PCoIP Display Protocol: Information and Scenario-Based Network Sizing Guide – (12 pages) A good paper with very good insight on the PCoIP protocol used in VMware View.  It gives some good suggestions and the required bandwidths needed to satisfy the end users on their desktop experience.  A must have for view deployments.  (****, 4 of 5 stars)

Application Presentation to VMware View Desktops with Citrix XenApp – (3 pages) This is a whitepaper to show how to deploy applications in VMware View desktops from XenApp.  While I can see this being useful for View admins who use XenApp, the description and instructions are very minimal.  Probably something better suited for a KB article. (**, 2 of 5 stars)

Timekeeping in VMware Virtual Machines – (26 pages) This is a very important topic for all VM Admins to know.  Time is relevant to everything in a VM, whether you are trying to authenticate to Active Directory or troubleshooting using event logs, accurate time is very important.  This paper goes into some really great detail on how VMware maintains accurate time in VMs.  If you are a VMware admin, this should be a standard read.   (*****, 5 of 5 stars, vKeeper)

SAN System Design and Deployment Guide – (244 pages of storage goodness)  I have a storage background so I specifically enjoy this one.  If you are running ESX on SAN shared storage (you should be on some type of shared storage) then this is a must read.  This whitepaper is also very helpful if you are studying for the VCP or one of the new VCAP exams.  This is another paper I keep local and definitely one all VM admins with SAN should review.  (*****, 5 of 5 stars, vKeeper)

Best Practices for Running vSphere on NFS Storage – (14 pages) On the heels of the SAN design and deployment guide, this paper describes the best practices for running NFS on vSphere.  I like the fact that this article references outdated best practices that have changed and why they have changed.  This is a HUGE help to admins who google a topic only to find conflicting information.  My only regret on this paper is that I would like to see more detail on the advanced options and how they affect the performance of NFS.  Still a important doc for VM Admins using NFS storage.  Should be reviewed by all of them to make sure they are current in their deployment of NFS best practices.  (****, 4 of 5 stars)

Location Awareness in VMware View 4 – (8 pages) Good information for View Admins to know where to find out where their clients are connecting from.  This is a common request from hospitals to have printers “follow the user” as they float from terminal to terminal.  There are some advanced topics in this article and some Active Directory knowledge is definitely required especially when using loopback mode in group policy processing.  Good info and hopefully View will include some GUI-based  native features in the future to assist with this.  (***, 3 of 5 stars)

VMware vSphere 4.0 Security Hardening Guide – (70 pages) This is a outstanding reference for any VM Admin.  Security affects everyone’s environment, from the 3-man shop to the largest infrastructure.  Setting the precedence of a solid, secure enviornment from the ground up will provide you with a infrastructure that is solid as a rock. I recommend reviewing this paper often and keeping this one handy   (*****, 5 of 5 stars, vKeeper)

VMware vStorage Virtual Machine File System – Technical Overview and Best Practices – (13 pages) This is a entry level paper on some of the very basics of VMFS and how they relate to RDMs.  This should be a good introduction to VMFS to new VM Admins.  I hoped with “Best Practices” in the title that there would be more technical references (advanced options for VMFS and how tweaking them affects the storage performance for instance).  I was also disappointed to see the LUN size question answered vaguely, suggesting to refer to the storage vendor to size your LUNs appropriately.  I prefer Duncan’s approach to LUN sizing and it’s what I recommend to all of my customers.  (***, 3 of 5 stars)

Look for the vPaper Report again next quarter (hopefully with some new releases in between). Until then, happy reading!

The 4.5 release adds the following features to improve usability, performance, and updates:

• Support for Windows Server 2008 R2, 32-bit Windows 7, and 64-bit Windows 7 operating systems.
• ThinApp version updates to incorporate the latest features or support enhancements without rebuilding packages. The relink.exe utility updates existing packages.
• Compression of MSI packages that uses the MSICompressionType parameter to improve the ThinApp SDK performance.
• Reduced memory consumption and page file usage to improve startup performance. The OptimizeFor parameter works with the CompressionType parameter to customize memory performance and startup time.
• Anonymous collection of statistics to expand the support for applications. You can use the Setup Capture wizard or the QualityReportingEnabled parameter to help VMware build support for applications and help you migrate more native applications to a virtual environment.
• Loading of DLL files as virtual DLL files without using API functions. The ForcedVirtualLoadPaths parameter loads external system DLL files that depend on DLL files inside the package.
• Product interface updates to improve usability and link to video and documentation information.
• German and Japanese versions of the ThinApp User’s Guide are available.

Localization of VMware View

The View Client and online help for View Client are now available in Japanese, French, German, and simplified Chinese. The View Manager Administration Guide, View Manager Release Notes, Getting Started with VMware View document, View Upgrade Guide, and View Architecture Planning Guide are also available in these languages.

VirtualCenter 2.5 Update 6 and ESX 3.5 Update 5 Support

View Manager 4.0.1 includes support for VirtualCenter 2.5 Update 6 and ESX 3.5 Update 5.

Enhancements to the PCoIP Display Protocol

PCoIP now supports the following features:

Virtual Printing, which allows end users to use local or network printers from a View desktop without requiring that additional print drivers be installed in the View desktop.
Single sign-on support for third party providers such as Sentillion and Imprivata.
View Client supports international keyboards when using PCoIP.
For PCoIP-related bug fixes, see the View Client Resolved Issues section.

