Tutorials Archives - Virtually Boring

vSphere Thick Client End of Life – A Look at the HTML 5 Client Fling

June 10, 2016May 28, 2016 by Daniel

On May 18th VMware announced the end of the road for the C# vSphere Thick Client. The next version of vSphere the thick client will not be available. VMware has been building up to this moment and previously announced they wanted to move to a web based client to have maximum compatibility and mobility. The current versions of the vSphere thick client will remain supported (5.5, 6.0) until their end of life cycle. So what does the future look like for the vSphere Client? VMware will keep the existing Flash web client and introduce the HTML5 based vSphere Client. The Flash web client will remain so third party developers can migrate their plugins over to the long term HTML5 client.

The HTML 5 Web Client Fling is available to download and install. It gives a fantastic view of how VMware envisions the new HTML 5 client. There are quite a few limitations in the current form but VMware will have the kinks worked out before it becomes the primary client. Below is how to deploy the v1.6 HTML 5 Client Fling and link to a VCSA:

Full installation instructions can be found here

Deploying the OVA:

Once the OVA is downloaded from the Fling website, login to your vSphere Web Client, right click on the Data Center, then click Deploy OVF Template:

VMware Horizon View 7: Instant Clone Desktop Pool [Part 8]

June 2, 2016May 28, 2016 by Daniel

In Part 8 of this Boring series I will be setting up an Instant Clone Desktop Pool. This is one of the coolest features announced of Horizon 7 in my opinion! You may have heard of Project Fargo (aka vmFork) announced during the keynote speech of VMworld 2014. This is the result of that project! Instant Clone gives you the ability to rapidly deploy VMs (children) from a already powered on and running VM (parent). The child clones share the memory and disk of the parent for Reads while Writes are placed in a delta disk. To read more about Instant Clone technology check out this VMware Blog post.

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Creating the Instant Clone Template:

For a guide to setup your Master Template follow my previous post: https://boring.wpengine.com/vmware-horizon-view-7-create-master-desktop-template/

There are a few additional stipulations that needs to be met:

Windows 7 and Windows 10 are the only supported operating systems for Instant Cloning
Only VSAN and VMFS datastores are supported; NFS and local storage are not allowed
Ensure your template is VM Hardware Version 11
When installing the Horizon View Agent, ensure you enabled the VMware Horizon Instant Clone option:

VMware Horizon View 7: Automated Desktop Pool [Part 7]

May 28, 2016April 23, 2016 by Daniel

Part 7 of the series we will be creating a Automated Desktop Pool using Full Desktops.

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Create Automated Desktop Pool:

To create a desktop pool login to the View Administrator Console, drill down to Catalog-> Desktop Pools -> then click Add:

VMware Horizon View 7: Create Master Desktop Template [Part 6]

May 28, 2016April 23, 2016 by Daniel

Part 6 of the series we will be creating a ‘golden’ master desktop template to use for our View Desktop pools. I will be creating a Windows 10 template but you could use any Windows version you wish!

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Virtual Hardware:

When creating the VM shell ensure you have the following set:

For best performance ensure VMXNET3 is used for Network
For best performance ensure Paravirtual is used as SCSI controller type
Enabled Memory and CPU Hot Add

VMware Horizon View 7: Setup Remote Access through Security Server [Part 5]

May 28, 2016April 22, 2016 by Daniel

Part 5 of the series will be configuring the environment so Horizon View can be accessed remotely. There are some ports that need to be opened up on your firewall to the Security Server. As every environment is different I will show how my environment looks so you can mirror it.

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Firewall Rules:

You need to have ports 443 (HTTPS), 8443 (Blast for HTML access), and 4172 (PCoIP) open externally for your Security Server.

Note: If your Security Server is in the DMZ use this VMware KB to open additional ports from your Security Server to your core network: VMware KB 1027217 – VMware View ports and network connectivity requirements

VMware Horizon View 7: Add Microsoft RDS Farm [Part 4]

May 28, 2016April 22, 2016 by Daniel

In part 4 of the series we will be adding a existing Microsoft Remote Desktop Services farm to Horizon View 7. This enables RDS application to be published out using Horizon View 7 taking advantage of the PCoIP protocol, View Management, and creates a single pane of glass to access applications and virtual desktops.

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If you wish to deploy a Microsoft RDS environment check out my post: Setup Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server 2012 R2

VMware Horizon View 7: Create Events Database [Part 3]

May 28, 2016April 22, 2016 by Daniel

Part 3 of the series will be creating the Events database. Horizon View uses the events database as a repository to store logging information such as user connections. Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle database servers are supported. For my environment I will be using SQL Server 2014. This step can be skipped if you do not want to log these events.

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Creating Events Database in SQL 2014:

First we need to create the database. Login to your SQL server, launch the SQL Server Management Studio, right click Database then click New Database:

VMware Horizon View 7: Apply SSL Certificates [Part 2]

June 14, 2016April 22, 2016 by Daniel

In Part 2 of this series I will be switching the Connection & Security Servers default SSL certificates to trusted SSL certificates. Once you obtain the replacement certificates the swap is very simple and easy! You can jump to Part 3 if you are just testing View in your environment and have no care if the certificate is valid.

VMware Horizon View 7: Deployment and Installation [Part 1]

May 28, 2016April 22, 2016 by Daniel

VMware Horizon View enables users to access virtual desktops and applications through a single pane of glass. There have been many improvements added to the release of Horizon View 7 such as Blast Extreme protocol, Instant Clone, enhanced security and policy management. VMware Horizon 7 What’s New. In this blog series I will be going through installation and configuration of Horizon View 7 in my lab environment.

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Operation Jumbo Frames – MTU 9000 for VMware Networking

April 23, 2016April 15, 2016 by Daniel

Wanted to make a quick post about enabling Jumbo Frames in my VMware environment! My switches (Cisco SG-200 & SG-500) support Jumbo Frames so I thought why not? It would surely help push more data through the network for faster for VSAN and vMotions. I’ll do some speed tests later to compare!

Hardware Requirements:

Before you start out on this quest ensure your physical switch support jumbo frames. When enabling it on my Cisco switches a switch reboot was required:

The next step is to ensure the NICs in your servers support jumbo frames. If they are server NICs then they should. My Dell T620/R520 both have Broadcom NetXtreme 5709 which in fact support Jumbo Frames.

Deploying the OVA:

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Creating the Instant Clone Template:

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Create Automated Desktop Pool:

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Virtual Hardware:

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Firewall Rules:

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Creating Events Database in SQL 2014:

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Hardware Requirements:

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