VMware View Manager 3.1.1 Release Notes

• What's New
• Before You Begin
• Known Issues
• Resolved Issues

What's New in View Manager 3.1.1

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.

Top of Page

Before You Begin

Before you begin installing and configuring VMware View components, review the General Installation Guidelines section.

Important: View 3.1.1 Does Not Support vSphere. View 3.1.1 supports only the VMware Infrastructure versions listed in the System Requirements section of the VMware View Manager Administration Guide.

General Installation Guidelines

The following guidelines apply to all installation types (new installations and upgrades).

• Install VMware Infrastructure 3 Version 3.5 Update 3 or Update 4 – Install VMware Infrastructure 3 version 3.5 Update 3 or Update 4 if you want to use View Composer or Offline Desktop features. When upgrading, strictly follow the recommendations in the VMware VirtualCenter Upgrade Guide.
• View Client with Offline Desktop is an experimental feature. Install the VMware View Client with Offline Desktop if you are going to use Offline Desktop.
• View Client with Offline Desktop cannot be installed on the same machine as VMware Workstation, VMware ACE, VMware Player, or VMware Server.
• View Client, View Client with Offline Desktop, and View Agent cannot be installed on the same machine.
• Synchronize time – Use the VMware Tools time synchronization function to ensure that virtual machines are synchronized to ESX. ESX must synchronize to an external NTP source, for example, the same time source as Active Directory. For additional information, see http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vmware_timekeeping.pdf.
• 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, which might 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.
• VMware View provides Common Access Card (CAC) support for Actividentity and 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.

Known Issues

The known issues are grouped as follows:

• Installation
• Upgrade
• View Administrator
• View Client
• Common Access Card
• Offline Desktop
• View Composer
• Miscellaneous

Installation

• When creating and preparing the guest system, you must install View Agent after all other third-party applications are installed. After you install View Agent, you must uninstall it before installing additional third-party applications in the guest. If you install other third-party applications after installing View Agent, and then uninstall View Agent, certain registry entries for the other third-party applications might be lost. Applications known to be affected by the installation order include Microsoft AppV, vmSight ConnectorID, and Citrix Presenter.
  Workaround: If you need to install another third-party application after installing View Agent, uninstall View Agent, install the other third-party applications, and then install View Agent.
• If the system locale (set in Control Panel > Regional and Language options > Advanced > Language for non-Unicode programs) does not match the language of the version of Windows that you are using, installation of the View Connection Server hangs.
  Workaround: Make sure that the system locale matches the language of the version of Windows that you are using.
• Installing the View Agent on Windows XP disables the Welcome Screen and Fast User Switching (KB 1007602)
• No warning message is generated that desktops are checked out when you uninstall the View Client with Offline Desktop (KB 1007607)
  

Upgrade

• Desktops connected from View Client version 3.1 cannot connect to local USB devices if the Connection Server is version 2.x or 3.0, unless the View Agent is upgraded to version 3.1. The error message is Device could not be diverted. Virtual device could not be connected.
  Workaround: Upgrade the View Agent to version 3.1.
• Upgrading from VDM 2.1 to View 3.x using a clustered setup (KB 1007773)
• Direct connect to virtual desktop is no longer a global setting in View 3.x (KB 1007788)
• Upgrading from VDM 2.0 Agent build to the current View Agent generates a runtime error (KB 1007789)
• VDM 2.0 Agent builds can be installed when later release builds are installed and it does not generate an error message (KB 1007791)

View Administrator

• If you press the F5 key to refresh the page while configuring a desktop pool, a Java exception might occur.
  Workaround: Do not press F5. If the exception occurs, you must close all running Web browser instances and then restart them.
• When using View Administrator with Internet Explorer 6, the OK and Cancel buttons on the Global Settings page (Configuration > Global Settings > Edit) might not be visible when the screen resolution is set to 800x600.
  Workaround: Change the screen resolution to 1024x768.
• On rare occasion, View Administrator might display IllegalStateException errors.
  Workaround: Restart the VMware View Connection Server service.
  If this error occurs, a file named facelet_error<nnnnn>.html, containing detailed information about the exception, is created in the log directory C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VDM\logs. VMware Technical Support might ask you to send these files, in addition to vdm-support script output, for troubleshooting.
  Note: The facelet_error<nnnnn>.html log files are small, but they are not deleted automatically. You can delete them manually to reclaim disk space.
• An authentication error is displayed if a non-ASCII value for the External URL is entered when configuring a View Server in View Administrator.
  Workaround: Use only ASCII characters in the View Server External URL.
• Removing a View Manager ADAM instance (Adam Instance VMwareVDMDS) causes an error if no other directory service servers can be contacted in an environment with more than one View Connection Server. (KB 1007591)

