VMware View Manager 3.0.1 Release Notes
View Manager Version 3.0.1 | 29 JAN 2009 | Build 142034 (View Manager), 126338 (View Composer)
Last Document Update: 26 MAR 2009
Check frequently for additions and updates to these release
notes. |
These release notes cover the
following topics:
What's New in View Manager 3.0.1
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: VMware View 3.0.1 must be installed before installing ThinPrint's .print Engine for VMware View.
Print jobs originating from VMware View 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.
- 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.
View Manager 3.0.1 retains the following features and improvements that were introduced in View Manager 3.0.
- View Composer – Dramatically reduces the amount of storage consumed. Images can be provisioned in a few seconds in a fully automated manner by the VMware View Manager for rapid rollouts or as an immediate response to everyday support issues.
- Unified Access – View Manager brokers connections to physical PCs, terminal servers, and blade PCs in addition to virtual desktops hosted on VMware Infrastructure 3.
- Virtual Printing – Provides end users the ability to print to any local or network printer. Virtual Printing includes a universal print driver, compression for print jobs, and auto detection of local printers from the View Client.
- Enhanced User Experience – Extends multi-media redirection (MMR) to all Microsoft Windows XP and Windows XPe based clients. Provides increased support for the critical codecs MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4 part2, WMV 7/8/9, WMA, AC3, and MP3. Provides granular policies for USB redirection.
- Offline Desktop (Experimental) – Provides the flexibility to intelligently and securely move virtual desktops between the datacenter and local resources. Users can check out their virtual desktops onto physical clients, use the virtual desktops locally, and then check them back in.
Important: View Manager 3.0.1 is a replacement for View Manager 3.0. There is no separate download for 3.0.
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Before You Begin
Before you begin with installation and configuration of VMware View Manager, see
the following guidelines.
General Installation Guidelines
The following guidelines apply to all installation types (new
installations and upgrades).
-
View Client with Offline Desktop cannot be installed on the same machine as VMware Workstation, VMware ACE, VMware Player, or VMware Server.
- View Client, the View Client with Offline Desktop, and View Agent cannot be installed on the same machine.
- Install VMware Infrastructure 3 Version 3.5 update 3 – Install VMware Infrastructure 3 Version 3.5 update 3 if you want to use the Desktop Composer and Offline Desktop features.
While upgrading, strictly follow the recommendations in the VMware VirtualCenter Upgrade Guide.
- Synchronize time – Make sure that you have
synchronized time across View Connection Server and desktop virtual
machines. By default, virtual machines pick up the time from the
ESX host at boot and you might have to synchronize time on the ESX
hosts through the ntpd service.
- Validate your Internet Explorer settings – View
Client uses Microsoft Internet Explorer internet settings, including proxy settings, when
connecting to View Connection Server. Ensure that your Internet Explorer settings are
accurate and that you can access the View Connection Server URL through
Internet Explorer.
- Before creating an automatically provisioned desktop pool,
do the following:
- Validate the VirtualCenter guest customization
specification if you intend to use one – Make sure that the
guest customization specification in VirtualCenter is accurate. You
should use VirtualCenter to deploy and customize a virtual machine from your
template using that customization specification and fully test the
resulting virtual machine (in other words, DHCP, authentication) before using that
customization specification in View Administrator.
- Validate network ports on ESX – Make sure you
have a sufficient number of ports on the virtual switch which is used
for the guest virtual machines. The default value for ESX is 24; it may not
be sufficient when creating a large pool of desktop virtual machines.
- Install required Microsoft Windows patches – For
Windows XP desktop virtual machines, make sure you have RDP patches referenced by
Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) articles 323497 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/323497) and 884020 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/884020). Failure to do this might result in a Windows Sockets failed error message on the client.
