We’ve been waiting for it a long time but now it’s here: The VMware View Client for Mac which includes support for PCoIP. Last night VMware published the tech preview version on the community forums. For downloading you’ll need a vmware.com account: http://downloads.vmware.com/d/details/crt_macosx_tp_dec2011/dCV0YnRAd3BidGVkdA==

Features In the VMware View Client for Mac OS X

-       Support for Intel-based Macs

-       PCoIP protocol optimized for VMware View 5

-       Full screen support for Mac OS X Lion users

-       Copy and Paste plain text between View 4.x virtual machines and Mac

-       Copy and Paste text, formatted text, and graphics between View 5.x virtual machines and Mac

-       Support optional RSA authentication

-       Enhanced certificate checking

-       Add up to 4 VMware View server shortcuts in VMware View Client

Here’re some notes from the Read Me file:

VMware View Client for Mac OS X
Tech Preview – December 2011

Introduction

The VMware View Client for Mac OS X Tech Preview is designed to connect to VMware View server based desktops using the high performance PCoIP protocol from the Mac.

 

We Want Your Feedback

Please post your feedback on the View Client Tech Preview in the VMware Mac View Client Community at:

 

http://www.vmware.com/go/macviewclient

Features In the VMware View Client for Mac OS X

 

-       Support for Intel-based Macs

-       PCoIP protocol optimized for VMware View 5

-       Standard drag and drop install for Mac apps

-       Full screen support for Mac OS X Lion users

-       Copy and Paste plain text between View 4.x virtual machines and Mac

-       Copy and Paste text, formatted text, and graphics between View 5.x virtual machines and Mac

-       Support optional RSA authentication

-       Enhanced certificate checking

-       Add up to 4 VMware View server shortcuts in VMware View Client

 

System Requirements

-       A VMware View desktop that supports the PCoIP protocol

-       An Intel-based Mac

-       2 GB of RAM

-       Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.8 and Mac OS X Lion 10.7.0 or later

 

Installation

 

-       Double click on the VMware View Client disk image to mount it in the Finder

-       Drag the VMware View Client icon to the alias of the Applications folder and you are done

 

Adding Your View Desktop to VMware View Client

 

-       Launch VMware View from the Applications folder

-       Click on Add Server on the VMware View Client home screen

-       Type in the View Server address and click Continue

-       If prompted, enter your user name and RSA passcode and click Continue

-       Enter your desktop user name and password and click Continue

-       Select your preferred desktop and click Connect () or double click on it to connect

 

Connecting to Your VMware View Desktop

 

-       Double click on your View Server on the home screen

-       If prompted, enter your name and RSA passcode and click Continue

-       Enter your desktop user name and password and click Continue

-       Select your preferred desktop and click Connect () or double click on it to connect

Disconnecting From Your VMware View Desktop

 

To disconnect and choose a desktop on the same View Server

-       Click the Disconnect button () in the toolbar

 

To disconnect and choose a desktop on a different View Server

-       Click the Choose Another Server button () in the toolbar

 

To disconnect and quit the VMware View Client

-       Choose Quit from the File menu or type Command Q

 

Adding The VMware View Client To Your Dock

 

-       Launch the VMware View client

-       Click on the VMware View client in the Dock

-       Select Keep in Dock from the Options submenu

-       When you quit, the VMware View client will still be in your Dock

 

Known Issues

 

-       Unable to connect to Windows 7 based virtual machines using the RDP protocol. Workaround: Access your Windows 7 desktop with the higher performance PCoIP protocol or use the older VMware View 4.6 client with Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection to access Windows 7 based desktops with RDP.

 

Items Under Consideration for Future Major Client Releases Include:

 

-       Use of Multiple displays/monitors

-       Printing to locally attached printers

-       Full screen support for Mac OS X Snow Leopard

-       SmartCard authentication

-       USB device connectivity

 

Again, We Want Your Feedback

Please post your feedback on the View Client Tech Preview in the VMware Mac View Client Community at:

 

http://www.vmware.com/go/macviewclient

Cyndie Zikmund, Technical Marketing Specialist over at VMware in Palo Alto pusblished a new article about a Zero Client strategy. This article gives you a link to a recetly pubslihed technical document which includes real life VMware View scenarios from customers who have successfully implemented a zero client strategy. A great document which help you to understand how to benefit from zero client environments. The cost less and have a smaller footprint, they’re easy to maintain and of course data security is a hot topic.

