While many of you are aware that the VMware View PCoIP Client for Mac has been released mid march, I have not got to test it earlier as I was busy with my VCDX as well few vCloud Projects. Actually as a Mac user I were looking for this for a while, & now got the time to try it and it work just great. This has removed one task that I needed Windows for. Many of you might know that at VMware we use VMware View 5 to access our lab systems to test products and train our self on new products. Having to fire up a virtual machine and go through that to access our VMware View lab was quite painful & I am really glad the VMware View 5 Client for Mac now support PCoIP as there is no comparison between it and RDP specially over WAN connection.

In this post, I will document how to download and install the VMware View PCoIP Client for Mac & my experience with it. Though before we start let’s look at what the new PCoIP client for Mac offer as of version 1.5.0.

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

-       RDP support with Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Connection software

OK! Before we start the installation process and taking you through a demo of the new PCoIP client for Mac, you will need to make sure the below systems requirements are met:

System Requirements

-       A VMware View desktop with View 4.6.1 or later. View 5 recommended.

-       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

Alright now you are sure you got all the requirements in place, let’s start with the installation process.

1- Download the View Client for Mac 1.5. from View Client download center at: http://www.vmware.com/go/viewclients

2- Hit the View download button next to the VMware View Client for Mac as per the below screen shot

3- Hit the Download button next to the VMware-View-Client-1.5.0-710491.dmg as per the screen shot below

4- Double Click the VMware View Client for Mac Installer. It was called VMware-View-Client-1.5.0-710491.dmg when I downloaded it as per the below screen shot

5- Accept the VMware View PCoIP agreement by hitting Agree as per the below screenshot

6- Drag the VMware View icon to the Application folder to start the installation as per the below screenshot

7- After the VMware View 5 PCoIP Client for Mac installation complete, Click on the VMware View Client icon in the Mac applications as per the below screenshot

8- Hit the Add Server in the middle of the screen to add a VMware View Server connection as per the below screen shot

9- Fill your VMware View Connection Server IP and hit connect

10-  Enter your VMware View user name and password and hit connect

11-  Choose the PCoIP Virtual Desktop you want to connect & Make sure the PCoIP is chosen for the protocol as per the below screen shot

12- Enjoy your PCoIP connection. Below is a screen shot of me running PCoIP Session to our training lab over WAN. What a great joy when compared to the old RDP client

At last for those who like to see things in video rather than screen shot, I have created a video of the above process which you can see below. I have noticed that the picture quality is not the highest, but I am still trying to find a good quality video capture for Mac. If you have one, please recommend it in the comment area as I am planning to create more videos for my future posts & hoping to produce a better quality ones then.

Hope you all enjoy this article & happy PCoIP Virtual Desktop from your Mac.

One of the most asked questions lately by partners and customers when it come to VMware View 4.6 Implementation (I believe its applicable for older versions of View as well) is that when creating a Windows 7 Desktop Pools that utilize Linked Clones & try to utilize Quick Prep the deployment of desktop fails at the customizing stage. In the other hand, if they use SysPrep instead of Quick Prep the Desktop Deployment succeed & Desktops work normally though its much slower than Quick Prep can customize a Desktop VM. Further, Windows XP Pools work just fine with Quick Prep at the same setup. To be honest this has hit me before and that how I found out the solution.

In most cases the Quick Prep fail with Windows 7 due to the way Microsoft handle License Activation in Windows 7. As per VMware KB 1026556

== VMware KB 1026556 Quote Start  ==

“By default, the View Composer QuickPrep process uses Microsoft Key Management Service (KMS) to activate Windows 7 and Windows Vista guest operating systems. To make sure that View Composer properly activates the operating systems on linked-clone desktops, you must use KMS license activation on the parent virtual machine.

QuickPrep does not use other volume activation methods such as Multiple Activation Key (MAK) licensing.

If you are using MAK based licensing, you may not be able to deploy pools and you may see this error when deployment fails:  view composer agent initialization error (16): Failed to activate software license (waited 0 seconds).

Caution: View Composer does not support MAK license activation. Use MAK license activation at your own risk. For example, each recompose operation can increase the MAK license count, which can result in the unexpected depletion of MAK licenses.”

