So I interested to trying to deploy latest release of VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 5.0 on my Windows 11 Home PC witch have 128GB and 16 core intel cpu.
VCF-M01-CB01 (4GB and 4CPU) Only needed through First Deploment
Network settings on my PC
1 IP In my home network
172.16.12.1 (To Fool Cloudbuilder)
172.16.13.1 (To Fool Cloudbuilder)
Procedure:
Install en Configure ESXi
Step 1 – Boot up the ESXi installer from de iso mount and then perform a standard ESXi installation.
Step 2 – Once ESXi is up and running, you will need to minimally configure networking along with an FQDN (ensure proper DNS resolution), NTP and specify which SSD should be used for the vSAN capacity drive. You can use the DCUI to setup the initial networking but recommend switching to ESXi Shell afterwards and finish the require preparations steps as demonstrated in the following ESXCLI commands:
esxcli system ntp set -e true -s pool.ntp.org
esxcli system hostname set –fqdn vcf-m01-esx01.wardvissers.nl
Note: Use vdq -q command to query for the available disks for use with vSAN and ensure there are no partitions residing on the 600GB disks.
Don’t change time server pool.ntp.org.
To ensure that the self-signed TLS certificate that ESXi generates matches that of the FQDN that you had configured, we will need to regenerate the certificate and restart hostd for the changes to go into effect by running the following commands within ESXi Shell:
Step 3 – Deploy the VMware Cloud builder in a separate environment and wait for it to be accessible over the browser. Once CB is online, download the setup_vmware_cloud_builder_for_one_node_management_domain.sh setup script and transfer that to the CB system using the admin user account (root is disabled by default).
Step 4 – Switch to the root user and set the script to have the executable permission and run the script as shown below
su –
chmod +x setup_vmware_cloud_builder_for_one_node_management_domain.sh
./setup_vmware_cloud_builder_for_one_node_management_domain.sh
The script will take some time, especially as it converts the NSX OVA->OVF->OVA and if everything was configured successfully, you should see the same output as the screenshot above.
Step 4 – Download the example JSON deployment file vcf50-management-domain-example.json and and adjust the values based on your environment. In addition to changing the hostname/IP Addresses you will also need to replace all the FILL_ME_IN_VCF_*_LICENSE_KEY with valid VCF 5.0 license keys.
Step 5 – The VMnic in the Cloud Builder VM will acked als a 10GB NIC so I started the deployment not through powershell but normal way in Cloud Builder GUI.
Your deployment time will vary based on your physical resources but it should eventually complete with everything show success as shown in the screenshot below. (I have one retry for finish)
Here are some screenshots VCF 5.0 deployment running on my home PC.
Virtual Machine with Windows Server 2022 with KB5022842 (Feb 2023) installed en configured with secure boot enabled will not boot up on vSphere 7 unless updated to 7.0u3k (vSphere 8 not affected)
In VM vmware.log, there is ‘Image DENIED’ info like the below:
2023-02-15T05:34:31.379Z In(05) vcpu-0 – SECUREBOOT: Signature: 0 in db, 0 in dbx, 1 unrecognized, 0 unsupported alg.
2023-02-15T05:34:31.379Z In(05) vcpu-0 – Hash: 0 in db, 0 in dbx.
2023-02-15T05:34:31.379Z In(05) vcpu-0 – SECUREBOOT: Image DENIED.
To identify the location of vmware.log files:
Establish an SSH session to your host. For ESXi hosts
Log in to the ESXi Host CLI using root account.
To list the locations of the configuration files for the virtual machines registered on the host, run the below command:
#vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms | grep -i “VM_Name”
The vmware.log file is located in virtual machine folder along with the vmx file.
Record the location of the .vmx configuration file for the virtual machine you are troubleshooting. For example:
If you already face the issue, after patching the host to ESXi 7.0 Update 3k, just power on the affected Windows Server 2022 VMs. After you patch a host to ESXi 7.0 Update 3k, you can migrate a running Windows Server 2022 VM from a host of version earlier than ESXi 7.0 Update 3k, install KB5022842, and the VM boots properly without any additional steps required.
I must also move al lot of VM’s from different datacenters to other datacenters. I use the script from Michael Wilmsen to move the VM’s. But along the way I counter some problems with this script. So I begon tweaking and tweaking and tweaking this script to create for me the ultimate Cross vCenter PowerCLI Script.