Link: VMware

The new version of the VMware View Client is available for download. The new version comes with some great features.

• Optimized performance for VMware View 5
• Support for iOS5 including AirPlay
• Presentation Mode for use with external display and AirPlay
• Embedded RSA soft token simplifies login to desktop
• Background tasking to move between Windows and iOS apps

BTW: The new Android client is available too!

Check out this blog post on the VMware End User Computing Blog and you’ll learn more about the new VMware View Android client! The Android Client will be available from the App Market today. Here just a few features included in the version.

A new look and feel – The View Client for Android features the NEW blue look and feel of the VMware View clients!

Multiple broker support – If you have more than one VMware View broker in your organization, you can can easily access your desktop from all of them via the Android client

Desktop Shortcuts – Quickly connect with as many as four recent desktop via shortcuts

Virtual trackpad – Control your desktop on a granular level just like you would control the mouse on a laptop

Custom keyboard toolbar – Super easy access to all of the special keys not found on the Android default keynboard

Honeycomb 3.x support – Made from the ground up for the new generation of Android tablets

Custom gestures – Invoke keyboard, scrolling, etc are as easy as ever and simple to use

VMware View Security Server support (best experience) – No need to have VPN when you use VMware View Security Server

Background tasking – Switch between apps on your tablet and come right back

That was a surprise when I watched the VMware Lab Video from Brian Madden’s BriForum 2011 in London. My colleagues already showed a quick demo of the VMware View Client for Android tablets. It has exactly the same gesture recognition like the VMware View Client for iPads.

Link: BriForum 2011 London VMware Lab Video

When you have to configure your firewall policies for a VMware View environment it’s sometimes a little bit hard to find a simple overview of all the necessary ports and firewall settings.

To help you doing your job, I provide you here a comprehensive overview of all important communication flows of such an implementation.

This documents is a consolidated aggregation of the information you can find in the following documents:

• VMware View Architecture Planning Guide (View 4.6)
• KB1012382 – TCP and UDP Ports required to access vCenter Server, ESX hosts and other network components

Perimeter Firewall Rules

DMZ Firewall Rules

Connection Server Rules

Transfer Server Rules

View Agent Rules

View Client Rules (internal / without using Security Server)

View Client Rules (external / using Security Server)

HTTP and HTTPS-Traffic can be proxied on the application layer.

Every other protocol should only be proxied using a transparent TCP-/UDP-Proxy.

There are several ways of installing the VMware View Client for Windows on a Windows based device. You can install the client software manually by first downloading it from the VMware View Server web interface and then starting the installation from your desktop, you can install the client silently with MSI command line parameters or you can deploy the client with your software deployment solution. As described in the VMware View Installation Guide 4.6 chapter 09 on page 103 you can use parameters to modify the MSI settings for the installation package which is still an EXE file. You may wonder if that works with your deployment software.

If not, you could try to directly deploy the MSI file. The next steps show you how to access the content of the VMware View Client EXE installer file.First of all download the latest version of the client from your View Connection Server by accessing the web interface. Then start the installation on a Windows desktop. In the background the installer will extract the MSI file and some CAB archives into the temporary directory on your Windows box. When the installation wizard comes up and is ready to begin please open the temporary folder in the Windows Explorer. The easiest way of doing that is using the Run dialog/search field in the startmenu. Just type %temp% here, press enter and it will take you on the right folder.

In there look for a folder whose name is starting with a bracket like seen in the last screenshot. There should be three folders created by the View Client Installer so please take a look at all of them to find the right one. If so you’ll find a VMware View Client.MSI file and some *.cab files. Here we you!

*Kudos go to some colleagues having this conversation on a mailing-list.

One of my colleagues from the US, Chris Colotti published a nice article on his blog which describes how he connected his wife’s iPad with his View 4.6 Security Server running in the home lab. The interesting part in his article is not the fact that you can connect to your home lab via the iPad, no it’s how to setup the PCoIP aware Security Server in View 4.6 that it works with your DynDNS connection.

Update (16.03.2011) – Gabe does have a nice article on how to use dynamic IP addresses for PCoIP.

Link: Chris Colotti’s blog

Isn’t that great! The VMware View iPad Client 1.0 is still number one in the Apple AppStore. Loads of users already shared their great feedback through the rating function. If you’re using the client on your iPad and you like it please do also share your feedback with VMware.