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In my previous post I had talked about how to setup caching on Nutanix. Here we are creating two 1 TB drives to our Windows 2012 VM that will reside on our NFS volume that that has compression enabled. We use two different scsi controller for performance. More disks, more threads, better performance. Keep in mind that Mirage will only support 1500 connections per Mirage Server so there is much point throwing all your storage on one Mirage Server – Scale it Out with DFS. [Read more...] |
Scale Out File Server for Mirage – Windows 2012 w/Dedupe
How to Virtualize Hadoop the Nutanix Way
Prior to working at Nutanix I wrote an article just before VMworld 2012 VMware and Nutanix Give Wings to Hadoop. Now with my feet grounded in the company I think I deliver to you some technical content on how to put some wind beneath your wings on virtualizing Hadoop.
One of the bottleneck necks with virtualizing Hadoop is it’s distributed nature. Traditional SANs usually don’t scale as servers are added, usually two storage controllers are to be shared by all the servers. This model is not conducive for a Terasort benchmark. Nutanix virtualizes the storage controller so as you add servers the controllers don’t become the bottleneck.
#EUC Tip 83: Send a Link, Not the Steps For A Succcesful View Client Setup
With VMware software client 5.2+ or Mac 1.6 + you know can configure all the settings for the client to launch to the right resources via webpage or email. VMware calls this feature uniform resource identifiers (URIs). URI’s provide some or all of the following information, so that your end users do not need to supply it:
- View Connection Server address
- Port number for View Connection Server
- Active Directory user name
- Domain name
- Desktop display name
- Window size
- Desktop actions including reset, log off, and roll back
- Display protocol
This is a great feature for the helpdesk. Users don’t have to fumble around, click the link and get to work.
An example of a link would be
vmware-view://dlink7@desktops.nutanix.com/Team%20West?domainName=myNutanixDomain
Below is a link to the Guide to help setup the URI’s. They start on page 23.
view-client-52-windows-document
Don’t Act a Fool: Use a View Appliance
At VMworld last week I had the pleasure to sit in EUC1494 – Plug and Scale “View Appliance”. This first half of the session the presenters talked about the Rapid Desktop Program and a in house VMware View Config Tool. The tool is for fast View installation from proof of concept to scalable production. The VMware View Config tool was code named Catalyst. Project Catalyst was also the same name used by VMware for a orchestration tool to create Multi-tenant VDI environment using VMware View and vCloud Director(also a great session). The VMware View Config tool had used the name first so I guess it wins! The View Config tool will add hardening practice guidelines and security integration in the future to it’s baseline installation. [Read more...]
Setting Up Horizon Application Manager with a Internal CA
I found the online documentation a little vague since it just told you to go to the apache ssl how to page. Hopefully this will help other people out that where in the same boat as me.
[Read more...]
VMware’s Wanova Acquisition: What I Want to See
The Wanova deal has been a couple of weeks old now and has allowed myself to give it some thought. I am not excepting much too happen since the RTO deal took about two years for anything to come to light. Wanova provides a cloud-based, centralized and endpoint management recovery solution using a form of layering technology. Wanova flagship product, Mirage will give VMware a boost in the arm with :
User-installed applications
Speeding up DaaS (Desktop as a Service) enrollment\On-boarding
A Reshake up of VMware View’s Local Mode
Centralized Image management
[Read more...]
VMware EUC KB articles – May 22nd, 2012
VMware View Manager
Importing an SSL certificate from Microsoft Certificate Authority to a View Connection or Security Server (2016032)
Date Published: 5/18/2012
Attempting to view persistent disks fails with the error: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException (2016056)
Date Published: 5/15/2012
Authenticating Kiosk users in View Manager fail with the error: Unknown user name or bad password. (2017010) [Read more...]
VMware EUC KB articles for the Week of May 14th, 2012
#VDI Tip 68: Use Overridable Administrator Defaults for PCoIP Session Variables
Why is there two different settings for PCoIP Session Variables and which should I use?
Overridable Administrator Defaults contains settings that specify PCoIP session variable default values, which can be overridden by an administrator. These settings write registry key values to HKLM\Software\Policies\Teradici\PCoIP\pcoip_admin_defaults.
Not Overridable Administrator Settings contains the same settings as the Overridable Administrator Defaults folder, but these settings cannot be overridden by an administrator. These settings write registry key values to HKLM\Software\Policies\Teradici\PCoIP\pcoip_admin.
Local machine settings are held in the registry keys in HKLM\Software\Teradici. If the same registry key is present under both HKLM\Software\Teradici and HKLM\Software\Policies\Teradici, the group policy setting in HKLM\Software\Policies\Teradici overrides the local machine value.
I prefer setting the PCoIP Session variables as “Overridable”. You are using these settings per pool basis via GPO to give the best overall experience for your users. This will allow you to cater to most of your users but allow for some flexibility for the odd use case that tend to crop up. If you start implementing a hundred and one PCoIP GPO’s you will have more to maintain during upgrades and more to troubleshoot.
The flexibility comes in the form of using different settings on your zero client and soft clients. Zero clients are easy to make different settings but the software client can be changed with a text file. VMware KB -> http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2015292 has the full steps to create the text file. The below steps are from the KB article.
1. Create a file called pcoip_client_settings.txt using a text editor such as notepad.exe.
Settings in this file only take effect on the client.
2. Save the file to C:\Documents and Settings\
where
3. Enter they key/value pair for the session variable that you want to override.
Enter one key/value pair per line, seperating the key, ‘=’ character, and value with spaces.
For example: pcoip.device_bandwidth_floor = 1000
#VDI Tip 65 – Repeat After Me – Tools and then the Agent
Anytime you upgrade the VMware tools on your VDI image you need to reinstall the View agent again. The tools can replace the VGA driver and end up causing blurriness, disconnects or no connection at all. I found a nice table at the Teradici website and in a VMware KB that you can reference.
|
Windows XP |
Windows Vista |
Windows 7 |
|
|
View 3.1.3 build 252693 |
VMware SVGA II
Version: 11.6.0.35 Dated: 4/21/2010
|
VMware SVGA 3D
Version: 17.14.1.42
Dated: 4/21/2010
|
Not Supported |
|
View 4.0.2 build 294291 |
VMware SVGA II
Version: 11.6.35
Dated: 4/21/2010
|
Not Supported |
|
|
View 4.5.0 build 293049 |
VMware SVGA II
Version: 11.6.37
Dated: 7/16/2010
|
VMware SVGA II
Version: 11.6.37
Dated: 7/16/2010
|
VMware SVGA 3D
Version: 7.14.1.49
Dated: 7/16/2010
|
|
View 4.6.0 build 366101 |
VMware SVGA II
Version: 11.6.0.37
Dated: 7/16/2010
|
VMware SVGA II
Version: 11.6.0.37
Dated: 7/16/2010
|
VMware SVGA 3D
Version: 7.14.1.49
Dated: 7/16/2010
|
| View 5.0 build 481677 | VMware SVGA II Version 11.7.5.0 Date: 7/12/2011 |
VMware SVGAII Version: 11.7.5.0 Dated: 7/12/2011 |
VMware SVGA 3D Version 7.14.1.1061 Date: 7/29/2011 |
VMware KB: The PCoIP server log reports the error: Error attaching to SVGADevTap, error 4000







