Horizon View: USB Redirection Problems

Problem

USB redirection in View Client fails to make local devices available on the remote desktop, or some devices do not appear to be available for redirection in View Client.

Cause

• The following are possible causes for USB redirection failing to function correctly or as expected.
• USB redirection is not supported for Windows 2003 or Windows 2008 systems or for View desktops that are managed by Microsoft Terminal Services.
• Webcams are not supported for redirection.
• The redirection of USB audio devices depends on the state of the network and is not reliable. Some devices require a high data throughput even when they are idle.
• USB redirection is not supported for boot devices. If you run View Client on a Windows system that boots from a USB device, and you redirect this device to the remote desktop, the local operating system might become unresponsive or unusable. See http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1021409.
• By default, View Client for Windows does not allow you to select Human Interface Devices (HIDs) and Bluetooth devices that are paired with an HID for redirection. See http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1011600.
• RDP does not support the redirection of USB HIDs for the console session, or of smart card readers. See http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1011600.
• RDP can cause unexpected problems when using USB flash cards. See http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1019547.
• Windows Mobile Device Center can prevent the redirection of USB devices for RDP sessions. See http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1019205.
• For some USB HIDs, you must configure the virtual machine to update the position of the mouse pointer. See http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1022076.
• Some audio devices might require changes to policy settings or to registry settings. See http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1023868.
• Network latency can cause slow device interaction or cause applications to appear frozen because they are designed to interact with local devices. Very large USB disk drives might take several minutes to appear in Windows Explorer.
• USB flash cards formatted with the FAT32 file system are slow to load. See http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1022836.
• A process or service on the local system opened the device before you connected to the remote desktop.
• A redirected USB device stops working if you reconnect a desktop session even if the desktop shows that the device is available.
• USB redirection is disabled in View Administrator.
• Missing or disabled USB redirection drivers on the guest.
• Missing or disabled USB redirection drivers or missing or disabled drivers for the device that is being redirected on the client.

Solution

• If a redirected device remains unavailable or stops working after a temporary disconnection, remove the device, plug it in again, and retry the redirection.
• In View Administrator, go to Policies > Global Policies, and verify that USB access is set to Allow under View Policies.
• Examine the log on the guest for entries of class wssm_usb, and the log on the client for entries of class wswc_usb.
• Entries with these classes are written to the logs if a user is not an administrator, or if the USB redirection drivers are not installed or are not working.
• Open the Device Manager on the guest, expand Universal Serial Bus controllers, and reinstall the VMware View Virtual USB Device Manager and VMware View Virtual USB Hub drivers if these drivers are missing or re-enable them if they are disabled.
• Open the Device Manager on the client, expand Universal Serial Bus controllers, and reinstall the VMware View Generic USB Device driver and the USB driver for the redirected device if these drivers are missing or re-enable them if they are disabled.

The View virtual machine is not accessible and the View Administration console shows the virtual machine status as “Already Used”

Cause

If a desktop that is set to refresh or delete after log off is reset, the desktop goes into the Already Used state, or possibly the Agent Disabled state.

This security feature prevents any previous session data from being available during the next log in, but leaves the data intact to enable administrators to access the desktop and retrieve lost data or investigate the root cause of the reset. Administrators can then refresh or delete the desktop.

The View desktop can also go into the Already Used state if a virtual machine is powered on in another ESXi host in the cluster in response to an HA event, or if it was shut down without reporting to the broker that the user had logged out.

 

Resolution

To resolve this issue, perform a refresh of the desktop using the View Administration console. For more information, see the VMware Horizon View Administration guide relevant to your version.

Alternatively, In View 5.1.2 and later releases, you can add a View LDAP attribute, pae-DirtyVMPolicy under OU=Server Groups, DC=vdi, DC=vmware, DC=int, and set the values below for the attribute.

