virtual insanity

Just noticed that ThinApp 4.0.3 was released tonight and available for download.

Release notes: http://vmware.com/support/thinapp4/doc/releasenotes_thinapp403.html

Tweet This Post  Delicious This Post  Digg This Post  Stumble This Post 

Miscellaneous ThinApp

With the release of View 3.1 we received some more flexibility with presenting/hiding Human Interface Devices  (think foot pedals for a transcriptionist, some type of bardcode scanners, etc).

HID devices are filtered out by default as it would be a bad thing if your local mouse was redirected for example.  So to enable a specific device to be passed through we need to do a few things:

1:  First we need to determine the VID/PID of the HID device.  There are two ways to determine this:

a:  Debug Logs:  Go to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Vmware\VDM\logs.  Search through the log for “Devices”  This will contain the information of all the devices available before filtering takes place

b:  Windows Device Manager:  Open Windows Device Manager and find the HID device you are interested in.  If you right-click–>Properties on the object and go to the Details tab you will see a drop down.  Choose Device Instance ID from the drop-down.  The VID/PID value will be displayed.  Usually this looks something like USB\VID_xxxx&PID_xxxx\…

2:  Now that we know the VID/PID we can go to the client and create the appropriate registry keys to tell the View Client to pass that particular HID device through:

a:  Go to HKLM\Software\VMware, Inc.\VMware VDM\USB\

b:  Create a new Multi-String Value named AllowHardwareIDs

c:  Set the value data to the VID_xxxx&PID_xxxx you documented earlier

d:  Restart the client and things should work upon the next connection

Special Thanks to Pete Barber for this info!

Tweet This Post  Delicious This Post  Digg This Post  Stumble This Post 

Miscellaneous

As you probably have seen, View 3.1 GA’d yesterday.  One of the improvements listed in the release notes was:

• USB Improvements – View 3.1 offers more reliable and broader device support with reduced bandwidth consumption. A separate TCP/IP stream is used.

From what I understand in talking to some people is that a lot of time was spent on the USB redirection stack to further optimize and tune it.

ALSO, USB redirection traffic is now split out onto it’s own traffic stream.  USB redirection traffic will now communicate from the client to the host vm on TCP port 32111.  I imagine this opens up a few new opportunities to do some USB specific traffic prioritization/trottling.  Very interesting!   In previous versions, the USB traffic was inside of the RDP stream (virtual channel).  This prevented us from ever REALLY seeing the USB specific traffic or having any control over it.  Simply put, now we do.  Gotta love progress!

Tweet This Post  Delicious This Post  Digg This Post  Stumble This Post 

Miscellaneous

Handy new chart posted by Scott Drummonds that breaks down how/when ESX uses the virtualization hardware assists available in some of the latest chipsets from Intel and AMD.

http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-9882

Tweet This Post  Delicious This Post  Digg This Post  Stumble This Post 

Miscellaneous

I ran across some interesting survey results in regards to the question of when businesses will be rolling out Windows 7 (due out later this year).  http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/04/14/windows_7_rollout_delay/

As most prudent desktop teams do, they will be waiting 12-18 months after it’s release.  Even more interesting was not necessarily concern about the new desktop OS itself, but rather compatibility of their apps and hardware.

A few things spring to mind that will help you get ready for Windows7.

1:  Virtualize Your Desktops Now:  Why not eliminate the concern about your endpoints “supporting”  Windows7 or being beefy enough to run this shiny new OS?  Start working on migrating your users to virtual desktops now for quick and easy swap outs to Windows7.  Think about how easy it would be to simply “entitle” your users to their new Windows7 VM with a few clicks.  OS Deployed! You could allow your users to even run side-by-side for a period of time before finally putting ‘ole WindowsXP out to the pasture.

2:  Virtualize Your Applications Now:  Eliminate your application migration issues by starting to virtualize your apps today!  Application Virtualization technologies like ThinApp allow you to package an application once and run it on multiple OS versions.  I’m confident ThinApp will support Windows7 in due time at which point your apps will just work…with minimal worry, testing, or troubleshooting.  True Application Virtualization technolgies completely insulate the application from the underlying OS (as needed) thus allowing true package once portability.  Start insulating now for big paybacks later!

I’d be interested in hearing your feedback.  Let me know if you agree or if I’m off my rocker! 

Tweet This Post  Delicious This Post  Digg This Post  Stumble This Post 

Miscellaneous

I’ve got to say that I’m fairly disappointed with myself.  I started this blog with much enthusiasm, optimistic about the frequency of quality content I could push out.  But almost a year later, I find that I’m barely getting out even a single post a month.  Well, I want that to change.  So from now on, I’m setting a goal of writing a blog post every day of the workweek.  Weekends are optional.

Why am I telling the world this?  Because I’ve had this goal since the beginning.  And a goal doesn’t mean squat unless there is motivation and accountability behind it.  My hope is that by putting this out there for the world to see, it will stop me from my habitual "oh, I’ll write about that tomorrow.”  So, if you stumble upon this blog and notice that I’ve missed a day or two (remember weekends are optional), feel free to call me out on it.

