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Horizon View Events Notifier Free Tool

Sun, 18 Aug 2013 15:34:21 +0000

My VMware colleague Chris Halstead (@chrisdhalsted), EUC Senior Systems Engineer, just released a new free tool that will help VMware Horizon View administrators to become a little bit more hands-off.

Horizon View Events Notifier allow administrators to set up alert and notifications, such as Warnings and Audit failures. The tool utilizes SMTP and allows for addition of multiple addresses in the alert recipients field.

Horizon View now creates a folder for your replicas

Wed, 17 Jul 2013 14:30:26 +0000

Sometimes small changes and improvements can go unnoticed by me until I actually get hands on and deploy the new release of the product in my lab. Today I noticed something that you may have already noticed if you are a Horizon View administrator. I'm not sure if this improvement has been included in Horizon View 5.1 or 5.2; but it is quite handy and help to keep things organized.

Deployment Options for vCenter Server in a Horizon View Pod [video]

Mon, 08 Jul 2013 16:10:30 +0000

Starting in Horizon View 5.2, you can use a single vCenter Server to manage up to 10,000 desktops in a single Horizon View pod. VMware delivered this innovation in response to multiple requests from customers and partners.

Using a single vCenter Server, you can build a simple infrastructure that provides a single place to manage master images, fewer back-end databases and database servers, and a single vSphere Web interface to match the View Administrator interface. A single vCenter Server deployment drastically simplifies management.

Desktops in ‘Already Used’ State in Horizon View

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 13:24:00 +0000

An article by Jack McMichael (@jackmc4)

Starting in View 4.6, a state was added to VMware View to deal with a nagging issue for some administrators who wanted to ensure that a desktop was always clean and never previously used - the introduction of the 'Already Used' state. The issue is simple, a user logs into a non-persistent desktop and something horrible goes wrong. Perhaps a Windows blue screen or an abnormal crash of the View Agent, but ultimately something that left the virtual machine in an unusable state until rebooted.

Reduce Windows Server License count in VMware View

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 14:04:12 +0000

One of the many features available in VMware View 5.1 is the ability to implement VMware View Composer in a Standalone Server. VMware View Composer is the software piece responsible for creating Linked Clone desktops and since VMware View 5.1 can be deployed on a server other than the vCenter Server. Read more about View Composer at VMware View 4.5 Linked Cloning explained. This move is aiming towards a highly scalable VMware View architecture.

View VSA Recompose Time Issue & Workaround

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 12:10:21 +0000

The View Storage Accelerator (aka VSA or CBRC) feature is part of vSphere 5 and later and is used by VMware View. VSA helps to address some of the performance bottlenecks and the increase storage cost for VDI. CBRC is a 100% host-based RAM-Based caching solution that helps to reduce read IOs issued to the storage subsystem and thus improves scalability while being completely transparent to guest OSs.

View Connection Server with Windows 2008 R2 Core

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 05:25:05 +0000

Fellow VMware colleague Jack McMichael posted an interesting article about how to install a VMware View Connection Server using a Windows 2009 R2 Server Core installation.

If you are not familiar, the Server Core option is a minimal installation option that is available when you are deploying the Standard, Enterprise, or Datacenter edition of Windows Server 2008. Server Core provides you with a minimal installation of Windows Server 2008 that supports installing only certain server roles. Contrast this with the Full installation option for Windows Server 2008, which supports installing all available server roles and also other Microsoft or third-party server applications, such as Microsoft Exchange Server or SAP. The Server Core installation also doesn't provide a graphical UI by default.

How to use VMware View PowerCLI with PowerShell 3.0

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 07:10:21 +0000

Whilst VMware View Connection Server does offer support for Windows Server 2008 R2 and R2 SP1, only PowerShell 2.0 is supported with the View PowerCLI cmdlets. The PowerShell 2.0 may offer all the functions an administrator may need, but you might want to utilize the newer PowerShell 3.0 that is available for download from Microsoft Download Center.

VMware View Agent Direct-Connection Plugin Explained

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 14:30:43 +0000

VMware View Agent Direct-Connection Plugin (VADC-Plugin) is a new extension to VMware View environments which is installed on the virtual desktops to support direct connections from any VMware View client without requirement to go through a View Connection Server or View Security Server.