- Upgrade View Client machines to
use Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) 6.x – This recommendation applies to machines running
Windows XP and Windows XPe. Windows 2000 does not support RDC
6.x.Windows Vista comes with RDC 6.x installed. RDC 6.x can be downloaded at the following Microsoft download site: Microsoft downloads
- View does not support using link-local (169.254.x.x)
addresses for virtual desktops –
Configure virtual desktops to use DHCP or static IP addresses.
- Install the VMware View Client with Offline Desktop if you are going to use Offline Desktop.
- VMware View provides Common Access Card (CAC) support for customers who use Actividentity or Gemalto smart cards. View does not currently offer SSO support which enables single sign on from a client device to a virtual desktop without requiring a user to re-enter a pin.
Backing Up Configuration Data (VDM 2.1 and later)
For information about backing up configuration data, see the VMware technical note at
http://www.vmware.com/pdf/viewmanager_data_exp_imp.pdf
Upgrading VMware View
VMware View supports upgrading to the released build of VMware View 3.0.1. Keep in mind the following issues when upgrading VMware View:
Resolved Issues
The following issues are resolved in this release.
-
Delay in accessing View Portal page through View security server
View security server maintains a set of connections for communication with the View connection server. If you deploy network infrastructure between the security server and the View connection server, the network infrastructure might break an established connection when it is not used for a period of time. The security server does not detect the break in connectivity until an attempt to reuse the connection is made and the TCP/IP stack times out. This might result in a delay of approximately 3 minutes for the View Portal page to load. This issue might occur only in environments where network infrastructure elements are configured to drop idle connections.
This issue is fixed in View Manager 3.0.1. The fix provides for setting a flag on an active connection to indicate it should not be dropped even when not in use.
-
Performance issues with View Portal access when HTTPS port is queried on a regular basis
Sending a non-SSL probe on the SSL port of connection server might cause the Connection Server to slow down. This might result in the following issues:
- Slow web access to View Portal page
- Native clients and WYSE terminals perform poorly
The following error might be logged every thirty seconds in the View connection server logs:
WARN <Thread-81> [Processor] Problem setting up HTTP connection: java.net.SocketException: Connection reset
This issue is fixed in View Manager 3.0.1.
- Time zone is not displayed in Windows Vista virtual machines launched from View Client
If you launch a Windows Vista virtual machine from View Client, the time zone entry for the registry key TimeZoneKeyName might not be displayed at the following location:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation
This issue is fixed in View Manager 3.0.1. The fix provides for display of additional time zone information of the client, in Windows Vista and Windows 2008 operating systems.
- Dynamic drive redirection does not work through remote session
You might need to disconnect or reconnect View Client for new drives/USB drives to be displayed in the virtual machine.
This issue is fixed in View Manager 3.0.1. The fix enables dynamic drive changes to be reflected in the remote session and correctly handles device change notifications, and allows dynamic updates if redirection has been enabled.
- Windows Vista User Account Control (UAC) fails with VMware View installation
If you use View Client to log in as a non-admin user on a Windows Vista virtual machine that has VMware View Agent installed and UAC enabled, and perform operations that require administrator privileges, the virtual machine might stop or fail. The following error might be written in the event log:
Faulting application consent.exe, version 6.0.6001.18000, time stamp 0x47918d7b, faulting module wscredf.dll_unloaded, version 0.0.0.0, time stamp 0x490bbd79, exception code 0xc0000005, fault offset 0x100847c8, process id 0xc94, application start time 0x01c94405135a2147
This issue is fixed in View Manager 3.0.1.
