VMGuru.nl – I choose (a virtual) life!

Today, at VMworld 2010 in San Francisco, VMware announced the launch of VMware View 4.5.

VMware View 4.5 is packed with loads of new features which increases VMware View use cases and definitively narrows the gap with Citrix XenDesktop.

In fact, Chris Wolf from Gartner has declared View 4.5 as an enterprise ready desktop virtualization solution.

I’ve attended the View 4.5 beta program and I can honestly say that View 4.5 is a huge improvement. In the past, we had to deploy XenDesktop for VDI deployments with specific customer demands but with the release of View 4.5 these scenarios have decreased significantly.

General availability for VMware View 4.5 is set for early September.

Here are some of the improvements/features in View 4.5:

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We’ ve been doing quite a few VMware View POC’s and the question that colleagues keep asking me is:
‘How do I optimize my Windows guest OS for use with VMware View?’.

First of all, I primarily use x86 versions of Windows XP and 7. The disk usage is much less, I seldom need more than 4 GB of RAM and application compatibility is still an issue on x64 systems.

After installation of the guest operating system in the template virtual machine I do the following to optimize the operating system for use with VMware View.

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There was an issue discovered earlier today that prevents View Composer from working with vSphere 4.1.

VMware apologizes for any inconvenience this may have caused you. If you know how to spread the word to your friends and colleagues, please do so.

It is always nice to see how Citrix fan-boys reacts on publications about VMware View. Especially when it comes to an comparison or XenApp for View trade in. It is often said that Citrix listens to their customers but they are seldom heard! People need simple solutions in a complex IT world. Why pay for a very high end piece of engineering like a Ferrari if I can get the job done with a Volkswagen! OK, it is nice to have a car that nobody else has and can do 320 km/h but in times were budgets are under pressure, I have a hard time defending expensive, complex and high-end solutions.

The fact that VDI is putting a significant load on the storage is true, but that counts for every VDI solutions including XenDesktop, so no differences there. Also the new upcoming version of View includes a basic profile management solution “Persona Management”. Which makes the use of linked clones a very workable solution.

When you compare installing View and XenDesktop you will see the following diagram.

When it comes down to management consoles the two solutions also look very different.

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As a reaction on the Citrix program to trade in your VMware View licenses for XenDesktop, VMware comes with a program to trade in your XenApp licenses for VMware View.

The trade in program is quite simple: For the price of 3 years XenApp SA (€ 182,-) you will get View Premier and 3 years SnS.

VMware’s offer differs from the one from Citrix in a few way’s.

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Yesterday VMware has released the new version of their application virtualization product, ThinApp 4.5

ThinApp 4.5 includes the following new features to improve usability, performance, and updates:

• Support for Windows Server 2008 R2, 32-bit Windows 7, and 64-bit Windows 7 operating systems.
• ThinApp version updates to incorporate the latest features or support enhancements without rebuilding packages. The relink.exe utility updates existing packages.
• Compression of MSI packages that uses the MSICompressionType parameter to improve the ThinApp SDK performance.
• Reduced memory consumption and page file usage to improve startup performance. The OptimizeFor parameter works with the CompressionType parameter to customize memory performance and startup time.
• Anonymous collection of statistics to expand the support for applications. You can use the Setup Capture wizard or the QualityReportingEnabled parameter to help VMware build support for applications and help you migrate more native applications to a virtual environment.
• Loading of DLL files as virtual DLL files without using API functions. The ForcedVirtualLoadPaths parameter loads external system DLL files that depend on DLL files inside the package.
• Product interface updates to improve usability and link to video and documentation information. German and Japanese versions of the ThinApp User’s Guide are available.

You can find more information here, here or in the release notes. You can download ThinApp 4.5 here.

VMware has just released the new 4.0.1 version of their VMware View VDI suite.

VMware View 4.0.1 is a maintenance release that fixes some known issues in the previous releases.

So, what’s new in version 4.0.1?