Coolfeatures: – Info through Whattsapp (Default not enabled) – Dryrun (Test Run) – Logging – Selection through GUI – Multiple Nic support maximum of 4. – Datastore en Host selection based on Free space en Free Memory – Check of Destination Host or Datastore in Maintance – Destination Store exist in Destination Cluster
MoveVM.ps1: #Filename: MoveVM.ps1
#Author: M. Wilmsen / W. Vissers
#Source: http://virtual-hike.com/nlvmug-2018/
#Version: 2.0
#Date: 21-10-2018
#ChangeLog:
# V0.9 – M. Wilmsen First Version
# V1.0 – Fixed Multiple Nics to maximium of 4 nics
# – Logfile name VM name
# V1.1 – Destination Cluster not the first Host
# V1.2 – Selected Destination host based on memory used
# V1.3 – Fixed folder location and VirtualPortGroup
# V1.4 – Fixed Datastore in Maintance
# V1.5 – Using Get-VICredentialStoreItem + Logpath Fixt
# V1.6 – Fixed Log in Hours in 24 uurs
# V1.7 – Fixed Using DatastoreCluster name based on Cluster name!
# V1.8 – Check if Destination has the same datastore
# – Ask know for input
# – VM selection with VMhost
# – Fixed Ping Check
# v1.9 – Added Destination Store exist in Destination Cluster
# v2.0 – Fixed Destination Store exist in Destination Cluster
<#
.SYNOPSIS
Script to migrate a virtual machine
.DESCRIPTION
Script to migrate compute and storage from cluster to cluster. Log will be in current dir [VM]-[-timestamp].log
.EXAMPLE
MoveVM.ps1
#>
################################## INIT #################################################
#Set WebOperation timeout
# set-PowerCLIConfiguration -WebOperationTimeoutSeconds 3600
#Define Global variables
$location = “D:\xmovewhattsapp”
$LogPath = “.\”
$DataStoreClusterPrefix = “SAN-“
$SourceVC = Read-Host “Give Source vCenter”
$DestinationVC = Read-Host “Give Destination vCenter”
$DRSRecommendation = $true
$Dryrun = $false
$SendWhatsApp = $false
$WhatsAppNumbers = “0123456789”
$WhatsAppGroup = “Namehireyourwhattsgroup”
$instanceId = “23” #chang this line
$clientId = “demo@demo.nl” #change this line
$clientSecret = “Puthiersecretid” #change this line
################################## PASSWORD STORE ##############################################
#Username
# Check if credentials exist in credential store if not ask for credentials and put them in credential store
if ($DatastoreExistinOthervCenter ) { LogWrite “Datastore exsist $DestinationCluster in destination vCenter $DestinationVC “ $destinationDatastore = $DatastoreExistinOthervCenter } Else { LogWrite “Datastore does not exsist in $DestinationCluster destination vCenter $DestinationVC” # Select DataStore with the most free space and not in maintance $DatastoreCluster = “$DataStoreClusterPrefix”+”$DestinationCluster” $destinationDatastore = Get-DatastoreCluster $DatastoreCluster | Get-Datastore | Where {$_.State -ne “Maintenance”} | Sort-Object -Property FreeSpaceGB -Descending | Select-Object -First 1 }
LogWrite “Start move: $vm” Logwrite “VM IP: $vmip” Logwrite “VM Disk Used (GB): $VMHDDSize” Logwrite “VM Folder: $vmfolder” Logwrite “Source vCenter: $SourceVC” Logwrite “VM Source Cluster: $SourceCluster” Logwrite “Destination vCenter: $DestinationVC” Logwrite “VM Destination Cluster: $DestinationCluster” Logwrite “Destination host: $DestinationHost” LogWrite “VM Source PortGroup: $SourceVMPortGroup” LogWrite “VM Destination Portgroup: $DestinationVMPortgroup” Logwrite “VM Destination Datastore: $destinationDatastore” LogWrite “Destination Datastore FreeSpace GB: $destinationDatastoreFreeSpace “ if ( $Dryrun ) { $FreespaceAfterMigration = $destinationDatastoreFreeSpace – $VMHDDSize if ( $FreespaceAfterMigration -lt 0 ) { Logwrite “ERROR: Datastore $destinationDatastore does not have sufficient freespace! Virtual Machine needs $VMHDDSize. Only $destinationDatastoreFreeSpace available.” } else { Logwrite “Virtual Machine will fit on datastore $destinationDatastore. Freespace after migration is: $FreespaceAfterMigration GB” } } #Test if VM responsed to ping if ($vmip -eq $null) { LogWrite “Virtual Machine ip address not known” Logwrite “No ping check will be performed after moving the Virtual Machine” } else { Test-Connection -comp $vmip -quiet LogWrite “Virtual Machine $vm response to ping before being moved. Virtual machine will be checked after being moved” $PingVM = $true }
