Warren Ponder, Director, Desktop Product Management at VMware published a new article on the VMware End User Computing blog. He writes about the upcoming VMware View & PCoIP release which should bring bandwidth improvements of up to 75%. There are some new PCoIP performance settings for example an updated lossless CODEC, the implementation of client side caching and the ability to disable build to lossless. If you’re interested in more information please check Warren’s blog post.

Source: http://blogs.vmware.com/.a/6a00d8341c328153ef015390397862970b-500wi

Teradici has updated the firmware for their PCoIP zero clients to version 3.4 and the Management Console to 1.5.30. The following list gives you an overview of the new functionality.

PCoIP Firmware Release 3.4 enhancements include:

• Support for “T=1″ PIV CAC Smartcards
• Enhanced Event Log and configuration options, including Syslog support
• Added support for Czech, Slovenian and Romanian keyboard layouts

PCoIP Management Console 1.5.30 enhancements include:

• Device auto-configuration to automatically group and configure newly discovered PCoIP zero clients
• Profiles now include firmware file and On-Screen-Display (OSD) logo options
• Profile application to groups or individual devices can be scheduled for a future time

Kudos today go to @PCoIP_Guru on Twitter, who spotted that Teradici just released a new firmware version and also a new version of the PCoIP Management Console.

Firmware 3.4.0 Release Generally Available

Feature highlights include:

· Support for “T=1″ PIV CAC Smartcards

· Support for smartcard bridging override (for post-session smartcard authentication)

· Enhanced Event Log and configuration options

o Ability to turn on/off the additional logging from the event logging web page

o Increased the number of messages stored in the event log

o Changed the default event log from terse to verbose (added rate limiting on the message writes to allow this change)

o Support for Syslog to allow PCoIP Zero Clients or PCoIP Host Cards to transmit event log messages to a remote location

· Enhanced message information for user visible On-Screen-Display (OSD) messages

· Additional component support (i.e. ACL886 Realtek audio codec) for 1:1 remote workstation sessions using PCoIP Host Cards and PCoIP Zero Clients.

· RDP module components including UI tabs have been removed.

Resolved Issues:

Fix for DOT4-based printers

Fix for file copy error for camera based peripherals

Fixed audio codec issue (Realtek ALC886) when resuming from sleep mode in a workstation environment (Windows7 and Vista)

Fixed issue that prevented connection to VMware View Connection Server through certain network load balancers.

Audio quality and audio recording improvements

Fixed Ethernet PHY POST test problems

Fixed PCoIP Host Card reset under network loss scenario

Fixed OSD crash on 270 degree rotation

Support for multiple monitors with identical EDID information

PCoIP Management Console 1.5.20 Generally Available

· Updates to support Firmware 3.4.0

· Support for USB bridging override

· DHCP Static IP fall-back configuration

· Syslog configuration

· Support for auto-configuration capability for newly discovered PCoIP Zero Clients

· Automatic update of firmware and configuration settings for newly discovered Zero Clients

· Support for updating the on-screen display (OSD) connection screen logo for PCoIP Zero Clients and PCoIP Host Cards

· Profile application updates

· Support for applying a firmware file to a profile

· Option to specify operation when profile firmware is different from the device firmware etc

· Support for scheduling Profile application

· Option for Management Console to reboot PCoIP devices after profile application is complete

· Support for multiple Management Consoles in a single network

Visit the Teradici Tech Support website for the download.

There is a VMUG webcast coming up which sounds very interesting.

An Inside Look into the PCoIP® Protocol and Zero Clients
Presented by Ziad Lammam, Teradici
Date: Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Times: 12:00 p.m. CST (-05:00 GMT) and 6:00 p.m. CST (-05:00 GMT)

This session will provide an inside look into the Teradici PC-over-IP® protocol architecture within VMware View™, a detailed breakdown of zero clients, PCoIP technology evolution, and a customer case study. Understand how the PCoIP protocol is optimized to deliver a rich desktop experience over LAN and high-latency WAN networks across the entire enterprise user base from mainstream office workers to 3D/power users.

Registration: 12:00pm | 6.00pm

Michael Klein (Twitter: @michael__klein) brought a link to Terdici’s website to my attention, which gives an overview of the Teradici PCoIP Server Offload Card. The Server Offload Card features a brand new TERA2800 Processor and is designed to meet the needs of VDI.

There are two videos up on the website which show how to increase the VDI consolidation ratios by 2X.

Link: Teradici

Teradici released a new firmware for PCoIP zero clients. This release is only a maintenance release, which fixes some issues from version 3.3.0.

Here is an excerpt from the official release notes:

Compatibility Notes:

• VMware View 4.6 or newer is required to use USB enhancements in Firmware 3.3.x.

Resolved Issues:

• Fixed USB audio issue with VMware View guests running Microsoft Windows 7 64-bit host OS
• Fixed an issue where PCoIP Zero Clients could not connect to the VMware View Connection Server through certain load balancers
• Fixed an issue with a Logitech ClearChat wireless headset
• Fixed degraded performance with PCoIP Host cards on networks with packet loss, high latency, and/or low bandwidth
• Fixed password protection default setting
• Fixed CAC PIV endpoint smart card issue
• Fix for invalid OEM VPD (vendor product information) content
• Fixed issue with OSD appearing on the wrong set of monitors in certain quad display PCoIP Zero Clients
• Fixed issue with Power-over-Ethernet failing to power devices if VLAN enabled
• Language translation updates

Known Issues:

• Low Initial Quality for PCoIP Zero Clients connected to PCoIP Host Cards (15134-636)
• CD/DVD drive interoperability
  • Refer to the list of CD/DVD drives that have been tested.  See What CD/DVD drives have been tested with Firmware 3.3.x? (15134-566).
  • Note that a session disconnect may occur occasionally on disc eject/insert

We can expect all vendors to release their proven version of this firmware version soon.

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.

Stuart Robinson, Manager of Systems Engineering at Teradici shows how well PCoIP performs over a WAN connection from Orlando to Canada. This video is from this years HIMSS2011 event in Florida.

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

The View Client for the iPad was released last week by VMware with a huge buzz on all social media platforms. I’ve had the chance to test it in several circumstances and I’m really happy. It works pretty well and the PCoIP performance was always good enough to watch video streams or just work with my virtual desktop hosted at Terremark.. Today I’ve checked the VGA Out option for the first time. This is just awesome! The iPad screen is mirrored on the monitor and gives you the opportunity to give Powerpoint presentations from your virtual desktops running in the datacenter. Unfortunately I’ve no iPad with 3G option what means that I’ve a huge demand for an iPad 2.