• Support for vCenter 2.5 Update 6 and ESX 3.5 Update 5;
• Enhancements to the PCoIP Display Protocol.
  • PCoIP now supports the following features:
    Virtual Printing, which allows end users to use local or network printers from a View desktop without requiring that additional print drivers be installed in the View desktop.
  • Single sign-on support for third party providers such as Sentillion and Imprivata.
  • View Client supports international keyboards when using PCoIP.

November 4th we published an article on Virtual Infrastructure best practices and the response was overwhelming. During the last month we received a lot of questions regarding best practices on VDI/VMware View. When I then read a comment from VMware’s evangelist, Richard Garsthagen, that the attention on blogs for VMware View was minimal I thought well let’s extend our View articles/knowledge base.

So, VMware View best practices. First of all check the article on Virtual Infrastructure best practices to create a good understanding for the underlying virtual infrastructure challenges.

So hereby my list of best practices which I gather from VMware KB articles, instructor led VMware View design training and the VMware community:

• CPU sizing;
• Memory sizing;
• Storage sizing;
• Network sizing.

If you have additions or new insights please reply.

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Although PCoIP is very efficient display protocol also over WAN connection. (See video demonstration on Vimeo ) there was still the leak of a good WAN optimization solution for VMware View 4.0.

We all know that the user experience will heavily benefit  if we can control the WAN traffic. As we know the PCoIP uses both TCP and UDP transport protocols. All of the WAN optimization solutions support TCP. But UDP is not broadly supported with the WAN optimization solutions.

That changes because Expand Networks provide immediate support for all VMware View 4 remote display protocols across the Expand’s Accelerator range of WAN optimization solutions to securely enable, accelerate and control VMware View over the WAN, including the PCoIP protocol.

The benefits that Expand’s solution brings to VMware View include support for:

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A lot of our customers are asking me about the management differences between the VDI solutions from Citrix (XenDesktop 4.0) and VMware (View 4.0). Because I realize that there are a lot of “it depends” choices to be made I decided to compare the two solutions in a basic VDI setup. In a basic VDI environment you need a couple components.

I decided to compare the VMware View Premier edition with the Citrix XenDesktop Platinum edition. I know that the Citrix XenDektop Platinum edition brings a lot more products of Citrix within the bundle but because I am only comparing the basic components and no costs our nice to have features, that is not a problem.

So in a basic VDI environment you need:

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Last we had the opportunity to set up a VMware View Proof of Concept based on the new version 4.0.  We grabbed some hardware set it up in our Support Lab. Installed vSphere 4.0 Update 1 on it. Prepared three virtual servers setup a domain with a domain controller, a vCenter server and a View 4.0 Manager server. We prepared the XP Sp3 golden image we planned to use and setup a Windows XP Sp3 laptop we planned to use as a View 4.0 End Point.  From this point we started the VMware View installation. The installation is pretty straight forward and even me as a pre-sales consultant was able to do the trick. I was lucky to have some help from our engineers. One of them just passed the vSphere 4.0 exam and another one had some experience with VMware View 3.0. Everything worked well and with 90 minutes we had our first vDesktop up and running and a laptop connecting to it.

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Today is the day!

Today VMware released the new version of VMware View with the long awaited PCoIP protocol which provides a superior end-user experience over any network.

The new VMware View 4 is an integrated desktop virtualization solution, enabling reduced desktop costs, increased security, compliance and simplified desktop management, along with a rich, flexible desktop experience.

VMware View 4 is supported on the latest version of vSphere, bringing the most mature virtualization functionality to the desktops. View PCoIP establishes a new standard in the desktop user experience. Purpose-built for specifically delivering virtual desktops over the WAN or LAN, PCoIP is optimized to deliver the best user experience for the available bandwidth – without sacrifing user productivity.

With this this new version of VMware View with PCoIP it is possible to deliver a personalized, feature rich, graphical virtual desktop complete with applications and data and settings anywhere and anytime.

You can watch the VMware View 4 introduction video here.

Next week,  November 16th 19th, VMware View 4 will be generally available.

Today I received an invitation for a ‘What’s new in VMware View 4′ training.

According to this invitation the release of VMware’s new version of View including the long awaited PCoIP will be release November 16th.
That is a week later then the date mentioned in earlier VMware View release chatter.