#if ( $VMHDDSize -eq if ( -NOT $Dryrun) { #Migrate VM to cluster LogWrite “Move $vm to vCenter $DestinationVC and datastore $DestinationDatastore” Try { $Result = Move-VM -VM $vm ` -Destination $DestinationHost ` -Datastore $DestinationDatastore ` -NetworkAdapter $NetworkAdapter ` -PortGroup $DestinationVMPortgroup ` -ErrorAction Stop } Catch { $ErrorMessage = $_.Exception.Message LogWrite “ERROR: Move of $vm to cluster $DestinationHost failed!!!” Logwrite “ERROR: Move Status Code: $ErrorMessage” SendWhatsApp “ERROR: Move of $vm failed!!! $ErrorMessage” $MigError = $true } #Migrate VM to folder LogWrite “Move $vm to vCenter $vmfolder” Try { $VMtemp = get-vm $vm $Result = Move-VM -VM $vmtemp -InventoryLocation $vmfolder -ErrorAction Stop } Catch { $ErrorMessage = $_.Exception.Message LogWrite “ERROR: Move of $vm to folder $vmfolder failed!!!” Logwrite “ERROR: Move Status Code: $ErrorMessage” SendWhatsApp “ERROR: Move of $vm failed!!! $ErrorMessage” $MigError = $true } }
$MigError = $false #Test if VM is running on destination cluster if ( -NOT $MigError -AND -NOT $Dryrun ) { LogWrite “Check $vm is registered in $DestinationVC” try { $CheckVM = get-vm -name $vm -server $DestinationVC -ErrorAction Stop
if ( $CheckVM ) { Logwrite “$vm registered in $DestinationVC” } else { Logwrite “ERROR: $vm not found in $DestinationVC” } } catch { $ErrorMessage = $_.Exception.Message Logwrite “ERROR: $vm not found in $DestinationVC” Logwrite “ERROR: $ErrorMessage” SendWhatsApp “ERROR move: $vm not found in $DestinationVC” } } #Test is VM response to ping, if $PingVM = $True if ($PingVM) { if (Test-Connection -comp $vmip -quiet) { LogWrite “Virtual Machine $vm response to ping after move” SendWhatsApp “Virtual Machine $vm response to ping after move” } } sleep 1 SendWhatsApp “Finished move action: $vm from $SourceVC to $DestinationVC” Logwrite “Finished move action: $vm from $SourceVC to $DestinationVC”
I love powershell. I created a little script to deploy multi VM based on a Windows Template throug CSV file.
It’s create a computer account at the specfified ou. He greates also a Domain Local Group for management. (It used in the customization not specified here)
The release of VMware PowerCLI 10.0.0 was another big one for us. As a result, PowerCLI is now available on Linux, MacOS, and Windows! As part of every major release, there’s a large number of asks for the PowerCLI poster and today we’re releasing it!
The poster features a bit of a layout refresh which conforms to a more standardized poster sizing guideline, but still features all of our cmdlets, some basic examples, and links to helpful resources.
On March 20, 2018 Microsoft has released two new quarterly updates:
Exchange 2016 Cumulative Update 9 (CU9)
Exchange 2013 Cumulative Update 20 (CU20)
TLS 1.2
There aren’t too many new features in these CUs. The most important ‘feature’ is that TLS 1.2 is now fully supported (most likely you already have TLS 1.2 only on your load balancer). This is extremely supported since Microsoft will support TLS 1.2 ONLY in Office 365 in the last quarter of this year (see the An Update on Office 365 Requiring TLS 1.2 Microsoft blog as well).
