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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
Now that the new version of VMware View is coming shortly I was investigating the new possibilities with our thin client providers. Wyse Technology which has a nice solution already for the View 3.1 platform now has a new Zero Client which is specially made for View 4.0.
What makes this Zero Client so special? This model support PCoIP. PCoIP is the answer from VMware to make a great user experience possible with VMware View. VMware partnered with Teradici to introduce the PCoIP technology into View. The P20 not only uses the software implementation but the P20 also contains the hardware chip that Teradici uses in the PCI Card solution. Tested by Brain Madden a couple of month ago. Also see this article at BrianMadden . Imagine the possibilities this solution can offer in your VDI environment.
When the Wyse P20 comes to EMEA is not yet clear, but I hope to find out more next month. We at VMGuru.nl will also try to get our hands on a P20 model so we can blog our experiences.
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.
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.
User profiles are a pain in the *. All to often profiles get corrupted by multiple sessions and logons are often slow.
RTO has a product for this: Virtual Profiles. This product solves a lot of problems with user profiles.
If you are going to use virtual desktops you will eventually end up with the same problem Terminal Server and Citrix users have had for a long time. But don’t worry, there is hope on the horizon:
AN FRANCISCO, Calif. – September 2, 2009 – Today at VMworld 2009, VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), the global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop through the datacenter and to the cloud, announced it has signed an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) agreement with RTO Software to integrate its industry-leading Virtual Profiles technology with VMware View™, the industry-leading enterprise desktop virtualization solution. The integrated offering will provide comprehensive user personality management and will enable VMware View customers to dynamically provision users, together with their profile, applications and data, across networks and devices. (See related press release also announced today: “VMware Leads in Virtual Desktops with VMware View™ – Simplifying Desktop Management, Lowering Costs and Enriching User Experience.”)
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.
Moments after Erik posted about vCenter vs VDI, I got problems with the VMware View 3.1.1 environment I’m setting up. I wanted to adjust the quality settings of Adobe Flash in a certain desktop pool. I started to edit the settings for the desktop pool and when I clicked finish I got a error that the Virtual Center didn’t had Sysprep running!!!
So I change a settings about the quality for Adobe Flash and suddenly Sysprep is broken?
The suggestion made to resolving this error was to set the customization specification to “none”. Since I used the desktop pool in question for almost 2 days now with the specified customization, I wasn’t about to put that option to “none”.
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:
Today Virtualization.info published the news that VMware View 4.0 went into private beta with the Teradici PCoIP software implementation. I was unable to verify this but I assume it’s correct.
So why am I so excited about the upcoming version? (more…)
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.
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.
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:
As you may have read we are busy implementing a VMware View environment and have encountered numerous chalenges already.
Most of them have been solved by hard and innovative work or the upgrade from VMware View 3.0.1 to 3.1. Especially the upgrade to VMware View 3.1 resulted in a very good user- and administrator experience.
Unfortunately we kept having performance problems using various desktops (Windows XP or Vista). Scrolling through the Helpdesk tool and browsing web pages with moving graphics like Flash was very shaky even to the extend that desktop sessions froze when to much graphical information had to be processed. This was very strange because at another customer site VMware View worked like a charm with identical sizing but different clients (Wise vs Desktop PC).
A colleague, Anthony Winters, spend a lot of time analyzing these problems. The first thing he found out that performance was poor on the desktop but great on his laptop. He quickly eliminated all variables (network, switches, cabling) until he knew for sure the client was the problem.
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……
experience over any network.