Workload Considerations for Virtual Desktop Reference Architectures Info Guide – Great paper on the RAWC (Reference Architectures Workload Code) tool.  It allows you to simulate desktop workloads in VM’s to help size them in a VDI deployment.

Reference Architecture Brief: Dell Virtual Remote Desktop Featuring VMware View 4 – A paper from Dell on a reference architecture to use for VDI deployments.  Good reading if you plan on doing VDI on Dell in 2010.

VMware Reference Architecture for Cisco UCS and EMC CLARiiON with VMware View 4 – A good reference architecture for VDI using View, Cisco UCS and a EMC Clariion CX4-480.  Good read for using VDI on this platform.

VMware View 4 Evaluator’s Guide – The standard read if you are planning on Evaluating VMware View.  This one is a must-have to make sure you test out all of the features and functionality in View.

Deploying Virtual Desktops with VMware View 4 on EMC Celerra NS-120 Validation Test Report – A paper on the results from EMC’s testing of their NS-120 as a platform for View.

VMware View on NetApp Storage Solution Brief – Nice overview of the benefits gained from running View on NetApp storage.  Lists and itemizes the integrated functionality and benefits.

VMware View 4 with PCoIP Info Guide – A nice little paper overviewing the features built into the PCoIP protocol built into View4.

Management of VMware ESXi on HP ProLiant Servers – (what? something not View related?) A good paper listing the integration and monitoring options of HP Servers running ESXi and HP Insight Manager.  Many HP customers have asked me for this information.

VMware vCenter Server 4.x: Using Database Views – A very good listing of fields stored on the vCenter4 database.  Customers have asked me many times for this kind of info and there are not many publications on it.  Great read if you want to extract some custom info from your vCenter database.

HP Reference Architecture for VMware View 4 – Good read if you are thinking of running View on HP blades.  Nice reference architecture from HP.

SAP Solutions on VMware vSphere 4 – Best Practice Guidelines – A must-read if you plan on virtualizing your SAP deployment on vSphere.  Many customers have asked for this doc.

VMware View 4 Deployment Guide – (had to end it on a View article) A must read when you are planning a View deployment.  Great points to remember and pitfalls to avoid.  Definitely a keeper if you are deploying View in 2010.

Highlighted New and Improved Features

• Faster 3D performance, with Windows Experience scores 20-80% faster than before on Mac OS X Snow Leopard
• Reduced time for resuming virtual machines
• Supports import of standalone VHD disks into VMware virtual machines
• Supports import of Parallels Desktop 5 virtual machines into VMware virtual machines
• New 64-bit native networking subsystem to match the 64-bit native engine
• PC Migration Agent and Migration Assistant Improvements
• Adds support for Windows Server 2008 R2
• Installer localized into all supported languages
• Shows progress that VMware Tools are being installed in last step of migrating the PC
• Does not automatically show the PC Migration Agent application in the resulting virtual machine
• Adds only one network adapter to imported PC virtual machines
• Unity View Improvements
• “Always On” Applications menu defaults to the active virtual machine, and if more than one virtual machine is running, the menu defaults to the one that has focus
• Fixes a problem in which the “Always On” Application menu was not populated in some cases
• Improves the Aero-in-Unity experience with better interactive performance and easier readability of window titles
• Improves Unity view interactive performance for 32-bit Windows applications running on 64-bit Windows operating systems
• Ability to dismiss system tray menus in Unity view with only one click
• Small mouse wheel scroll increments work correctly in Unity view
• Fixes keyboard focus issues in Unity view when multiple windows are opened and closed
• Fixes a problem in which Adobe Fireworks, Photoshop, and some other applications would drop out of Unity view, causing the Waiting for Unity window to appear
• Fixes a problem in which VMware Fusion would fail when processing very large icons from Windows applications
• Fixes a problem in which VMware Fusion could not create Windows applications in the dock for those with really long application names
• Shared/Mirrored Folders Improvements
• Outlook 2007 preview works with Mirrored Folders enabled
• Applications no longer crash when saving exceedingly long path and file names with mapped drives
• Saving files in shared folders with a PC using ZoneAlarm antivirus software no longer causes Windows to fail
• WDDM (Windows Vista and Windows 7) Graphics Improvements
• Windows Experience graphics scores are 20-80% better than VMware Fusion 3.0
• Greatly improved HD video playback for Windows Vista and Windows 7
• Older games (including Diablo II, Homeworld, and others) play now on Windows Vista and Windows 7
• Windows Media Player no longer stretches video
• Fuzzy text in Windows Aero is fixed
• Interactive performance on ATI video cards with Aero is greatly improved in combination with Mac OS X 10.6.2
• Windows 7 no longer boots to an incorrect resolution