After a few phone calls I’m a bit wiser now. The release will probably be November 9th and the general availability will be a week later, November 16th.

So another 2 weeks till we can experience PCoIP first hand.

Last week I held a presentation for our Sales department. As we sold a lot of Citrix Xantippe over the last few years they wanted me to tell them more about the differences between a VMware View and the traditional terminal server based Citrix XenApp solution. So I made a summery about the differences and similarities. When VMware also asked me about the presentation I decided to translate it into English and share it with you all.

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As a real VMware View enthusiast I’m really anxious to work with the new VMware View 4 with PCoIP. Just like vCenter Site Recovery Manager, were the new version was released last week,  VMware View has to be adjusted to support VMware vSphere 4.

The release of VMware View 4 is expected at the end of this year and earlier this week VMware launched a private beta.

The major difference will be  software version of the Teradici PC over IP (PCoIP) protocol which VMware View 4.0 will contain. The demo at VMworld Europe 2009 looked very promising and I’m very curious how this will perform.

This video I found on YouTube certainly looks very very promising indeed.

I’m not invited to this private beta (yet) but I hope that my VMware contact can arrange an invitation soon so I can experience this new technology soon so I can implement this at client sites as soon as it is released.

During the last months it has become very clear that the fight in the VDI space is on. Citrix and VMware have released new and better versions of their product and Microsoft stumbles behind with their MED-V ’solution’.

Last February, around VMworld Europe 2009, VMware announced an open source version of their VMware View client. Now that VMware View with the long awaited PCoIP is on the horizon, VMware has released the VMware View Open Client 4.0 for the public beta. With this VMware is hoping to conquer a large number of thin client providers so many new devices will contain an out-of-the-box VMware View client.

Samsung is the first to take advantage of this new opportunity with the release of their new 930 DN 19″ LCD monitor with integrated PCoIP.

The VMware View Open Client 4.0 beta includes support for SSL tunneling, two-factor authentication with RSA SecurID and a Command Line Interface (CLI).

Unfortunately there is no support for:

• USB redirection
• Multiple desktop sessions
• Multimedia redirection

VMware announced their effort to produce a software implementation of PCoIP together with Terradici at VMworld 2009 in Cannes.

Since then I have been anxiously waiting for a demo or beta. During today’s keynote at VMworld 2009 VMware gave a demo of their long awaited PCoIP demo.

Joep Piscaer from VirtualLifestyle.nl made a video of this demo. Audio is bad and the image is a bit shakey but it gives a good impression of the PCoIP performance an d possibilities.

You can watch the video here.

I’m impressed by the performance and I can’t wait to get my hands on the beta. I’m curious what Brian Madden’s opinion is on this premiere as he was skeptical on VMware’s effort to produce a software implementation of PCoIP.

Last weekend VMware launched a new course called ‘VMware View: Design Best Practices’. It’s a hands-on training course which explores the foundations of designing VMware View architectures and is meant for System architects, system administrators, IT managers, and individuals responsible for designing VMware View architectures.

It addresses:

• the recommended design process;
• the layered architecture design model and the reference framework for a View design;
• design considerations to meet business needs;
• VMware’s best practices for a View deployment.

Before you can attend you should have completed the VMware View: Install, Configure, Manage course or have equivalent experience with VMware View.

Interested? More information can be found here.

It sounds a bit strange, ‘vCenter vs VDI‘, as both are VMware products but it’s true. As usual a twitter contact pointed me to a VMware KB article which states the following.

‘VirtualCenter tasks that conflict with VMware Virtual Desktop functionality‘

My first thought was ‘Ah finally, an explanation why vSphere 4 has no support for VMware View 3‘. But when I looked at the affected product versions it appeared that this was not the case.

The VMware KB article provides a list of VirtualCenter 2.5.x actions that conflict with VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure functionality (Virtual Desktop Manager 2.x and View 3.x) and cause VDI Desktops to become inaccessible. These action are:

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As you may have read here on VMGuru.nl we are great fans of VMware View and spend a lot of time testing and implementing various versions. One thing which is still missing, despite the new(er) versions 3.0, 3.1, 3.1.1, is a proper way to view the VMware View log files.

