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How to Launch Horizon View Standalone sessions via vmware-view URI

Tue, 10 Dec 2013 08:00:47 +0000

Launching Horizon View Client and pointing it to different Connection Servers despite unsupported by VMware is somewhat well known at this point in time. I blogged about it a while back in my article VMware View 4.5 Command Line Usage.

However, the '-standalone' switch can only be issued from the Windows command-line, and I recently have been asked about launching multiple sessions against different Horizon View environments using the vmware-view URI. Coincidentally, there was at similar timeframe an internal VMware thread discussing the subject.

In order to change the Horizon View client when launching it via URI just add the '-standlone' switch to the Windows registry entry responsible for launching the client via URI. On the client device look for HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\vmware-view\shell\open\command] and change make the appropriate changes as described below.

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\vmware-view\shell\open\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\VMware\\VMware View\\Client\\bin\\wswc.exe\" \"%1\""
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\VMware\\VMware View\\Client\\bin\\wswc.exe\" \"%1\" \"-standalone\""

Now all you have to do is launch the desktop using the vmware-uri with your favorite browser. Below you will find an example, but if you are not familiar with Horizon View Client URI I recommend reading VMware View Client URI Scheme by Simon Long.

vmware-view://administrator@BROKER_IP_ADDRESS/management?action=startsession

This article was first published by Andre Leibovici (@andreleibovici) at myvirtualcloud.net.

VMware Horizon View: Using Webcams and Microphones

Thu, 03 Oct 2013 14:59:05 +0000

With release of Horizon View 5.2, VMware announced support for Real-Time Audio-View as part of the Feature Pack 2 (find the release notes here). Peter Brown and Tarique Chowdhury provided some quick tips, guidance and configuration tips in their article Real-Time Audio-Video (RTAV) for Horizon View. I also wrote an article entitled Understanding Horizon View Real-Time Audio-Video (RTAV) a little while back that I recommend reading.

What's New and What's Next for Horizon View

Mon, 30 Sep 2013 12:34:20 +0000

During VMworld 2013, Ravi Kumar and I presented a session entitled "What's New and What's Next for Horizon View". In this session we discussed few aspects about what users and administrators should expect from Horizon View in the future.

In this session I took brief time to diagram and explain each of Horizon View components from a modularity perspective and how we are moving to a more decoupled architecture. Below you will find a short excerpt of this presentation that discuss few of the challenges and opportunities for Horizon View and the Software Defined Datacenter moving forward.

PoSh automation for Horizon View manual pools

Tue, 24 Sep 2013 07:42:28 +0000

Automation is system administrator’s best friend. Automating repetitive tasks is a key enabler in most IT environments. Whilst many of the desktop pool administrative tasks in Horizon View can be made via PowerShell, not all objects are exposed.

The POSH scripts below were created by VMware's Jedi Master Engineer Mike Pryor and they allow administrators to manage a Horizon View Manual Pool via PoSh, providing methods to add and remove desktops.

Simple Method to Deliver Multi-Tenant VDI with vCloud Director

Thu, 05 Sep 2013 15:08:00 +0000

In this article I will show you how you can easily create a multi-tenant Horizon View solution integrated with vCloud Director. The interesting thing about this model is that I don't see any reasons for not being supported by VMware, but please not I am not saying it is supported. Please talk to your Sales rep.

VMware Tech Preview: Project Orcha

Tue, 27 Aug 2013 08:16:14 +0000

After the announcement I'm now allowed to talk about one of the technologies I have been working on in the Office of the CTO EUC at VMware.

Project Orcha is a technique to automatically and seamlessly enable access to any file or document within Horizon Workspace while on a tablet or a laptop/desktop computer using a Horizon View instance. Project Orcha triggers a workflow that seamlessly opens the file in a Horizon View desktop and remotes the user interface back to the tablet.

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 + GPU + APEX + Leap Motion

Thu, 15 Aug 2013 16:07:31 +0000

Just thought would be nice to share this little video recorded by Gunnar Berger, a Gartner Analyst (@gunnarwb). In the video Gunnar uses a Horizon View VDI session with PCoIP, plus NVIDIA GPU and a Teradici APEX acceleration card. Nothing new here, except that he added a Leap Motion making it a cool demo!