== VMware KB 1026556 Quote End ==

Putting the above in a simple words, in order for VMware View Quick Prep to work with Windows 7 you will need to have a KMS License Activation server in your environment, as well you will need to activate your parent VM using that KMS License Activation server. An Explanation of KMS can be found at the following document on Microsoft website.

download.microsoft.com/download/6/9/5/695ba00d-c790-4c90-813a-f10539d97991/volume_activation_2.0_mak_kms_key.doc

Although Microsoft has other methods of Volume License activation like MAK (Multiple Activation Keys), the only currently supported method in VMware View 4.6 is KMS. That means if you are going to run VMware View 4.6 in production and need a supported environment then you will need to setup a KMS server and utilize it as the method to activate your Windows 7 Desktop VMs. This should resolve your Quick Prep problem related to this specific case.

As usual working & supported are two different things. You might get stuck at a proof of concept or a testing environment where KMS server does not exist, and the customer admin is not ready to setup a KMS server just for this POC then there is a work around for that. You can get VMware View to utilize MAK activation or even skip the activation part all together this is done by a simple change to registry keys as explained below, though its important to remember neither is supported in a production environment (though both of them work as far my testing go).

To enable QuickPrep to activate licenses for MAK clients:

1. In the guest operating system on the parent virtual machine, start the Windows Registry Editor and navigate to this registry key:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\vmware-viewcomposer-ga
2. Navigate to the AllowActivateMAKLicense registry value. The default value is 0.
3. Set the value to 1.

To bypass license activation by QuickPrep:

1. In the guest operating system on the parent virtual machine, start the Windows Registry Editor and navigate to this registry key:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\vmware-viewcomposer-ga
2. Navigate to the SkipLicenseActivation registry value. The default value is 0.
3. Set the value to 1.

Either of the above should get you up and running for a VMware View 4.6 Proof of Concept(POC) or testing environment. Actually this is one of the trick I use on regular basis when carrying out a VMware View 4.6 POC, as many companies still do manual Windows 7 activation and just asking the admin to setup MKS server to be able to proceed with the VMware View Proof of Concept could just delay it or even cancel the whole idea. Therefore this trick has came handy so many times that you can not imagine. I hope this help you fix your problem for a production setup using MKS server of in a POC/Testing environment using the registry keys tricks.

Sources: In this article I have made a good use of the info published in VMware KB Article: 1026556 and its originally where I have found the resolution for this problem. This KB can be found at: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1026556

For all of those Android Tablets fans who had a VMware View environment and wanted to connect to, but had no official VMware View Client that support Android this post is carrying out the good news to you. Now VMware has officially released a VMware View Client for Android Tablets, which finally will give us the same functionality iPAD users has enjoyed for a while. I believe now I can move on and buy an Android Tablets my self and be sure it will work with VMware View with the full functionality without any problem. Getting the VMware View Client up and running on your Android tablet is nothing more than a quick visit to your Android Market and download the client from there. You hear it correctly, VMware has just pushed the VMware View Client into the Android Market for ease of availability.

Below are few things to know about the new VMware View Client for Android Tablets:

* It has quite similar functionality to the iPad VMware View Client release about 6 months back leaving Android tablet users with jealousy of not having the same option. Well, guess what now Android users can enjoy the same.

* The new Android VMware View Client support Honeycomb Android 3.0 and above. So any of these new Android tablets should get your rolling in no time.

* The Client is running PCoIP (so you know the performance will rock)

* Few Keys that is normally does not exist in an Android Keyboard and required in Windows like Ctrl, Alt, Shift, Delete & so on has been added when running the VMware View Client on Android tablet to ensure the user can have a full control and can enjoy the full experience of his full desktop.

* TouchPad has been added to allow the users to have a full control of the cursor, which function in a similar manner to the track pad of a laptop and its somehow transparent to avoid interference with the contents found on the display screen.

* Users will be able to quickly move between VMware View environment and Android environment without having to close the VMware View/windows enviornement he is connected to. This will be very handy if the user need to access data or programs from the two different environments at the same time.

Before you jump to your Android tablets or you might still need a bit more of a prove before you buy one, then you can watch the below movie to have a preview of how VMware View Client for Android work.

Please leave your feedback in the comments area below as usual!!!

If you are an Ubuntu user like I am, a VMware View PCoIP Client for Ubuntu has been long waited for. Unfortunately, officially it still not released by VMware so if you want the official release then you just have to wait. Though if you are looking for a work around then its here, and you don’t need to get stuck with the disastrous RDP protocol. Before I mention anything further, how about watching the below video as a teaser. A real teaser!