VMFS File Locking in VMware View 5.1 [WhitePaper]

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 06:34:00 +0000

VMware Technical Staff Jubish Jose has produced a detailed technical white paper that provides a thorough understanding of how VMFS File Locking mechanism impacts VMware View when used with View Composer to create Linked Clones.

It’s definitely an interesting reading, but as Duncan Epping points out “is that in vSphere 5.1 this “file sharing limit” has been increased from 8 to 32 for VMFS Datastores”. Cormac Hogan also wrote about this a while ago. VMware View does not yet support the new VMFS storage improvements that removes the 8 host limit for VMFS (only NFS).

View Storage Accelerator in VMware View 5.1 [WhitePaper]

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 17:13:00 +0000

VMware Staff engineer Sivaprasad Govindankutty has produced a very detailed technical white paper that provides a thorough understanding of how the content-based read cache (CBRC)
functions with vSphere 5.0, and how it is integrated in VMware View 5.1. It will also provide a detailed explanation of configuring View Storage Accelerator (also known as Host Caching) for View desktops.

VMware View Naming Pattern

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 11:00:12 +0000

Administrators can provision the desktops in an automated pool by manually specifying a list of desktop names or by providing a naming pattern and the number of desktops they want in the pool. These two approaches offer different advantages.

If you name desktops by specifying a list, you can use your company's naming scheme, and you can associate each desktop name with a user. If you provide a naming pattern, View Manager can dynamically create and assign desktops as users need them.

Setting VMware View Desktop State Remotely

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 17:09:10 +0000

Automation has been always the best friend of good System Administrators. Automating repetitive tasks is a key enabler in most IT environments. However, VMware View has some known limitations when talking about automation and remote management.

Besides the Graphical User Interface, local PowerCLI is the only supported management methodology. I say local PowerCLI because none of the VMware View PowerCLI cmdlets allow remote management today. I have previously demonstrated how to use VMware.View.Broker PSSnap-In to configure WinRM sessions and execute remote View PowerCLI (here). It is possible to remotely execute PowerCLI cmdlets using New-PSSession as I demonstrated in my previous post and in the example below.

PCoIP Configuration Utility Release – Version 1.0

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 17:50:26 +0000

My colleague Chuck Hirstius @rexremus strikes back, launching version 1.0 of his PCoIP Configuration Utility.

PCoIP Configuration Utility allow users to create personalized PCoIP profiles and apply those profiles to the current PCoIP configuration. Users could setup PCoIP to operate better in LAN or WAN environment; or mimic XenDesktop ICA compression. Additionally, the tool allow users and administrator to monitor PCoIP performance in real-time while connected to the desktops.

How to Disable the View Portal on VMware View 5.1

Mon, 17 Sep 2012 08:55:18 +0000

From a client system, users can open a browser and browse to a View Connection Server instance. The Web page that appears is called View Portal, and it contains links for downloading the installer file for View Client. Users can use View Portal to download the full View Client installer for both Windows and Mac client computers. Administrators can also configure settings so that the links on View Portal point to a different location than the VMware Download page.

VMware View Composer Silent Install

Tue, 11 Sep 2012 16:13:01 +0000

A while ago someone asked me if there was an easy way to automate the deployment of VMware View Composer. The good news is that it is possible to parameterize the deployment. Below you will find a run down of the properties available to deploy VMware View Composer. Some parameters and features are available in the official documentation but some others are undocumented. For the undocumented items you may use it on your own risk as they are not supported by VMware.

Changing Port on PCoIP Gateway

Wed, 05 Sep 2012 09:30:38 +0000

For multiple different reasons organizations may want to change the Default ports used by VMware View. I have previously explained how to modify VMWare View default HTTP/HTTPS ports using the locked.properties file in my article Modifying VMware View Network Ports.

The HTTP/HTTPS listener is part of the sslgateway component, which also supports SSL tunneling. To configure the listening port, create or edit the file %programfiles%\vmware\vmware view\server\sslgateway\conf\locked.properties

Space-Efficient Sparse Virtual Disks and VMware View

Tue, 04 Sep 2012 08:05:28 +0000

VMware is about to release vSphere 5.1. This new release is bringing many improvements to the vSphere storage architecture, but I would like specifically to discuss the changes to the virtual disk format and how it will impact VMware View implementations when using Linked Clones. Cormac Hogan wrote What’s New in VMware vSphere® 5.1 – Storage and I am basing my discussion on his paper.