View Client

• MMR might not work in View Clients connecting to a Windows virtual desktop that has been restarted in VirtualCenter.
  Workaround: Unregister and re-register WMRVFilter.dll in the virtual machine as follows:
  1. Change to the directory <drive>:\Program Files\Common Files\VMware\Wyse TCX MMR Server
  2. regsvr32 /u WMRVFilter.dll
  3. regsvr32 WMRVFilter.dll
  4. Restart the media player.
• View Client for Windows supports connections to desktops using the HP RGS protocol. View Portal does not support RGS connections. Linux thin clients do not support RGS connections.
  Additionally:
  • Only HP Blade PCs, HP Workstations, and HP Blade Workstations are supported. Virtual machines are not supported.
  • Vista desktops are not supported.
  • Only direct connections are supported. Tunnel connections are not supported.
  • Smart cards (CAC) are not supported.
  • Multiple monitors are not supported.
• When you are connected to a desktop using the HP RGS protocol, if you right-click a file, folder, or network connection, you might see a red screen and repeated Network connection warning errors. This problem occurs if you right-click an item to select that item and the following settings are turned on:
  • Show Common Tasks in Folders
  • Fade or Slide Menus into View
  Workaround: Workarounds are described in Microsoft KB article 819946 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/819946). Do one of the following:
  
  • Turn off the Fade or Slide Menus into View visual effect
  • Use Windows classic folders
  Alternatively, select the item before you right-click it. To select an item, either click the item or rest the mouse pointer on the item.
• View Client fails to connect to the View Security Server if a standard server FQDN with localized characters is specified during security server installation.
  Workaround: Specify the IP address of the standard server during security server installation.
• VMware View Client requires HTTP 1.1 to be enabled in Internet Explorer (KB 1011655)
• Setting the "Automatic logoff after disconnect" policy for an individual desktop or desktop pool results in unexpected behavior when a user is already connected to that desktop through another client (KB 1007581)
• View Portal on Mac OS does not support connection to Windows Vista desktops (KB 1007584)

Common Access Card

• View Client with Offline Desktop does not work with CAC authentication (KB 1007608)
• Users connecting to the View Administrator or View Portal through a View Connection Server that has CAC Authentication enabled are prompted to select a certificate even though it will not be used or there is not a certificate to select (KB 1007609)
• Entering an invalid PIN for CAC authentication redirects to the wrong login screen (KB 1007618)

Offline Desktop (Experimental)

• If you attempt to perform an offline operation that requires re-authentication when the View Connection Server is configured to display a pre-login message, open windows might close though the View Client process is still running in the background.
  Workaround: End the View Client process (wswc.exe) in Task Manager and then restart View Client. If the network connection is lost and then comes back when running a local desktop, restart View Client before initiating an offline operation.
  This problem does not occur if you do not configure the View Connection Server to display a pre-login message.
• Offline Desktop does not work if the virtual machine resides in an NFS datastore (KB 1007639)
• Hitting Alt+Ctrl+Delete while on the login screen for a checked-out desktop freezes the keyboard in the guest (KB 1007640)
• If the session timeout expires while Offline Desktop is running, the desktop selection dialog cannot be reopened (KB 1007641)
• When connecting to a local desktop, the View Client with Offline Desktop will show a message that says "Preparing to run desktop locally..." (KB 1007644)
• When running a desktop locally for the first time, the Windows guest will ask to restart the operating system (KB 1007645)
• After a rollback is performed using the View Administrator, the desktop becomes unavailable in the desktop selection dialog (KB 1007647) .
• Offline single sign on fails for checked out desktops (individual or pooled) if the last user who logged on was not in the current domain used for the current check out (KB 1007661)
• Reverting a desktop back to the anchor snapshot after creating a new snapshot prevents future check outs (KB 1007665)

View Composer

• On rare occasion, linked clone deletion might fail, with an error indicating that the MoID is missing.
  Workaround: Manually delete the desktop from VI Client.
• If the system disk of a Master VM is configured as a dynamic disk, linked clones might fail to power on with a blue screen and Stop message 0x0000007B.
  Workaround: Configure the system disk of the Master VM as a basic disk, not a dynamic disk.
• Occasionally, the deletion of a desktop pool of linked clones fails. When deletion fails, you cannot remove the leftover "replica-" and "source-" virtual machines from VirtualCenter because they are protected entities.
  Workaround: To delete an unused replica or source virtual machine, first use the SviConfig command to unprotect the entity. For example:
  SviConfig -operation=UnprotectEntity -VcUrl=https://<my.vc>/sdk -Username=<MyUser> -Password=<MyPass> -InventoryPath="/<My Datacenter>/vm/<MyReplicaFolder>/replica-<xxx>"
  Note: The SviConfig utility does not check to see if the replica is being used by other linked clones. If a replica is being used by other linked clones, those linked clones cannot be powered on, refreshed, or recomposed after the replica is unprotected or deleted. These unusable linked clones should be deleted.
  You can, however, provision new linked clones from the same desktop pool. A new replica will be created for newly provisioned linked clone desktops.
• If the connection to the database is lost during linked clone operations (including linked clone creation, resynchronization, and destruction), View Composer might crash. View Composer will attempt to restart automatically, causing another crash which is logged as a Service cannot be started exception in the Windows event log.
  Workaround: Restart the database server if it is not running. Then restart the View Composer service from the Windows Services control panel.
  
• If you unregister and then re-register a linked clone in VirtualCenter 2.5 update 3 or earlier, the BIOS UUID of the linked clone is changed.
  Also, when a host is disconnected from and then reconnected to VirtualCenter, the BIOS UUIDs of the virtual machines on that host are changed.
  Workaround: After unregistering a linked clone, restart VirtualCenter before re-registering the linked clone.
  If a host is disconnected, restart VirtualCenter before reconnecting the host to preserve BIOS UUID of that host's virtual machines.
  
• During linked clone creation, the Desktop Sources tab in View Administrator indicates an error status and the error message View Composer agent initialization state error is logged. The error status appears after provisioning and customization.
  Workaround: It is safe to ignore this status. After a couple of minutes, linked clone creation completes successfully.
• To create a linked clone, you must have sufficient permissions on the Active Directory server on which the computer account will be created. The permissions required are Create Computer Objects and Delete Computer Objects. This Knowledge Base article describes how to configure those permissions. (KB 1007697)
• 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)
• Non-ASCII user names and passwords for VirtualCenter are not recognized by View Composer. (KB 1007702)
• 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)
• 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)
• 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)
• After transient failure of networks, datastores, services, and the View server, you can bring linked clones back to a ready state from error state after a reset, recompose, refresh, or rebalance as described in this Knowledge Base article. (KB 1007820)

Miscellaneous

• Each time a user logs in to a virtual machine deployed from a template on which the View 3.1 agent is installed, a Windows Explorer window opens in the host machine. This occurs because the userinit registry value in HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\WinLogon is modified.
  
• If you use Proxy Auto Configuration (PAC) for proxy server detection (HTTP or file URL formats), View Client fails to connect to the View Connection Server with a Broker request brokerConnect error.
  If you are using the PAC file URL format (file://c:/proxy.pac), View Portal fails to connect to the View Connection Server with a WinHttpGetProxyForUrl error.
  Workaround: View Client does not support PAC proxy server detection.
  If you are using View Portal, you can connect successfully using the PAC HTTP URL format (http://<serverIP>/proxy.pac).
• The first attempt to connect to a desktop that is powered off might fail with the error The connection to the remote computer ended. This can occur when the RDP port has been changed.
  Workaround: Subsequent connections will succeed.
• Though the View 3.1 Client is able to connect to a View 3.0.x Connection Server, using the View 3.1 Client through the View Portal to connect to a View 3.0.x Connection Server can fail with the message Error: There is no secure connection to the Connection Server. Trying to reconnect ....
  Workaround: Install View Client version 3.0.1.
• The View Connection Server does not distinguish between original and cloned virtual machines (KB 1007823)
  
• If users lose network connectivity from View Clients to a guest virtual machine running Windows Vista Service Pack 1 or Windows XP Service Pack 3, they may not regain connectivity automatically (KB 1007619)
• RDP requests not generated by View are not blocked by default (KB 1007626)
• Virtual desktop with display names ending with a backslash (\) cannot be launched from View Portal (KB 1007631)
• If the master virtual machine contains a domain user profile and the that profile is used to log into a clone as the first user, data redirection is affected for other domain users (KB 1007633)
  

Resolved Issues

The resolved issues are grouped as follows:

• View Administrator
• View Client
• Miscellaneous
  

View Administrator

• When using View Web Portal to launch a virtual desktop with a user, the User field in the View Administrator Console does not display the name of the desktop user although the desktop is assigned to the user persistently.
  This issue is resolved in this release.
• The list of desktop pools in the left-hand pane of the Web Administrator window's Inventory tab is sometimes not populated. This issue prevents the administrators from managing the desktops.
  This issue is resolved in this release.

View Client

View Clients might unexpectedly disconnect from the desktops when tunneled (KB 1012388)

Miscellaneous

When you perform some functions on a virtual desktop that is running View agent and certain third-party GINAs that do not completely support WLX version 1.4, the guest operating system fails and displays a blue screen. This issue is resolved in this release.