Yes, its what you just saw in the video VMware View Client with PCoIP is currently running on my Ubuntu Natty Narwhal 64-bit. It works like a charm. And no I am not leaking a new VMware View Client from VMware, that I can not share with you. I am pretty sure the development team has this kind of client in their mind, but I have no clue when and where it will happen or what it will look like . Till then, this work around can make our life much easier than sticking with RDP. If I have teased you enough, I am sure you are looking on how I have done this and looking at how short this post you probably figured out I am not showing that in here, but I have documented this on the   Linux 2 Aix Blog in details and can be found at:

VMware View PCoIP on Ubuntu How to

I have decided to share the instructions on a Linux blog as I believe its where it should belong and where more Ubuntu users will be searching. I hope I am right about it, & any way I still made my readers a favor in here by pointing them to it. As usual please leave your comments, feedback, and success stories in the comments area below.

What About VMware View PCoIP for Mac & Other Linux Distros?

I will still suggest you check out  VMware View PCoIP on Ubuntu How to, as I believe it should be able to put you at the right direction to get VMware View PCoIP for Mac & Other Linux Distros working or at least get you started.

Good Luck for all of you!!

I believe one of the greatest addition to VMware View 4.5 is Location Based Printing. I have the question just popping up right and left lately (3 customers just this week), on how to get VMware View users to print to their nearest printers when they are using virtual desktops. In physical environment this was possible by applying computer policies, but when using terminal services or VDI the device used to access terminal service or Virtual Desktop might not be on the domain if even exist when using Zero Clients. Further, the user might access the same VM(Same computer name) from different locations, which make the use of Computer Policy alone not applicable.

Location Based Printing seems to be a sneaky problem since ages (Since Terminal Service came to exist). So far the only solution was to create a vbs script that execute as soon the user logon to the VM or terminal service which find the device name its running on & based on that it assign the correct printer. Keeping up & trouble shooting these scripts were always as painful as teeth pulling. To be honest till today, I did not have the exact answer, & as I promised my partners & customers to find out the solution I have done my research today. I have found out that the VMware View team has just added a great solution for this problem. Its a feature called “Location Based Printing”.

Location Based Printing will allow the VMware View admins to specify the printer the users print to based on the device they are accessing VMware View from.  VMware View Location Based Printing can be setup to identify VMware View Client device based on IP Address Range, MAC Address, Computer name of the device being used to access VMware View VM. Being able to identify the client device using this wide range of parameters, it will ensure the users will always get to print to their nearest printer. To make it even more news worthy, VMware View Location Based Printing does not require any scripting or complex command line utility, its fully GUI based.

Sorry I got caught up of presenting how great is VMware View Location Based Printing due to the relief I had when I found out it was already released in VMware View 4.5. So lets see how you can configure  VMware View Location Based Printing.

VMware View 4.5 Location Based Printing Setup:

Prerequisites:

■   Verify that the Microsoft MMC and the Group Policy Object Editor snap-in are available on your Active Directory server or on the domain computer that you use to configure group policies.

■  Because print jobs are sent directly from the View desktop to the printer, verify that the required printer drivers are installed on the your desktops (Update your templates).

:

Setting up VMware View 4.5 Location Based Printing is a three step process:

:

1. Create GPOs for View Group Policies

Create a GPO for the location-based group policy setting and link it to the OU that contains your View desktops.

2.Register the Location-Based Printing Group Policy DLL File:

Before you can configure the group policy setting for location-based printing, you must register the DLL file TPVMGPoACmap.dll.

3. Configure the Location-Based Printing Group Policy

To set up location-based printing, you configure the AutoConnect Location-based Printing for VMware View group policy setting. The group policy setting is a name translation table that maps printers to View desktops.

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Below is how to setup VMware View Location Based Printing in more details:

:

1. Create GPOs for View Group Policies

1 Create an OU for your View desktops & ensure that your View desktops are located in that OU.
2  On your Active Directory server, select Start > All Programs > Administrative Tools > Active Directory Users and Computers.
3  Right-click the OU that contains your View desktops and select Properties.
4  On the Group Policy tab, click Open to open the Group Policy Management plug-in.
5  Right-click the OU and select Create and Link a GPO Here.
6 Type a name for the GPO and click OK.
The new GPO appears under the OU in the left pane.
7 (Optional) To apply the GPO only to specific View desktops in the OU:
a. Select the GPO in the left pane.
b. Select Security Filtering > Add.
c. Type the computer names of the View desktops and click OK.
The View desktops appear in the Security Filtering pane. The settings in the GPO apply only to these View desktops.

