuration Template: Security Settings (Continued) Setting Computer User Description Ignore incorrect SSL certificate common name (host name field) X Determines whether errors that are associated with incorrect server certificate common names are ignored. These errors occur when the common name on the certificate does not match the hostname of the server that sends it. This setting applies to View 4.6 and earlier releases only.
VMware View Administration Table 8-8. View Client Configuration Administrative Template: RDP Settings (Continued) 152 Setting Description Bitmap cache file size in unit for number bpp bitmaps Specifies the size of the bitmap cache, in kilobytes or megabytes, to use for specific bits per pixel (bpp) bitmap color settings.
Chapter 8 Configuring Policies Table 8-8. View Client Configuration Administrative Template: RDP Settings (Continued) Setting Description Enable RDP Auto-Reconnect Determines whether the RDP client component attempts to reconnect to a View desktop after an RDP protocol connection failure. This setting has no effect if the Use secure tunnel connection to desktop option is enabled in View Administrator. This setting is disabled by default.
VMware View Administration Table 8-9. View Client Configuration Template: General Settings Setting Computer User Description Always on top X Determines whether the View Client window is always the topmost window. Enabling this setting prevents the Windows taskbar from obscuring a full-screen View Client window. This setting is enabled by default. Default Exit Behavior For Local Mode Desktops X Controls the default exit behavior of desktops that are running in local mode.
Chapter 8 Configuring Policies Table 8-9. View Client Configuration Template: General Settings (Continued) Setting Computer Redirect smart card readers in Local Mode X Determines whether smart card readers are redirected to local desktops. The readers are shared with the client system. This setting is enabled by default. Tunnel proxy bypass address list X Specifies a list of tunnel addresses. The proxy server is not used for these addresses. Use a semicolon (;) to separate multiple entries.
VMware View Administration Table 8-11. View Common Configuration Template: Log Configuration Settings Setting Properties Number of days to keep production logs Specifies the number of days for which log files are retained on the system. If no value is set, the default applies and log files are kept for seven days. Maximum number of debug logs Specifies the maximum number of debug log files to retain on the system.
Chapter 8 Configuring Policies Table 8-13. View Common Configuration Template: General Settings Setting Properties Disk threshold for log and events in Megabytes Specifies the minimum remaining disk space threshold for logs and events. If no value is specified, the default is 200. When the specified value is met, event logging stops. Enable extended logging Determines whether trace and debug events are included in the log files.
VMware View Administration View PCoIP General Session Variables The View PCoIP Session Variables ADM template file contains group policy settings that configure general session characteristics such as PCoIP image quality, USB devices, and network ports. Table 8-14. View PCoIP General Session Variables 158 Setting Description Configure clipboard redirection Determines the direction in which clipboard redirection is allowed.
Chapter 8 Configuring Policies Table 8-14. View PCoIP General Session Variables (Continued) Setting Description Configure PCoIP image quality levels Controls how PCoIP renders images during periods of network congestion. The Minimum Image Quality, Maximum Initial Image Quality, and Maximum Frame Rate values interoperate to provide fine control in network-bandwidth constrained environments. Use the Minimum Image Quality value to balance image quality and frame rate for limited-bandwidth scenarios.
VMware View Administration Table 8-14. View PCoIP General Session Variables (Continued) Setting Description Configure PCoIP USB allowed and unallowed device rules Specifies the USB devices that are authorized and not authorized for PCoIP sessions that use a zero client that runs Teradici firmware. USB devices that are used in PCoIP sessions must appear in the USB authorization table. USB devices that appear in the USB unauthorization table cannot be used in PCoIP sessions.
Chapter 8 Configuring Policies Table 8-14. View PCoIP General Session Variables (Continued) Setting Description Configure PCoIP virtual channels Specifies the virtual channels that can and cannot operate over PCoIP sessions. This setting also determines whether to disable clipboard processing on the PCoIP host. Virtual channels that are used in PCoIP sessions must appear on the virtual channel authorization list.
VMware View Administration Table 8-14. View PCoIP General Session Variables (Continued) 162 Setting Description Enable access to a PCoIP session from a vSphere console Determines whether to allow a vSphere Client console to display an active PCoIP session and send input to the desktop. By default, when a client is attached through PCoIP, the vSphere Client console screen is blank and the console cannot send input.
Chapter 8 Configuring Policies View PCoIP Session Bandwidth Variables The View PCoIP Session Variables ADM template file contains group policy settings that configure PCoIP session bandwidth characteristics. Table 8-15. View PCoIP Session Bandwidth Variables Setting Description Configure the maximum PCoIP session bandwidth Specifies the maximum bandwidth, in kilobits per second, in a PCoIP session. The bandwidth includes all imaging, audio, virtual channel, USB, and control PCoIP traffic.
VMware View Administration Table 8-15. View PCoIP Session Bandwidth Variables (Continued) 164 Setting Description Configure the PCoIP session audio bandwidth limit Specifies the maximum bandwidth that can be used for audio (sound playback) in a PCoIP session. The audio processing monitors the bandwidth used for audio. The processing selects the audio compression algorithm that provides the best audio possible, given the current bandwidth utilization.
Chapter 8 Configuring Policies View PCoIP Session Variables for the Keyboard The View PCoIP Session Variables ADM template file contains group policy settings that configure PCoIP session characteristics that affect the use of the keyboard. Table 8-16.
VMware View Administration Table 8-16. View PCoIP Session Variables for the Keyboard (Continued) Setting Description Use alternate key for sending Secure Attention Sequence Specifies an alternate key, instead of the Insert key, for sending a Secure Attention Sequence (SAS). You can use this setting to preserve the Ctrl+Alt+Ins key sequence in virtual machines that are launched from inside a View desktop during a PCoIP session.
Chapter 8 Configuring Policies n Maintains responsiveness by reducing screen update latency n Resumes maximum image quality when the network is no longer congested The PCoIP protocol is efficient enough to provide the build-to-lossless feature in all conditions, which allows this feature to stay on by default. You can disable the build-to-lossless feature by setting the Turn off Build-to-Lossless feature group policy setting. See “View PCoIP Session Bandwidth Variables,” on page 163.
VMware View Administration Procedure 1 Copy the appropriate version of TPVMGPoACmap.dll to your Active Directory server or to the domain computer that you use to configure group policies. 2 Use the regsvr32 utility to register the TPVMGPoACmap.dll file. For example: regsvr32 "C:\TPVMGPoACmap.dll" What to do next Configure the group policy setting for location-based printing.
Chapter 8 Configuring Policies 8 Add the printers that you want to map to View desktops and define their associated translation rules. 9 Click OK to save your changes. Location-Based Printing Group Policy Setting Syntax You use the AutoConnect Map Additional Printers for VMware View group policy setting to map printers to View desktops. AutoConnect Map Additional Printers for VMware View is a name translation table that identifies printers and defines associated translation rules.
VMware View Administration You use the buttons that appear above the column headings to add, delete, and move rows and save and import table entries. Each button has an equivalent keyboard shortcut. Mouse over each button to see a description of the button and its equivalent keyboard shortcut. For example, to insert a row at the end of the table, click the first table button or press Alt+A. Click the last two buttons to import and save table entries.
Chapter 8 Configuring Policies Table 8-19. General Terminal Services Policy Settings (Continued) Setting Description Remove Windows Security item from Start Menu Disabling this setting makes the Windows Security item appear in the Settings menu, ensuring that users have a logoff mechanism. Remove Disconnect option from Shut Down dialog Enabling this setting removes the Disconnect option from the Shut Down Windows dialog box, reducing the possibility of users disconnecting instead of logging off.
VMware View Administration 4 Enable Loopback Processing for View Desktops on page 174 To make User Configuration settings that usually apply to a computer apply to all of the users that log in to that computer, enable loopback processing. Create an OU for View Desktops To apply group policies to View desktops without affecting other Windows computers in the same Active Directory domain, create an OU specifically for your View desktops.
Chapter 8 Configuring Policies 6 (Optional) To apply the GPO only to specific View desktops in the OU: a Select the GPO in the left pane. b Select Security Filtering > Add. c Type the computer names of the View desktops and click OK. The View desktops appear in the Security Filtering pane. The settings in the GPO apply only to these View desktops. What to do next Add the View ADM templates to the GPO for group policies.
VMware View Administration Enable Loopback Processing for View Desktops To make User Configuration settings that usually apply to a computer apply to all of the users that log in to that computer, enable loopback processing. Prerequisites n Create GPOs for the View component group policy settings and link them to the OU that contains your View desktops. n Verify that the Microsoft MMC and the Group Policy Object Editor snap-in are available on your Active Directory server.
Configuring User Profiles with View Persona Management 9 With View Persona Management, you can configure user profiles that are dynamically synchronized with a remote profile repository. This feature gives users access to a personalized desktop experience whenever they log in to a desktop. View Persona Management expands the functionality and improves the performance of Windows roaming profiles.
VMware View Administration n Windows registry entries configured by user applications Also, if you provision desktops with ThinApp applications, the ThinApp sandbox data can be stored in the user profile and roamed with the user. View Persona Management minimizes the time it takes to log in to and log off of desktops. Login and logoff time can be a problem with Windows roaming profiles. n During login, View downloads only the files that Windows requires, such as user registry files.
Chapter 9 Configuring User Profiles with View Persona Management n Add the ADM Template file to Active Directory and apply the group policy settings to the OU that contains the desktops in the pool. 4 Enable View Persona Management by enabling the Manage user persona group policy setting. 5 If you configured a network share for the remote profile repository, enable the Persona repository location group policy setting and specify the network share path.
VMware View Administration n The shared folder must be in the same Active Directory forest as the users who store profiles in the shared folder. n You must use a shared drive that is large enough to store the user profile information for your users. To support a large View deployment, you can configure separate repositories for different desktop pools. If users are entitled to more than one pool, the pools that share users must be configured with the same profile repository.
