VMware vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View 1.5 Release Notes
VMware

VMware vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View 1.5 Release Notes

vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View 1.5 | Build 1067780

Last Document Update: 17 May 2013

Check frequently for additions and updates to these release notes.

These release notes include the following topics:

Introduction to VMware vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View

VMware® vCenterTM Operations Manager for Horizon ViewTM extends the functionality of VMware® vCenterTM Operations Manager to monitor and manage VMware® Horizon ViewTM environments.
vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View collects data from managed virtual desktops and presents that data in preconfigured dashboards for both real-time and predictive analysis.

What's New

vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View 1.5 provides scalability and deployment features extending its ability to support a considerably wider percentage of Horizon View 5.x deployments.

vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View 1.5 supports multiple Horizon View instances, spread across one or more datacenters, within the same instance of vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View. Horizon View 5.x deployments upwards of 7,500 concurrent users can now be supported within a single instance of vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View.

Additional features, including vCenter Operations Manager 5.7 analytics, are available in this release.

  • New agent-based View data collection and aggregation for Horizon View 5.2 desktops
  • Streamlined installation of the vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View desktop agent:
    • Included in Horizon View 5.2 Installation process
      Note: The desktop agents of vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View 1.5 can be manually deployed to View 5.0 and 5.1 virtual machines for complete View 5.x deployment coverage with vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View 1.5
  • Support for multiple Horizon View instances within the same instance of vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View
  • Improved vCenter Operations Manager analytics (based on vCenter Operations Manager 5.7)
  • Scalability enhancements:
    • Reduced metric sets for scalability
  • Support for Horizon View adapter on vCenter Operations Manager remote collectors
  • Multiple Horizon View adapters on different remote collectors
  • Pre-configured supermetrics (including concurrent session count for licensing)
  • vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View adapter self health information
  • vCenter Operations Manager for View 1.0 to vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View 1.5 upgrade and data migration support
  • Additional enhancements to the Resources, Scoreboard, and Relationships widgets

Limitations in vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View 1.5

Please take note of the following.
  • New vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View 1.5 does not support Horizon View Terminal Services pools
    When TS pools exist in the Horizon View environment, a number of aggregate pod and pool metric values are computed incorrectly.
    Workaround: Use the pool inclusion filter in the vCenter Operations Manager for View Broker Agent configuration to list all pools. Do not include any TS pools!
  • 32-bit View 5.0 Connection Servers are not supported in vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View 1.5
    vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View 1.5 supports 64-bit View 5.0 Connection Servers.
  • vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View 1.5 does not collect data from users that connect to their Horizon View desktop using Blast sessions
  • View PowerCLI cmdlets do not work with the PowerShell 3.0 update
    After applying the PowerShell 3.0 update (KB2506143) on the View Connection Server, View PowerCLI cmdlets fail or crash the PowerShell process. See After updating to Windows Management Framework 3.0, the View PowerCLI cmdlets fail or cause the Microsoft PowerShell 3.0 process to fail (2047697)
    As a result, the vCenter Operations Manager for View broker agent is unable to collect View topology information.
    Workaround: Currently there is no workaround. Do not install PowerShell 3.0 update.
  • Beta data will not persist
    Any user or vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View deployment data is not likely to survive beyond the Beta. Data will not persist once the release becomes Generally Available.
    Workaround: To persist vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View data generated during the Beta:
    If you wish to capture and persist data gathered by vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View 1.5 during the Beta, vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View version 1.0 must be run in parallel (i.e. monitoring the same desktops). This might apply to an existing View and vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View deployment.
    • Horizon View 5.2 desktop activity and analysis cannot be captured and migrated to production until Horizon View 5.2 is Generally Available.
    • View 5.0 or 5.1 desktop data, analytics and profile data that you wish to persist must be gathered with the version 1.0 deployment of vCenter Operations Manager for View, and can then be migrated to version 1.5, using the Data Migration utility. This is the only way vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View data can be persisted during the Beta.

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Licensing

This section contains notes on the licensing of vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View 1.5.
  • vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View 1.5 is licensed by "concurrent Horizon View user"
  • Licenses are available in 10 or 100-user packs
  • The vCenter Operations Manager component license that is included in per-user licensing is for View-supporting infrastructure
  • A separate vCenter Operations Manager license is required for non-View infrastructure monitoring

Installation Notes

  • You can download the vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View 1.5 from the VMware download site.
  • You install the vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View 1.5 Adapter on a vCenter Operations Manager 5.7 vApp
  • You can install the Broker Agent and Desktop Agent of vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View 1.5 on Windows operating systems, depending on the VMware View version as follows.
    • For environments that run View 5.1, Horizon View 5.2, or 64-bit View 5.0, use the _64 broker installation file and the desktop agent file that corresponds to the guest operating system of the desktop.
      Note: You do not have to install the vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View 1.5 desktop agent on View 5.2 desktops because it is installed automatically with the View Agent.
    • For environments that run 32-bit View 5.0, use the 32-bit broker and the desktop agent that corresponds to the guest operating system of the desktop.

