Continue reading »]]> VMware’s upcoming On-Premise Horizon Application Manager 1.5 supports SAML and OAuth 2.0 for authentication. SInce I had no idea what SAML and OAuth 2.0 was all about I googled a bit and found some nice videos on the subjects.

A VMware paper on Identity, Access Control, and VMware Horizon can be found here

SAML

SAML stands for “Security Assertion Markup Language.” It is an XML-based standard for communicating identity information between organizations and the cloud, It is used for enabling the secure transmittal of authentication tokens and other user attributes across cloud domains.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUmMcecHN9s

OAuth 2.0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRNg4tDtrkE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KG05SnAYlE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPHLsLlQ7Rw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PvQcLzVGF0

Continue reading »]]> After installing the VMware Thinapp Virtualization package on aager software on a clean machine a new folder is created under c:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Thinapp.

This folder contains a number of files.

Captures folder – Stores the ThinApp virtualized application project files. Note that the Captures folder is not visible right after the installation of VMware ThinApp. It becomes visible after you run the Setup Capture wizard to capture a target application.

AppSync.exe – Keeps captured applications up-to-date with the latest available version.

Capture.ini – used in conjunction with log_monitor.exe to provide advanced logging settings

dll_dump.exe  – Lists all captured applications that are currently running on a system.

log_monitor.exe – Helps in the generation of .trace files, which contain the execution information about the application including any errors. Also, this utility helps in converting .trace files to human readable .txt files.

LogFilter.ini – used in conjunction with log_monitor.exe to provide advanced filtering settings.

logging.dll  – Generates .trace files.

relink.exe – You can use the relink.exe utility to update an existing package or tree of packages to the latest version of ThinApp. Although you can install the latest version of ThinApp and run the build.bat utility to rebuild each target package with the latest ThinApp version, the relink.exe utility is a faster method to upgrade the ThinApp version of existing packages. You may want to update your package to benefit from the latest ThinApp features or support enhancements. You will learn more about the Relink feature in Module 4: Basic Troubleshooting.

sbmerge.exe – Merges runtime changes recorded in the application sandbox with the ThinApp project and updates the captured application. The sandbox is a folder that holds runtime modifications that users make as they run an application. The sandbox is where all the changes made by the application are stored.

Setup Capture.exe – Captures and configures applications through the Setup Capture wizard.

snapshot.exe  –  Takes snapshots on the capture machine and compares the preinstallation environment and postinstallation environment during the application capture process. The ThinApp Setup Capture wizard starts this utility during the capture process at the prescan and the postscan steps.

snapshot.ini  – Stores entries for the virtual registry and virtual file system that ThinApp should ignore during the process of capturing an application. The snapshot.exe file references the snapshot.ini file. Advanced users might modify the snapshot.ini file to ensure ThinApp does not capture certain entries when creating an application package.

template.msi – Builds the MSI files. You can customize this template to ensure the .msi files generated by ThinApp adhere to company deployment procedures and standards. For example, you can add registry settings that you want ThinApp to add to client computers as part of the installation.

ThinAppConverter.exe – Command line tool to perform mass conversion of applications to virtual applications. ThinApp Converter calls upon other executables within the ThinApp Program Files directory to perform the application capture and conversion. (see http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1030949)

ThinAppConverter.ini – The ThinApp Converter executable works in conjunction with a ThinApp Converter configuration file. The configuration file points to the components involved in the conversion process and specifies optional actions (see http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1030344)

ThinDirect.adm – An administrative temokate to import into Windows Group Policy Management in the Active Directory Environment. It allows you to easily change the ThinDirect.txt files thta have already been deployed to users machines. (see http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1026677)

ThinDirect.msi – The installer for the thindirect plug-in for native Internet Explorer (Thindirect.dll) and for the ThinDirectLauncher executable, which launches the virtual browser when necessary for redirected web pages. (see http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1026675)

thinreg.exe – Registers captured applications on a computer. This registration includes setting up shortcuts and the Start menu and setting up file type associations that allow you to start applications.

tlink.exe  – Links key modules during the build process of the captured application.

vftool.exe – Compiles the virtual file system during the build process of the captured application.

vmw.lic – the license information is save in this file

vregtool.exe  – Compiles the virtual registry during the build process of the captured application.