Chapter 9 Configuring User Profiles with View Persona Management Procedure u When you install View Agent on a virtual machine, select the View Persona Management setup option. What to do next Add the View Persona Management ADM Template file to your Active Directory server or the Local Computer Policy configuration on the virtual machine itself. See “Add the View Persona Management ADM Template File,” on page 179.
VMware View Administration Procedure 1 On the local system, click Start > Run. 2 Type gpedit.msc and click OK. 3 In the Local Computer Policy window, navigate to Computer Configuration and right-click Administrative Templates. NOTE Do not select Administrative Templates under User Configuration. 4 Click Add/Remove Templates and click Add. 5 Browse to the install_directory\VMware\VMware View\Agent\bin directory. The ADM Template file, ViewPM.adm, is located in this directory. The ViewPM.
Chapter 9 Configuring User Profiles with View Persona Management 4 In the right pane, right-click the GPO that you created for the group policy settings and select Edit. The Group Policy Object Editor window appears. 5 In the Group Policy Object Editor, right-click Administrative Templates under Computer Configuration and select Add/Remove Templates. 6 Click Add, browse to the ViewPM.adm file, and click Open. 7 Click Close to apply the policy settings in the ADM Template file to the GPO.
VMware View Administration 4 Double-click Manage user persona and click Enabled. This setting activates View Persona Management. When this setting is disabled or not configured, View Persona Management does not function. 5 Type the profile upload interval, in minutes, and click OK. The profile upload interval determines how often View Persona Management copies user profile changes to the remote repository. The default upload interval is 10 minutes.
Chapter 9 Configuring User Profiles with View Persona Management n (Optional) To use View Persona Management with manual desktop pools, select desktop sources on which View Agent with the View Persona Management option is installed. NOTE After you deploy View Persona Management on your View desktops, if you remove the View Persona Management setup option on the desktops, or uninstall View Agent altogether, the local user profiles are removed from the desktops of users who are not currently logged in.
VMware View Administration If %username% is the last subfolder in the path, the user's name appears as the folder name. For example, instead of seeing a My Videos folder on the desktop, the user JDoe sees a folder named JDoe and cannot easily identify the folder. Additional Best Practices You can also follow these recommendations: n By default, many antivirus products do not scan offline files.
Chapter 9 Configuring User Profiles with View Persona Management Configuring View Composer Persistent Disks with View Persona Management With View Composer persistent disks, you can preserve user data and settings while you manage linked-clone OS disks with refresh, recompose, and rebalance operations. Configuring persistent disks can enhance the performance of View Persona Management when users generate a large amount of persona information.
VMware View Administration Roaming and Synchronization Group Policy Settings The roaming and synchronization group policy settings turn View Persona Management on and off, set the location of the remote profile repository, determine which folders and files belong to the user profile, and control how to synchronize folders and files. Group Policy Setting Description Manage user persona Determines whether to manage user profiles dynamically with View Persona Management or with Windows roaming profiles.
Chapter 9 Configuring User Profiles with View Persona Management Group Policy Setting Files and folders to preload Description Specifies a list of files and folders that are downloaded to the local user profile when the user logs in. Changes in the files are copied to the remote repository as they occur. In some situations, you might want to preload specific files and folders into the locally stored user profile. Use this setting to specify these files and folders.
VMware View Administration Folder Redirection Group Policy Settings With folder redirection group policy settings, you can redirect user profile folders to a network share. When a folder is redirected, all data is stored directly on the network share during the user session. You can use these settings to redirect folders that must be highly available.
Chapter 9 Configuring User Profiles with View Persona Management n Printer Neighborhood n Recent Items n Save Games n Searches n Start Menu n Startup Items n Templates n Temporary Internet Files Certain folders are available only in Windows Vista and later operating systems. Desktop UI Group Policy Settings The desktop UI group policy settings control View Persona Management settings that users see on their desktops.
VMware View Administration Group Policy Setting 190 Description Logging flags Determines the types of messages to log. When this setting is configured, you can select any or all log message types to generate: n Log error messages. n Log information messages. n Log debug messages. By default, error and information log message types are generated. Debug flags Determines the types of debug messages to log. View Persona Management handles debug messages in the same way that it handles log messages.
Managing Linked-Clone Desktops 10 With View Composer, you can update linked-clone desktops, reduce the size of their operating system data, and rebalance the linked-clone virtual machines among disk drives. You also can manage the View Composer persistent disks associated with linked clones. n Reduce Linked-Clone Size with Desktop Refresh on page 191 A desktop refresh operation restores the operating system disk of each linked clone to its original state and size, reducing storage costs.
VMware View Administration Procedure 1 In View Administrator, click Inventory > Pools. 2 Select the pool to refresh by double-clicking the pool ID in the left column. 3 Choose whether to refresh the whole pool or selected desktops. Option Action To refresh all desktops in the pool On the selected pool's page, click the Settings tab. To refresh selected desktops a b On the selected pool's page, click the Inventory tab. Select the desktops to refresh. 4 Click View Composer > Refresh.
Chapter 10 Managing Linked-Clone Desktops n After you recompose a linked clone, View Manager takes a new snapshot of the linked clone's OS disk. Future refresh operations restore the OS data to that snapshot, not the one originally taken when the linked clone was first created. NOTE You can slow the growth of linked clones by redirecting their paging files and system temp files to a temporary disk.
VMware View Administration What to do next Recompose the linked-clone desktop pool. Recompose Linked-Clone Desktops Desktop recomposition simultaneously updates all the linked-clone desktops anchored to a parent virtual machine. If possible, schedule recompositions during off-peak hours. Prerequisites n Verify that you have a snapshot of the parent virtual machine. See “Prepare a Parent Virtual Machine to Recompose Linked-Clone Desktops,” on page 193.
Chapter 10 Managing Linked-Clone Desktops 5 Follow the wizard instructions to recompose the linked-clone desktops. If you recompose the whole pool from the Settings tab, you can check the Change the default image for new desktops box. With this setting, new desktops that are created in the pool use the updated base image. This setting is checked by default. On the Ready to Complete page, you can click Show Details to display the linked-clone desktops that will be recomposed.
VMware View Administration Updating Linked Clones with Desktop Recomposition In a desktop recomposition, you can provide operating system patches, install or update applications, or modify the desktop hardware settings in all the linked clones in a desktop pool. To recompose linked-clone desktops, you update the parent virtual machine in vCenter Server or select a different virtual machine to become the new parent. Next, you take a snapshot of the new parent virtual machine configuration.
Chapter 10 Managing Linked-Clone Desktops Correcting an Unsuccessful Recomposition You can correct a recomposition that failed. You can also take action if you accidentally recompose linked clones using a different base image than the one you intended to use. Problem The desktops are in an erroneous or outdated state as a result of an unsuccessful recomposition. Cause A system failure or problem might have occurred on the vCenter Server host, in vCenter Server, or on a datastore during the recomposition.
VMware View Administration n Verify that provisioning for the pool is enabled. When pool provisioning is disabled, View Manager stops the desktops from being customized after they are rebalanced. n If your deployment includes replicated View Connection Server instances, verify that all instances are the same version. Procedure 1 In View Administrator, click Inventory > Pools. 2 Select the pool to rebalance by double-clicking the pool ID in the left column.
Chapter 10 Managing Linked-Clone Desktops n If you edit a pool and change the host or cluster and the datastores on which linked clones are stored, you can only rebalance the linked clones if the newly selected host or cluster has full access to both the original and the new datastores. All hosts in the new cluster must have access to the original and new datastores. For example, you might create a linked-clone pool on a standalone host and select a local datastore to store the clones.
VMware View Administration Detach a View Composer Persistent Disk When you detach a View Composer persistent disk from a linked-clone desktop, the disk is stored and the linked clone is deleted. By detaching a persistent disk, you can store and reuse user-specific information with another desktop. Procedure 1 In View Administrator, click Inventory > Persistent disks. 2 Select the persistent disk to detach. 3 Click Detach. 4 Choose where to store the persistent disk.
Chapter 10 Managing Linked-Clone Desktops Edit a View Composer Persistent Disk's Pool or User You can assign a detached View Composer persistent disk to a new pool or user if the original pool or user was deleted from View Manager. A detached persistent disk is still associated with its original pool and user. If the pool or user is deleted from View Manager, you cannot use the persistent disk to recreate a linked-clone desktop.
VMware View Administration View Manager creates a linked-clone desktop for each persistent disk you select and adds the desktop to the original pool. The persistent disks remain on the datastore where they were stored. Restore a Linked-Clone Desktop by Importing a Persistent Disk from vSphere If a linked-clone desktop becomes inaccessible in View Manager, you can restore the desktop if it was configured with a View Composer persistent disk.
Chapter 10 Managing Linked-Clone Desktops 5 6 VMware, Inc. Choose whether to delete the disk from the datastore or let it remain on the datastore after it is removed from View Manager. Option Description Delete from disk After the deletion, the persistent disk no longer exists. Delete from View Manager only After the deletion, the persistent disk is no longer accessible in View Manager but remains on the datastore. Click OK.
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Managing Desktops and Desktop Pools 11 In View Administrator, you can manage desktop pools, virtual-machine desktops, and desktop sessions. This chapter includes the following topics: n “Managing Desktop Pools,” on page 205 n “Reducing Adobe Flash Bandwidth,” on page 210 n “Managing Virtual-Machine Desktops,” on page 212 n “Export View Information to External Files,” on page 216 Managing Desktop Pools You can edit, disable, and delete desktop pools in View Administrator.
VMware View Administration Modifying Settings in an Existing Desktop Pool After you create a desktop pool, you can change certain configuration settings. Table 11-1. Editable Settings in an Existing Desktop Pool Configuration Tab Description General Edit pool-naming options. Pool Settings Edit desktop settings such as the remote desktop power policy, display protocol, and Adobe Flash settings. Provisioning Settings Edit pool-provisioning options and add desktops to the pool.