General Graphics Improvements

• Fixes fuzzy text in WPF applications
• Improved 3D performance
• Linux Improvements
• Adds support for Ubuntu 9.10 32-bit and 64-bit editions, including Easy Install and Unity view
• Fixes choppy sound problems with newest Linux guests with kernel version 2.6.30+
• Fixes Easy Install problems when double quotes were used in password
• Improves Tools support for latest 2.6.z kernels
• FreeBSD Improvements
• Prebuilt modules for FreeBSD 8.x
• Mac OS X Server Improvements
• Faster boot times for Mac OS X Server guests
• Other Fixes and Improvements
• Multicore support for Windows 7 works correctly for all editions of Windows 7. Previously it did not work for Windows Home Premium, Home Basic, and Starter editions
• Fixes a performance problem in which Spotlight would continually search the Mac for virtual machines when the Virtual Machine Library was left open, causing slow downs
• Fixes a problem in which the VMware Tools included with VMware Fusion 2.0.5 would not be updated correctly
• Fixes a problem in which it was not possible to use a CD drive on certain hardware-specific versions of Mac OS X 10.6.1. This is also fixed by upgrading to Mac OS X 10.6.2
• Fixes a problem in which the ThinPrint driver would cause printing problems in 64-bit Windows Boot Camp partitions
• Favorite virtual machine opens correctly when launching VMware Fusion 3
• Contains a fix for Link State Propagation for bridged networking that previously failed, in some cases, after installing VMware Fusion 3.0
• Fixes a problem in which you could not switch Spaces desktops away from a full-screen virtual machine if the Full Screen view title bar was hidden
• Fixes miscellaneous memory leaks in the VMware Fusion UI and during AutoProtect snapshots
• Speeds up navigation in the Virtual Machine Library when you have 10 or more virtual machines
• Removes console log spew by VMware Fusion Helper
• In the Preview window, the View mode buttons show enabled and selected state
• Fixes black flash when suspending a virtual machine in Single Window view
• Virtual Machine Library and Preview window previously had poor quality for European language users

The 4.0.4 release is a maintenance bug fix release. See Resolved Issues.

This release adds the following enhancements:

• Journaling support for the virtual registry.This support prevents data corruption when an application fails during a write operation, a power failure, or an incomplete disk flush on a removable disk.
• German and Japanese versions of the ThinApp User’s Guide.

This release does not support the Windows 7 operating system. If you try ThinApp with Windows 7, VMware invites you to share your feedback in the community forum.

Here’s the giant What’s New setion from the release notes:

Optimized for Snow Leopard

• New 64-bit native core engine leverages power of Snow Leopard.
• Support for both 32-bit and 64-bit Snow Leopard kernels.

3D Graphics Improvements

• Support for Windows Aero with WDDM driver for Windows 7 and Windows Vista.
• DirectX 9.0c with Shader Model 3 support for Windows virtual machines.
• OpenGL 2.1 support for Windows XP virtual machines.
• Improved 2D drawing performance in Unity, Single Window, and Full Screen views.

Easy Migration from Windows PCs

• Integrated Migration Assistant guides you through migrating your PC to a virtual machine.
• Automatically discover your Windows PC on the same network.
• Save directly to your Mac the virtual machine that the Migration Assistant creates.

Full Support for Windows 7 Guests

• Support for Windows Easy Install.
• Support for Windows Aero, including Flip 3D.
• Support for DirectX 9.0EX with OpenGL 1.4 with new WDDM graphics driver.
• Support for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 7 on Boot Camp partitions.

Performance Improvements

• New 64-bit native core engine maximizes overall performance.
• Full support for 4-way SMP.
• Now automatically expose virtual multi-core CPUs to your virtual machines. This allows some versions of Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7 to use additional cores.
• Greatly reduced memory usage when booting up Windows virtual machines.
• Greatly reduced memory usage when using Windows Vista and later virtual machines.
• Greatly reduced memory usage when using new Windows XP virtual machines created with Windows Easy Install in Fusion 3.0.

Unity Improvements

• Always-on Applications Menu on the Mac menu bar. Start guest applications directly from the Applications menu.
• Windows applications work like Mac applications and work with application-specific Exposé.
• Run 3D games and 1080p video in Unity view.
• Access to Windows taskbar tray items in Unity view in the Mac menu bar.
• Preview window allows you to monitor your virtual machine desktop and resize the window, even in Unity view.
• Improved responsiveness in Unity view

VHD Import

• Download and import free Windows trials from Microsoft.
• Import VHD virtual disks as VMware virtual machines.

Automatic Updates

• Built-in software updater that checks, downloads, and installs VMware Fusion updates.

Virtual Machine Library

• Easy access to common tasks with the Home view. Install guest operating systems, migrate physical PCs, set up a Boot Camp virtual machine, or download virtual appliances.
• Discover and import virtual machines that Parallels Desktop or Microsoft Virtual PC for Mac create.

Full Screen View Improvements

• New Full Screen view menu bar gives you full control of your virtual machine, including choosing when the menu bar appears in Full Screen view.
• Move the full screen view menu bar to any side of the screen to avoid blocking guest user interface elements such as taskbars in Windows, the desktop menu in Linux, or the menu bar in Mac OS X Server guests.
• Smooth animated transition when entering and exiting Full Screen view.

Multiple Display Improvements

• Multiple-display Full Screen view with better performance for monitor layouts larger than 4096 pixels wide or 4096 pixels high on most Macs.
• Multiple-display Full Screen view and multiple-display Unity view that work with WDDM in Windows 7 and Windows Vista guests.

Other UI Improvements

• Cancelable Resume.
• Live, smooth resize when resizing a virtual machine window.
• Access the Virtual Machine Library from the VMware Fusion Dock icon.

Shared Folders and Mirrored Folders Improvements

• Automatically hide common hidden Windows files in a shared folder, for example, Thumbs.db, $RECYCLE.BIN, and so on.
• Open Microsoft Outlook attachments with Mac applications.
• Improved compatibility with third-party applications including WLW, Office 2007, and so on.

Copy and Paste, Drag and Drop Improvements

• Copy and paste images between a Windows or Linux virtual machine and the Mac.
• Copy and paste formatted text (RTF) between a Linux virtual machine and the Mac.
• Drag images between Windows applications and Mac applications.
• Drag Microsoft Outlook attachments from a Windows virtual machine to the Mac.
• Drag files in a virtual machine directly onto Mac applications

Full Support for Mac OS X Leopard Server and Snow Leopard Server as Guests

• Support for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard host.
• Support for Mac OS X Server 10.6 Snow Leopard virtual machines running the 64-bit kernel (K64).
• Now boots from virtual EFI for maximum compatibility with Mac OS X.

Keyboard Improvements

• Faster performance with Remapped Keys.
• Automatically recognizes European keyboards. Sending keys like @, {, }, and others to Windows works just like it does on the Mac.

Virtual Hard Disk Improvements

• Mount a suspended virtual machine’s virtual disks as read-only Mac volumes.

Networking Improvements

• Select a specific network adapter for bridged networking.
• Support for IPv6 in bridged networking.
• Override the Ethernet MAC address of the virtual adapter.

Shared Smart Card

• Access supported CAC or PIV smart cards from the Mac and a Windows virtual machine at the same time.

You can find the download in the download section here.

Here’s the what’s new section from the release notes:

This release of VMware Workstation adds the following new features and support:

• New Support for 32-Bit and 64-Bit Operating Systems
• New Features in VMware Workstation
• Developer Tools

New Support for 32-Bit and 64-Bit Operating Systems

This release provides support for the following host and guest operating systems:

Operating System	Host and Guest Support
Windows 7 Home Basic Windows 7 Premium Windows 7 Business Windows 7 Enterprise Windows 7 Ultimate	Host and guest
Windows 2008 SP2, R2	Guest
Windows Vista SP2	Guest
Debian 5	Guest
Ubuntu 9.04	Host and guest
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3	Host and guest
CentOS 5.3	Guest
Oracle Enterprise Linux 5.3	Guest
OpenSUSE 11.x	Host and guest
Mandriva 2009	Host and guest
SUSE Linux Enterprise 11.x	Host and guest

New Features in VMware Workstation

• Windows 7 — Create and run Windows 7 32-bit and 64-bit virtual machines using VMware Workstation. VMware Workstation has been enhanced for performance and to take advantage of the new Windows 7 features including Live Thumbnails and Aero Peek.
• Aero Glass — A new Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) graphics driver has been developed for Windows Vista and Windows 7 virtual machines. The WDDM driver can display the Windows Aero user interface, OpenGL 1.4, and Shader Model 3.0. For more information on the VMware recommended graphics hardware, see the VMware Workstation User’s Manual.
• Windows XP Mode Compatible — Import a Windows XP Mode virtual machine using VMware Workstation 7.0 and run the virtual machine without being prompted to enter a Windows XP license key. VMware Workstation enables the Windows XP Mode virtual machine to take advantage of more than one processor, render high-end graphics, integrate seamlessly with Unity, and transfer files easily with drag and drop, and shared folders. VMware Workstation also has the ability to run concurrently with Windows XP Mode.
• 3D Graphics Improvements for Windows XP guests — OpenGL 2.1 and Shader Model 3.0 support is now available for Windows XP virtual machines. The XPDM (SVGAII) graphics driver works with Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. However, only Windows XP virtual machines install the XPDM graphics driver by default. To switch graphics drivers in the guest operating system, see How to Switch Between SVGAII and WDDM Drivers.
• vSphere 4.0 and ESX Support — Install and run ESX 4.0 as a guest operating system. VMware Certified Professionals (VCPs) and technical professionals can install the latest server virtualization software and experiment with server setup, conduct training, show demos, and test production configurations. Running ESX as a guest eliminates the need to have spare hardware available to run ESX natively and enables ESX to run on systems that are not listed on the ESX hardware compatibility list (HCL). For more information on the supported processors and host operating systems, see Considerations for Running an ESX Guest.
  This feature is intended for educational and demonstration purposes only and should not be used in production environments. To use this feature, you must download vSphere 4.0 from the VMware Web site and follow the installation documentation provided with vSphere to install ESX.
• Virtual Printing — Print from virtual machines without mapping network printers or installing printer drivers in the virtual machine. With virtual printing enabled in the virtual machine setting, all of the printers installed on the host operating system are available in the guest operating system. This functionality is enabled through a partnership with ThinPrint, Inc.
• Four-Way SMP — Create and run virtual machines with a total of four processor cores, which can consist of four single-core processors, two dual-core processors, or one quad-core processor like the new Intel i7.
• 32GB Guest Memory — Run virtual machines with up to 32GB of memory using VMware Workstation.
• 256-bit Encryption — Secure your virtual machines with AES256-bit encryption to prevent unauthorized users from accessing or running the configuration files.
• AutoProtect —Schedule snapshots of your virtual machine to be created at a regular interval to ensure that you always have a snapshot available to revert to when needed.
• Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA) — ALSA significantly improves the sound of virtual machines running on a Linux host and streams the audio from each virtual machine on a separate channel so that multiple virtual machines can be heard simultaneously.
• Cross-Platform License Keys — Use the VMware Workstation 7.0 license key on both the Windows and Linux versions. Make sure you read the EULA for the terms and conditions that must be met when switching platforms.
• Pause a Virtual Machine — Free your CPU resources instantaneously without powering off or suspending the virtual machine.
• Expand Virtual Disks — Increase the size of the virtual disk from within VMware Workstation. For Windows Vista and Windows 7 guests, the disk partitions can be adjusted without the use of additional software.
• Compact Virtual Disks — Reclaim unused space from a virtual disk so that the host or another virtual machine can use it.
• Shared Folder Compatibility — Increased compatibility with many Windows applications that previously were unable to read or write files to shared folders.
• On-Demand VMware Tools Download — On-demand download capability provides the latest VMware Tools for the guest operating system. This feature reduces the overall download size of VMware products by downloading only the required set of VMware Tools and and enables VMware to release new versions frequently.
• Drag and Drop Enhancements — Drag and drop enhancements include support for new file types including images and formatted text and extend the existing ability to drag and drop files to a broader set of guest and host operating systems.
• Virtual Network Editor — User interface enhancements have simplified creating and configuring virtual networks.
• Fuse Mount for Linux — Use Fuse to mount .vmdk disks on to the file system of Linux hosts.
• Simplified Collection of Support Information — Gather detailed information about multiple virtual machines and the host machine at the same time. The information is packaged in a compressed file so that you can email it to VMware support or post it on the VMware Workstation forums.
• IPv6 Support — Create a bridged connection to an IPv6 network on VMware Workstation virtual machines.

Developer Tools

• Replay Debugging — Enhancements in replay debugging make the feature faster and easier to use. Developers can attach to a particular process instance, attach to a process in the middle of a recording, and ensure that the executables and symbols on the host machine match the guest. Developers can remotely view the exact state of the machine when the system failed and replay the recording to see the circumstances that led the system to fail. For more information about replay debugging, see the new Integrated Virtual Debugger for Visual Studio Developer’s Guide and technical note for Replay Debugging on Linux .
• SpringSource Tools Suite Integration — Use the latest version of the SpringSource Tools Suite to run and debug Java applications in a VMware Workstation virtual machine without leaving the development environment. You can download the latest SpringSource Tools Suite from the Spring Source Web site.
• Remotely Debug C and C++ Applications for Eclipse — Set a remote debugging session inside a controlled C and C++ environment where the guest operating system is different from the host. For more information about remotely debugging C and C++ for Eclipse, see the Integrated Virtual Debugger for Eclipse Developer’s Guide .
• VMware Tools Configuration Utility – Use the new VMware Tools command-line interface (CLI) to automate configuration of VMware Tools in guest operating systems. With CLI you can modify VMware Tools settings, shrink virtual disks, connect and disconnect virtual devices, and more. For information on the VMware Tools configuration utility, see the new VMware Tools Configuration Utility User’s Guide.

Here’s the what’s new section from the release notes:

VMware Fusion 2.0.6 is a maintenance release of VMware Fusion 2. It is a free upgrade for all VMware Fusion 1 and VMware Fusion 2 customers, and provides the following enhancements:

• Fixes multiple issues when running VMware Fusion 2.0.x on Mac OS X Snow Leopard (32-bit kernel mode)
• Provides improved 3D performance on Macs with NVIDIA graphics cards running Mac OS X 10.6
• Contains fixes for more than 20 bugs

You can download the updated version here.

The first is wondering how an admin can do more advanced things with the View Manager Server.  For instance: assign a default desktop out of a pool to a specific user or  listing orphaned desktops (users that no longer exist or have changed permissions and no longer have access to a desktop in a pool but still have one assigned to them) or cleaning up after removing a secondary View Manager server.  All of these items can be performed by a little-known command line utility included in View called vdmadmin.exe. vdmadmin.exe can do all of the things mentioned.  The tool is installed by default with view in the  C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware View\Server\bin directory.  You can read all of the details about the tool and all of the command options here .  "Why is this a command-line tool?" you ask.  When features are requested for the GUI, a programmer has to create and test the GUI options which takes a lot of time.  The product manager has to decide what features will make in into the released product and still keep it on time for release.  Sometime features or controls don’t make it but are still important.  A developer can write a command line executable and they are much easier to test as the command line either works or it does not.  The Quality Assurance process is much easier for command line utilities.

Another tool that’s good to know is sviconfig.exe.  It’s located on the vCenter server where you install composer in the C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware View Composer directory.  This tool allows you to unlock protected entities in vCenter.  For instance, if a user checks out a VM offline, it gets protected in vCenter so that an admin cannot accidentally delete it or power it on and make changes.  If the admin needs to make changes to it for some reason they can use the sviconfig tool to unlock that VM.

There’s also a few other topics that come up frequently.  Here are a few:

Can you protect View Desktops with Site Recovery Manager? Unfortunately, SRM is not "View aware" as yet.  The work is underway however.  Tommy Walker from VMware (one of the best @ VMware) has written a blueprint with EMC on how to accomplish this task (although experimental at this point).  It’s pretty interesting reading and I’m very hopeful that we’ll see native integration coming.  You can read the very detailed blueprint here (registration required).

What features do I get with thin client "x"? With the different number of options available for View Thin Clients there’s also a number of different thin client OS options.  Here is a great matrix of what features you get with each View client that is available.  Good information to know when picking out thin clients

How can I make location-aware desktops? This is a common question.  How can I make a specific thin client map a specific printer, etc based on the thin client location?  The answer: Client Information Variables.  Here’s a nice writeup on some basic scripting that can determine the variables and make appropriate decisions based on their values.

Can I use group policy to control the client or desktop agent? You bet.  You can find the administrative templates for group policy in the C:\Program Files\VMware\View Manager\Server\Extras\GroupPolicyFiles directory.  If you’re not too sure about using adm files, here’s a kb article from Microsoft on how to use and manage them.  There are 4 included with View: vdm-agent.adm to control the agent in the guest OS, vdm_client.adm to control the properties of the View client, vdm_server.adm to control the connection broker and vdm_common.adm for common View components across all of View.  A very detailed list of the options of each can be found in the View admin guide starting on page 176.

VMware View Manager 3.1.2 is a maintenance release that resolves some known issues in the previous releases. Refer the Resolved Issues section for more details.

This release also includes one new feature.

Virtual Printing Multi Session Support

In this release, the virtual printing (ThinPrint) feature is updated to provide support to the users connected to multiple virtual desktops. With this update, the ThinPrint client enables users to map the printers on each virtual desktop that you are connected to.

You can find the download in the download section here.

Thin-Client-On-the-Go

• For iPhone and iPod touch

Wyse Proprietary RDP 6.0 Engine

• Fast: Optimized for the iPhone
• Enterprise grade security: 128-bit encryption and FIPS support
• Microsoft Terminal Services support

3G and Wi-Fi Optimized

• Work smoothly with 3G connections and Wi-Fi

VMware View 3.1 Certified

• Support for:
  • Direct connections and advanced tunneling
  • SSL encryption
  • Experimental support for RSA Two-Factor Authentication

Optimized iPhone GUI

• Fast, interactive, and enjoyable user experience
• Advanced high-accuracy mouse cursor
• Removable toolbars for maximum screen real estate

Free Windows Companion Application

• Thin-Browser™
  • Server-side Web browsing with iPhone GUI
  • Support for rich and interactive content such as Flash, Silverlight, and Java
  • ActiveX and add-ons support

Automatic keyboard detection:

• Whenever a keyboard is needed, PocketCloud windows companion notifies the PocketCloud on the iPhone to invoke the virtual keyboard

It’s not super cheap at $29.95 (hope for a sale).  You can check it out in the itunes store here.

Microsoft provided a chart to Walt Mossburg, a writer for the Wall Street Journal.  It was a chart showing the upgrade options for users of XP and Vista and what options then had when upgrading.  Walt felt the need to blog on the topic due to the complexity of the chart and limited options for some users.
You can read his entire article here or just take a quick look at the chart he posted here.

What amazes me (and Walt) is that there are 66 cells on this chart and only 14 of them are “in-place” upgrades.  52 of the cells are “custom install”  Now I will be the first to concede that the majority of the users will fall into the 14 cells.  However, if you were considering changing edition or moving to 64-bit when you went to Windows 7 the upgrade may not be very friendly.  That means the users (or admins) must move their data off, install from scratch, and reinstall all their apps and copy their data back.  Yikes.

Seeing an opportunity to poke a little fun, the guys over at cultofmac.com posted some similar charts for OSX.  Pretty funny for a Monday morning.

My decision to go to a Macbook was not based on “the cool factor”.  It was 3 things for me: battery life, reliability, and sturdyness (I’m a bit rough on laptops). Boasting a battery life of 7 hours seemed to good to be true but I was able to run 6 with no problem on my initial test.  Reliability was becoming a problem with my old laptop.  It was a Lenovo X61.  Nice and small but it could no longer cool itself effectively.  Running a demo or a intensive webex would get the CPU too hot and it would go into standby mode randomly to protect itself and not let itself out until it cooled down.  Not very fun as it happened the last two times while I was on a Webex showing our software to a customer.  Sturdyness, I cracked the screen of my first x61.  The second and final one had a broken off PCMCIA slot door, and a chip off the base corner.  I really liked the aluminum shell.  I liked the fact that I can hold the laptop by the corner while open and the case does not flex from the stress.

Yes I paid a premium for it, but I was getting tired of all of the windows B.S.  Don’t get me wrong, windows is a great OS.  I hear great things are coming in Windows 7 and I’ve had the pleasure of seeing some of them.  I can’t wait to get my hands on it to load it into Fusion and play with the new features.  However, as for my base OS, I’m going to give OSX a try for a while.  I’ve been lucky enough to learn in my off time on my wife’s Mac I bought for her about 8 months ago.  Her laptop was dying and I was tired of being the “helpdesk” for every issue.  Getting a Mac was a great idea, supposedly easy to use and reliable.  Besides, whenever she would ask me for help I could use the “I don’t know Macs” excuse (for future reference, this only works for about the first month, she stopped buying it after that.)  So I would use her laptop on the evenings and weekends to understand it better.  I found myself asking her if I could use it instead of my own.  That’s when I knew I was getting hooked.

I was given the green light about 2 weeks ago.  I went down to the local Apple store in Columbus.  I really did not need the pitch or to ask any questions.  Any self-respecting geek researches every possible technical question before going to a store to buy a computer.  What I wanted to know is can I get one with a bigger-than standard hard drive in the store.  Unfortunately, the answer is no, not in the store.  They can add RAM for you but that’s it.  If you want to upgrade the CPU or the hard drive or digress from the standard models in any other way but RAM, you have to order online.  So I headed home.  Got online and picked the 13-in Macbook Pro  with the 2.53 GHz processor.  It came with 4 GB of RAM (a must if you want to demo anything in Fusion). I added the 500GB drive to it.  This was my whole reason for ordering it online.  It you want to run a bunch of VMs on a laptop, get an external drive or the biggest internal one you can, so I did.  The web site said it would ship with 2-3 days and I added expedited shipping for an additional $15.  It was built and shipped in 3 days, from Shanghai.  I ordered it on a Tuesday about 2pm and signed for it the following Tuesday at 10am.

I did the basic setup and then installed Fusion and ran a P2V of my old laptop.  From inside Fusion I can now power up my old pc and get any info I need.  I have an Airport Extreme at home now with a 1TB mybook drive attached to it.  I have time machine backing up to it.  One tip I can give you:  if you use Fusion, exclude the VM directories from Time Machine.  If you power up a VM in Fusion the vmdk (hard disk) files get updated.  Time Machine is not based on block level changes, that is, it does not back up just the parts of the files that have changed.  Instead, it is file based and backs up the entire file each time it gets changed.  This will send a lot of data to your time machine that is not necessary.  Copy them periodically to another file location but don’t let time machine get them.

So that’s where I am now.  If you use a Mac and know some tricks or a great software app to use on it, please post in the comments.  I’d love to hear from you.  Next up, I’m setting up an entire SRM demo in Fusion on my laptop and I’ll be posting exactly how to do that in the very near future.  I’ll do my best to have that done this week.

View Manager 3.1.1 is a maintenance release that resolves some known issues in the previous releases. Refer the Resolved Issues section for more details.

Specifically, this release fixes the disconnect issue seen with the security server in 3.1.  You can download the new release here .

• VMware vSphere 4: Exchange Server on NFS, iSCSI, and Fibre Channel – a very nice paper on how NFS, iSCSI, and Fiber Channel performed running a very large number of mailboxes on Exchange.
• Performance Best Practices for VMware vSphere 4.0 – Absolutely a must-read for new administrators and a new addition for my Admin Bookmarks page .  This is also a great review for those looking to upgrade to vSphere.
• Using Local Disks in VMware View Deployment – A very interesting idea: in a remote office running local ESX servers, use a Storage Appliance to gain HA with local disks only for desktops running in View.
• VMware Fault Tolerance Recommendations and Considerations on VMware vSphere 4 – The defacto-standard read if you are planning to use FT in your enviornment.  This article is a keeper of all of the current ins-and-outs of FT.
• What’s New in VMware vSphere 4: Virtual Networking – a great reference for all of the new capabilities in networking in 4.0.  Very detailed and technical.
• What Is New in VMware vSphere 4: Storage – The complete list of everything that’s new from a storage perspective.  From thin-provisioning to Pluggable Storage Architecture, it’s all there.

VMware Fusion 2.0.5 is a maintenance release of VMware Fusion 2. It is a free upgrade for all VMware Fusion 1 and VMware Fusion 2 customers, and provides the following enhancements:

• Supports Mac OS X Server guest operating systems on Macs with Intel Xeon 5500 and 3500 Series processors (based on Nehalem micro-architecture)
• Provides experimental support for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Server as a guest operating system (32-bit only)
• Provides experimental support for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard as a host operating system (32-bit only)
• Supports Ubuntu 9.04 as a guest operating system, including features such as VMware Tools pre-built modules and Easy Install
• Reduces CPU usage when a virtual machine is idle under VMware Fusion
• Contains fixes for more than 80 bugs

You can grab the bits in the download section on the VMware site here .

• The 4.0.3 release adds the ObjectTypes parameter to the Package.ini file. You can use this parameter to specify a list of virtual COM objects that are visible to other applications in the physical environment.
• The 4.0.3 release changed the name of the VMware ThinApp User’s Manual to ThinApp User’s Guide .
• ThinApp 4.0.3 is also a maintenance bug fix release. See Resolved Issues .

You can download the new release here .

• VMware VDI Storage Considerations <-A great paper which discusses which protocol to use, how to lay out datastores, etc for View implementations.
• Running Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 on VMware Infrastructure <-A great paper for those wanting to virtualize Sharepoint.
• Automating SharePoint Provisioning and Deployment on VMware vSphere <- This paper describes how you can setup sharepoint sites in templates for rapid deployment of new sharepoint instances.
• Virtualizing a Windows Active Directory Domain Infrastructure <- I know many have already done this  but it is still a great reference and includes best practices.  Definately want to confirm your settings against this white paper
• SAP Solutions on VMware vSphere: High Availability <- A good white paper on the availability options for SAP implementations and the benefits of each.

