Troy's IT Blog

This is going to focus on setting up Horizon View 7.x to run TLS 1.2 only including Blast Secure Gateway (BSG) and PCoIP protocol. I would recommend trying to implement this in your Horizon View environment if you can support the higher security requirements. Prerequisites: 1) Create backups of your servers using your desired backup tool. 2) Backup your locked.properties file on each of your Servers. This can be found in install_directory\VMware\VMware View\Server\sslgateway\conf\ 3) Take a backup of the View ADAM DB (KB for Backup Process Click Here ) 4) Check TLS 1.2 compliance for all your client types and versions. I can not stress this one more if you make the changes and one of your client types will not support TLS 1.2 those users will not be able to connect to your Horizon View Environment. 5) (Optional) Test all the changes in your devlopment Horizon View Environment before making the changes in production. Configuring Security Protocols and Cipher Suites on View Con...

If you have a Horizon View environment were you need assign a large number of users or have a high turn over rate in some of your pools you will not want to use the GUI to do this task. As we all know using the GUI takes a very long time to do this task. Requirements needed to run this script: Horizon View Environment must be running version 7.0.2 or newer PowerCLI Advanced Functions (Hv.Helper) Module - ( Download ) Text file with user names to be added to the pool Below is the script to do this task. 1: # ========================================================================================================= 2: # 3: # NAME: HorizonView_New_Entitlement.ps1 4: # 5: # AUTHOR: Troy Peters 6: # 7: # This will set a new user entitlement for a desktop pool 8: # 9: # 10: # ========================================================================================================= 11: # ======================== Import Modules ======================== ...

If anyone has been working with Horizon View for a long time you will remember that prior to Horizon View version 7.0.2 you had to run powershell commands for Horizon View on the local connection server or use powershell remoting. Now with Horizon 7.0.2 and newer you can run powershell commands using PowerCLI from a remote system. In this blog I will go over the requirements needed, how to get started, examples, and some resources that you can use to expand what is covered here. What is PowerCLI: PowerCLI is a powerful command-line tool based on Windows PowerShell that lets you automate all aspects of vSphere vSAN, SRM, VROPS, vCloud, and Horizon View. within PowerCLI is 100's of cmdlets to be used to create the automation. VMware PowerCLI - Horizon Module allows for integrated powershell support for Horizon View and is shipped as a module with the PowerCLI product. This allows access to the full Horizon View public API and supports remote connections from workstations or serv...

This Post will cover Objective 3.1 of the VCAP-DTM Deployment Exam Tools and References for Objective 3.1 Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View View Administration View Administrator Skills and Abilities: Determine appropriate pool configurations based on a deployment plan When using Horizon View you can create the following pool types: Desktop Pools - there are 3 types of devices that can be used to make up a desktop pool virtual machine based desktops, Session-based desktops, and Physical Computers. 3 types of desktop pools: Automated: Use a vCenter server VM template or a snapshot to create a group of identical VMs. Dedicated-Assignment Pools:  Each user is assigned a particular remote desktop and returns to the same desktop at each login. Users can personalize their desktops, install applications, and store data. Stateful Desktop Images:  Users who need a stateful desktop image have data in the operating system image itself that must be p...

Over the years of working with Horizon View the question I have been asked is how or what should our help desk staff do to support a Horizon View Environment. To answer this question a few things need to be answered. Will you give users access to View Administrator and if so what permissions? Will you give users access to vCenter and if so what permissions? Will you give users access to VMware VROPS or 3rd party monitoring tool (Liquidware Stratusphere)? After you answer the above question you can then start to plan how you will integrate your current help desk staff to support a Horizon View Environment. The good news is you might not need to do all this now as of yesterday on 6/20/17 VMware released VMware Horizon 7.2 code. In this release VMware has included an official help desk tool into the Horizon view product.  This new tool is a new simple interface that is great for help desk staff. It offers a great deal of features that your help desk staff will need to ...

This Post will cover Objective 2.3 of the VCAP-DTM Deployment Exam Tools and References for Objective 2.3 vSphere 6.0 Resource Management Guide vSphere 6.0 Availability Guide vSphere Client / Web Client Skills and Abilities: Create vSphere Resource Pools according to a deployment plan In the vSphere Web Client navigator, select a parent object for the resource pool (a host, another resource pool, or a DRS cluster). Right-click the object and select New Resource Pool. Type a name to identify the resource pool. Specify how to allocate CPU and memory resources. The CPU resources for your resource pool are the guaranteed physical resources the host reserves for a resource pool. Normally, you accept the default and let the host handle resource allocation. Shares - Specify shares for this resource pool with respect to the parent’s total resources. Sibling resource pools share resources according to their relative share values bounded by the reservation and limit. Reserva...