Dot.net Support
Support for .NET Framework 4.7.1, or the ongoing story about the .NET Framework. The .NET Framework 4.7.1 is fully supported by Exchange 2016 CU9 and Exchange 2013 CU20. Why is this important? For the upcoming CUs in three months (somewhere in June 2018) the .NET Framework 4.7.1 is mandatory, so you need these to be installed in order to install these upcoming CUs.
Please note that .NET Framework 4.7 is NOT supported!
If you are currently running an older CU of Exchange, for example Exchange 2013 CU12, you have to make an intermediate upgrade to Exchange 2013 CU15. Then upgrade to .NET Framework 4.6.2 and then upgrade to Exchange 2013 CU20. If you are running Exchange 2016 CU3 or CU4, you can upgrade to .NET Framework 4.6.2 and then upgrade to Exchange 2016 CU9.
Schema changes
If you are coming from a recent Exchange 2013 CU, there are no schema changes since the schema version (rangeUpper = 15312) hasn’t changed since Exchange 2013 CU7. However, since there can be changes in (for example) RBAC, it’s always a good practice to run the Setup.exe /PrepareAD command. For Exchange 2016, the schema version (rangeUpper = 15332) hasn’t changed since Exchange 2016 CU7.
As always, check the new CUs in your lab environment before installing into your production environment!!
Exchange Server 2013 enters the Extended Support phase of product lifecycle on April 10th, 2018. During Extended Support, products receive only updates defined as Critical consistent with the Security Update Guide. For Exchange Server 2013, critical updates will include any required product updates due to time zone definition changes.
Version 3.10 (February, 2018)
– Upgraded RVTools solution to Visual Studio 2017
– Upgraded RVTools to .Net Framework version 4.6.1
– Upgraded Log4net to version 2.0.8, Waffle.AD to version 1.8.3
and NPOI to version 2.3.0
– Connection error when TLSv1.0 and TLSv1.1 are disabled and only TLSv1.2 is
enabled is solved by using .Net Framework 4.6.1
– vInfo tab page new columns: The latency-sensitivity setting of the virtual
machine, Change Block Tracking (CBT) and disk.EnableUUID values
– vDisk tab page new columns: SCSI label, unit number and sharedBus
– vHost tab page new columns: Assigned License(s), ATS heartbeat, ATS locking
values. 0 = disabled 1 = enabled, Host Power Policy shortname, CPU Power
Management current policy and CPU power hardware support
– When Export to xlsx is executed a metadata worksheet with version number of
RVTools and date time stamp is added to the output xlsx file
– All columns in the RVTools export xlsx file(s) now have a filter
– When export to csv newline characters are replaced by spaces
– When started from cli and login fails an error message and login box was
displayed. Now RVTools will exit with exit code -1, without showing the error
message and login form.
– Added an example PowerShell script with which you can merge RVTools export
xlsx files
– Added a example PowerShell script to start Export all to xlsx for multiple vCenters
– vDatastore tab page: For NFS datastores the address column is now filled with
remote host and path info
– vDatastore tab page new columns: Datastore Cluster Name, Cluster capacity and
Cluster free space
– The upper limit on the Health check for number of VMs on a datastore is now
9999
– vHealth tab page: new column “message type” which can be used as a filter in
Excel
– vHealth tab page: hbrdisk.RDID files are no longer reported as possible zombie
files
– vHealth tab page: low disk space messages no also show the free space in MB.
– All tab pages: Refresh or auto-refresh will respect your sort order
– CLI export2xls parameters changed to export2xlsx (old parameter will still work)
– Bug Fix: invalid “Horizontal Alignment” value in xlsx style sheet.
– Bug Fix: Calculation of total snapshot size was not always correct
– Bug Fix: Child snapshot hierarchy was not always correct
– Default installation directory is changed to C:\Program Files
(x86)\RobWare\RVTools without the version number
Many new items have been introduced, such as HTML5 video redirection support for the Chrome browser and the ability to configure Windows Start menu shortcuts for desktop and application pools using the Horizon Administrator console. As always, you can count on increased operating system support for virtual desktops and clients.