Chapter 11 Managing Desktops and Desktop Pools Change the Size of an Automated Pool Provisioned by a Naming Pattern When you provision an automated desktop pool by using a naming pattern, you can increase or decrease the size of the pool by changing the maximum number of desktops. Prerequisites n Verify that you provisioned the pool by using a naming pattern. If you specify desktop names manually, see “Add Desktops to an Automated Pool Provisioned by a List of Names,” on page 207.
VMware View Administration Procedure 1 Create a text file that contains the list of additional desktop names. If you intend to add only a few desktops, you can type the desktop names directly in the Add Pool wizard. You do not have to create a separate text file. 2 In View Administrator, click Inventory > Pools. 3 Select the pool to be expanded. 4 Click Edit. 5 Click the Provisioning Settings tab. 6 Click Add Desktops.
Chapter 11 Managing Desktops and Desktop Pools Disable or Enable Provisioning in a Desktop Pool When you disable provisioning in a desktop pool, View Manager stops provisioning new virtual machines for the pool. After you disable provisioning, you can enable provisioning again. Before you change a pool's configuration, you can disable provisioning to ensure that no new desktops are created with the old configuration.
VMware View Administration The desktop pool is removed from View Connection Server. If you keep the virtual machines in vCenter Server, View Manager cannot access them. When you delete a desktop pool from View Manager, linked-clone computer accounts are removed from Active Directory. Full virtual machine accounts remain in Active Directory. To remove these accounts, you must manually delete them from Active Directory.
Chapter 11 Managing Desktops and Desktop Pools Table 11-3. Adobe Flash Quality Settings Quality Setting Description Do not control Quality is determined by Web page settings. Low This setting results in the most bandwidth savings. Medium This setting results in moderate bandwidth savings. High This setting results in the least bandwidth savings. If no maximum level of quality is specified, the system defaults to a value of Low.
VMware View Administration 3 To retain the increase in quality, double-click inside the Adobe Flash content. Managing Virtual-Machine Desktops You can search for, manage, and delete virtual-machine desktops and manage desktop sessions. View, Disconnect, or Restart Active Sessions You can view the users actively connected to the View desktops in a pool. You can disconnect users from their desktops, force users to log off, and restart active sessions.
Chapter 11 Managing Desktops and Desktop Pools Procedure 1 In View Administrator, click Inventory > Desktops, or click Inventory > Pools, double-click a pool ID, and select the Inventory tab. 2 Select the desktop. 3 Click More Commands > Assign User. 4 Choose whether to find users or groups, select a domain, and type a search string in the Name or Description text box. 5 Select the user or group name and click OK.
VMware View Administration Monitor Desktop Status You can quickly survey the status of desktops in your View deployment by using the View Administrator dashboard. For example, you can display all disconnected desktops or desktops that are in maintenance mode. Prerequisites Familiarize yourself with the desktop states. See “Desktop Status of Virtual Machines,” on page 214. Procedure 1 In View Administrator, click Dashboard. 2 In the Desktop Status pane, expand a status folder.
Chapter 11 Managing Desktops and Desktop Pools Table 11-5. Status of Virtual-Machine Desktops That Are Managed by vCenter Server (Continued) Status Type of State Description Configuration error Agent state The display protocol such as RDP or PCoIP is not enabled. Provisioned Availability The virtual machine is powered off or suspended. Available Availability The virtual machine is powered on and ready for an active connection.
VMware View Administration Delete Desktops from View Manager When you delete desktops from View Manager, users can no longer access the desktops. Users in currently active sessions can continue to use full virtual-machine desktops if you keep the virtual machines in vCenter Server. After the users log off, they cannot access the deleted desktops. With linked-clone desktops, vCenter Server always deletes the virtual machines from disk.
Chapter 11 Managing Desktops and Desktop Pools When you export a View Administrator table, it is saved as a comma-separated cvs file. This feature exports the entire table, not individual pages. Procedure 1 In View Administrator, display the table you want to export. For example, click Inventory > Desktops to display the desktops table. 2 Click the Export icon in the upper right corner of the table. When you point your mouse at the icon, it displays the Export table contents tooltip.
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Managing Physical Computers and Terminal Servers 12 In View Administrator, you can add, remove, and unregister View desktops that are not managed by vCenter Server. Unmanaged desktop sources include virtual machines that are not managed by vCenter Server, physical computers, blade PCs, and Microsoft Terminal Services sources. NOTE When you reconfigure a setting that affects an unmanaged desktop source, it can take up to 10 minutes for the new setting to take effect.
VMware View Administration Remove an Unmanaged Desktop Source from a Pool You can reduce the size of a manual desktop pool that uses unmanaged desktop sources by removing desktop sources from the pool. Procedure 1 In View Administrator, click Inventory > Pools. 2 Double-click a pool ID and select the Inventory tab. 3 Select the desktop sources to remove. 4 Click Remove. 5 If users are logged in to the unmanaged desktops, choose whether to terminate the sessions or let the sessions remain active.
Chapter 12 Managing Physical Computers and Terminal Servers Unregister an Unmanaged Desktop Source All desktop sources that vCenter Server manages are registered when you install View Agent. You can unregister only unmanaged desktop sources. Unmanaged desktop sources include virtual machines that are not managed by vCenter Server, physical computers, blade PCs, and Terminal Services sources. When you unregister a desktop source, it becomes unavailable in View Manager.
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Managing ThinApp Applications in View Administrator 13 You can use View Administrator to distribute and manage applications packaged with VMware ThinApp™. Managing ThinApp applications in View Administrator involves capturing and storing application packages, adding ThinApp applications to View Administrator, and assigning ThinApp applications to desktops and pools. You must have a license to use the ThinApp management feature in View Administrator.
VMware View Administration n To run streamed ThinApp applications on View desktops, users must have access to the network share that hosts the MSI packages. Capturing and Storing Application Packages ThinApp provides application virtualization by decoupling an application from the underlying operating system and its libraries and framework and bundling the application into a single executable file called an application package.
Chapter 13 Managing ThinApp Applications in View Administrator 3 If you plan to stream the application to View desktops, set the MSIStreaming property to 1 in the package.ini file. MSIStreaming=1 The ThinApp Setup Capture wizard encapsulates the application, all of the necessary components to run the application, and the application itself into an MSI package. What to do next Create a Windows network share to store the MSI packages.
VMware View Administration 3 Type the path to the Windows network share that hosts your application packages in the Share path text box. The network share path must be in the form \\ServerComputerName\ShareName where ServerComputerName is the DNS name of the server computer. Do not specify an IP address. For example: \\server.domain.com\MSIPackages 4 Click Save to register the application repository with View Administrator.
Chapter 13 Managing ThinApp Applications in View Administrator Creating ThinApp templates is optional. NOTE If you add an application to a ThinApp template after assigning the template to a desktop or pool, View Administrator does not automatically assign the new application to the desktop or pool. If you remove an application from a ThinApp template that was previously assigned to a desktop or pool, the application remains assigned to the desktop or pool.
VMware View Administration n Assign Multiple ThinApp Applications to a Pool on page 231 You can assign one more ThinApp applications to a particular pool. n Assign a ThinApp Template to a Desktop or Pool on page 231 You can streamline the distribution of multiple ThinApp applications by assigning a ThinApp template to a desktop or pool. n Review ThinApp Application Assignments on page 232 You can review all of the desktops and pools that a particular ThinApp application is currently assigned to.
Chapter 13 Managing ThinApp Applications in View Administrator Procedure 1 Select Inventory > ThinApps and select the ThinApp application. 2 From the Add Assignment drop-down menu, select Desktops. The desktops that the ThinApp application is not already assigned to appear in the table. 3 Option Action Find a specific desktop Type the name of the desktop in the Find text box and click Find.
VMware View Administration 5 Select an installation type and click OK. Option Action Streaming Installs a shortcut to the application on the desktop. The shortcut points to the application on the network share that hosts the repository. Users must have access to the network share to run the application. Full Installs the full application on the local file system. Some ThinApp applications do not support both installation types.
Chapter 13 Managing ThinApp Applications in View Administrator Assign Multiple ThinApp Applications to a Pool You can assign one more ThinApp applications to a particular pool. If you assign a ThinApp application to a linked-clone pool and later refresh, recompose, or rebalance the pool, View Administrator reinstalls the application for you. You do not have to manually reinstall the application. Prerequisites Scan an application repository and add selected ThinApp applications to View Administrator.
VMware View Administration 3 From the Add Assignment drop-down menu, select Desktops or Pools. All desktops or pools appear in the table. 4 Option Action Find a specific desktop or pool Type the name of the desktop or pool in the Find text box and click Find. Find all of the desktops or pools that follow the same naming convention Type a partial desktop or pool name in the Find text box and click Find. Select the desktops or pools that you want to assign the ThinApp template to and click Add.
Chapter 13 Managing ThinApp Applications in View Administrator Procedure u Select the ThinApp application assignments that you want to review. Option Action Review all of the desktops and pools that a particular ThinApp application is assigned to Select Inventory > ThinApps and double-click the name of the ThinApp application. The Assignments tab shows the desktops and pools that the application is currently assigned to, including the installation type.
VMware View Administration 4 Click Package Info to see detailed information about the MSI package. Maintaining ThinApp Applications in View Administrator Maintaining ThinApp applications in View Administrator involves tasks such as removing ThinApp application assignments, removing ThinApp applications and application repositories, and modifying and deleting ThinApp templates.
Chapter 13 Managing ThinApp Applications in View Administrator Remove Multiple ThinApp Application Assignments from a Desktop You can remove assignments to one or more ThinApp applications from a particular desktop. Prerequisites Notify the users of the desktop that you intend to remove the applications. Procedure 1 Select Inventory > Desktops and double-click the name of the desktop in the Desktop column.
