Teradici released Firmware 3.5.0 for PCoIP Zero Clients and PCoIP Host Cards & PCoIP Management Console 1.7.0

    Teradici released a new  PCoIP zero client and host card firmware and the PCoIP Management Console. The following releases are now available for download on the Teradici support site (techsupport.teradici.com):

    • Firmware 3.5.0 for PCoIP Zero Clients and PCoIP Host Cards.
    • PCoIP Management Console 1.7.0

    Firmware 3.5.0 update includes key feature enhancements including:

    • USB2.0 with VMware View sessions
    • Imprivata OneSign® Virtual Desktop Access via proximity cards with VMware View
    • IEEE 802.1x network security
    • IPv6 support. 

    With this release, Teradici continues to innovate PCoIP zero client technology and accelerate the adoption

VMware Workstation 8.0.1 Released

What’s New

Highlights of VMware Workstation 8.0.1 functionality include:

  • Graphics performance and compatibility enhancements.
  • Improvements in creating and using shared virtual machines and remote virtual machines.
  • Ubuntu 11.10 is officially supported as a guest operating system.
  • Disk and memory management issues have been addressed.
  • Many customer-reported issues have been resolved.

VMware Workstation 8.0.1 is a free update for all VMware Workstation 8 users.

Resolved Issues

The following sections list the resolved issues in VMware Workstation 8.0.1.

  • Windows 7 guest installation failed after powering on the virtual machine with the error A required CD/DVD drive device driver is missing. If you have a driver floppy disk,
    CD, DVD, or USB flash drive, please insert it now.
  • VMware Tools failed with the message VMware Tools unrecoverable error.
  • VMware Tools failed to start in Fedora 15 guests.
  • An Ubuntu 11.10 guest crashed with a signal 11 error if you installed or upgraded VMware Tools.
  • On hosts with Nvidia GeForce and Quadro video cards, some of the clouds in the Unigine Heaven Benchmark application were drawn solid black.
  • Easy Install did not properly function on Ubuntu 11.10.
  • If remote virtual machines were open, you could not shut down the Windows hosts.
  • When transitioning from Full Screen mode to Exclusive mode, the Full Screen toolbar sometimes failed to hide.
  • Host memory reservation restrictions on Windows hosts are more relaxed in VMware Workstation 8.0.1 than in previous versions of VMware Workstation.
  • CD/DVD mount Linux.iso failed while installing VMware Tools in Ubuntu 11.10 guests.
  • The AltGr key was not working in an Ubuntu guest in Unity mode when the host and guest keyboards were both set to a layout that contained the AltGr key.

VMware PowerCLI Configure Multipath Policy

Today i  needed to configure the Multipath Policy from “Most Recently Used” to “Round Robin (VMware) on our vSphere 4.1 and HP EVA4400 environment. After reading “Configuration best practices for HP StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array (EVA) family and VMware vSphere 4” I decided to change the path status

To check the status of the Multipath Policy you can run the following PowerCLI script:

Per host:

Get-VMhost ESXHOST | Get-ScsiLun -LunType disk
image9

Per Cluster:

Get-Cluster CLUSTERNAME| Get-VMHost | Get-ScsiLun -LunType disk

To change the Multipath Policy you can run the following command:

Per Host:

Get-VMHost ESXHOST | Get-ScsiLun -CanonicalName "naa.6005*" | Set-ScsiLun -MultipathPolicy "roundrobin"

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Per Cluster:
get-cluster “Cluster Name” | Get-VMHost | Get-ScsiLun -LunType disk | Where-Object {$_.MultipathPolicy -ne “RoundRobin”} | Set-ScsiLun -MultipathPolicy “RoundRobin”

Special thanks to: VMPROS

VMware View XP persistent disk can not save outlook.ost c:\document and settings\…..

I’m busy with created a new a new pool with presentment disks.

The View desktops we’ve got setup are using linked clones and persistent disks which map to the D:\ in the users sessions. Of course this means the users profile is loaded to the D:\ instead of C:\ in the virtual desktops. My issue is, when a new users comes from our old environment into the test view setup, their Outlook is trying to find their OST file on the C:\ (c:\document and settings\…etc). The users data has been loaded to the D:\ though. The only way I’ve found to get around this is going into the Contol Panel in the users session, deleting their Outlook profile,

Solution:

Microsoft saves information about profile under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\Outlook

So, within regedit, I right-clicked on HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\Outlook then chose Export. For Save as Type, I changed the value to "Text Files (*.txt)". I then opened the text file I created with Notepad. You can’t just search for "Outlook.ost", since there are null, i.e. 00, characters stored between each character. They show up in an ASCII representation as dots. E.g. Outlook.ost would be O.u.t.l.o.o.k…o.s.t.

Since the "Outlook.ost" could be broken across multiple lines, I decided just to search for o.s.t. I found the following in the text file I had created.

Value 31

  Name:            001f6610

  Type:            REG_BINARY

  Data:           

00000000   43 00 3a 00 5c 00 44 00 – 6f 00 63 00 75 00 6d 00  C.:.\.D.o.c.u.m.