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Performance on VMware vSphere^TM 4 <-Great reading for seeing how Exchange performs on ESX4.

Smart Card and Certificate Authentication in VMware View  <-If you need to use smart cards with VMware View this a must read

Repurposing a PC to a Thin Desktop Using VMware View <-a very common question from customers that want to extend the life of their PC a little longer.  Good reading on a few ideas on how to do so.

Network Segmentation in Virtualized Environments  <-Some good ideas if you need to seperate and firewall off sections of your infrastructure.

• Performance Improvements – Login times are significantly improved and server utilization is reduced.
• Automated LDAP Data and View Composer Database Backup – You can now configure automated backup of LDAP data and View Composer databases in View Administrator, enabling disaster recovery.
• Client Information – Information about the client device that the end user is connecting from is now provided for the desktop session as registry settings. This enables customers to use third party tools or create custom scripts to map local printers to devices. The information available includes the device name, IP address, and MAC address.
• Improved Logging – Debug logs are now enabled by default. Logging has been improved to provide more informational messages with minimal performance impact.
• Edit Desktop Wizard Navigation – Improved wizard navigation enables you to quickly modify existing desktop pools.
• USB Improvements – View 3.1 offers more reliable and broader device support with reduced bandwidth consumption. A separate TCP/IP stream is used.
• Multimedia Redirection (MMR) for Windows Vista – MMR is now supported in Windows Vista environments. MMR technology delivers the multimedia stream directly to the client using an RDP virtual channel instead of decoding and rendering it with RDP. This enables full fidelity playback in View Client.
• Adobe Flash Bandwidth Reduction – The Adobe Flash bandwidth reduction feature improves end-user productivity when browsing Adobe Flash content.
• Multi-Protocol Support – View Client can now use HP Remote Graphics Software (RGS) as the display protocol when connecting to HP Blade PCs, HP Workstations, and HP Blade Workstations. The connection is brokered by View Manager. HP RGS is a display protocol from HP that allows a user to access the desktop of a remote computer over a standard network. VMware View 3.1 supports HP RGS Version 5.2.5. VMware does not bundle or license HP RGS with View 3.1. Please contact HP to license a copy of HP RGS software version 5.2.5 to use with View 3.1. This release does not support HP RGS connections to virtual machines.

You can download the full release here.

Now to get me a demo copy….

More details to come shortly as they are released pubically.  In the meantime, feel free to ponder what this could mean for desktop OS licensing.

From the release notes :

View Manager 3.0.1 includes the following enhancements:

• Integrates the ThinPrint Virtual Channel Gateway module so that View deployments can communicate with ThinPrint server.
  Important : ThinPrint’s .print engine for VMware View must be installed on the target print server prior to installing View 3.0.1.
  Print jobs originating from virtual machines are subject to different licensing criteria on ThinPrint server. In order to provide the print server with information about the origin of a print request, View uses the TPVCGateway module as the print provider.
• Provides the capability for the Windows View Client to pass the machine name of the client device to the guest virtual machine.
  On the guest virtual machine, ViewClient_Machine_Name environment variable is set to represent the client machine name at initial login. It is also updated when the client reconnects to the guest virtual machine. In order to assist with third-party integration, a mechanism is provided to allow scripts to be executed on login and reconnect. The details of the scripts are held in a Windows registry key that can be set manually or by using a Group Policy Object (GPO). View Manager 3.0.1 provides an update to the vdm_agent.adm template to include this definition. The registry keys are
  HKLM\Software\Policies\VMware, Inc.\VMware VDM\Agent\Configuration\CommandsToRunOnConnect and  
  HKLM\Software\Policies\VMware, Inc.\VMware VDM\Agent\Configuration\CommandsToRunOnReconnect

  The commands to be run are defined as name=value pairs where the value is the command that is executed.  For example, to specify multiple commands, you can enter:
  Command1 = CMD /C c:\script1.vbs
  Command2 = CMD /C c:\script2.vbs

  Note : Other applications might have set the CLIENTNAME variable in some circumstances. In order to avoid collisions, this variable is not modified or updated.

• Contains bug fixes described in Resolved Issues .

You can download the updated release here .

There’s two new hi-level papers on why NetApp storage and VMware view run well together.  They bring up some good points on the advantages.  They can be found here and here .

There are some great ones on Application Virtualization.

• The first is a performance comparison of Application Virtualization technologies which can be found here .  I don’t know if it was a sponsored study or not but the results are compelling none the less.
• Next a great reviewer’s guide for ThinApp was posted.  This is a must have if you are going to download the ThinApp eval and try it out.  It gives you the basics of how ThinApp works and how to get started.

There’s also a new one on Best Practices running Java in a VM on ESX .  Here’s one that I definately get asked on periodically.  Very technical and good reading for those running Java in a VM.

Lastly, one question I get asked often is how many desktops a customer can stack on a ESX server.  That’s not a very easy question to answer as everyone’s workloads are different.  Here’s a great paper on some standard workloads and how they stack up and affect performance.  Definately a good read for those looking to deploy virtualized desktops.