VMware View Administration Remove a ThinApp Application from View Administrator When you remove a ThinApp application from View Administrator, you can no longer assign the application to desktops and pools. You might need to remove a ThinApp application if your organization decides to replace it with a different vendor's application. NOTE You cannot remove a ThinApp application if it is already assigned to a desktop or pool or if it is in the Pending Uninstall state.
Chapter 13 Managing ThinApp Applications in View Administrator Monitoring and Troubleshooting ThinApp Applications in View Administrator View Administrator logs events that are related to ThinApp application management to the Events and Reporting database. You can view these events on the Events tab in View Administrator. An event appears on the Events tab when the following situations occur.
VMware View Administration Solution n Verify that the application packages in the application repository are in MSI format. n Verify that the network share meets View requirements for ThinApp applications. See “View Requirements for ThinApp Applications,” on page 223 for more information. n Verify that the directories in the network share have the proper permissions. See “Cannot Register an Application Repository,” on page 237 for more information.
Chapter 13 Managing ThinApp Applications in View Administrator View Connection Server log files are located on the View Connection Server host in the drive:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VDM\logs directory. Solution 1 In View Administrator, select Inventory > ThinApps. 2 Click the name of the ThinApp application. 3 On the Desktops tab, select the desktop and click Retry Install to reinstall the ThinApp application.
VMware View Administration n The MSI file was not created with ThinApp. n The MSI file was created or repackaged with an unsupported version of ThinApp. You must use ThinApp version 4.6 or later. Solution See the ThinApp User's Guide for information on troubleshooting problems with MSI packages.
Managing Local Desktops 14 To manage desktops that are used in local mode, you must set up the environment so that data is transferred when users check View desktops out to their local systems. You must also manage other tasks where data transfer occurs, such as desktop check-in, rollback, and backup, and set policies for which of these actions users can initiate.
VMware View Administration View desktops in local mode behave in the same way as their remote desktop equivalents, yet can take advantage of local resources. Latency is eliminated, and performance is enhanced. Users can disconnect from their local View desktop and log in again without connecting to the View Connection Server. After network access is restored, or when the user is ready, the checked-out virtual machine can be backed up, rolled back, or checked in.
Chapter 14 Managing Local Desktops The data on each local system is encrypted with AES. 128-bit encryption is the default, but you can configure 192-bit or 256-bit encryption. The desktop has a lifetime controlled through policy. If the client loses contact with View Connection Server, the maximum time without server contact is the period in which the user can continue to use the desktop before the user is refused access.
VMware View Administration If you create a virtual machine that has more virtual memory and processors than are available on a local client system, the local version of the desktop will not power on, and an error message will appear. 7 If you plan to use linked-clone desktops, publish the desktops' View Composer base image as a package in the Transfer Server repository. You can publish the base image when you create a pool or after the pool is created.
Chapter 14 Managing Local Desktops Procedure 1 2 In View Administrator, view the policy for the appropriate level. Option Action All desktops and pools Select Policies > Global Policies > View Policies panel, and click Edit Policies. Single pool Select Inventory > Pools > specific_pool. On the Policies tab, in the View Policies panel, click Edit Policies. Single user Select Inventory > Pools > specific_pool, and on the Policies tab, click User Overrides. Set the Remote Mode View policy to Deny.
VMware View Administration The amount of RAM and the number of CPUs that the local View desktop uses depends on the capabilities of the local computer. The View desktop uses NAT so that it shares the IP and MAC addresses of the local computer. For more information, see “Configuring Endpoint Resource Usage,” on page 266.
Chapter 14 Managing Local Desktops Do not turn on deduplication or compression unless you notice problems due to a slow network connection. The deduplication and compression features reduce the amount of network bandwidth required at the expense of increased processing power required on the end user's computer or on the Transfer Server.
VMware View Administration An event such as a network outage or the removal of View Transfer Server from View Manager can interrupt active data transfers. View Transfer Server resumes the paused transfers when the components are running again. Add View Transfer Server to View Manager View Transfer Server works with View Connection Server to transfer files and data between local desktops and the datacenter.
Chapter 14 Managing Local Desktops Remove View Transfer Server from View Manager When you remove all instances of View Transfer Server from View Manager, you cannot check out, check in, or replicate data for local desktops. When you remove a View Transfer Server instance that is actively performing transfers, the active transfer operations are paused. Local desktop sessions show the transfer status as paused.
VMware View Administration If you allow active transfers to finish, View Transfer Server enters a Pending state. When the current disk transfer is completed, View Transfer Server enters maintenance mode. NOTE Allowing active transfers to finish ensures that the current disk is transferred. However, virtual machines contain multiple disks. A transfer operation such as a desktop checkout might not be completed if no other View Transfer Server instances are available to transfer any remaining disks.
Chapter 14 Managing Local Desktops Table 14-1. View Transfer Server States During Normal Operations (Continued) Status Description Maintenance mode pending View Transfer Server is entering Maintenance mode while waiting for active transfers and package publish operations to be completed. Maintenance mode Active data transfers are suspended. Users cannot initiate new transfers. Scheduled, pending transfers cannot take place.
VMware View Administration Before a user can check out a linked-clone desktop so that it can run in local mode, you must publish its base image to the Transfer Server repository. When you publish an image file to the Transfer Server repository, View Transfer Server stores the files as encrypted packages. View Transfer Server can compress the packages to streamline downloads to local desktops.
Chapter 14 Managing Local Desktops Configure the Transfer Server Repository The Transfer Server repository stores View Composer base images for linked-clone desktops that run in local mode. To give View Transfer Server access to the Transfer Server repository, you must configure it in View Manager. If you do not use View Composer linked clones in local mode, you do not have to configure a Transfer Server repository.
VMware View Administration 5 In the General panel on the Transfer Server repository page, click Edit. 6 Type the Transfer Server repository location and other information. Option Network Share Description n n n n Local File System 7 Path. Type the UNC path that you configured. Username. Type the user ID of an administrator with credentials to access the network share. Password. Type the administrator password. Domain. Type the domain name of the network share in NetBIOS format. Do not use the .
Chapter 14 Managing Local Desktops The publication process can take time. Click the refresh icon on the Transfer Repository page to display the percent of the operation that is completed. View Transfer Server can download the published View Composer base image to local desktops. Delete a Package File from the Transfer Server Repository View Transfer Server stores View Composer base images as package files in the Transfer Server repository.
VMware View Administration Procedure 1 Configure a local or remote destination folder to which you will migrate the Transfer Server repository. Option Action Local Transfer Server repository On the virtual machine where View Transfer Server is installed, create a path and folder for the Transfer Server repository. For example: C:\TransferRepository\ Remote Transfer Server repository Configure a UNC path for the network share. For example: \\server.domain.com\TransferRepository\ All View Transfer Serv
Chapter 14 Managing Local Desktops Recover from a Corrupted Transfer Server Repository Folder If the network-shared folder or local folder on which the Transfer Server repository is configured becomes corrupted, you must recreate the Transfer Server repository on a functioning folder. This situation occurs if the network share or local drive is inaccessible and you cannot access the Transfer Server package files that are stored in the configured folder.
VMware View Administration When you initiate a replication, or when a replication is scheduled to begin, the request starts the next time the client computer contacts the datacenter. View Client with Local Mode takes a snapshot and starts the replication. View maintains only one pending replication at a time. NOTE At the beginning and end of each replication, the end user might notice that desktop performance is affected for a few seconds while a local snapshot is taken or updated.
Chapter 14 Managing Local Desktops For example, the Target replication frequency policy might be set to one day. A replication might start at noon on Tuesday. If the client computer is disconnected from the network, the replication might take longer than 24 hours. At noon on Wednesday, View Client with Local Mode starts the next replication request. After the previous replication is completed, View Client with Local Mode takes a snapshot and starts the pending replication. n Set User deferred replication.
VMware View Administration Roll Back a Locally Checked-Out Desktop If an end user loses a laptop that contains a local desktop, or if the hard disk becomes damaged, you can roll the View desktop back so that the end user can check the desktop out on another computer. If the client policy allows it, an end user who has checked out a local desktop can also roll back the desktop from within View Client.
Chapter 14 Managing Local Desktops Procedure u On the client computer, select and delete the folder that contains the files that make up the local desktop that you want to delete. The folder resides in the local desktop check-out directory. When you downloaded your first local desktop, if you did not click Options and change the directory where the local desktops are stored, they are stored in the default check-out directory.
VMware View Administration Table 14-3. Deduplication and Compression Settings for Data Transfers Setting Description Use deduplication for Local Mode operations Prevents redundant data from being sent from client computers to the datacenter. Deduplication operates on transfers from the client computer to the datacenter, including replications and desktop check-ins. Deduplication does not take place when desktops are checked out.
Chapter 14 Managing Local Desktops Table 14-4. Using Secure, Tunneled Connection and SSL for Local Desktop Operations Setting Description Use secure tunnel connection for Local Mode operations Local desktops use tunneled communications. Network traffic is routed through View Connection Server or a security server if one is configured. If you do not use this setting, data transfers take place directly between local desktops and the corresponding remote desktops in the datacenter.
VMware View Administration Change the Encryption Key Cipher for an Existing Local Desktop To change the encryption key cipher for an existing local desktop, you edit the pae-VM record for the local desktop in View LDAP on your View Connection Server host. You use the ADSI Edit utility to modify View LDAP. The ADSI Edit utility is installed with View Connection Server. When you change View LDAP on a View Connection Server instance, the change is propagated to all replicated View Connection Server instances.
Chapter 14 Managing Local Desktops When a local desktop is checked in or replicated, View Transfer Server transfers the data that was generated on the local desktop since the last check out or replication. You can estimate the potential size of a data transfer if you know how long the desktop has been generating new data.
