How to use Novell with VMware View
Since VMware View does only support Microsoft Active Directory Service as directory service, Novell eDirectory users need another way to get their environment working with the VMware virtual desktop infrastructure. First of all you will definitely need an Active Directory to integrate the View Manager with so that the users can logon and get authenticated. To get the users from the eDirectory in sync with the Active Directory you should use the standard Novell tools.
To run your login scripts, network and printer mappings from your Novell environment you have to install the Novell Client on the virtual desktop. In my test installation I’ve used the client in version 4.91 SP5 and installed the software before the VMware View agent. This is important to get the GINA chaining working properly. You should install the Novell client in the Custom Installation mode that you can decide which options to be chosen.
When it comes to the components be sure that Novell Distributed Print Service is unchecked and continue installation.
Please check both, the NMAS authentication and also NICI. Uncheck the NetIdendity Agent.
At the network protocol screen please choose IP only and click on next.
Choose your login authenticator and press Next again.
Finish the installation.
After the installation the Novell Client requires and reboot which you should do. After restarting the desktop the login GINA is changed to the Novell one. Please login here with you Windows login credentials and choose the Windows authentication.
Now you can install the VMware View Agent and select the features you want to use with your desktop.
When the agent was installed successfully please open the Windows Registry Editor (regedit.exe) and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Novell\Login. Create two new string values here. The first one is DefaultLocationProfile which needs to be set to Default and the second is TSClientAutoAdminLogon which needs to bet set to 1.
Logoff from the virtual desktop now and entitle the desktop to a user. Since I’ve just installed a test server for Novell eDirectory I’ve no user/password sync setup. I’ve created my test user in the Active Directory and eDirectory and set the same password then pre-configured the Novell Client with the Novell Server and Tree name.
The following videos shows how it looks like when logging on to a VMware View desktop with integrated Novell Client and working GINA cascading:
VMware View & Novell eDirectory from Christoph on Vimeo.
Added 17.06.2009: It is necessary that the context for the user is pre-configured in the registry when not using context-free login. Otherwise the Novell login dialog will come up and state that the username/password combination is wrog or the user was not found in the specific context. I’ve also worked on the Zenworks integration for a while and seen that it is possible to integrate it but it seems that there are some issues. Possibly just a configuration mistake but I don’ t really know. I managed the DLU but the roaming user profile fails.
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