00000010   65 00 6e 00 74 00 73 00 – 20 00 61 00 6e 00 64 00  e.n.t.s. .a.n.d.

00000020   20 00 53 00 65 00 74 00 – 74 00 69 00 6e 00 67 00   .S.e.t.t.i.n.g.

00000030   73 00 5c 00 4a 00 69 00 – 6d 00 5c 00 4c 00 6f 00  s.\.J.i.m.\.L.o.

00000040   63 00 61 00 6c 00 20 00 – 53 00 65 00 74 00 74 00  c.a.l. .S.e.t.t.

00000050   69 00 6e 00 67 00 73 00 – 5c 00 41 00 70 00 70 00  i.n.g.s.\.A.p.p.

00000060   6c 00 69 00 63 00 61 00 – 74 00 69 00 6f 00 6e 00  l.i.c.a.t.i.o.n.

00000070   20 00 44 00 61 00 74 00 – 61 00 5c 00 4d 00 69 00   .D.a.t.a.\.M.i.

00000080   63 00 72 00 6f 00 73 00 – 6f 00 66 00 74 00 5c 00  c.r.o.s.o.f.t.\.

00000090   4f 00 75 00 74 00 6c 00 – 6f 00 6f 00 6b 00 5c 00  O.u.t.l.o.o.k.\.

000000a0   6f 00 75 00 74 00 6c 00 – 6f 00 6f 00 6b 00 2e 00  o.u.t.l.o.o.k…

000000b0   6f 00 73 00 74 00 00 00 -                          o.s.t…

I could also have searched in the .reg file I created when I exported the registry information from the other computer. But, again, you can’t just search for "Outlook.ost" in the .reg file you created, either, since the information in it is the hexadecimal representation of the binary data in the registry keys. You would need to convert a string, such as "ost" to hexadecimal form. You can do that at String – ASCII, HEX, Binary Converter. In the String field, I put in ost. The converter showed me the equivalent hex value is 6F 73 74. Note: the converter shows decimal/ASCII, binary, and hex values. Make sure you use the correct one. Also note that the hexadecimal representation of "OST" is not the same as "ost". Since the error message I received referred to Outlook.ost, I converted "ost" to hexadecimal. Again, it may be better to limit the length of the string to reduce the chance it will be broken across multiple lines in the file.

Once you have the hexadecimal equivalent of the ASCII string, you still can’t just search for it, i.e. a search for 6F7374 wouldn’t work. The hexadecimal numbers are stored in the .reg file with commas and the null character, 00, between them. I.e., I would need to search for 6f,00,73,00,74 instead.

In the .reg file found it among the following lines:

"001f6610"=hex:43,00,3a,00,5c,00,44,00,6f,00,63,00,75,00,6d,00,65,00,6e,00,74,\

  00,73,00,20,00,61,00,6e,00,64,00,20,00,53,00,65,00,74,00,74,00,69,00,6e,00,\

  67,00,73,00,5c,00,4a,00,69,00,6d,00,5c,00,4c,00,6f,00,63,00,61,00,6c,00,20,\

  00,53,00,65,00,74,00,74,00,69,00,6e,00,67,00,73,00,5c,00,41,00,70,00,70,00,\

  6c,00,69,00,63,00,61,00,74,00,69,00,6f,00,6e,00,20,00,44,00,61,00,74,00,61,\

  00,5c,00,4d,00,69,00,63,00,72,00,6f,00,73,00,6f,00,66,00,74,00,5c,00,4f,00,\

  75,00,74,00,6c,00,6f,00,6f,00,6b,00,5c,00,6f,00,75,00,74,00,6c,00,6f,00,6f,\

  00,6b,00,2e,00,6f,00,73,00,74,00,00,00

I noticed it was associated with a "001f6610" entry. When I had searched the text file, I had also seen Outlook.ost associated with "Name: 001f6610".

You can delete the following registry key with group policy preferences to disable using Offline Folders after disabling Use Cached Mode in Group Policy:

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\Outlook\13dbb0c8aa05101a9bb000aa002fc45a\001f6610

New VMware View Clients for iPad, Android and Cius ;)

The new VMware View Client for iPad is out and it offers some great new features including an innovative new presentation mode supporting Apple AirPlay. More on this shortly…

VMware View makes it easy to extend to your users the opportunity to work where you want and on the device they choose. Today, we are excited to make this even easier with the release three new or updated mobile clients:

  • VMware View Client for iPad 1.2 (Photo below showing new presentation mode!*)

ViewClient_iPad_Presentation_Mode

  • VMware View Client for Android Tablets

Android_touchpad

  • VMware View Client for Cius

Let’s talk about the new clients…

VMware View Client for iPad 1.2
Building on the earlier View Client for iPad we released in March, VMware View Client for iPad 1.2 makes it easier, faster and better than ever to connect to your View desktop.

Optimized for VMware View 5 Glimlach
With support for VMware View 5, you can get better performance with reduced bandwidth options as well as more resilient connections to your desktop than previous versions.