VMware View Administration Guest File System Optimization of Data Transfers During transfer operations, View Transfer Server reduces the amount of data that must be sent over the network by taking advantage of guest file system optimization. When a desktop virtual machine contains a primary NTFS partition, View Transfer Server transfers the blocks that are allocated by NTFS. Unallocated blocks are not transferred. This strategy minimizes the total number of blocks to be transferred.
Chapter 14 Managing Local Desktops You can change the defaults and specify the scope of the setting. The setting can apply to all local desktops on the client or, depending on the setting, it can apply to a specific desktop or to all desktops from a specific View Connection Server instance that a specific user is entitled to use on the client. To change these defaults, you must configure Windows registry settings.
VMware View Administration n To set a specific amount of memory that the View desktop can use when running locally, create and deploy a GPO to add one of the following registry keys that specify the number in megabytes, up to 32GB. Scope of Setting Path Client-wide HKCU\Software\VMware, Inc.\VMware VDM\Client\broker_guid\remote_user_sid\offlineDesktopDefaul tMemoryScaleupValue Desktop specific HKCU\Software\VMware, Inc.\VMware VDM\Client\broker_guid\remote_user_sid\desktop_ID\offlineDe sktopDefaultMe
Chapter 14 Managing Local Desktops If you specify an invalid value, the value is ignored and the default is used. If you specify more CPUs than are available on the host, the local desktop does not power on, and an error message appears. If you set the value to a number higher than 2, the value 2 is used. The settings go into effect when the local desktop is powered on, except in the case of the setting that allows the reported required memory to be less than that set on vCenter Server.
VMware View Administration Procedure u To override the default behavior so that the local desktop uses bridged networking, create and deploy a GPO to add one of the following registry keys and set the key to 1. Scope of Setting Path Client-wide HKCU\Software\VMware, Inc.\VMware VDM\Client\offlineDesktopUseBridgedNetworking Connection Server and user specific HKCU\Software\VMware, Inc.\VMware VDM\Client\broker_guid\remote_user_sid\offlineDesktopUseBri dgedNetworking Desktop-specific HKCU\Software\VM
Chapter 14 Managing Local Desktops Configure View Connection Server to Support HTTP Caching of View Composer Base Images To allow a caching proxy server to pass on View Composer base images and other data between local desktops and the datacenter, you must configure certain settings in View Connection Server.
VMware View Administration Procedure 1 Start a Windows command prompt on your View Connection Server computer. 2 Type the vdmadmin command with the -T option. vdmadmin -T [-packagelimit size_in_bytes] By default, the path to the vdmadmin command executable file is C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware View\Server\tools\bin. Example: Setting a Package File Size Limit Set the package-file split limit to 100MB. vdmadmin -T -packagelimit 104857600 Display the current package-file split limit.
Chapter 14 Managing Local Desktops Configure a Proxy Server to Cache View Composer Base Images When you set up a proxy server to support HTTP caching for local desktops, you must configure the capacity of the cache and the HTTP connection method. Prerequisites n Verify the size limit of base-image package files that you set with the vdmadmin -T command. See “Limit the Size of Base-Image Package Files to Allow Caching,” on page 271. n Determine whether you use SSL for local mode operations.
VMware View Administration Prerequisites See the Microsoft TechNet Web site for information on how to use the ADSI Edit utility on your Windows Server operating system version. Procedure 1 Start the ADSI Edit utility on your View Connection Server host. 2 Select or connect to DC=vdi, DC=vmware, DC=int. 3 On the object CN=Common, OU=Global, OU=Properties, set the pae-mVDIOfflineUpdateFrequency attribute to the new heartbeat interval in minutes. You must type a positive integer.
Chapter 14 Managing Local Desktops Manually Downloading a Local Desktop to a Location with Poor Network Connections For users on a network that has extremely low bandwidth, checking out a desktop can be prohibitive because you must download several gigabytes of data. To serve these users, you can download the desktop files manually and copy the files to the client computers. For example, a user might work at home in a rural location with a dial-up network connection.
VMware View Administration 3 Verify that the desktop pool is associated with this package. 4 Locate the Repository path, including the package ID. For example: \\mycomputer.com\ImageRepository\Published\f222434a-e52a-4ce3-92d1-c14122fca996 5 Copy the package contents from the Transfer Server repository to the portable device. You must copy the entire package directory to the portable device.
Chapter 14 Managing Local Desktops 2 Right-click the check-out directory and click Properties. 3 Click the Security tab and click Edit. 4 In the Group or user names list, select the name of the user who will check out the desktop. If the user name is not in the list, click Add and add the user name. 5 Check Full control in the Allow column and click OK. 6 Click the General tab and deselect Read-only (Only applies to files in folder). Make sure that the check box is fully deselected.
VMware View Administration n Problems with Desktop Check-Outs After Initial Check-Out on page 279 Assuming that View Transfer Server is functioning properly, you might find that check-out problems are due to View Connection Server no longer having the encryption key for files on the local machine.
Chapter 14 Managing Local Desktops Cause This problem can occur because View Transfer Server is running on an ESX host that does not have access to the datastores where the desktops reside. During a check-out operation, View Transfer Server transfers desktop data from the datastores to the client computer. The datastores must be accessible from the ESX host where the View Transfer Server virtual machine is running.
VMware View Administration Solution u End users must delete all local desktop files before checking the desktop out again. The folder resides in the local desktop check-out directory. When you downloaded your first local desktop, if you did not click Options and change the directory where the local desktops are stored, they are stored in the default check-out directory. Desktop Operating System Default Check-Out Directory Default directory on Windows 7 and Windows Vista C:\Users\User Name\AppData\Local
Chapter 14 Managing Local Desktops n Verify that the View Transfer Server services are running. a On the View Transfer Server virtual machine, open the Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services dialog box. b Make sure that the VMware View Transfer Server Service, VMware View Transfer Server Control Service, and VMware View Framework Component services are started. n Verify that the View Transfer Server virtual machine can resolve the View Connection Server host name.
VMware View Administration Cause The Transfer Server repository configuration is invalid. If the repository is configured on a network share, the network path or credentials are invalid. If the repository is local, the filesystem path is invalid. Solution 1 Place all View Transfer Server instances in maintenance mode. a In View Administrator, click View Configuration > Servers. b Select a View Transfer Server instance.
Chapter 14 Managing Local Desktops Cause The Transfer Server repository is not configured in View Manager. Solution 1 Place all View Transfer Server instances in maintenance mode. a In View Administrator, click View Configuration > Servers. b Select a View Transfer Server instance. c If transfers are currently active, choose whether to cancel the active transfers or wait until the active transfers are completed before placing the View Transfer Server instance in maintenance mode. d Click OK.
VMware View Administration Virtual Disk of a Local Desktop Needs Repair You might need to repair the virtual disk of a local desktop. Problem You see an error message when you try to connect to your local desktop. For example: Cannot open the disk 'C:\Documents and Settings\jo\Local Settings\Application Data\View\Local Desktops\Win7_32b_Local_Mode\52411f5e05b854ca-b5c54521f6010b22-scsi00-000002.vmdk' or one of the snapshot disks it depends on. Reason: The specified disk needs repair.
Chapter 14 Managing Local Desktops Procedure 1 Copy the virtual machine files from the client machine to a local folder on the View Connection Server instance. IMPORTANT Do not access the files using a network share or mapped drive. 2 To decrypt a file, run the vdmadmin command. vdmadmin -V -rescue -d desktop -u domain\user -infile path_to_VM_file Option Description -d desktop Specifies the name of the desktop pool.
VMware View Administration 286 VMware, Inc.
Maintaining View Components 15 To keep your View components available and running, you can perform a variety of maintenance tasks.
VMware View Administration Do not rely on using replicated instances of View Connection Server to act as your backup mechanism. When View Manager synchronizes data in replicated instances of View Connection Server, any data lost in one instance might be lost in all members of the group. If View Connection Server uses multiple vCenter Server instances with multiple View Composer services, View Manager backs up all the View Composer databases associated with the vCenter Server instances.
Chapter 15 Maintaining View Components View Manager Configuration Backup Settings View Manager can back up your View Connection Server and View Composer configuration data at regular intervals. In View Administrator, you can set the frequency and other aspects of the backup operations. Table 15-1. View Manager Configuration Backup Settings Setting Description Automatic backup frequency Every Hour. Backups take place every hour on the hour. Every 6 Hours.
VMware View Administration 2 At the command prompt, type the vdmexport command and redirect the output to a file. For example: vdmexport > Myexport.LDF You can specify the output file name as an argument to the -f parameter. For example: vdmexport -f Myexport.LDF The vdmexport command writes your View Connection Server configuration data to the specified LDIF file. For more information about the vdmexport command, see the VMware View Integration document.
Chapter 15 Maintaining View Components 2 At the command prompt, type the vdmimport command and specify an existing LDIF file as the argument to the -f parameter. For example: vdmimport -f Myexport.LDF The vdmimport command updates the View LDAP repository in View Connection Server with the configuration data from the LDIF file. For more information about the vdmimport command, see the VMware View Integration document.
VMware View Administration 4 Run the SviConfig restoredata command. sviconfig -operation=restoredata -DsnName=target_database_source_name_(DSN) -Username=database_administrator_username -Password=database_administrator_password -BackupFilePath=path_to_View_Composer_backup_file For example: sviconfig -operation=restoredata -dsnname=LinkedClone -username=Admin -password=Pass -backupfilepath="C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware View Composer\Backup-20090304000010-foobar_test_org.
Chapter 15 Maintaining View Components 3 n A yellow double arrow indicates that a component is in a warning state. n A question mark indicates that the status of a component is unknown. Click a component name. A dialog displays the name, version, status, and other component information. Monitor Desktop Status You can quickly survey the status of desktops in your View deployment by using the View Administrator dashboard.