:

2. Register the Location-Based Printing Group Policy DLL File:

Before you can configure the group policy setting for location-based printing, you must register the DLL file TPVMGPoACmap.dll.

VMware View provides 32-bit and 64-bit versions of TPVMGPoACmap.dll in the directory install_directory\VMware\VMware View\Server\Extras\GroupPolicyFiles\ThinPrint on your View Connection Server host.

Procedure:

1. Copy the appropriate version of TPVMGPoACmap.dll to your Active Directory server or to the domain computer that you use to configure group policies.

2. Use the regsvr32 utility to register the TPVMGPoACmap.dll file.
For example: regsvr32 “C:\TPVMGPoACmap.dll”

:

3. Configure the Location-Based Printing Group Policy

To set up location-based printing, you configure the AutoConnect Location-based Printing for VMware View group policy setting. The group policy setting is a name translation table that maps printers to View desktops.

Procedure:

1. On your Active Directory server or on the computer that you use to configure group policies, select Start > All Programs > Administrative Tools > Active Directory Users and Computers.
2. Right-click the OU that contains your View desktops and select Properties.
3. On the Group Policy tab, click Open to open the Group Policy Management plug-in.
4. In the right pane, right-click the GPO that you created for the location-based printing group policy setting and select Edit.
The Group Policy Object Editor window appears.
5. Expand Computer Configuration, open the Software Settings folder, and select AutoConnect Location-based Printing for VMware View.
6. In the Policy pane, double-click Configure AutoConnect Location-based Printing.
The AutoConnect for VMware View Location-based Printing window appears.
7. Select Enabled to enable the group policy setting.
The translation table headings and buttons appear in the group policy window.

Warning:
Clicking Disabled deletes all table entries. As a precaution, save your configuration so that you can import it later.

8. Add the printers that you want to map to View desktops and define their associated translation rules. (Look at the Location-Based Printing Group Policy Setting Syntax Section below to find out more about how to fill out the View Desktops mapping taple). Below is a good image of how Location-Based Printing Group Policy Table look like.

Click to see in original size

9. Click OK to save your changes.
At this point you are done & you can enjoy seeing printers following your users depending on their location.

Location-Based Printing Group Policy Setting:
Location-Based Printing Group Policy Settings are almost self explanatory, though below is a small explanation of each field:

:
IP Range:

A translation rule that specifies a range of IP addresses.
To specify IP addresses in a specific range, use the following notation:
ip_address-ip_address
For example:
10.112.116.0-10.112.119.255
To specify all of the IP addresses in a specific subnet, use the following notation:
ip_address/subnet_mask_bits
For example:
10.112.0.0/16
Type an asterisk to match any IP address.
Note: this is the IP Address of the Device the user is using to connect to VMware View (Thin Client/Zero Client/ Thick client) not the View Desktop IP

:
Client Name:
A translation rule that specifies a computer name.
For example: Mary’s Computer
Type an asterisk to match any computer name.
Note: this is the Computer Name of the Device the user is using to connect to VMware View (Thin Client/Zero Client/ Thick client) not the View Desktop IP
:
Mac Address:
A translation rule that specifies a MAC address.
For example: 01:23:45:67:89:ab
Type an asterisk to match any MAC address.

Note: this is the MAC address of the Device the user is using to connect to VMware View (Thin Client/Zero Client/ Thick client) not the View Desktop IP

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User/User Group:

A translation rule that specifies a user or group name.
For example: jdoe
Type an asterisk to match any user name or group.

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Printer Name:

The name of the printer when it is mapped to the View desktop.
For example: PRINTER-2-CLR
The mapped name does not have to match the printer name on the client system.

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Printer Driver:

The name of the driver that the printer uses.
For example: HP Color LaserJet 4700 PS
Important
Because print jobs are sent directly from the desktop to the printer, the printer driver must be installed on the desktop.