Note: The desktop agents of vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View 1.5 can be manually deployed to View 5.0 and 5.1 virtual machines for complete View 5.x deployment coverage with vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View 1.5

Read vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View Installation document for step-by-step guidance on installing and configuring vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View 1.5.

  • New When upgrading a vCenter Operations Manager for View 1.0.x installation to vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View 1.5, you must migrate data when asked by the broker agent initialization wizard. Failing to migrate data might corrupt existing vCenter Operations Manager for View resources from a previous 1.0.x installation. If you do not wish to migrate your 1.0.x data, you must install a separate, new vCenter Operations Manager vApp instead of upgrading the existing vApp from the previous 1.0.x installation.
  • Additional configuration is required when upgrading the monitored environment from VMware View 5.0 or 5.1 to Horizon View 5.2
    The vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View Installation document describes the additional configuration required to enable monitoring of View 5.0 or 5.1 environments. If you upgrade the monitored View 5.0 or 5.1 environment to Horizon View 5.2, you must revert the changes that you applied.
    Re-enable RMI authentication.
    1. In the vSphere Client, locate the vCenter Operations Manager vApp on which you installed the vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View adapter.
    2. Open the console of the Analytics VM of the vApp, and log in as the root user.
    3. Remove the line "disable-authentication = true" from the /usr/lib/vmware-vcops/user/plugins/inbound/V4V_adapter3/work/msgserver.properties file.
    4. Run the command "service vcops restart collector" to restart the collector service. (Note that restarting the collector service interrupts the data collection in vCenter Operations Manager for a short period).
    5. On the VMware View Connection Server machine on which you installed the broker agent, open the broker agent configuration dialog box and pair the broker agent with the adapter.
    Restart the broker agent.
    1. On the VMware View Connection Server machine on which you installed the broker agent, open the broker agent configuration dialog box.
    2. Under Service status, click Stop.
    3. Under Service status, click Start.
    Optionally, you can disable or remove the GPO that you created for configuring the View desktops. If you do not remove or disable the assigned GPO, the configuration propagated from the broker agent will override the GPO configuration.

Internationalization (I18N) Support

vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View 1.5 complies with I18N Level 1. Although vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View 1.5 is not localized, it can run on non-English operating systems and handle non-English text.

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Prior Releases of vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View

Features and issues from earlier releases of vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View are described in the release notes for each release. To review release notes for earlier releases of vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View, click one of the following links:

vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View Documentation

In addition to these Release Notes, the documentation set for Center Operations Manager for Horizon View 1.5 includes the following deliverables.

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Resolved Issues

This section contains resolved issues for this release.

  • View Client resources and View Client Network resources might not be created for a User Desktop resource
    If all or certain parts of the registry on a desktop VM cannot be accessed or are not available, View Client resources and View Client Network resources might not be created for a User Desktop resource. This situation will not be a common occurrence if desktop connection settings are configured correctly. A message will appear in the log file when this event occurs.
    This problem has been resolved.
  • PCoIP metrics of the View Client Network might be displayed as metrics of the View Network
    If the View Network (the network that contains the virtual machine) and the View Client Network (the network that contains the client machine) in an environment have the same name (for example, 192.168.1.0). In this case, the adapter creates only one of these resources (either the View Network or the View Client Network), but not both.
    This problem has been resolved.

Known Issues

This section contains known issues for this release.

User Interface

  • Logged off user sessions might appear incorrectly as active user sessions in the vCenter Operations Manager Custom UI
    Logged off user sessions might appear in the Active User Sessions list on the View User dashboard, and other places within the vCenter Operations Manager Custom UI.
    This problem might occur if the desktop user session was abnormally terminated, without logging out cleanly. For example, if the desktop virtual machine is shut down or powered-off, or when the desktop session displays a blue screen.
    Workaround:
    • To correct the problem for a specific user session, log in a new session on the desktop and log out.
    • To correct the problem for all user sessions in this state, restart the vCenter Operations Manager vApp.
  • RMI communication errors might occur when monitoring VDI environments of 6000 or more desktop sessions
    By default, the Analytics VM in the vCenter Operations Manager vApp is configured for 10K open file descriptors per process. As the total number of concurrent desktop sessions approaches 10K, the system runs out of open file descriptors for the collector process which causes communication errors and other problems.
    To avoid these issues, the number of open file descriptors supported by the vCenter Operations Manager Analytics VM should be increased.
    Workaround: Increase the number of open file descriptors on the Analytics VM to 20480, and the arp cache size.
    1. Open an SSH connection to the Analytics VM, or open the console in vCenter server.
    2. Log in with the root user account.
    3. Open the /etc/security/limits.conf file for editing.
    4. Locate the line that reads admin - nofile 10240 and update it to admin - nofile 20480.
    5. Open the /etc/sysctl.conf file for editing and apply the following changes.
      • Original configuration
        # sysctl net.ipv4.neigh.default.gc_thresh3
        net.ipv4.neigh.default.gc_thresh3 = 1024

        # sysctl net.ipv4.neigh.default.gc_thresh2
        net.ipv4.neigh.default.gc_thresh2 = 512

        # sysctl net.ipv4.neigh.default.gc_thresh1
        net.ipv4.neigh.default.gc_thresh1 = 128
      • Updated configuration
        # Setup DNS threshold for arp
        net.ipv4.neigh.default.gc_thresh3 = 4096

        net.ipv4.neigh.default.gc_thresh2 = 2048

        net.ipv4.neigh.default.gc_thresh1 = 1024
    6. Run service vcops restart collector to restart the vCenter Operations Manager collector service.
      Note: vCenter Operations Manager does not collect data while the collector service restarts.
  • Slow loading of dashboards for large Horizon View environments
    The Top Desktop VMs and the Top Sessions dashboards might take a long time to load when monitoring Horizon View environments with several thousand desktops.
  • View pods that are no longer being monitored still appear in the Horizon View dashboards
    If you stop monitoring a View pod, the View Pod resource continues to appear in vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View dashboards.
    Workaround: Delete manually the View Pod resource and all View Server, View Security Server, and View Pool resources related to this View Pod from the vCenter Operations Manager Custom user interface.
  • No PCoIP metrics are available for some View resources in the vCenter Operations Manager dashboards
    Occasionally, the PCoIP Windows performance counters that should be installed as part of the View Agent might be missing on a View desktop. When this happens, no PCoIP metrics will be available in vCenter Operations Manager dashboards for View resources, including user desktop, view client, view client network, or pool or pod aggregate metrics.
    Workaround: Reinstall the View Agent on the desktop virtual machines where PCoIP Windows performance counters are missing. See View Performance Monitor counters are missing (KB 2020457) for details.
  • After the installation, some workload metrics for View objects might be artificially high
    After installing the View adapter, some workload metrics for View objects might be artificially high and trigger alerts. This situation is due to the way in which workload is calculated for some View objects. These values will normalize with time and become more accurate.
  • VMware View 5.2 desktop agents do not report correctly RDP metrics
    The desktop agent that is installed as part of the VMware View 5.2 installation does not report correctly RDP metrics. As a result, RDP metrics are missing from the View dashboards in vCenter Operations Manager Custom user interface.
    Workaround: Upgrade all desktop agents in your View environment to the desktop agent that comes with the installation pack of vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View 1.5.
  • Existing linked-clone desktops have to be re-composed
    If you have created View pool images utilizing linked-clones prior to installing the vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View 1.5, you will need to re-compose the linked-clones in order to include the vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View 1.5 desktop agent in the image.
  • User names that include multibyte characters might not appear correctly in the vCenter Operations Manger Custom user interface
  • Network related alerts are not generated for user sessions that were established before the vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View adapter was set up
    The following alerts are not generated for user sessions that were initiated before the configuration of an adapter instance:
    • PCoIP|Round Trip Latency (ms)
    • PCoIP|Packet Loss Percent
    See PCoIP performance is slower than expected (KB 1030695) for troubleshooting high latency and packet loss issues.
  • Virtual machines and datastores might appear under multiple pod groups in heat map widgets on View Pools and View Main dashboards
    When monitoring multiple pods with a single vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View adapter, heat map widgets on the View Pools and View Main dashboards might show the same VM or datastore resource correctly under its actual pod and pool group and incorrectly under the wrong pod and 'Other' pool group. This is an uncommon issue that occurs rarely. Workaround: None.

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PowerCLI

  • View PowerCLI cmdlets do not work with the PowerShell 3.0 update
    After applying the PowerShell 3.0 update on the Horizon View Connection Server, View PowerCLI cmdlets fail or crash the PowerShell process. See After updating to Windows Management Framework 3.0, the View PowerCLI cmdlets fail or cause the Microsoft PowerShell 3.0 process to fail (2047697)
    As a result, the vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View broker agent is unable to collect Horizon View topology information.
    Workaround: Currently there is no workaround. Do not install PowerShell 3.0 update.
  • The View PowerCLI snapin must be initialized each time the system is restarted.

    Add the View PowerCLI snapin to the Powershell profile on the View Connection Server.

    To add the View PowerCLI snapin to the Powershell profile :

    1. Open or create the following file: C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Profile.ps1
    2. Add the line:

      add-pssnapin vm*

      to the Profile.ps1 file.
    3. Save the file.

Documentation

  • Incorrect information in the vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View Installation document
    Section Files in the vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View Installation Package contains a table that described the files bundled in the installation package, and where to install those files. The VMware View 5.0, 32-bit row states that the VMware-v4vbrokeragent-1.5.0-.exe file must be installed on the Horizon View Connection server. This is incorrect because 32-bit View 5.0 Connection Servers are not supported in vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View 1.5.

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