Wish me luck

Aaron

Tweet This Post  Delicious This Post  Digg This Post  Stumble This Post 

Miscellaneous

I have not been completely happy with the look and feel of our little blog, so I’m tinkering around with a couple differnt themes that catch my eye.  But whatever I settle on will only be a temporary change.  The reason is I’ve decided to employ the services of a talented web designer.  So for the short term, I’ve installed a new WordPress theme.  And I may change it again over the next few weeks and (or months).  But in the background, a more permanent web design is in the works and when it’s ready, I’ll make a final change to blog.  Wish us luck as we begin the creative process

Tweet This Post  Delicious This Post  Digg This Post  Stumble This Post 

Miscellaneous

I hope that in the midst of all the gift giving and feasting, you take a moment to remember the real reason for the season. May your generosity this season extend throughout the entire year, and may it return to you ten fold.  May you have an attitude of forgiveness for those who have wronged you, and compassion for those less fortunate.  We live in extraordinary times and I know I often find it hard to see much good in the world.  But I’m a believer, and I believe that ultimately everything can, and will, be used for a greater good.  And for the next few days, I will rest and try to focus my thoughts on what I’m grateful for.  I hope you’ll be able to do the same.  So with that, I’m going to go re-join my family in the other room and turn off the computer.  Here’s wishing you and your family a Merry Christmas, and a very prosperous 2009.

–The Sweemer Family

Tweet This Post  Delicious This Post  Digg This Post  Stumble This Post 

Miscellaneous

The fresh flavor that lasts and lasts……that’s goal behind one of my customer’s latest desktop projects.  This customer has been working the View3 pre-release code for some time now.  Using View Composer, we now have the capability to very easily, and programmatically refresh a user’s desktop back to the original golden master image state.  View Composer supports three primary operations after initial linked clone creation:
1:  Refresh – A Refresh takes a desktop back to the original state of the master
2:  Recompose – A Recompose takes a linked clone and re-homes it if you will, to a new parent image (think instant OS updates or software rollouts)
3:  Rebalance – A rebalance takes all the linked clone VM’s in a pool and re-balances them across a set of LUN’s
For the sake of this conversation, we will focus on the Refresh operation.

Problem:
My customer’s goal is to maintain the integrity of their corporate desktop image deployed to users.  Over time, their user’s have a particular habit of destroying their desktops.  So much so, that they had to put in place a mandatory, ongoing re-imaging program so that all desktops never go more than six months without a re-image.  This policy has had some very positive results in terms of reduced help desk calls and time spent just sustaining a rotting OS.  That said, the effort required to sustain an perpetual, semi-manual re-imaging program is substantial.

Solution?:
Enter VMware View Refresh.  Right now, they have rolled out a program for a set of 50 users to see how well it would work to refresh a user’s desktop much more aggressively (every 5 days to start).  This means that after a linked clone is created and the user begins to use the VM, the VM will automatically refresh every 5 days back to it’s original state (configured in the desktop pool settings…screenshot to come).  The goal is to make this a highly seamless event for the users.  With View Composer’s User Identity Disk, C:\Documents and Settings\ is redirected to another, persistent (thin provisioned) .vmdk that is presented as the D: drive.  This is configured when you create the pool as shown below:

Based upon our initial tests, this is working really well.  We can refresh a user’s desktop without them ever knowing, as the next time they log on their profile is completely intact.  Currently we are testing all of their applications to ensure this will work across the board.  I am sure we will find some applications that do not, gasp!, save their preferences in the user’s profile (something TS/Citrix admins deal with constantly).  For those applications, our plan is to ThinApp the application and set the User Sandbox to live in the proper, user’s profile directory.  We have also found that we need to re-register each VM with the anti-virus console after a refresh operation which we are now achieving through a post-sync script.

I’ll be sure to keep everyone posted on our progress and experiences.  It’s certainly something to consider and explore.  Let me know what you think!  Until then, I wish you a very minty fresh desktop experience! 

Tweet This Post  Delicious This Post  Digg This Post  Stumble This Post 

Miscellaneous

I’m Brandon Sanders and I work for a consulting firm based in Grand Rapids, MI. At Data Strategy our focus is towards virtualization – specifically server consolidation, VDI and disaster recovery. And while that sounds like all software and no hardware, our virtualization-first focus incorporates a lot of work with storage and server platforms. My primary job role is working with our clients to develop the technical specifications around a project, but a significant part of my work surrounds mapping those requirements back to business objectives in order to demonstrate measurable benefits or positive ROI impact.

Because of my work in this area, Rick Westrate asked if I wanted to contribute to Virtual Insanity and I am happy to introduce myself with the hopes that my efforts here will lend insight or knowledge to readers and continue to develop my writing ability. I plan on approaching this with a VDI-centric focus because that’s where most of my work has been lately. I’ve written up a few topics based on some recent interactions with clients, both technical and business/cost based, which I’ll be posting over the next few days and I look forward to any responses.

Tweet This Post  Delicious This Post  Digg This Post  Stumble This Post 

Miscellaneous