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Join me for the Varrow Madness

Mon, 10 Mar 2014 18:30:51 +0000

Varrow Madness 2014

If you are not sure what to do next week you should register and attend the Varrow Madness in Charlotte, NC. The event is happening on March 20th.

If you are not familiar with Varrow you should check out their website. In a nutshell, "Varrow provides world-class technology solutions through advanced consulting and design services from the industry's most talented engineers."

PCoIP Log Viewer for Horizon View 5.3 Available

Thu, 16 Jan 2014 07:06:15 +0000

My dear VMware friend Chuck Hirstius @rexremus and blogger at http://mindfluxinc.net released a new version of his PCoIP Log Viewer tool for Horizon View 5.3.

I have been using his tool for a long time and it has definitely helped me to understand PCoIP behaviors for a given virtual desktop based on complex logging information and WMI stats provided in Horizon View.

Here is why your Horizon View deployment is not performing to it's max!

Mon, 16 Dec 2013 14:30:32 +0000

In Horizon View 5.1, VMware introduced a feature called PhoneHome. PhoneHome is an opt-In option for anonymous usage statistics collection. All data is anonymized and untraceable, and phonehome will collect information on versions, features used, system architecture choices and deployment scale. This information is used by VMware to provide better support and enhance to the most popular features. In addition to that VMware can use this data collection to better align research and development priorities to match the way customer are actually using Horizon View.

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.

How to enable vCOps Manager functionality with Windows Server 2008 R2 Desktops

Mon, 09 Dec 2013 09:00:32 +0000

Windows Server 2008 R2 is now supported as desktop operating system with Horizon View 5.3 (here). As most of you probably know Microsoft does not provide SPLA licensing model (Service Provider Level Agreement) for Windows desktop operating systems (Windows 7, 8 and 8.1) to allow enterprise customers and service providers to create Desktop-as-a-Service offerings using enterprise grade VDI solutions such as Horizon View. However, Windows Server 2008 does provide SPLA licensing model enabling alignment with Microsoft licensing terms.

Getting Deeper with View Agent Direct-Connection [Video]

Mon, 02 Dec 2013 08:40:15 +0000

In this new 24 minute video VMware Senior Staff Engineer Mark Benson, describes View Agent Direct-Connection in Horizon View 5.3. VADC allows any View Client to connect to a View desktop without using a View Connection Server.

This can be useful for some specific use cases where the use of View Connection Server is either not possible or not practical. Examples include branch office deployments, DaaS multi-tenancy deployments and simple 1:1 cases where full brokering is not needed.

Using View Agent Direct-Connection Video

Fri, 29 Nov 2013 10:41:56 +0000

VMware Sr. Staff Engineer, Mark Benson, has just published a very informative blog post about using View Agent Direct-Connection in Horizon View 5.3; here is the link to the article. I have also previously written about VADC in details, VMware View Agent Direct-Connection Plugin Explained (here) and VMware View Agent Direct-Connection Plugin NAT/PNAT (here).

Horizon View 5.3 is GA and Here is What You need to Know!

Thu, 21 Nov 2013 19:42:29 +0000

term:GA (General Availability)

Horizon View 5.3 is available for download now (here).

Here is everything you need to know about Horizon View 5.3:

Amazon vs VMware, how VMware empowers the UX!

Fri, 15 Nov 2013 10:39:13 +0000

If you are an avid reader of my blog you will know that for the most part I don’t publish competitive analysis or talk about VMware competitors. However I feel that I need to give some attention to this subject and make you aware of the major end-user experience differences between running pure PCoIP and PCoIP with the Horizon View stack.

PernixData FVP accelerate your Horizon View deployment

Mon, 11 Nov 2013 12:02:10 +0000

I recently spent couple days testing PernixData FVP caching solution in my home lab. Before I talk about FVP let me talk about my home lab. My home lab is not very fancy if compared to some of my vExpert colleagues, especially since it’s three years old hardware. It’s a white-box with a Gigabyte X58A-UD5 motherboard, 12GB RAM Kingston DDR3 2000Mhz and a Intel iCore7 960 processor clocked at 3.20 GHz. For internal storage I have a SSD Kingston 128GB SSDNow V+ and an external IOmega IX4-200 2TB. I boot ESXi 5.1 from a USB stick.

Don’t dismiss the huge benefits of Linked Clones!

Sun, 10 Nov 2013 17:21:34 +0000

Did you know that the quote ‘With great power comes great responsibility” is not an original quote crafted by Ben, the uncle of our Spidey friend? In fact, the quote was first coined by François-Marie Arouet (Voltaire) in 1832.

A Review of Horizon View 5.3 Limits and Maximums

Sun, 27 Oct 2013 16:55:02 +0000

Giving continuity to my Horizon View Limits and Maximums series (VMware View 4.0 | VMware View 5.0 | Horizon View 5.2) I am now releasing an updated version for Horizon View 5.3.

As an administrator or architect you should always ensure your designs are within the product’s Maximums and Limits in order to be entitled to VMware Support.

New vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View (V4V) Tech and Video

Wed, 23 Oct 2013 12:40:36 +0000

During VMworld Barcelona 2013 VMware announced the bundling of vCenter Operations Manager with the Horizon View Suite, at no additional cost. In my opinion this awesome given that vCOps has helped me to troubleshoot View deployments numerous times.

vCOPS offers performance and operations management for deployments of any size, production monitoring, advanced problem warning, faster time to resolution and complete infrastructure coverage. The new vCOPS 5.8, also announced during VMworld, uses intelligent operations with policy-based automation, where the automation engine is self-learning and regulates and drives remediation actions continuously.

Horizon View 5.3 and VMware VSAN Setup Video

Tue, 15 Oct 2013 00:33:06 +0000

VSAN reduces CAPEX for Horizon View deployments by leveraging inexpensive server disks for shared storage, avoiding the capital expense of specialized hardware. VSAN helps to reduce OPEX by greatly simplifying, and in most cases eliminating, day-to-day storage configuration and provisioning activities, yet allowing administrators to scale Horizon View deployments on-demand by adding hosts on the fly or hot-adding disks to existing server nodes.

Horizon View support and interoperability with Horizon Mirage

Tue, 15 Oct 2013 00:22:03 +0000

It took a little while, but the Horizon Mirage support for Horizon View is here!

In the context of VDI, Mirage offers centralized image management, and end-point backup and restoration, but it is important to remember that Mirage is also a great tool to manage physical end-points.

What’s New in VMware Horizon View 5.3 (Beyond Marketing)

Tue, 15 Oct 2013 00:01:13 +0000

It’s that time again! VMware just announced VMware Horizon View 5.3 and has also lifted the NDA. Despite being only a 'dot' release the Horizon View team added a significant number of features that provide improvements in the areas of performance, user experience and management.