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IP Port/ThinPrint Port:

For network printers, the IP address of the printer prepended with IP_.
For example: IP_10.114.24.1

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D:
Indicates whether the printer is the default printer.
Below is a good Syntax example:

The network printer specified in the first row will be mapped to a View desktop for any client system because asterisks appear in all of the translation rule columns. The network printer specified in the second row will be mapped to a View desktop only if the client system has an IP address in the range 10.112.116.140 through 10.112.116.145

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I hope this help any one looking to configure location based printing. Please note I have not wrote this post from scratch & I have heavily relied on the below resource:

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VMware View 4.5 Evaluators Guide

VMware View 4.5 Admin Guide

VMware View 4.5 Whats New (My first clue was this presentation)

I have just been assigned to assist one of our partners design a VDI environment using VMware View 4.5 with 5000+ Virtual Desktop. At this number of desktops every small bit has to be counted for while putting the design out. Some of the info required for the design was not ready in my mind nor obviously documented on the web. For that I had to contact our PSO team, & they have shared the answers with me. I am really thankful to the bright consultant who helped me with these info (requested not to mention his name so I will respect that). As these tips were not easy to find I thought I will share it with all of you.

Before I start I should mention a great document to look at when designing such an environment the VMware View 4.5 Architecture Planning Guide shows a clear architecture of how to design for 2,000 users, but missing some details when you go beyond 2,000. Below are few tips that I hope you will find useful.

For such huge environment where shall I install VMware View Composer?

You will still have to install VMware View Composer on the same machine as vCenter as that the only place its supported to be installed as per the following paragraph from the installation Guide for View Composer at page 34 you should find the below statement:

“To use View Composer, you must install the View Composer service on the vCenter Server computer. View Manager uses View Composer to create and deploy linked-clone desktops in vCenter Server.”

This has been confirmed to me as well by a VDI expert.

How many Virtual Desktop can a single VMware View Composer support in a VDI environment?

A single VMware View Composer can support up to 2,000 Virtual Desktops. If you have to run more than 2,000 virtual desktops in your environment you will require an additional vCenter where a new instance of VMware View Composer is installed. Keep in mind that you can use virtual center linked mode to easy the administration of the virtual desktops across multiple Virtual centers though watch out for the limitations if you are doing so. If you have multiple locations where the virtual desktops spread across geographically separated locations then you might want to have a VMware vCenter with its VMware View Composer per location. When your design is large enough, then you will have to think of it as multiple blocks with each block supporting 2,000 virtual desktops.

I have just been noticed that the 2,000 is not actually a limit, but a recommendation and that seems the max tested per composer though personally would stick to it.

Does VMware View 4.5 have any extra limitation on VMware Cluster?

Yes, although VMware HA & DRS Cluster support up to 32 host you should limit it to 8 ESX Hosts per VMware View Cluster Because of View Composer limitations, the cluster must contain no more than 8 servers, or nodes. Though always you can create multiple clusters per virtual center to host as many VMs as required up to the limit of VMs vCenter can handle.

Does View Composer require SQL? & can it share the same vCenter SQL intance?

Yes, VMware View Composer require SQL & it can be shared with the same vCenter SQL instance. Actually View Composer database is installed on the same vCenter SQL instance  most of the time. Though its recommended to install SQL for vCenter & VMware View Composer on a separate machine from the vCenter machine either physical or virtual. for larger environments.

Does VMware View Connection Server require SQL server?

The answer to this question from our VDI consultant has actually surprised me. VMware View Connection Server do need SQL if you are going to keep events. I could not find this stated in the installation guide neither the architecture guide. So this is a one more SQL to count for.

Can multiple VMware View connection servers share the same SQL instance for keeping events?

Yes, multiple VMware View Connection servers can share the same SQL instance but each must has its own database.

How many SQL licenses do I need?

well, this will only depend on how large is the VMware View environment you are building. Though you can save a good amount of licenses if you follow up on my previous article: http://www.virtualizationteam.com/virtualization-vmware/be-smart-not-a-retard-save-huge-on-microsoft-licensing-with-virtualization.html

I hope these tips help, & I will try to keep updating it. Please leave comments, corrections, or extra tips in the comments area.

While trying to add the domain administrator to my VMware View Composer settings in VMware View Manager, I was getting the following errors repeatedly:

Wrong Domain

Bad user name or Password

I have found out that the problem was caused by my Virtual Center where VMware View Composer reside was not a part of the domain, and was not using my domain controller as a DNS resolver. To resolve this problem I had came up with two solution:

1- Use your domain controller DNS as the DNS resolver on your VMware vCenter / VMware View Composer Server if possible.

2- On the View Composer server, add the domain name to the domain controller’s IP address mapping in the Windows hosts file: %WINDIR%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts.