3 Useful links for SCCM and App-V

My customer has invested a large amount of money in their existing SCCM/App-V infrastructure.  When working on new VDI deployments, I emphasize re-using existing infrastructure when possible, to save costs and shorten deployment timelines.

Having the SCCM Agent and the App-V agent installed on a VDI master image is not always desirable, but it can be done successfully.  Here are some links that I found useful:

Problems with Sysprep not reading the App-V Q:\ drive (Includes a simple .bat file solution):
http://tech.zsoldier.com/2010/03/view-composer-agent-initialization.html

Manually Uninstalling / Installing SCCM Client (it's not hard, but it is all command line,  no GUI):
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb693546

Preparing a Master Image with a pre-installed SCCM Client:
http://systemscenter.ru/smsv4.en/html/d34f1195-ffad-4e7b-b302-5df64d373710.htm

McAfee HIPS always causes extra work...

Using the default settings, the client-side interface does not provide much in the way of alerts.  I have been dealing with this product for several years, and it has plenty of ways to silently break all sorts of functionality.  For security reasons, HIPS is a necessary evil in many environments.  Most recently we found HIPS on our VDI master image and had to remove it, which was not as simple as uninstalling a regular application.

Here is a useful  KB for uninstalling HIPS in a McAfee-supported way:

https://kc.mcafee.com/corporate/index?page=content&id=KB58629

Verbose logging for VMware View Components

It's a pain to make a change to the master VM, but it may yield some useful data for dealing with View Composer timeouts:

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&docTypeID=DT_KB_1_1&externalId=1010388

VMWare View Time Zone issue

I am starting to see an issue where thin clients are failing to synchronize time with Vista VM's in VMware View 4.6.  This article explains how to turn off time synchronization via a VMware GPO file, not sure if I am going to use this or not: going to use this immediately!  I have a set a of thin clients that use UTC and it is throwing the time off in the VDI environment.

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1006773

Packet loss with "Flexible" VMnic type

Ran into a packet loss issue today.  Normally I usually only use E1000's in production.  We had some Server 2003 VM's running with Flexible NICs.  Caused intermittent packet loss, once we changed them to VMXNet2 adapters, the connections were perfect.

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1001805

VMware View Domain Filtering...

I found a KB article discussing domain filtering using the VDMadmin command for View.  I hope this works!

**Update, this worked, FTW!!!!

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1014103

Another one, this one is for View 5.0:
http://pubs.vmware.com/view-50/index.jsp?topic=/com.vmware.view.administration.doc/GUID-3E9924EC-1554-43E5-A812-84F9711909A5.html

CCNA Subnet Calculator with wildcard masks

Useful for testing yourself on wildcard masks.  Make up your own IP range and figure out what the wildcard mask should be, then verify your work.

http://www.subnetonline.com/pages/subnet-calculators/ipv4-wildcard-calculator.php

Running VMware View Client over ICA...

This is a bad idea.  I read about it awhile back and wanted to try it.  The idea of hosting the View Client on a XenApp server is very practical on networks that have an existing XenApp infrastucture.  However, the performance hit that I observed was significant when compared to simply using the View Client over the WAN.  This is probably because the graphics traffic is getting re-rendered two times; once by the View Client (PCoIP) and once by the Citirx Client (ICA).  The resulting slow down was workable, but not something I would want end-users to experience.

vCPU Sizing Whitepaper

This article is nice because it details the performance impacts of having 2 vCPU's assigned to one VM.  If a VM has to vCPU's, it has to wait for 2 pCPU's to be available before processing a request. 

http://www.vkernel.com/files/docs/white-papers/vcpu-sizing-considerations.pdf

Internet Explorer CRL Checking screws up VMware View Client

Ouch, I just experienced this problem on I.E 7.  I never got the same error message (or any useful message) in my View 4.6 Client logs.  Disabling Server CRL checking in I.E. 7 allowed the connections through.  This is strange because everything seemingly worked fine for a long time, then one day the View Client just wouldn't connect any more.  I also tested this on a system NOT joined to the domain, and it behaved the same way (fails when CRL checking is turned on).  FWIW, I am using a custom server certificate, with no ability to check an external CRL. 

http://www.codewiz51.com/blog/post/2009/02/05/Vista-and-WinInet-error-ERROR_INTERNET_SEC_CERT_REV_FAILED-(12057).aspx

Running Process Explorer in Session 0

This excellent blog post by Mark Russinovich covers running Process Explorer in Session 0 to survive log offs.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/markrussinovich/archive/2010/01/13/3305263.aspx

VDI Calulator (View and XenDestop)

Extremely thorough VDI Calulator that takes in a lot of variables:

http://myvirtualcloud.net/?page_id=1076

Linked Clone Provisioning Explained

Detailed explanation of Linked Clone provisioning in View 4.5 (applies to later versions too):

Part 1:

http://myvirtualcloud.net/?p=1237

Part 2:

http://myvirtualcloud.net/?p=1246

Changing the Disposable Disk drive mappings in VMware View Manager

Changing the Disposable Data Disk drive mappings in VMware View Manager

VMware did fix the User Data Disk mapping issue in View 4.6, but not the Disposable Disk issue.

The fix for the Disposable Disk is not practical, for an Enterprise.  The changes made to the ADAM database get overwritten by changes made to the pool through the GUI.  So each time you make a change to the GUI, the drive letter specified in the ADAM database is blown away.  VMware needs to fix this horrible bug.

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1030108

ESXi Driver Checking from the Command Line

Very useful KB article on driver checking from the command line in ESXi4.x/5.x

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1027206

Location of VMware View Log Files

Important when troubleshooting VMWare View. This is helpful because VMware scatters logs all over the system.

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1027744

Process Monitor & Process Explorer Webcast

It's hard to find good (useful) web casts these days.  This one is killer:

Windows Sysinternals Primer: Process Explorer, Process Monitor, and More

http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/NorthAmerica/2010/WCL314

Hiding the VMware Tools System Tray Icon

Useful for VDI sessions, I used HKLM instead of HKCU and it worked fine:

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1020830

Killing the "Set Network Location" pop-up in Vista

http://invendows.wordpress.com/2007/08/29/disable-the-%e2%80%9cset-network-location%e2%80%9d-dialog-in-vista0

(10/09/2012) - Here is an update to show the exact registry location, from the article above:

"At the system level:
Create a new Registry key (without any value) NewNetworkWindowOff in HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Network\NewNetworkWindowOff"

 I used a group policy preference to create this, simple!

Autoruns for Windows (Sysinternals)

Outstanding tool for reducing apps that run during logon.  The Logon Tab is very useful.  Nice for VDI:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx

VMware View: PCoIP Session Disconnect Codes

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2012101