 

The pae-DirtyVMPolicy values provide these options for the Refresh on logoff policy:

• pae-DirtyVMPolicy=0: Mark virtual machines that were not cleanly logged off as Already used and block user access to them. This is the default behavior in View 4.6 and later releases.
• pae-DirtyVMPolicy=1: Allow virtual machines that were not cleanly logged off to become available without being refreshed. View Client users can access these desktops.
• pae-DirtyVMPolicy=2: Automatically refresh virtual machines that were not cleanly logged off. View Client users can access these desktops after the refresh operation is completed

Overview of Horizon View

I thought I would publish a series of articles which would provide an overview of Horizon View. This will consist of an overview of the following;

1. Connection Servers
2. The View Connection Process
3. View Security Servers
4. View Composer
5. View Agent
6. View Client
7. vCentre’s Involvement in Horizon View

Keep your eyes open for the first article in the next day or so.

Virtualisation investment boosts Bernicia

A nice article has just been published by network communications news on a recent VDI and vSphere project I have just completed for Bernicia Group, I have copied the article below.

Bernicia Group, the housing organisation, has completed a major overhaul of its IT infrastructure, adopting a virtualised environment and reducing its disaster recovery (DR) period from days to less than 30 minutes. The development hopes to cut costs, speed up its processes and bolster security.

Bernicia, which has over 8,000 homes in the North East of England, worked with SITS to virtualise over 80 physical servers and switch from Microsoft Hyper-V to VMware software. The organisation’s storage architecture has been reduced from 18 rack units to three and, with a second virtual infrastructure deployed securely off-site. 

SITS has also implemented a resilient Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) using VMWare Horizon View, providing a faster and universal experience for remote and in-office staff.

More than 300 users can now access software via a virtual PC operating centrally on Bernicia’s servers. Existing PCs are being converted into thin clients and are now centrally managed by IGEL’s Universal Management Suite. Horizon View software has been installed on laptops, tablets and off-site PC’s, increasingly used by Bernicia staff as the organisation expands and remote working rises.
Gary Hind, head of ICT at Bernicia, said: ‘Overall, our new technology infrastructure has allowed us to make major savings in several areas, including in licensing, power consumption and DR contracts, as well as significantly improving our productivity.’

SITS specialises in using best-of-breed products to provide a range of services, including server and desktop virtualisation, business continuity, enterprise storage, data centre facilities and health check and planning services. Earlier this year the business won the coveted Customer Choice Award from Data Protection Specialists Veeam Software.

Source : http://www.networkcommunicationsnews.co.uk/index.php/1624-virtualisation-investment-boosts-Bernicia

VMware User Environment Manager Demo

Check out the below demo of VMware’s UEM (User Environment Manager)

TCP/4002 View 6.1 & Horizon View Enhanced Security Mode

One to watch out for since the introduction of Horizon View 6.1 VMware have introduced a new port for JMS TCP/4002 Horizon 6.1 Documentation

 

Also be aware before enabling enhanced mode…

If you plan to change an upgraded View environment from Enabled to Enhanced, you must first upgrade all View Connection Server instances, security servers, and View desktops to Horizon 6 version 6.1 or a later release. After you change the setting to Enhanced, the new setting takes place in stages.
1
You must manually restart the VMware Horizon View Message Bus Component service on all View Connection Server hosts in the pod, or restart the View Connection Server instances.
2
After the services are restarted, the View Connection Server instances reconfigure the message security mode on all desktops and security servers, changing the mode to Enhanced.
3
To monitor the progress in View Administrator, go to View Configuration > Global Settings.
On the Security tab, the Enhanced Security Status item will show Enhanced when all components have made the transition to Enhanced mode.
Alternatively, you can use the vdmutil command-line utility to monitor progress. See Using the vdmutil Utility to Configure the JMS Message Security Mode.
View components that predate Horizon 6 version 6.1 cannot communicate with a View Connection Server 6.1 instance that uses Enhanced mode