Here is an overview of the new features:
VMware Horizon 7.3 Server Enhancements
Horizon Help Desk Tool
Displays application process resources with reset control
Role-based access control for help desk staff
Activity logging for help desk staff
Displays Horizon Client information
Granular logon time metrics
Blast Extreme display protocol metrics
Instant Clone Technology
Instant-clone desktops can now use dedicated assignment to preserve the hostname, IP address and MAC address of a user’s desktop
Windows Server OS is now supported for desktop use
Instant clones are now compatible with Storage DRS (sDRS)
If there are no internal VMs in all four internal folders created in vSphere Web Client, these folders are unprotected, and you can delete them
IcUnprotect.cmd utility can now unprotect or delete template, replica or parent VMs or folders from vSphere hosts
Windows Start Menu Shortcuts Created Using the Admin Console
Create shortcuts to Horizon 7 resources:
Published applications
Desktops
Global entitlements
Cloud Pod Architecture Scale
Total session limit is increased to 140,000
The site limit is now seven
VMware Horizon Apps
This update makes Horizon Apps easier to use and allows the administrator to restrict entitlements
Restrict access to desktop and application pools from specific client machines
Resiliency for Monitoring
If the event database shuts down, Horizon administrator maintains an audit trail of the events that occur before and after the event database shutdown
Database Support
Always-On Availability Groups feature for Microsoft SQL Server 2014
ADMX Templates
Additional GPO settings for ThinPrint printer filtering, HTML5 redirection and enforcement of desktop wallpaper settings
Remote Experience
Horizon Virtualization Pack for Skype for Business
Multiparty audio and video conferencing
Horizon 7 RDSH support
Windows Server 2008 R2
Windows Server 2012 R2
Forward Error Correction (FEC)
Quality of Experience (QOE) metrics
Customized ringtones
Call park and pickup
E911 (Enhanced 911) support, to allow the location of the mobile caller to be known to the call receiver
USB desktop-tethering support
Horizon Client for Linux support for the following Linux distributions:
Ubuntu 12.04 (32-bit)
Ubuntu 14.04 (32 & 64-bit)
Ubuntu 16.04 (64-bit)
RHEL 6.9/CentOS 6.x (64-bit)
RHEL 7.3 (64-bit)
SLED12 SP2 (64-bit)
Additional NVIDIA GRID vGPU Support
Support for the Tesla P40 graphics card from NVIDIA
HTML5 Video Redirection
View HTML 5 video from a Chrome browser and have video redirected to the client endpoint for smoother and more efficient video playback
Performance Counter Improvements
Windows agent PerfMon counters improvements for Blast Extreme sessions: imaging, audio, client-drive redirection (CDR), USB and virtual printing
Linux Virtual Desktops
KDE support: Besides RHEL/CentOS 6.x, the KDE GUI is now supported on RHEL/CentOS 7.x, Ubuntu 14.04/16.04 and SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 SP4
MATE interface is now supported on Ubuntu 14.04 and Ubuntu 16.04
Blast Extreme Adaptive Transport is now supported for Linux desktops
vGPU hardware H.264 encoder support has been added
USB Redirection
USB redirection is supported in nested mode
ThinPrint Filtering
Administrators can filter out printers that should not be redirected
Horizon Client 4.6 Updates
Security Update
All clients have been updated to use SHA-2 to prevent SHA-1 collision attacks
Session Pre-launch
Session pre-launch is now extended to both Horizon Client for macOS and Horizon Client for Windows
Apteligent
Integration of Apteligent crash log
Blast Extreme
Improvements in Blast Extreme Adaptive Transport mode for iOS and macOS
User can change Blast Extreme settings without having to disconnect
Horizon Client 4.6 for Windows
Support for UNC path with CDR
Horizon Client 4.6 for macOS
Support for macOS Sierra and macOS High Sierra
Selective monitor support
Norwegian keyboard support
Horizon Client 4.6 for iOS
CDR support with drag and drop of files in split view
iOS split keyboard enhancement
iOS UI updates
Horizon Client 4.6 for Android
Android Oreo support
Manage the Horizon server list with VMware AirWatch
Simple shortcuts
External mouse enhancements
Real-Time Audio-Video (RTAV) support for Android and Chrome OS
Horizon Client 4.6 for Linux
Blast Extreme Adaptive Transport support
Horizon Client 4.6 for Windows 10 UWP
Network recovery improvements
Horizon HTML Access 4.6
HTML Access for Android with a revised UI
Customization of HTML Access page
Horizon Help Desk Tool
The Horizon Help Desk Tool provides a troubleshooting interface for the help desk that is installed by default on Connection Servers. To access the Horizon Help Desk Tool, navigate to https://<CS_FQDN>/helpdesk, where <CS_FQDN> is the fully qualified domain name of the Connection Server, or click the Help Desk button in the Horizon Administrator console.