How to improve VDI with Hardware Accelerated 3D Graphics

Mon, 12 Aug 2013 08:57:31 +0000

I am constantly receiving questions about graphic performance in virtual desktops. This blog post will help you to better understand the 3D graphics state of affairs for VMware Horizon View 5.2.

Broadly speaking most leading VDI solutions on the market today are all talking about delivering new advanced 3D capabilities. VMware was the first company to virtualize 3D graphics with VMware Workstation and Fusion and in recent years has introduced this 3D technology in vSphere to be leveraged for VDI use cases.

New VMware vCOps for Horizon View 1.5 Architecture DeepDive

Sun, 04 Aug 2013 18:50:01 +0000

VMware recently published an article describing the new functions and features on VMware vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View 1.5. Here is the original article, but in summary:

Easier Installation
Greater Scalability

Previous versions of vC Ops for View were limited to a single environment of no more than about 3,000 desktops. To monitor more desktops, you had only two choices. You could monitor a subset (pool level generally) of the virtual desktop machines, or you could install an additional instance of vC Ops for View. This was limiting because multiple vC Ops for View monitoring environments were fragmented and did not provide a “single pane of glass” for monitoring, management, and control.

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.

Understanding Horizon View Flash URL Redirection

Fri, 12 Jul 2013 06:55:28 +0000

VMware just announced a new Horizon View feature called Flash URL Redirection that enables users to stream live Flash video optimally through VDI sessions (find the release notes here). When using the Flash redirection the URL is redirected to the client endpoint when a user clicks on a live webcast URL link.

Understanding Horizon View Real-Time Audio-Video (RTAV)

Fri, 12 Jul 2013 06:41:43 +0000

VMware announced today support for Real-Time Audio-View as part of the VMware Horizon View 5.2 Feature Pack 2 (find the release notes here). Peter Brown and Tarique Chowdhury provided some quick tips, guidance and configuration tips in their article Real-Time Audio-Video (RTAV) for Horizon View. Great work!

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.

My VMworld 2013 Sessions and Comments

Mon, 08 Jul 2013 10:29:55 +0000

The VMworld 2013 Content Catalog is out now and speakers are starting to gear up for the conference, preparing their decks, demos and rehearsing their talks.

One thing that not many know is that VMware is offering a special speaker’s training for Non-VMware employees with selected sessions. So, as always, I expect sessions to have an even higher bar in terms of stage presence and presentation engagement.

Open letter to non-persistent VDI fanboys...

Mon, 24 Jun 2013 08:20:27 +0000

An article that recently sparked my interest was authored by Harry Labana on Brian Madden’s blog entitled “Searching for a new way to enable non-persistent VDI. Can we leapfrog traditional PC management?”. I was suddenly taken back to early 2011, when I wrote an article entitled “Floating Pools are the way to go….”.

Linked Clone Ad hoc space reclamation from allocated unused disk space

Thu, 20 Jun 2013 13:13:32 +0000

Horizon View 5.2 leverages a new vSphere capability that implements a new disk format for VMs on VMFS that allow for grain reduction size & more efficiently utilization of allocated blocks by filling it with real data. Unused space is reclaimed and Linked Clone desktops stay small.

How to: Windows Server 2012 RDS with Horizon View

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 12:20:53 +0000

Horizon View Connection Server authenticates users through Windows Active Directory and directs the request to the appropriate virtual machine, physical or blade PC, or Windows Terminal Services server. You can use Microsoft Terminal Servers to provide Terminal Services sessions as desktops to View clients.

Troubleshooting: MS Lync 2013 with View Integration

Wed, 29 May 2013 13:38:34 +0000

Following up on the announcement for Microsoft Lync 2013 with Horizon View support I have been asked to cover a little bit more on how to stand up and troubleshoot the solution. If you are not yet familiar with the solution make sure you read my article How It Works – Microsoft Lync 2013 with View Integration.