VMware View Administration Stop and Start View Services The operation of View Connection Server instances and security servers depends on several services that run on the system. You might sometimes find it necessary to stop and start these services manually when troubleshooting problems with the operation of VMware View. When you stop View services, end users cannot log in to their desktops.
Chapter 15 Maintaining View Components Table 15-3. View Connection Server Host Services (Continued) Service Name Startup Type Description VMware View Web Component Manual Provides web services for View Manager. This service must be running for the correct operation of View Manager. VMwareVDMDS Automatic Provides LDAP directory services for View Manager. This service must be running for the correct operation of View Manager.
VMware View Administration Add Licenses to VMware View If the current licenses on a system expire, or if you want to access VMware View features that are currently unlicensed, you can use View Administrator to add licenses. You can add a license to VMware View while View Manager is running. You do not need to reboot the system, and access to desktops is not interrupted.
Chapter 15 Maintaining View Components The existing View Composer database must be configured on an available computer in the same domain as the computer on which you install the new View Composer service, or on a trusted domain. View Composer creates RSA key pairs to encrypt and decrypt authentication information stored in the View Composer database.
VMware View Administration 3 4 Copy the keys.xml file to the destination computer on which you want to install the new View Composer service. On the destination computer, open a command prompt and navigate to the %windir %\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0xxxxx directory. 5 Type the aspnet_regiis command to migrate the RSA key pair data. aspnet_regiis -pi "SviKeyContainer" "path\keys.xml" where path is the path to the exported file.
Chapter 15 Maintaining View Components 3 Edit the keyfile and keypass properties in the locked.properties file on the View Connection Server or security server host. a Set the keyfile property to the name of the new keystore file. For example: keyfile=keys_20141231.jks b If the password for the keystore file has changed, set the keypass property to the new password. For example: keypass=NEW_PASS 4 Verify that the storetype property in the locked.properties file matches the type of the keystore file.
VMware View Administration 300 VMware, Inc.
Troubleshooting View Components 16 You can use a variety of procedures for diagnosing and fixing problems that you might encounter when using View Manager, View Composer, and View Client. Administrators might encounter unexpected behavior when using View Manager and View Composer, and users might experience difficulty when using View Client to access their desktops.
VMware View Administration Monitoring System Health You can use the system health dashboard in View Administrator to quickly see problems that might affect the operation of View or access to desktops by end users.
Chapter 16 Troubleshooting View Components Table 16-1. Types of Event Reported by View Manager Event Type Description Audit Failure or Audit Success Reports the failure or success of a change that an administrator or user makes to the operation or configuration of VMware View. Error Reports a failed operation by View Manager. Information Reports normal operations within VMware View.
VMware View Administration n If a desktop reports that it is ready, but does not accept connections, check the firewall configuration to make sure that the display protocol (RDP or PCoIP) is not blocked. See “Connection Problems Between Desktops and View Connection Server Instances,” on page 311. n If a desktop appears to be missing from a vCenter Server, verify whether its virtual machine is configured on the expected vCenter Server, or if it has been moved to another vCenter Server.
Chapter 16 Troubleshooting View Components n Collect Diagnostic Information for View Agent, View Client, or View Connection Server from the Console on page 307 If you have direct access to the console, you can use the support scripts to generate log files for View Connection Server, View Client, or desktops that are running View Agent. This information helps VMware Technical Support diagnose any issues that arise with these components.
VMware View Administration Collect Diagnostic Information for View Composer Using the Support Script You can use the View Composer support script to collect configuration data and generate log files for View Composer. This information helps VMware customer support diagnose any issues that arise with View Composer. Prerequisites Log in to the vCenter Server on which View Composer is installed.
Chapter 16 Troubleshooting View Components You should usually enter 2 to select a debug level of logging. The system starts recording log information with the level of detail that you have selected. 3 When you have collected enough information about the behavior of View Connection Server, select Start > All Programs > VMware > Generate View Connection Server Log Bundle. The support tool writes the log files to a folder called vdm-sdct on the desktop of the View Connection Server instance.
VMware View Administration Option Description 7 Selects debug logging for virtual channels (View Agent and View Client only). 8 Selects trace logging for virtual channels (View Agent and View Client only). The script writes the zipped log files to the folder vdm-sdct on the desktop. 3 You can find the View Composer guest agent logs in the C:\Program Files\Common Files\VMware\View Composer Guest Agent svi-ga-support directory.
Chapter 16 Troubleshooting View Components n The View Connection Server connection failed. Opening a desktop might also fail after contacting a View Connection Server instance and obtaining a list of available desktops. Cause Connectivity problems between View Client and a View Connection Server instance can occur for different reasons. n Incorrect network proxy or firewall settings on View Client.
VMware View Administration n The PCoIP Secure Gateway is not enabled on the security server or View Connection Server instance. n The PCoIP External URL setting is configured incorrectly. You must specify this setting as the external IP address that View clients can access over the Internet. n The PCoIP External URL or secure tunnel External URL is configured to point to a different security server or View Connection Server host.
Chapter 16 Troubleshooting View Components Connection Problems Between Desktops and View Connection Server Instances You might experience connection problems between desktops and View Connection Server instances. Problem If connectivity between a desktop and a View Connection Server instance fails, you see one of the following messages in the event database.
VMware View Administration Cause Cloned desktops are incorrectly configured to use a static IP address instead of using DHCP to obtain their IP addresses. Solution 1 Verify that the template for a desktop pool on vCenter is configured to use DHCP to assign IP addresses to desktops. 2 In the VMware Infrastructure Client, clone one virtual machine manually from the desktop pool and verify that it obtains its IP address from DHCP correctly.
Chapter 16 Troubleshooting View Components n Verify that you have sufficient permissions to access the ESX/ESXi host, ESX/ESXi cluster, or datacenter. n Verify that you have sufficient permissions to create a pool. Pool Provisioning Fails Due to a Configuration Problem If a template is not available or a virtual machine image has been moved or deleted, provisioning of a desktop pool can fail. Problem A desktop pool is not provisioned, and you see the following message in the event database.
VMware View Administration n In View Administrator, verify the port numbers and login details that are configured for vCenter and View Composer. Pool Provisioning Fails Due to Datastore Problems If a datastore is out of disk space, or you do not have permission to access the datastore, provisioning of a desktop pool can fail. Problem Provisioning of a desktop pool fails, and you see one of the following error messages in the event database.
Chapter 16 Troubleshooting View Components Cause The most likely cause of this problem is that you restarted the View Connection Server instance during a cloning operation. Solution u Delete the virtual machines and clone them again. Virtual Machines Are Stuck in the Customizing State After being cloned, virtual machines are stuck in the Customizing state. Problem Virtual machines are stuck in the Customizing state.
VMware View Administration n For some USB HIDs, you must configure the virtual machine to update the position of the mouse pointer. See http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1022076. n Some audio devices might require changes to policy settings or to registry settings. See http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1023868. n Network latency can cause slow device interaction or cause applications to appear frozen because they are designed to interact with local devices.
Chapter 16 Troubleshooting View Components n The account under which the script runs does not have sufficient permission to execute a script task Solution n Examine the customization script log. QuickPrep customization information is written to a log file in Windows temp directory: C:\Windows\Temp\vmware-viewcomposer-ga-new.log n Determine if the script timed out. View Composer terminates a customization script that takes longer than 20 seconds.
VMware View Administration Table 16-2. View Composer Provisioning Errors (Continued) 318 Error Description 4 Failed to back up a user's profile keys. The next time the user logs in to this linked-clone desktop after the recompose operation, the OS creates a new profile directory for the user. As a new profile is created, the user cannot not see the old profile data. 5 Failed to restore a user's profile. The user should not log in to the desktop in this state because the profile state is undefined.
Chapter 16 Troubleshooting View Components Windows XP Linked Clones Fail to Join the Domain Windows XP linked-clone desktops can fail to join the domain if your Active Directory runs on Windows Server 2008. Problem When linked-clone desktops are provisioned, the linked clones fail to join the domain. View Administrator displays View Composer provisioning error messages.
VMware View Administration If you did not install any software that chains to a different GINA, the default is msgina.dll, which is located at %systemroot%\system32\msgina.dll on the virtual machine. Solution 1 Log in to the parent virtual machine, template virtual machine, or View desktop. 2 Click Start > Run, type Regedit, and press Enter. 3 Navigate to the following Windows registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\Current Version\Winlogon\GinaDLL 4 Ensure that the GinaDLL ke
Using the vdmadmin Command 17 You can use the vdmadmin command line interface to perform a variety of administration tasks on a View Connection Server instance. You can use vdmadmin to perform administration tasks that are not possible from within the View Administrator user interface or to perform administration tasks that need to run automatically from scripts.
VMware View Administration n Configuring Domain Filters Using the -N Option on page 332 You can use the vdmadmin command with the -N option to control the domains that View Manager makes available to end users. n Configuring Domain Filters on page 334 You can configure domain filters to limit the domains that a View Connection Server instance or security server makes available to end users.
Chapter 17 Using the vdmadmin Command By default, the path to the vdmadmin command executable file is C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware View\Server\tools\bin. To avoid having to enter the path on the command line, add the path to your PATH environment variable. n vdmadmin Command Authentication on page 323 You must run the vdmadmin command as a user who is in the Administrators role for a specified action to succeed.
VMware View Administration vdmadmin Command Options You use the command options of the vdmadmin command to specify the operation that you want it to perform. Table 17-2 shows the command options that you can use with the vdmadmin command to control and examine the operation of View Manager. Table 17-2. Vdmadmin Command Options 324 Option Description -A Administers the information that a View Agent records in its log files. See “Configuring Logging in View Agent Using the -A Option,” on page 325.
Chapter 17 Using the vdmadmin Command Configuring Logging in View Agent Using the -A Option You can use the vdmadmin command with the -A option to configure logging by View Agent.