The Help Desk Tool was introduced in Horizon 7.2 and has been greatly expanded upon in the Horizon 7.3 release.
Help Desktop Tool features with Horizon 7.2:
Virtual machine metrics
Remote assistance
Session control (restart, logoff, reset, and disconnect)
Sending messages
Additional features with Horizon 7.3:
Display application process resources with reset control
Role-based access control for help desk staff
Activity logging for help desk staff
Granular login time metrics
Display Horizon Client information
User Session Details
The user session details appear on the Details tab when you click a user name in the Computer Name option on the Sessions tab. You can view details for Horizon Client, the VDI desktop or RDSH-published desktop, CPU and memory stats, and many other details.
Client version
Unified Access Gateway name and IP address
Logon breakdown (client to broker):
Brokering
GPO load
Profile load
Interactive
Authentication
Blast Extreme Metrics
Blast extreme metrics that have been added include estimated bandwidth (uplink), packet loss, and transmitted and received traffic counters for imaging, audio, and CDR.
Note the following behavior:
The text-based counters do not auto-update in the dashboard. Close and reopen the session details to refresh the information.
The counters for transmitted and received traffic counters are accumulative from the point the session is queried/polled.
Blast Extreme Metrics for a Windows 10 Virtual Desktop Session
Display and Reset Application Processes and Resources
This new feature provides help desk staff with a granular option to resolve problematic processes without affecting the entire user session, similar to Windows Task Manager. The session processes appear on the Processes tab when you click a user name in the Computer Name option on the Sessions tab. For each user session, you can view additional details about CPU- and memory-related processes to diagnose issues.
Role-based Access Control and Custom Roles
You can assign the following predefined administrator roles to Horizon Help Desk Tool administrators to delegate the troubleshooting tasks between administrator users:
Help Desk Administrator
Help Desk Administrator (Read Only)
You can also create custom roles by assigning the Manage Help Desk (Read Only) privilege along with any other privileges based on the Help Desk Administrator role or Help Desk Administrator (Read Only) role.
Members of the Help Desk Administrators (Read Only) role do not have access to following controls; in fact, functions such as Log Off and Reset are not presented in the user interface.
Watch this brief demonstration video of the Horizon Help Desk Tool to see it in action:
Horizon Virtualization Pack for Skype for Business
You can now make optimized audio and video calls with Skype for Business inside a virtual desktop without negatively affecting the virtual infrastructure and overloading the network.
All media processing takes place on the client machine instead of in the virtual desktop during a Skype audio and video call.
Horizon Virtualization Pack for Skype for Business offers the following supported features:
System Requirements
The following table outlines the system requirements for the new release:
Supported Clients
The following table provides the list of support Horizon clients:
Start Menu Shortcuts Configured Through the Admin Console
This feature improves the user experience by adding desktop and application shortcuts to the Start menu of Windows client devices.
You can use Horizon Administrator to create shortcuts for the following types of Horizon 7 resources:
Published applications
Desktops
Global entitlements
Shortcuts appear in the Windows Start menu and are configured by IT. Shortcuts can be categorized into folders.
Users can choose at login whether to have shortcuts added to the Start menu on their Windows endpoint device.
Watch this brief demonstration video of the new Desktop and Apps Shortcuts feature to see it in action:
Dedicated Desktop Support for Instant Clones
Upon the initial release of instant clones in Horizon 7, we supported floating desktop pools and assignments only. Further investments have been made to Instant Clone Technology that add support for dedicated desktop pools. Fixed assignments and entitlements of users to instant-clone machines is now provided as part of Horizon 7.3.
Dedicated instant-clone desktop assignment means that there is a 1:1 relationship between users and desktops. Once an end user is assigned to a desktop, they will consistently receive access to the same desktop and corresponding virtual machine. This feature is important for apps that require a consistent hostname, IP address, or MAC address to function properly.