In my search of a decent VMware View log viewer I ran into ‘vAudit‘, a handy little tool created by Richard Garsthagen, a VMware employee who runs the website RunVirtual.com.

The tool is still in beta (v0.90) but it looks very promising and helps a lot when troubleshooting and administrating a VMware View environment.

You can find more information here and you can download version 0.90 here.

Update Aug 4th:

Recently Richard released the 1.0 version of vAudit with the following improvements:

- vAudit now also checks for login failures, so you can detect if people are trying to hack into your system
- You can now resize the username column, so you can actually read the username if you have long domain names
- When you MouseOver a session, it will display the machine name and time information

In the next release, Richard is planning to add information about your top users, make an export function and at some point will give your a graph with daily concurrent usage.

You can download vAudit 1.00 here.

For about three weeks ago I was asked by my colleague Erik Scholten to help him out with his VMware View project for our Service Center. I thought this is my change to explore the ins and –outs of VMware View. The infrastructure for VMware View was already build by Erik on four Dell servers and a Dell Equallogic SAN. After one week of figuring out the architecture and everything up and on it, Erik told me he had to leave for another project right away. A lot of trust in my hands with a dead line in sight over a couple days.

Let me sum things up that Erik couldn’t finish;

• Windows Vista client customization failed.
• Windows XP client poor performance.

I started with the Windows Vista customization problem, but first let met tell you something about the client.  Vista was deployed with Windows BDD 2007 in a virtual machine and customized using the build-in Sysprep by my colleagues of the IT team for the customer. After my colleagues had installed all the software it was time to convert the VM into a template waiting to be deployed. But unfortunately it is not that easy as just reading the administrator guide and do what it says. This is how I tackled these problems:

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This morning I told you that VMware had released VMware View 3.1 and that I would upgrade our 3.0.1 installations to 3.1 as soon as possible and let you know how the improvements work out for us. Well, it is time.

After reading the release notes I couldn’t resist and decided to upgrade the View 3.0.1 installation at our own Service Center to version 3.1. Luckily this VDI environment is not in production yet because we are experiencing some problems with Vista customization and performance.

I downloaded all new View software (build 167577) and installed the new View agent software in all templates, installed the new View client on my laptop and installed the new View Connection server on the View virtual machine. The upgrades were very simple and straightforward. So let the fun begin……

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As you all have seen on VMGuru.nl we’re very busy implementing VMware View solutions. These solutions were based on VMware View 3.0.1 but yesterday evening VMware released the new version of their VDI solution VMware View 3.1.

So what’s new in VMware View 3.1?

• Performance Improvements – Login times are significantly improved and server utilization is reduced.
• Automated LDAP Data and View Composer Database Backup – You can now configure automated backup of LDAP data and View Composer databases in View Administrator, enabling disaster recovery.
• Client Information – Information about the client device that the end user is connecting from is now provided for the desktop session as registry settings. This enables customers to use third party tools or create custom scripts to map local printers to devices. The information available includes the device name, IP address, and MAC address.

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As it is VMware View season I ran into a new problem deploying new virtual desktops in the virtual infrastructure I presented to you in this article.

The people who read it know that the infrastructure serves various clients/customers so I have to deploy various virtual machines varying from Windows XP to Vista. Last week I deployed a virtual machine and asked a colleague to install all software and tools needed for this client site. It took him a day to get the virtual machine ready, after that I tweaked and tuned it to run in a VMware View environment and converted it to a template.

When I created a desktop pool with this template the fun started. The deployment went great but when the virtual machine powers on, guest customization should kick in and it didn’t. At first I investigated the obvious things, like correct sysprep version, check the customization specification, vmware tools, etc.

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Title: Webcast: Storage Optimization and Simplified Desktop Management with VMware View and NetApp
Location: Online
Link out: Click here
Description: Organizations are looking for ways to simplify desktop management, lower storage costs and improve business continuity. The combination of VMware View™ Composer and NetApp storage can help your organization optimize storage and simplify management of thousands of desktops.
Start Time: 18:00 (CEST)
Date: 2009-04-22
End Time: 19:00