Move Back and Forth between Windows Desktop and iOS Apps
Now with support for background multitasking, you can jump from your Windows desktop to another iPad app and then right back into the Windows desktop to where you left off!

Simpler to Connect with Embedded RSA Soft Token Knipogende emoticon
If you need to use an RSA key to authenticate to connect to your View Desktop, just activate the RSA soft token built into the View Client for iPad and you just need to enter your RSA PIN when you connect to your View desktop.

Support for iOS 5 and Apple AirPlay
That right… VMware View Client for iPad 1.2 works well with iOS 5 and takes advantage of Apple AirPlay and an available AppleTV to use your big screen TV as a display for your View desktop. While some people might think that Apple TV is just for fun, it can now blur the lines between work and play and represents the best the post-PC era has to offer.

Work Smarter with Presentation Mode *
Use an external monitor or AirPlay in iOS 5 and the iPad display turns into a trackpad / keyboard while the external screen shows your View desktop!

Speaks Your Language
The latest VMware View client is now available in English, French, German, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, and Korean. When working multi-byte Asian languages, the new local input mode enables you to type in full lines of complete multi-byte words and then send them to your View desktop.

The new VMware View Client for iPad is available in the Apple App Store today! Check it out!

For those of you who follow this blog and use Android based tablets. Today we are happy to release our production Android clients for Android Tablets and the Cisco Cius. After all it is about supporting the tablet you choose.

VMware View Client for Android Tablets and the Cisco Cius
Whether you are using a Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 or 10.1, an LG/T-mobile G-Slate, a Motorola Xoom or any of the other newly available Honeycomb-based Android tablets or the Cisco Cius, you can get the most of your View desktop on the Android tablet you choose.

Optimized for VMware View 5
The VMware View Client for Android Tablets is the first Android client to support the PCoIP display protocol for best performance with VMware View 4.6 and View 5 users. With support for VMware View 5, you can get better performance with reduced bandwidth options as well as more resilient connections to your View desktop.

Move Back and Forth between Windows Desktop and Android Apps
Leveraging the power of Android multitasking, you can jump from your Windows desktop to another Android app and then right back into the Windows desktop to where you left off!

Speaks Your Language
The latest VMware View Client for Android is available in English, French, German, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, and Korean. When working multi-byte Asian languages, local input mode enables you to type in full lines of complete multi-byte words and then send them to your View desktop.

The new VMware View Client for Android Tablets is available in the Android Marketplace and the VMware View Client for Cius will soon be available in Cisco’s AppHQ. Check them out today!

vSphere 5 Reference Card

Forbes Guthrie created a vSphere 5 Reference Card. The VMware documentation is about 1700 pages, but fortunately these notes are packed down into about 50 pages.
They’re all excerpts take directly from the official VMware PDFs. This makes it great to study from, as the VCP questions are often taken straight from their documentation. I occasionally added a few words to help clarify the context of the sentence, but the vast majority of the content is word-for-word. Being direct quotes makes it easy for you to search within the PDF if you are unsure on an area or need greater clarification surround a statement.

image

To download just click on the picture Knipogende emoticon.

Free Quest vWorkspace Desktop Optimizer

Quest vWorkspace Desktop Optimizer  is a free tool to optimize the virtual desktop.

Blindly deploying entirely the same Windows desktop image that was used for the physical desktops is not the smartest thing to do. Running Windows in a VDI environment requires a decent amount of optimizing. This optimizing is nothing new. Quest has been optimizing SBC environments for over ten years now and many of things that we learned there (the hard way) apply equally to VDI environments.

Quest created a piece of software that contains our entire ‘optimizing knowledge’ called the Quest vWorkspace Desktop Optimizer and it is Free!

Although optimized for Quest vWorkspace environments, the Quest vWorkspace Desktop Optimizer will work just as well in Citrix XenDesktop or VMware View environments. You can download the Quest vWorkspace Desktop Optimizer HERE. Read HERE important information on how to use the Quest vWorkspace Desktop Optimizer.

image

Optimizing Windows 7 Images for use in VDI

One of our MCS deployment guys in the UK – Jonathan Bennett (you may know Jonathan as the author of the autoit tools and GImageX) has developed a tool for configuring Windows 7/Windows Vista/Server 2008 images for use in a VDI environment. The tool called VDI Optimizer outputs a VBScript (based on the selections you make in the GUI interface), which can then be used to apply performance and configuration settings to images that will be deployed via VDI platforms – this is particularly useful if you are using MDT 2010 for your image engineering process as the VBScript can bolted into the task sequence using a Run Command Line task.

image

You can make machine based selections for turning off services and functions that may not be required when the operating system is running in a VDI environment such as hibernation, system restore, and background defrag, as well as adjusting some user based settings such as visual effects, font smoothing and off-screen composition for Internet Explorer.

The beta of this tool is available from http://www.autoitscript.com/files/tools/VDIOptimizer.zip but please remember The tool is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, confers no rights, and is not supported by the authors or Microsoft Corporation.

Source: Optimizing Windows 7 images for use in VDI

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