Note: Persistent disks are not supported. Fixed assignments to desktops does not mean persistence for changes. Any changes that the user makes to the desktop while in-session will not be preserved after logoff, which is similar to how a floating desktop pool works. With dedicated assignment, when the user logs out, a resync operation on the master image retains the VM name, IP address, and MAC address.
Support for the Tesla P40 Graphics Card from NVIDIA
VMware has expanded NVIDIA GRID support with Tesla P40 GPU cards in Horizon 7.3.
HTML5 Video Redirection
This feature provides the ability to take the HTML5 video from a Chrome (version 58 or higher) browser inside a Windows VDI or RDSH system and redirect it to Windows clients. This feature uses Blast Extreme or PCoIP side channels along with a Chrome extension.
The redirected video is overlaid on the client and is enabled as well as managed using GPO settings.
Benefits include:
Supports generic sites such as YouTube, without requiring a server-side plugin.
Provides smooth video playback comparable to the native experience of playing video inside a browser on the local client system.
Reduces data center network traffic and CPU utilization on the vSphere infrastructure hosts.
Improved USB Redirection with User Environment Manager
The default User Environment Manager timeout value has been increased. This change ensures that the USB redirection Smart Policy takes effect even when the login process takes longer than expected.
With Horizon Client 4.6, the User Environment Manager timeout value is configured only on the agent and is sent from the agent to the client.
You can now bypass User Environment Manager control of USB redirection by setting a registry key on the agent machine (VDI desktop or RDSH server). This change ensures that smart card SSO works on Teradici zero clients. Note: Requires a restart.
The Windows Agent PerfMon counters for the Blast Extreme protocol have been improved to update at a constant rate and to be even more accurate.
Counters include:
Imaging
Audio
CDR
USB
Virtual printing
Linux Virtual Desktops
Features and functions for Horizon 7 for Linux virtual desktops have been expanded:
KDE support – Besides RHEL/CentOS 6.x, the KDE GUI is now supported on RHEL/CentOS 7.x, Ubuntu 14.04/16.04, SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 SP4.
Support for the MATE interface on Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 16.04.
Blast Extreme Adaptive Transport support.
vGPU hardware H.264 encoder support.
USB Redirection Support in Nested Mode
The USB redirection feature is now supported when you use Horizon Client in nested mode. When using nesting–for example, when opening RDSH applications from a VDI desktop–you can now redirect USB devices from the client device to the first virtualization layer and then redirect the same USB device to the second virtualization layer (that is, nested session).
Filtering Redirected Printers
You can now create a filter to specify the printers that should not be redirected with ThinPrint. A new GPO ADMX template (vmd_printing_agent.admx) has been added to enable this functionality.
By default, the rule permits all client printers to be redirected.
Supported attributes:
PrinterName
DriverName
VendorName
Supported operators:
AND
OR
NOT
Supported searching pattern is a regular expression.
Blast Extreme Improvements in CPU Usage
Now even lower CPU usage is achieved with adaptive Forward Error Correction algorithms. This clever mechanism decides how to handle error correction, lowering CPU usage within virtual desktop machines as well as on client endpoint devices.
Blast Extreme Adaptive Transport Side Channel
New support has been added for Blast Extreme Adaptive Transport side channels for USB and CDR communications. Once enabled, TCP port 32111 for USB traffic does not need to be opened, and USB traffic uses a side channel. This feature is supported for both virtual desktops and RDS hosts.
Feature is turned off by default.
Enable the feature through a registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc.\VMware Blast\Config\UdpAuxiliaryFlowsEnabled 1
Entitlement Restrictions Based on Machine Name
This feature allows IT administrators to restrict access to published applications and desktops based on both client computer and user. With client restrictions for RDSH, it is now possible to check AD security groups for specific computer names. Users only have access to desktops and apps when both the user and the client machine are entitled. For this release, the feature is supported only for Windows clients and works with global entitlements.
Pre-Launch Improvements
Pre-launch provides the ability to launch an empty (application-less) session when connecting to the Connection Server. The feature is now also available to Windows clients, in addition to macOS.
Also, it is no longer necessary to manually make changes to the client settings. You can configure automatic reconnection.
Blast Extreme Adaptive Transport Mode for iOS and macOS
With prior client releases, users were required to configure their Blast Extreme settings before they connected to the Connection Server. After a connection was established, the options to change the Blast Extreme setting—which included H.264, Poor, Typical, and Excellent—were unavailable.