VMware View Administration Examples Display the logging level of the Agent for the machine machine1 in the desktop pool dtpool2. vdmadmin -A -d dtpool2 -m machine1 -getloglevel Set the logging level of the View Agent for the machine machine1 in the desktop pool dtpool2 to debug. vdmadmin -A -d dtpool2 -m machine1 -setloglevel debug Display the list of View Agent log files for the machine machine1 in the desktop pool dtpool2.
Chapter 17 Using the vdmadmin Command Table 17-4. Options for Overriding IP Addresses (Continued) Option Description -override Specifies an operation for overriding IP addresses. -r Removes an overridden IP address. Examples Override the IP address for the machine machine2 in the desktop pool dtpool2. vdmadmin -A -override -i 10.20.54.165 -d dtpool2 -m machine2 Display the IP addresses that are defined for the machine machine2 in the desktop pool dtpool2.
VMware View Administration Updating Foreign Security Principals Using the -F Option You can use the vdmadmin command with the -F option to update the foreign security principals (FSPs) of Windows users in Active Directory who are authorized to use a desktop. Syntax vdmadmin -F [-b authentication_arguments] [-u domain\user] Usage Notes If you trust domains outside of your local domains, you allow access by security principals in the external domains to the local domains' resources.
Chapter 17 Using the vdmadmin Command Table 17-5. Health Monitors (Continued) Monitor Description TSMonitor Monitors the health of transfer servers. VCMonitor Monitors the health of vCenter servers. If a component has several instances, View Manager creates a separate monitor instance to monitor each instance of the component. The command outputs all information about health monitors and monitor instances in XML format.
VMware View Administration Options Table 17-7 shows the options that you can specify to list and display reports and views. Table 17-7. Options for Listing and Displaying Reports and Views Option Description -enddate yyyy-MM-dd-HH:mm:ss Specifies a upper limit for the date of information to be displayed. -list Lists the available reports and views. -report report Specifies a report. -startdate yyyy-MM-dd-HH:mm:ss Specifies a lower limit for the date of information to be displayed.
Chapter 17 Using the vdmadmin Command Table 17-8. Options for Assigning Dedicated Desktops Option Description -d desktop Specifies the name of the desktop pool. -m machine Specifies the name of the virtual machine. -r Removes an assignment to a specified user, or all assignments to a specified machine. -u domain\user Specifies the login name and domain of the user. Examples Assign the machine machine2 in the desktop pool dtpool1 to the user Jo in the CORP domain.
VMware View Administration Table 17-9. Options for Displaying Information About Machines Option Description -d desktop Specifies the name of the desktop pool. -m machine Specifies the name of the virtual machine. -u domain\user Specifies the login name and domain of the user. Examples Display information about the underlying machine for the desktop in the pool dtpool2 that is assigned to the user Jo in the CORP domain and format the output as XML using ASCII characters. vdmadmin -M -u CORP\Jo -d dt
Chapter 17 Using the vdmadmin Command Table 17-10. Options for Configuring Domain Filters (Continued) Option Description -domains Specifies a domain filter operation. -exclude Specifies an operation on a exclusion list. -include Specifies an operation on an inclusion list. -list Displays the domains that are configured in the search exclusion list, exclusion list, and inclusion list on each View Connection Server instance and for the View Connection Server group.
VMware View Administration View Manager limits the domain search on each View Connection Server host in the group to exclude the domains FARDOM and DEPTX. The characters (*) next to the exclusion list for CONSVR-1 indicates that View Manager excludes the YOURDOM domain from the results of the domain search on CONSVR-1. Display the domain filters in XML using ASCII characters.
Chapter 17 Using the vdmadmin Command Table 17-11. Types of Domain List Domain List Type Description Search exclusion list Specifies the domains that View Manager can traverse during an automated search. The search ignores domains that are included in the search exclusion list, and does not attempt to locate domains that the excluded domain trusts. You cannot exclude the primary domain from the search. Exclusion list Specifies the domains that View Manager excludes from the results of a domain search.
VMware View Administration Display the currently active domains after including the YOURDOM and DEPTX domains. C:\ vdmadmin -N -domains -list -active Domain Information (CONSVR) =========================== Primary Domain: MYDOM Domain: MYDOM DNS:mydom.mycorp.com Domain: YOURDOM DNS:yourdom.mycorp.com Domain: DEPTX DNS:deptx.mycorp.com View Manager applies the include list to the results of a domain search.
Chapter 17 Using the vdmadmin Command Domain: Domain: Domain: Domain: YOURDOM DNS:yourdom.mycorp.com DEPTX DNS:deptx.mycorp.com DEPTY DNS:depty.mycorp.com DEPTZ DNS:deptz.mycorp.com Extend the search exclusion list to exclude the DEPTX domain and all its trusted domains from the domain search for all View Connection Server instances in a group. Also, exclude the YOURDOM domain from being available on CONSVR-1.
VMware View Administration Primary Domain: MYDOM Domain: MYDOM DNS:mydom.mycorp.com Domain: YOURDOM DNS:yourdom.mycorp.com Displaying the Desktops and Policies of Unentitled Users Using the -O and -P Options You can use the vdmadmin command with the -O and -P options to display the desktops and policies that are assigned to users who are no longer entitled to use the system.
Chapter 17 Using the vdmadmin Command Examples Display the desktops that are assigned to unentitled users, grouped by desktop in text format. vdmadmin -O -ld Display desktops that are assigned to unentitled users, grouped by user, in XML format using ASCII characters. vdmadmin -O -lu -xml -n Apply your own stylesheet C:\tmp\unentitled-users.xsl and redirect the output to the file uu-output.html. vdmadmin -O -lu -xml -xsltpath "C:\tmp\unentitled-users.xsl" > uu-output.
VMware View Administration When you add a client in kiosk mode, View Manager creates a user account for the client in Active Directory. If you specify a name for a client, this name must start with the characters "custom-" or with one of the alternate strings that you can define in ADAM, and it cannot be more than 20 characters long. You should use each specified name with no more than one client device.
Chapter 17 Using the vdmadmin Command Table 17-14. Options for Configuring Clients in Kiosk Mode (Continued) Option Description -expirepassword Specifies that the expiry time for the password on client accounts is the same as for the View Connection Server group. If no expiry time is defined for the group, passwords do not expire. -force Disables the confirmation prompt when removing the account for a client in kiosk mode. -genpassword Generates a password for the client's account.
VMware View Administration Get the current default values for clients in XML format. vdmadmin -Q -clientauth -getdefaults -xml Add an account for a client specified by its MAC address to the MYORG domain, and use the default settings for the group kc-grp. vdmadmin -Q -clientauth -add -domain MYORG -clientid 00:10:db:ee:76:80 -group kc-grp Add an account for a client specified by its MAC address to the MYORG domain, and use an automatically generated password.
Chapter 17 Using the vdmadmin Command Password Generated: false Client Authentication Connection Servers ======================================== Common Name : CONSVR1 Client Authentication Enabled : false Password Required : false Common Name : CONSVR2 Client Authentication Enabled : true Password Required : false Displaying the First User of a Desktop Using the -R Option You can use the vdmadmin command with the -R option to find out the initial assignment of a managed desktop.
VMware View Administration 2 Remove the Adam Instance VMwareVDMDS program from the Windows Server computer by running the Add or Remove Programs tool. 3 On another View Connection Server instance, use the vdmadmin command to remove the entry for the uninstalled View Connection Server instance from the configuration.
Chapter 17 Using the vdmadmin Command Displaying Information About Users Using the -U Option You can use the vdmadmin command with the -U option to display detailed information about users. Syntax vdmadmin -U [-b authentication_arguments] -u domain\user [-w | -n] [-xml] Usage Notes The command displays information about a user obtained from Active Directory and View Manager. n Details from Active Directory about the user's account. n Membership of Active Directory groups.
VMware View Administration Options Table 17-15 shows the options that you must specify to decrypt a full virtual machine or one of its disks. Table 17-15. Options for Decrypting the Virtual Machine of a Local Desktop Option Description -d desktop Specifies the name of the desktop pool. -infile path_to_VM_file Specifies the path to the VMX or VMDK file for the local desktop's virtual machine. -u domain\user Specifies the domain and name of the local desktop's end user.
Chapter 17 Using the vdmadmin Command Options Table 17-16 shows the options that you can specify to unlock or lock virtual machines. Table 17-16. Options for Unlocking or Locking Virtual Machines Option Description -d desktop Specifies the desktop pool. -e Unlocks a virtual machine. -m machine Specifies the name of the virtual machine. -p Locks a virtual machine. -vcdn vCenter_dn Specifies the distinguished name of the vCenter Server.
VMware View Administration Table 17-17. Options for Detecting and Resolving LDAP Entry Collisions Option Description -collisions Specifies an operation for detecting LDAP collisions in a View Connection Server group. -resolve Resolves all detected LDAP collisions. Examples Detect LDAP entry collisions in a View Connection Server group. vdmadmin -X -collisions Detect and resolve LDAP entry collisions. vdmadmin -X -collisions -resolve 348 VMware, Inc.
Setting Up Clients in Kiosk Mode 18 You can set up unattended clients that can obtain access to their desktops from VMware View. A client in kiosk mode is a thin client or a lock-down PC that runs View Client to connect to a View Connection Server instance and launch a remote session. End users do not typically need to log in to access the client device, although the desktop might require them to provide authentication information for some applications.
VMware View Administration n Administrators, Inventory Administrators, or an equivalent role to use View Administrator to entitle users or groups to desktops. n Administrators or an equivalent role to run the vdmadmin command. Procedure 1 Prepare Active Directory and View Manager for Clients in Kiosk Mode on page 350 You must configure Active Directory to accept the accounts that you create to authenticate client devices.
