Archive for December, 2009
ThinApp: Multiple instances of an application
Have you ever tried to run the same ThinApp application several times? No? Correct! It will not work. There is a way to do it and you’ll find the solution on the newest ThinApp blog article.
What’s the SviInternalDisk?
People on the forums were asking what the SviInternalDisk is and to be honest I didn’t have a clue. After some researching and talking to the right people I finally got the answer. When using linked clones from View Composer version 2.0 on there are three hard disks created. The OSDisk, SviDataDisk and the SviInternalDisk. We know the first two from previous versions but what about the SviInternalDisk?
Assign a user to a persistent desktop before first use
Usually the persistent desktop design offers a chance to assign a virtual desktop to a user on first connect/use. The administrator entitles the user or a user group which inherits the users account to a persistent desktop pool but the virtual desktop assignment would be done on first use. However sometimes it may require a pre assignment which can be done the following way.
VMware View sizing & best practises
VMGuru.nl published a new article on sizing a VMware View infrastructure. He talks about CPU, memory, storage and also network recommendations.
How to get PCoIP with View 4 to work every time!
A few folks have run into issues with View 4 where PCoIP doesn’t work exactly as they expect. This manifests itself in a couple of different ways:
- Inability to resize the screen at all
- Resizing that only works down instead of up.
- Resizing that responds very slowly or that crashes after several resize attempts.
- Inability to switch between full-screen and windowed.
There are also known issues with the .NET framework, where applications based on this code will not render correctly if it was installed before the View Agent.
The following is a set of steps which will ensure that a pool that you create will have all of the correct PCoIP functionality:
- Install View4 on a supported platform. (vSphere U1 or VC/ESX 2.5/3.5 U3-U4)
- Create your VM (Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7)
- Make sure the VMtools was installed first, then the View Agent and then .NET framework.
(If any of this was done in the wrong order, or if you don’t know for sure, uninstall all 3, and install from scratch in that order) - In View Manager, set this desktop up as an “individual desktop” and entitle it.
- Make sure you have the PCoIP settings for monitor and max resolution set the way you want them in the pool.
- Log in once and make sure the basics work.
- If PCoIP/Screen resizing isn’t already working (VI3.5), logout of the desktop, and use the “reset” option from inside of View Manager.
(If you rebooted by clicking shutdown>restart in the VM, re-read the previous line.) - Log in again and make sure screen resizing works.
- Shutdown the VM
- Take a Snapshot
- Remove the individual VM assignment from View Manager
(If you don’t do the previous step, it won’t show up as an available parent in the pool creation process.) - Create your pool normally and it should work as expected.
PCoIP is very dependent upon the appropriate amount of video memory being allocated to the VM. Since this is a virtual hardware setting (that needs to be in place before the VM starts up), it is applied as a change in the VMX file. If the VM has already been started, it’s essential that this VM be restarted so that the VMX file is re-read and the changes are used. Simply using “Shutdown>Restart” inside the VM will not force the VMX to be re-read, as this doesn’t cold boot the machine (from the VC perspective) to refresh the virtual hardware.
Using the Shutdown/Reset from either VC or View Manager (which issues the command via VC) is the best way to make sure this file gets read properly.
Once the appropriate video memory settings are in place for your parent VM, you can create a pool based on this VM and machines in that pool will properly inherit these VMX settings on first boot.
(Kudos to my colleague Todd Dayton who wrote all this down!)
// Joel
Teradici zero client to View 4 press release
Today Teradici officially announced the interoperability of PCoIP hardware zero clients with VMware View 4. They released the new firmware version 3.0 which can connect the TERA1100 PCoIP processor based thin clients to VMware’s enterprise class desktop virtualization solution to support any type of user.
View 4 PCoIP Multi-Monitor Pivot
View 4 with PCoIP does support 4 screens with a maximum resolution of 1920×1200 per monitor. Mostly I see customers with the requirement for two screens and very often they are asking for the Pivot function where you can flip the screen from T-scale to L-shape like shown in the photo.
ZDnet UK: VMware Workstation 7 Editors Choice Award
ZDnet UK gave Workstation 7 a spectacular Editor’s rating of 9.0.
“Version 6.5 was good, but VMware has moved the bar even higher, putting Workstation 7 in a class of its own compared to other desktop virtualisation tools.”
RSA SecurBook for VMware View
RSA technologies just released a new document on hardening VMware View environments and also integrating data loss prevention for VDI. Check the RSA knowledge base for more information or download it at Virtual Geeks website.
VMware Fusion 3.0.1 released
VMware released the new version 3.0.1 of Fusion this morning. The download is available at the VMware website. Version 3.0.1 is a maintanance release and freely available for all Fusion customers. Check out the release notes and the what’s new document.