Continue reading »]]> Some notes on creating your golden Windows 7 image to be used in VMware View projects

STEP 1: Optimizing the VM within ESXi

Hardware version: version 8 (exception: if you want to use Local Mode version 7 should be used)

vCPUs: 1

vRAM: 2048 MB (64-bit) or 1536 MB (32-bit)

SCSI Controller: LSI Logic SAS

vNIC: VMXNET3

Video Card: Do not “Auto detect” (see VMware KB 1017380), set to 2 displays and 128 MB video memory

Video Card: Enable 3D support

Disable Virtual Machine logging (via Edit Settings – Options – Advanced – General)

Remove Floppy Drive

CD-ROM: set to Client Device – Passthrough IDE

BIOS: Disable Serial Ports, Parallel Ports and Floppy Disk Controllers

STEP 2: Installing + Optimizing the Windows 7 OS

Connect the Win7 iso file to the VM CD-ROM

Install Win7 from iso

Install VMware Tools

Remove he following components (features) from the OS (unless you really need them): Games, Table PC components, Windows Gadget Platform

Install and adjust all necessary keyboards and regional settings

Run Windows update and install all the latest patches (including SP1)

Install Microsoft hotfix http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2550978

Run the optimization script attached to the VMware View optimization guide for Windows 7

Turn off disk performance: diskperf -N

Locate the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon, remove the keys LegalNoticeCaption and LegalNoticeText (see VMware KB 1016753)

Hide as many as possible icons and notifications in the taskbar

Set the background to solid color

Install View 5.x Agent (choose all defaults)

Disconnect the installation media in the VM properties in vCenter (set to client device)

Delete all files under c:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download

No GUI BOOT: launch msconfig – boot tab – check “No GUI Boot”

Run Disk Cleanup to remove temp files, empty recycle bin and remove other unneeded files

Defragment the VM disk

• Enable and start the the defragmentation service
• Run a full defragmentation
• Stop and disable the defragmentation service

Shut down your machine and take a first snapshot

STEP3: Add VM to your Active Directory domain

Join the VM to your Active Directory Domain

Add an Active Directory group containing the users/groups which will be allowed to open Remote Desktop connections to the VM (= all users/groups which will be allowed to connect to a VMware View Desktop)

Release the IP address (ipconfig /release)

Shut down the VM and take a second snapshot

STEP 4: Installation of some standard applications (OPTIONAL STEP)

Install the latest version of Adobe Flash Player:

• Browse to http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer with Internet Explorer
• DO not select the option to install “McAfee Security Scan Plus”, “Google Toolbar”, …
• Update method: Never check for updates

Install the latest version of Adobe Reader

• Browse to http://get.adobe.com/reader
• DO not select the option to install “McAfee Security Scan Plus”, “Google Toolbar”, …
• Enable the PDF Link Helper add-on
• Delete shortcut which was added to the desktop

Install the latest version of Java (install both 32 and 64 bit on a Win7 64-bit OS)

• Browse to http://www.java.com/en/download/manual.jsp
• DO not select the option to install “Ask Toolbar”,  …

Run and test all the applications

Disable auto-updates for adobe flash player and java

Disable Adobe Acrobat Update Service

Disable Adobe Flash Player Update Service

Delete registry key HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\Adobe ARM

Delete registry key HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\SunjavaUpdateShed

Run Disk Cleanup

Defragment the VM disk

• Enable and start the the defragmentation service
• Run a full defragmentation
• Stop and disable the defragmentation service

If you do not want that google redirects you to a localized google version

• Open your browser and browse to www.google.com/ncr (ncr stands for “no country redirection”)
• This will write a cookie and make sure that typig in www.google.com does not redirect to www.google.xx

Shut down the VM and take a third snapshot

References:

Deploying Microsoft Windows 7 Virtual Desktops with VMware View (EMC article)

VMware View optimization guide for Windows 7 (VMware article)

Continue reading »]]> Today I received an email from my friend Tom Arentsen (http://blog.arentcs.com/) with some useful info I would like to share. If you don’t know who Tom is, he is one of the latest members of the select club of VMware Certified Design Experts.

• Normally we set our binding of our vDS to static, because when the vCenter is down everything continues to run normally except that you cannot make any changes.
• In addition to the normal dvportgroups, he created an additional dvportgroup with ephemeral binding and tagged it with the same VLAN ID as the one which is required by vCenter server.
• Ephemeral binding pretty much works the same as the standard vSwitch, so the nice thing of Ephemeral port groups is that administrators can login directly to an ESXi hosts and reconfigure a VM to connect to an ephemeral port group (just like you do with a vSwitch) -> EVEN WHEN VCENTER IS POWERED-OFF.

• Don’t use Ephemeral port groups for production networks
• BUT create an ephemeral port groups as a backup for the most critical VLAN’s like your vCenter one.