With this release, users can change the network condition setting from Excellent to Typical or the reverse while inflight to sessions. Doing so also changes the protocol connection type between TCP (for Excellent) and UDP (for Typical).
Note: End users will not be able to change the network condition setting if Poor is selected before establishing a session connection.
Horizon Client for Windows
Horizon Client 4.6 updates include:
Additional command-line options for the new client installer – When silently installing the Windows client, using the /s flag, you can now also set:
REMOVE-SerialPort,Scanner – Removes the serial port, scanner, or both.
DESKTOP_SHORTCUT-0 – Installs without a desktop shortcut.
STARTMENU_SHORTCUT-0 – Installs without a Start menu shortcut.
Support for UNC paths with client drive redirection (CDR):
Allows remote applications to access files from a network location on the client machine. Each location gets its own drive letter inside the remote application or VDI desktop.
Folders residing on UNC paths can now be redirected with CDR, and get their own drive letter inside the session, just as any other shared folder.
Horizon Client for macOS
Horizon Client 4.6 updates include:
Apple macOS High Sierra day 0 support.
Users can select which monitors to use for VDI sessions and which to use for the local system.
Norwegian keyboard support and mappings are now available
Horizon Client for iOS
Horizon Client 4.6 updates include:
iOS 11 support
iOS split keyboard update – Removes the middle area in the split keyboard for a better view of the desktop
New dialog box for easy connection to a Swiftpoint Mouse
Horizon Client for Android
Horizon Client 4.6 updates include:
Android 8.0 Oreo support.
Server URL configuration – Allows administrators to configure a list of Connection Servers and a default Connection Server on Android devices managed by VMware AirWatch.
Android and Chrome OS Client Updates
Horizon Client 4.6 for Android and Horizon Client 4.6 for Chrome OS updates include:
Simple shortcuts – Users can right-click any application or desktop to add a shortcut to the home screen.
Webcam redirection – Integrated webcams on an Android device or a Chromebook are now available for redirection using the Real-Time Audio-Video (RTAV) feature.
HTML Access
HTML Access 4.6 updates include:
HTML Access on Android devices – Though HTML Access has fewer features than the native Horizon Client, it allows you to use remote desktops and published applications without installing software.
HTML Access page customization – Administrators can customize graphics and text and have those customizations persist through future upgrades.
Horizon Client for Linux
Horizon Client 4.6 updates include:
Support for Raspberry Pi 3 Model B devices:
ThinLinx operating system (TLXOS) or Stratodesk NoTouch operating system
Supported Horizon Client features include:
Blast Extreme
USB redirection
264 decoding
8000Hz and 16000Hz audio-in sample rate
RHEL/CentOS 7.4 support
Horizon Client for Windows 10 UWP
Horizon Client 4.6 updates include:
Network recovery improvements – Clients can recover from temporary network loss (up to 2 minutes). This feature was already available for Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android, and is now available for Windows 10 UWP.
Automatically reconnects Blast Extreme sessions
Reduces re-authentication prompts
We are excited about these new features in Horizon 7.3.1 and the Horizon Client 4.6. We hope that you will give them a try.
Microsoft announced the release of four new edX online training courses for Microsoft Exchange Server 2016. If you plan to implement Exchange Server 2016 or Exchange Online, or if you want to make sure that your implementation was done right, the Exchange Server 2016 online training courses are for you.
Each Exchange course is targeted to the IT professional audience, with hands-on labs that reinforce student learning. Students are graded on completing each module, as well as on module assessment exams and a final course exam. A Certificate can be earned by completing each course with a passing grade. Courses are self-paced, allowing IT professionals to build Exchange skills at their own pace as their schedules permit.
The first course, CLD208.1x: Microsoft Exchange Server 2016 Infrastructure, is free. The remaining three courses are for-fee courses at $49 USD per course.
edX is a massive open online course (MOOC) provider that was developed by MIT and Harvard University. The Microsoft Learning Experiences team has created a wide range of online training courses for edX, and these four Exchange courses are the team’s latest Office releases. They are the first of seven courses that cover the core skills an Exchange administrator needs to proficiently design, implement and manage an Exchange 2016 and Exchange Online implementation.
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