VMware View 5 PCoIP Client for Mac

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… Read More

VMware View 4.6 Windows 7 Quick Prep fail where it work for Windows XP

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.… Read More

VMware View Client for Android Tablets is here

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… Read More

VMware View PCoIP Client on Ubuntu is finally here

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.… Read More

VMware View 4.5 Location Based Printing

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.… Read More

VMware View 4.5 in large VDI implementation over 2,000 Virtual Desktop Tips

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.Read More

VMware View manager problem when entering domain administrator for the View Composer setting

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.

For example:
111.345.333.235 <domain name>
 
Please note this is seems to be a well known issue. A VMware KB with the second solution I provided can be found here: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=1007837&sliceId=2
 
Though the KB did not mention the first solution I mentioned above, it is 100% workable & supported.
If this saved you some headache and time, please take the time to share your experience with us. Thanks.
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