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

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

The last few months I have been busy designing, building and testing a new VMware View solution for our own Support Center. In this Support Center we do support and system administration for some of our biggest clients. One of the challenges is the use of desktop hardware and the limited space of a call agent’s or administrator’s desk. Many of my colleagues support  multiple client sites and need different PCs for each client. So in 2008 one of my respected colleagues thought of a great solution and advised to implement a VMware VDI solution.

The idea was to create a pool of virtual desktops for each client site and supply the call agents and system administrators with a standard physical desktop with which they can access one or more virtual desktops and do the standard office work (Word, Outlook, etc) at the same time. Saving space needed for all those desktops and minimizing heat, power, etc and improving the working conditions in the process.

We bought four DELL PowerEdge 2950 II’s with two quad core CPUs and 64GB of memory each and a DELL EqualLogic 5000E iSCSI SAN to build this all virtual VDI solution.

One of the biggest challenges was to separate all client networks, so we assigned VLANs to all of them. But this raised a new challenge as I discovered during the implementation. Because we assigned all client their own VLAN and there was no routing between them, how can we connect to the virtual desktops.

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Update April 22th 2009: Today the rumor mentioned below was confirmed during the vSphere 4 launch.

Rumor in the VMware community has it that the next version of VMware ESX, vSphere, has very limited support for the VMware management and automation suite. vSphere will of course be available with vCenter for basic management and automation tasks but the rest of VMware’s great product suite is not supported in the initial release of vSphere.

So there won’t be support for:

• VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager
• VMware vCenter Lab Manager
• VMware vCenter Lifecycle Manager
• VMware vCenter Stage Manager
• VMware View

In my opinion this is a mistake. I understand the pressure is on and VMware should  release a new version fast to challenge the competition. But releasing a product which does not support the majority of your former product suite is not a clever move.

From what I understand this is also a discussion within VMware so let’s hope VMware gets wiser and postpones the release or add support for the VMware Management & Automation suite soon.

Title: Webcast: Choosing the Right Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Platform
Location: Online
Link out: Click here
Description: Companies today face a myriad of factors when evaluating a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) platform. In this session, we will explain what sets VMware View™, the next-generation VDI solution from VMware, apart from the competition, giving you a glimpse of the unique features and technologies of VMware View, and contrasting them to those offered by other vendors.
Start Time: 18:00
Date: 2009-04-09
End Time: 20:00

As of today VMware View 3.0 is released and available for download. We had the privilege of beta testing the new VMware VDI solution formerly known as VDM and now it is publicly available. The evolution of VDM, VMware View is a great product with a lot of very handy and cool features. I personally like the linked clones and offline desktop feature.

VMware View 3 is available in two editions, Premier and Enterprise. The Enterprise version costs 150 USD and when you spend 100 USD more you get the Premier version which includes VMware Composer, Offline Desktop and VMware ThinApp. (more…)