ThinPrint: What's New in Horizon View 5.2

Fri, 17 May 2013 14:11:14 +0000

After publishing What’s New in VMware Horizon View 5.2 (Beyond Marketing) I received the same question multiple times from different customers and colleagues in regards to the following excerpt from my article.

A new Print Redirection codebase has been introduced that supports Windows 8, and also fixes a number of outstanding issues.

How to enable USB 3.0 in Horizon View 5.2

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 12:55:58 +0000

USB 3.0 is capable of transfer speeds of up to 5Gbps (gigabits per second); that's a little over 10 times faster than USB 2.0's 480Mbps. In practice, it won't always be this much faster — mileage may vary depending on hardware configuration — but it will always be much faster than USB 2.0 (USB 2.0 vs USB 3.0)

3D Software Rendering with View 5.2... What's Changing!

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 09:00:52 +0000

When VMware View 5.1 was release I wrote about the changes to storage and memory footprint when the 3D software rendering option was enabled.

Just to recap:

How to: Horizon View and vCloud Director multi-tenant DaaS

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 09:30:08 +0000

Services Providers and large customers with requirement for multi-tenant Desktop-as-a-Service frequently ask me how would be possible to integrate Horizon View and vCloud Director and get both technologies to work together. As of today, the official VMware answer is – this is not supported.

How It Works - Microsoft Lync 2013 with View Integration

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 08:10:00 +0000

Horizon View 5.2 provides Microsoft Lync 2013 client support, including full support for UC VoIP and Video on both RDP and PCoIP. This new feature enable a tighter integration between Microsoft Lync and Office applications with full collaboration capabilities.

How to change Horizon View SESparse to VMFSSparse

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 17:30:00 +0000

In my article Clearing up Space-Efficient Virtual Disk questions I explained the most important requirements and constraints when the new SESparse VMDK disk format with Horizon View 5.2.

Just in cased you missed it:

This new feature requires vSphere 5.1 as well as hardware version 9 for the VMs.
The Space Efficient format is only for for linked clone pools; and only for the OS disk.
Horizon View automatically chooses the space efficient format when possible and there is no official way to change this behavior.
The Space Efficient Format is not yet supported for Windows 8.
The space reclamation process is kicked off automatically by Horizon View when the reclaimable space for the VM exceeds the threshold set by the administrator.
The space reclamation statistics (reclaimed amount, reclaimed time) are displayed in the Pool Summary, and Desktop Summary.
SESparse disks ARE COMPATIBILE with the Horizon View Storage Accelerator technology from View 5.1 / vSphere 5.

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.

Horizon View Multi-VLAN Explained

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 09:40:51 +0000

I am happy to finally be able to scratch this item from my list of missing View features.

Support for Multi-VLAN

In Horizon View 5.2 it is possible to configure an automated pool to use multiple VLANS or network labels. Administrators can assign multiple network labels to a linked-clone pool or an automated pool that contains full virtual machines.

Clearing up Space-Efficient Virtual Disk questions

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 16:34:00 +0000

Horizon View 5.2 make use of the new Space-Efficient Sparse Virtual Disks available in vSphere 5.1. I previously wrote about it in Space-Efficient Sparse Virtual Disks and VMware View and announced the new Horizon View 5.2 feature at What’s New in VMware Horizon View 5.2 (Beyond Marketing).

View Storage Accelerator and View Storage Tiering [NOW Supported]

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 16:40:43 +0000

[important]Some things are worth fighting for... specially when they help customers.[/important]

Back in November 2012 I blogged about an unsupported combination of VMware View features (View Storage Accelerator and View Storage Tiering). The question had originally been raised by a colleague, pointing to an article published on the End-User Computing Blog http://blogs.vmware.com/euc/2012/05/view-storage-accelerator-in-practice.html that clearly states “Use of View Storage Accelerator is not supported when View Replica Tiering is enabled”.

A Review of Horizon View 5.2 Limits and Maximums

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 07:45:31 +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 Horizon View 5.2.