Known Issues
The Known Issues are grouped as follows:
General
General Issues include the following categories:
View Administrator
View Client
Installer
Common Access Card
General - Miscellaneous
Unified Access
Offline Desktop
View Composer
- If a user data disk is added to a linked clone Windows might relocate the CD-ROM to a different drive letter than the original drive letter the CD-ROM was assigned in the parent virtual machine (KB 1007691)
- If a Netware client is installed on the master virtual machine, the user profile will not be redirected during the first log on
(KB 1007692)
- Local user persistent disk is displayed as a network drive in My Computer
(KB 1007693)
- If a snapshot is taken on a linked clone, refresh and recompose operations are not supported (KB 1007694)
- The Edit Image operation fails with the error "Specified AD container partial distinguished name is not valid" after performing a recompose if you have recently changed the AD container in the pool (KB 1007695)
- View Composer server does not support credentials from trusted domains (KB 1007697)
- Recompose operation from Windows XP to Windows Vista generates a warning message from ESX (KB 1007698)
- If linked clones are created on one ESX server's local storage and you change the storage to another ESX server's local storage by editing the desktop, the rebalance operation results in a failure for the virtual machines that have already been created (KB 1007699)
- Under certain conditions, the View Composer Agent may initiate a reboot of the clone immediately after the clone was created, refreshed, or recomposed (KB 1007700)
- If the administrator's Active Directory password is changed on the Active Directory server but is not changed on the View Composer server, the administrator will receive an AdOperationErrorFault instead of an AdAuthenticationFault error message (KB 1007701)
- Non-ASCII user names for VirtualCenter are not recognized by View Composer (KB 1007702)
- "Active Directory Server is not available" message is generated if AD credentials provided for QuickPrep are not valid (KB 1007703)
- If a refresh operation is initialized on a group of linked clones and the View Composer server is down, the refresh operation will fail and leave some of the clones in an error state and some in the "Task halted" state (KB 1007704)
- Recomposing a linked clone with one controller type to a Master clone of another controller type results in all disks attaching to the new controller type (KB 1007705))
- View Composer uses first available disk slot to add disks which may result in "user data disk" getting added before "system disk." (KB 1007706)
- Static DNS server setting is lost when a recompose is performed from a Windows XP virtual machine to a Windows Vista virtual machine (KB 1007707)
- When a user profile is redirected to a user data disk, the DACLs of the "Default User" and "All Users" profiles are not the same as the DACLs of the files in the original directory (KB 1007708)
- The distinguished name of the Active Directory container where the computer accounts of the linked clones will be created is not validated when creating a deployment group (KB 1007709)
- During the creation of linked clones, the following message may appear in the VirtualCenter client: "The MAC address (xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx) of vm2 conflicts with MAC assigned to vm1." (KB 1007710)
- View Composer cannot remove replicas that are powered on (KB 1007711)
- The View Composer disk mounting subsystem may fail when the target ESX host cannot contact a server providing shared NAS storage (KB 1007713)
- Sometimes a recompose or refresh operations can fail in some cases with the message VcUnexpectedErrorFault(reason='Incompatible device backing specified') (KB 1007714)
- The View Composer server shuts down after losing a DB connection (KB 1007715)
- Linked Clone Desktop creation or recompose operations can fail with the message VcUnexpectedErrorFault(reason=DuplicateNameFault) when the replica folder is not present in VirtualCenter (KB 1007716)
- While a View Composer pool is being provisioned, the user and OS disk columns are empty until all the virtual machines in the pool exist and if a virtual machine in the pool is missing, the OS and user datastore columns are empty (KB 1007720)
- The template list is not refreshed if the administrator returns to the VirtualCenter selection page and checks the "Use linked clone technology to create desktops in this pool" checkbox while creating a pool (KB 1007721)
- Pool wizard only shows one datastore in View Administrator when the template for the selected pool is created using a "convert to template" operation on a virtual machine with snapshots (KB 1007722)
- Attempting to add an automated desktop pool using linked clone technology fails after re-initializing the View Composer database and generates an "Invalid value for parameter vcConfigId passed to SVI function" error message (KB 1007723)
- Linked clones may end up in an error state after a reset, recompose, refresh, or rebalance, due to transient failure of networks, datastores, services, and the View server (KB 1007820)
- The first attempt to add a domain administrator to the VC configuration in View Manager fails (KB 1007837)
- Desktop Composer installation fails when the VirtualCenter server language is set to Swedish (KB 1007915)
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