Chapter 18 Setting Up Clients in Kiosk Mode 3 Configure the guest virtual machine so that the clients are not locked when they are left unattended. View suppresses the pre-login message for clients that connect in kiosk mode. If you require an event to unlock the screen and display a message, you can configure a suitable application on the guest virtual machine. 4 In View Administrator, create the desktop pool that the clients will use and entitle the group to this pool.
VMware View Administration Option Description -nogroup Clears the setting for the default group. -ou DN Specifies the distinguished name of the default organizational unit to which client accounts are added. For example: OU=kiosk-ou,DC=myorg,DC=com NOTE You cannot use the command to change the configuration of an organizational unit. The command updates the default values for clients in the View Connection Server group.
Chapter 18 Setting Up Clients in Kiosk Mode Add Accounts for Clients in Kiosk Mode You can use the vdmadmin command to add accounts for clients to the configuration of a View Connection Server group. After you add a client, it is available for use with a View Connection Server instance on which you have enabled authentication of clients. You can also update the configuration of clients, or remove their accounts from the system.
VMware View Administration Example: Adding Accounts for Clients Add an account for a client specified by its MAC address to the MYORG domain, using the default settings for the group kc-grp. vdmadmin -Q -clientauth -add -domain MYORG -clientid 00:10:db:ee:76:80 -group kc-grp Add an account for a client specified by its MAC address to the MYORG domain, using an automatically generated password.
Chapter 18 Setting Up Clients in Kiosk Mode Enable authentication of clients for the View Connection Server instance csvr-3, and require that the clients specify their passwords to View Client. Clients with automatically generated passwords cannot authenticate themselves. vdmadmin -Q -enable -s csvr-3 -requirepassword What to do next Verify the configuration of the View Connection Server instances and the clients.
VMware View Administration What to do next Verify that the clients can connect to their desktops. Connect to Desktops from Clients in Kiosk Mode You can run View Client from the command line or use a script to connect a client to a remote session. You would usually use a command script to run View Client on a deployed client device. For an example of a script that runs View Client on a Windows system, examine the file C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware View\Client\bin\kiosk_mode.cmd.
Chapter 18 Setting Up Clients in Kiosk Mode Procedure u To connect to a remote session, type the appropriate command for your platform. Option Description Windows Enter C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware View\Client\bin\wswc unattended [-serverURL connection_server] [-userName user_name] [-password password] Linux -password password Specifies the password for the client's account. If you defined a password for the account, you must specify this password.
VMware View Administration Run View Client on a Linux client using an assigned name and password. vmware-view -unattended -s 145.124.24.100 --once -u custom-Terminal21 -p "Secret1!" 358 VMware, Inc.
Running View Client from the Command Line 19 You can run View Client for Windows from the command line or from scripts. You might want to do this if you are implementing a kiosk-based application that grants end users access to desktop applications. You use the wswc command to run the View Client for Windows from the command line. The command includes options that you can specify to change the behavior of View Client.
VMware View Administration Table 19-1. View Client Command-Line Options (Continued) Option Description -connectUSBOnInsert Connects a USB device to the foreground desktop when you plug in the device. This option is implicitly set if you specify the -unattended option.
Chapter 19 Running View Client from the Command Line Table 19-1. View Client Command-Line Options (Continued) Option Description -unattended Runs View Client in a noninteractive mode that is suitable for clients in kiosk mode. You must also specify: n The account name of the client, if you did not generate the account name from the MAC address of the client device. The name must begin with the string “custom-” or an alternate prefix that you have configured in ADAM.
VMware View Administration Table 19-2. View Client Registry Settings Registry Setting Description DomainName Specifies the default domain name. EnableShade Specifies whether the menu bar (shade) at the top of the View Client window is enabled. The menu bar is enabled by default except for clients in kiosk mode. A value of false disables the menu bar. Password Specifies the default password. ServerURL Specifies the default View Connection Server instance by its URL, IP address, or FQDN.
Chapter 19 Running View Client from the Command Line Table 19-3. View Client Exit Codes (Continued) Exit Code Description 24 View Connection Server error. 25 Desktop was not available. VMware, Inc.
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Index A Active Directory preparing for clients in kiosk mode 350 preparing for smart card authentication 127 troubleshooting linked clones failing to join the domain 319 updating Foreign Security Principals of users 328 updating general user information 296 active sessions disconnecting 212 restarting 212 viewing 212 ADM Template file adding to a local system 179 adding to Active Directory 180 installing 179 ADM template files PCoIP session bandwidth settings 163 PCoIP Session Variables 157 View Agent Conf
VMware View Administration creating 72, 74 customizing desktops in maintenance mode 105 desktop settings 75, 106 desktop-naming example 103 maintenance mode 104, 105 naming desktops manually 100, 101 power policies 112, 113 using a desktop-naming pattern 100 worksheet for creating 72 automatic Windows updates, disabling 61 B backing up configuration backup settings 289 scheduling backups 288 View configuration data 287 View Connection Server 17 bandwidth reduction, Adobe Flash 210 base images determining
Index D dashboard, monitoring View components 292 Data Collection Tool bundles, creating for View Agent 305, 325 database restore, View Composer sviconfig 291 datastores sizing linked-clone pools 86 storage sizing table 86 storing linked clones and replicas 91, 92 DCT bundles, creating for View Agent 305, 325 dedicated-assignment pools assigning user ownership 212 choosing a user assignment type 100 maintenance mode 105 removing user assignments 213 user ownership 330 deduplication data transfers for local
VMware View Administration direct connections configuring 20 local desktops 262 Direct Interaction privilege 35 disjoint namespaces 223 disposable file redirection, paging-file size 68 disposable-data disks, linked-clone desktops 92 Do nothing policy 110 domain filters configuring 334 displaying 332 example of excluding domains 336 example of including domains 335 domains enumerating trusted 155 filter lists 332 drivers, installed on client systems for local desktops 245 E education resources 7 Enable Poo
Index GUIDs displaying for View Connection Server group 327 support in View Composer 82 KMS license keys, volume action on linked clones 66 Knowledge Base articles, where to find 308 H LDAP entries, detecting and resolving collisions 347 LDAP repository backing up 289 importing 290 licenses, adding to VMware View 296 linked-clone desktop creation choosing a naming pattern 102 choosing QuickPrep or Sysprep 83 customizing 83 data disk creation 92 desktop settings 82 setting the storage overcommit level 90
VMware View Administration best practices 246 changing the network type to bridged 269 configuring base-image caching on a proxy server 273 configuring client systems to use a caching proxy server 272 configuring SSL for local desktop operations 261 configuring the encryption key cipher 263, 264, 279 configuring the heartbeat interval for all client computers 273 configuring the heartbeat interval for one client computer 274 creation and deployment overview 243 data transfer deduplication and compression s
Index Manage Inventory (Read only) privilege 37 Manage Local Sessions privilege 36 Manage Persistent Disks privilege 36 Manage Pool privilege 36 Manage Reboot Operation privilege 36 Manage Remote Sessions privilege 36 Manage Roles and Permissions privilege 35 manage user persona, group policy settings 186 Manage user persona setting, configuring 181 manual desktop pools configuring a single desktop 95 creating 93, 94 desktop settings 96, 106 worksheet for creating 93 Message Bus Component service 294 messa
VMware View Administration deleting 30 viewing 27 persistent disks attaching 200 creating 75 deleting detached disks 202 detaching 200 editing the pool or user 201 importing from a vSphere datastore 202 linked-clone desktops 92 Persona Management 185 recreating a desktop 201 storage sizing formulas for editing pools 88, 89 understanding 199 View Composer 199 persona management, configuring and managing 175 Persona Management best practices 183 configuration overview 176 configuring a deployment 176 creatin
Index registry settings for View Client 361 settings for wswc command 361 registry backup (RegIdleBackup), disabling 62 Remote Desktop connections disabling RDP 110 enabling 48 Remote Desktop Users group 48 remote desktops compared to local desktops 241 configuring a secure tunnel connection 262 creating 247 locking and unlocking 346 logging off 245 setting replication policies 258 USB redirection problems 315 user-initiated rollback setting 140 remote repository, configuring 177 remote sessions privileges
VMware View Administration smart cards exporting user certificates 123 using to authenticate 121 using with local desktops 122 solid-state disks, storing View Composer replicas 91 split limit, displaying and setting for View Transfer Server 344 SSL enabling for client connections 17, 18 local desktop operations 261, 262 SSL certificates, See certificates SSO enabling for offline desktop operations 18 group policy settings 143, 146 setting a timeout limit 21 storage overcommit, linked clones 90, 91 storetyp
Index unlocking remote desktops 346 View Transfer Server instances 346 unmanaged desktop sources adding to a pool 219 defined 41 installing View Agent 41 preparing for desktop delivery 41 removing from a pool 220 unregistering 221 unregistering desktop sources 221 Update Service, disabling 61 updating linked-clone desktops correcting an unsuccessful recomposition 197 desktop recomposition 193 UPHClean service, using with Persona Management 179 UPNs, smart card users 127 USB devices, group policy settings 1
VMware View Administration migrating the service to another computer 296 restoring configuration data 290 restoring the database 291 scheduling backups 288 View Composer persistent disks attaching 200 deleting detached 202 detaching 200 editing the pool or user 201 importing from vSphere 202 management overview 199 storage sizing formulas 88 storage sizing formulas for editing pools 89 understanding 199 View Composer troubleshooting collecting diagnostic information 306 correcting an unsuccessful recomposi
Index virtual machines creating templates 69 custom configuration parameters 46 customization failures 315 desktop status 214 disabling Windows 7 services 57 displaying information about 331 installing guest operating system 47 managing 205, 212 preparing for desktop deployment 45 stuck in Provisioning state 314 Virtual Printing, View Agent custom option 51 virtual profiles, See persona management VMware Server virtual machines, preparing for desktop delivery 41 VMware ThinApp integrating with View Manager
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