This Post will cover Objective 2.2 of the VCAP-DTM Deployment Exam Tools and References for Objective 2.2 Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View Optimization Guide for Desktops and Servers in View in VMware Horizon 6 and VMware Horizon Air Desktops and VMware Horizon Air Apps Image Management for View Desktops using Mirage VMware Mirage Administrator's Guide VMware OS Optimization Tool Skills and Abilities: Configure/Manage Horizon View desktop images Your VDI Pools will use the same hardware specs as the master image vCPU Memory Hard disk - should be set to Tin Provisioned should use a LSI Logic SAS storage controller Network adapter should be the VMXNET 3 Remove the Floppy drive as it is not needed If you have serial ports make sure to remove them as well as they are not needed. Items to install in master image VMware tools always make sure tools is installed before View Agent this includes if you update tools you have to make sure to reinst...

This Post will cover Objective 2.1 of the VCAP-DTM Deployment Exam Tools and References for Objective 2.1 View Administration Group Policy Editor ADM/ADMX templates Skills and Abilities: Configure View Persona Management settings A remote file repository must be configured to store user profiles when using Persona Management VMware documentation link for access permissions required for file repository  click here To be able to use persona management you must select the option when installing the View Agent. From the parent VM run the view agent installer in the options for features to install select Horizon View Persona Management You must add the View persona Management GPO template to your GPO that will be applied to VDIs Template File: ViewPM.adm VMware documentation link for settings  click here Settings that must be configured for Persona Management to work: Manage User Persona Persona repository location Configure PCoIP settings ...

 This Post will cover Objective 1.5 of the VCAP-DTM Deployment Exam Tools and References for Objective 1.5 View Administration View Administrator Skills and Abilities: Collect diagnostic information for View Connection Server using the support tool You can use the support tool to set logging levels and generate log files for View Connection Server. When you have collected enough information about the behavior of View Connection Server, select Start > All Programs > VMware > Generate View Connection Server Log Bundle. The support tool writes the log files to a folder called vdm-sdct on the desktop of the View Connection Server instance. File a support request on the Support page of the VMware Web site and attach the output files. Adjust the View Connection Server log levels according to a deployment plan Select Start > All Programs > VMware > Set View Connection Server Log Levels. In the Choice text box, type a numeric value to set the lo...

This Post will cover Objective 1.4 of the VCAP-DTM Deployment Exam Tools and References for Objective 1.4 VMware vRealize Operations for Horizon Installation VMware vRealize Operations for Horizon Administration Maximizing the Use of VMware vRealize Operations for Horizon Skills and Abilities: Install and configure vRealize Operations for Horizon Configure license key and associate View objects Steps to configure License Key: Log into vRealize Operations Select Administration > Licensing Add your license key to the VMware Horizon Solution on the License Keys tab Steps to Associate license key with View objects: Log in to the vRealize Operations Manager user interface. In the left pane, select Administration > Licensing. Click the License Groups tab. License groups appear in the top pane. The license group for vRealize Operations for Horizon is called VMware Horizon Solution Licensing. The license group for vRealize Operations Manager is called Produ...

Liquidware released on May 24th 2017 a new version of there ProfileUnity with FlexApp product to version 6.7. I had the first hand opportunity to see the live demo at Citrix Synergy last week. I can say I am really excited about the click-to-layer feature that is added to the FlexApp product in this release. This New feature allows instant delivery of a FlexApp application on-demand. This means you don't have to wait for all the layers to mount at login.With this new feature it will really be a big game changer in the application layering technology.  I have linked to the official release documents that has all the details on this release. If you are a Profile Unity Users or looking for a Application Layering / UEM solution i would recommend looking at this new version. Official Release by Liquidware: Click Here

This Post will cover Objective 1.3 of the VCAP-DTM Deployment Exam Tools and References for Objective 1.3: Installing and Configuring VMware Identity Manager Upgrading to VMware Identity Manager 2.4. x from 2.1 or 2.1.1 Upgrading to VMware Identity Manager 2.4. x from 2.4 VMware Identity Manager Administration Setting Up Resources in VMware Identity Manager Using VMware Identity Manager Apps Portal VMware Identity Manager Admin Console Skills and Abilities: Prepare environment to install VMware Identity Manager Portal Check  Installing and Configuring VMware Identity Manager  for System and network configuration requirements. Create DNS records and IP addresses A DNS entry and a static IP address must be available for the VMware Identity Manager appliance. Because each company administers their IP addresses and DNS records differently, before you begin your installation, request the DNS record and IP addresses to use Determine database options (interna...

This Post will cover Objective 1.2 of the VCAP-DTM Deployment Exam Tools and References for Objective 1.2: VMware Mirage Getting Started Guide VMware Mirage Installation Guide VMware Mirage Administrator's Guide Mirage Deployment and Design Considerations Mirage Large-Scale Reference Architecture VMware Mirage Management Console Skills and Abilities: Configure/Manage Mirage Permissions Open VMware Mirage Console from desktop and connect to your Mirage server by specifying FQND or IP address. In new console window select Users and Roles. To create new Role right click Users and Roles and select Add Role. Type Name and Description and click OK to create.  To change a new role select Users and Roles to show all existing and new role, choose the permission you want to assign to the new role. To add AD group to new role select that role and click green plus at the top left corner. Manage bandwidth limitation to prevent Mirage from consuming all b...