VMware View Recompose and MAC Address

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 09:58:47 +0000

This week I answered to this question to someone on Twitter and then I saw it again at VMware internal forums.

- How to persist MAC Address during recompose operations?

Persisting MAC address during Linked Clone recompose operations is critical for many organizations. The ability to persist MAC address is directly related to the ability to automatically place desktops in specific VLANs, license applications that require MAC address registration, re-register an already existing IP address that has been recomposed with an existing MAC address automatically via DNS and DHCP, or even if for any reason you require to spoof MAC addresses in your network (yes, I have seen this one).

CBRC and Local Mode in VMware View 5.1

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 16:18:08 +0000

This is a quick post.

In the last couple weeks I have seen two customer and partner email threads discussing the use of CBRC and Local Mode in VMware View 5.1.

After reading this excellent blog post from Narasimha Krishnakumar, Staff Product Manager, one of our partners asked the following question:

VMware vCenter Server scalability for VMware View

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 12:03:00 +0000

When talking about vCenter Server, VMware View administrators frequently ask questions about the scalability differences between desktop and server workloads. vCenter Server 5.0 has a documented scalability of 10,000 virtual machines. However, VMware View 5.0 has a documented scalability of 2,000 desktops. As of VMware View 5.1 few things changed, as noted below.

Large View Deployment with vCenter Operations Manager PlugIn

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 09:00:15 +0000

During EMC World 2012 the Hands-On Labs about 20,000 VMs were created and destroyed. Each Hands-On Lab is an individual vCloud VApp instantiated on-demand and it contains the essential VMs for the Hands-On Lab. Additionally, each Hands-On Lab has a Windows 7 VM with View Agent that is manually added to a VMware View deployment to allow desktop brokering and PCoIP access.

View Storage Accelerator Performance Benchmark

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 12:07:23 +0000

EMC has recently conducted some VMware View 5.1 validation tests with their VSPEX pre-validated architecture. As part of the validation tests EMC also captured some awesome performance data where we can clearly see the benefits delivered by the new View Storage Accelerator feature.

Things you didn’t know about PCoIP in View 5.1

Wed, 30 May 2012 11:45:15 +0000

Over 20 different performance optimizations have been added to PCoIP display protocol in VMware View 5.1. Some of those optimizations you will find in VMware View 5.1 Continues to Improve User Experience by Tony Huynh, and some more in View 5.1 Performance from the VMware Performance Team.

New vCenter Operation Limits in VMware View 5.1

Tue, 29 May 2012 09:40:28 +0000

The Concurrent Operations Limits for vCenter Server and View Composer have changed. VMware vCenter and View Composer Advanced Settings allow administrators to specify the maximum concurrent number of provisioning, power and maintenance operations. In View 5.0 only power and provisioning concurrent operations were available for configuration via the user Interface.

A Review of VMware View 5.1 Limits and Maximums

Thu, 17 May 2012 12:15:12 +0000

Giving continuity to my VMware View Limits and Maximums series (VMware View 4.0 | VMware View 5.0) I am now releasing an updated version for VMware View 5.1.

As an administrator or architect you should always make sure that your sizing's are within VMware View Maximums and Limits in order to be entitled to VMware Support.

Sizing for VMware View Storage Accelerator (CBRC)

Wed, 02 May 2012 08:10:39 +0000

As VMware View 5.1 launches administrators will start to trial the new View release, and in special they will test the benefits of View Storage Accelerator. This article is focused in helping administrators to properly size hosts and storage for use with CBRC.

What’s New in VMware View 5.1 (Beyond Marketing)

Wed, 02 May 2012 08:00:55 +0000

VMware has just announced VMware View 5.1 and has also lifted the NDA. Despite being a .1 release the VMware View team added a significant number of features that improve VMware View performance, scalability and user experience.

Following the format of my previous article What’s New in VMware View 5.0 (beyond Marketing) I am going to introduce some of the new features that don’t necessarily make to the marketing press release but also represent major product improvements.