VMware Communities : Thread List - VMware ACE

Snapshots in pocket-ACE?

IvarHome — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 01:50:40 GMT

Hi,

In pocket ACE there is disabled snapshots through player, but is there some other method to get snapshots? Example with *vmrun.exe*?

Thanks!

Vmware ace package created in 6.5 in combination workstation 5.5

JohnBons — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:40:15 GMT

I got a problem with creating a ace package in combination of vmware workstation 5.5 installation.
Situation:
Customer has vmware workstation 5.5.0.18463 installed.
Now we want to install a ACE package that is created with workstation 6.5.
The ace package is a vm with 5.0 workstation hardware compatibility.

This is not working.

What i tried so far

player 1.0.0.18587	ace 2.5 package without player	not working because the installer is asking to deinstall the player since it's outdated
Player 2.5.1	ace 2.5 package without player	not working because the installer is asking to deinstall the player since it's outdated
workstation 5 with player 1.0.0.18587	ace 2.5 package without player	not working because the installer is asking to deinstall the player since it's outdated
workstation 5 without player.	Tried to install player 3.0 no go	not working because it want's to deinstall workstation 5.

Does anybody know a workaround? or idea
Ill also send in a support request

Regards,
John

vmred.nl

Modify published ACE VMs

gholzer — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:49:02 GMT

Hello,

I have about 25 PCs in my department. All these PCs have a local copy of the same ACE VM. This ACE VM is updated once a month.

So when the VM is out of date I deactivate this VM in the Management Server. Now all the 25 PCs need the updated Version of the ACE VM.

At the moment the users manually copy the new ACE VM from a network share to their local computer. When all users are doing this the same time the performace is pretty slow

-> Is there a way to automate this task, perhaps at night? So that the useres allways have the most recent VM without any manual installation?
(I know about the silent Installation for the ACE Package, but how do I get the Package on the PC?)

Thanks for help!

ACE futile performance test?

burdweiser — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 22:52:13 GMT

So I have a client that wants to use VM ACE to deploy desktops. Mainly because of it's security features. I've been working with ESX for many years, but I'm pretty new to Workstation and Ace. I get the whole concept and I've been reading through the best practice guides. I'm pretty sure the current team of guys are building the VM's incorrectly. I was hoping to run a crazy test on my own.

Does anything think it would be futile to try and run a 3D game or watch an HD movie from an ACE session?

I've got a pretty good lab at home and I was thinking of running some tests since Workstation 7 just got released. I was thinking of building a striped down Windows 7 machine. I've got a lots of RAM / CPU and a kick a$$ video card in one of my systems. I know the new PCoIP can do all of this from a thin client, but I'm gonna see what results I can get locally.

Burdweiser

VCP4 / CCNA / MCSE

Thread Deleted

Kawi250x — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:00:24 GMT

Thread Deleted

hunting for docs

burdweiser — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 21:29:24 GMT

I'd like to find some up to date reading material for VMware ACE. I'm looking to learning more on what the ACE session is doing at the network layer and how resource allocation is taking place. I'm assuming it is the same as VMware Workstation, but I'd like to find some docs somewhere. I have not found any on the VMware website, but the encryption document I found was pretty nice.

Creating a package from an installed package

marius — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 08:09:24 GMT

A customer created packages with a policy to limit the use on specific PCs.

A user (let's say User1) installed the pachage on an authorized PC and made relevant changes to the installed VM.

The customer would like to redistribuite to other users a copy of the VM with the changes introduced by User1.

What is the simplest way to create a new package starting from the VM modified by User1?

Regards

Marius

Remote desktop to host machine

turvey — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 03:48:15 GMT

Hi All,

I have vmware ace running on my host machine and have setup a couple of virtual images to run on the machine. I am now remote desktoping to the host machine from another site and I am able to start the Virtual machine up. However when I try to input into the virtual machine it does not except input, the mouse does not work nor the keyboard. Have tryed the Ctrl G for direct input and that does not work. I am able to move the Ace screen around, communicate with the vmware player menu and even take a snapshot of the machine. It is just the actual virtual OS machine I cannot use.
Am I missing a setting or is it not possible to use a virtual machine when remoting to the host machine via remote desktop?

Thanks in advance,

Turvey

Authorization Service not running.

faizy999 — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 12:57:23 GMT

Hello guys i am my virtual machine very well using windowsxp as guest os and as well as host os. since today morning every thing is working fine but now it gives me an error when i start my vm machine it say[error] "The VMware Authorization Service is not running."

i don't have any clue what i did wrong need help.

Modify data but Protect for extraction

Irduna — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:16:32 GMT

Hi.

We want to send a virtual machine to one supplier in an USB disk, to let him edit some confidential data. We want to let read and modify this data, and eventually print, but to restrict copy or extract from hard disk.

Supplier won't have access to our network.

Can ACE protect virtual machine for this scenario? is this totally secure?

Thanks very much

Regards

Irduna

How is ACE creating the Sysprep folder

JamesVan — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:19:22 GMT

When deploying customized ACE a Sysprep folder is appearing in the %systemroot%. I created my own sysprep directory there, but the ACE deployment installer appears to create its own virtual sysprep directory, so it does not see mine.

How do I customize the sysprep that the ACE deployment uses so it contains my OEM files?

Can VMware Ace player help in building a limited trial period use vm?

ALC1000 — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 14:31:31 GMT

Hello all, could anybody answer this simple question?

I wanted to build a vmware image and send it to my friend on CD but I only wanted him to be able to run the image for 2 weeks once he had installed on his machine. I have some prebuilt images ready which run in vmware server 2 and esx3i.

1.) Is this possible ?

2.) What combination of vmware software is required so that a client could run a pre-prepared vm for a limited trial period?

Thanks regards

Paul

Customization fails during deployment - need file from SP3 CD

JamesVan — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:03:27 GMT

I have the sysprep files loaded in the correct location, but when I try to deploy the ACE using customization I get a 'Files Needed' dialouge box asking for the path to agt0407.dll on the SP3 CD. The copy from path is '\sysprep\i386'. I browse to that folder, but it is empty.

What is happening here? I did not have this problem with XP SP2.

VMware ACE enhanced virtual keyboard error

dean.westaway — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 00:42:39 GMT

Hi,

I've been using VWware ACE for over a year or so but have had an ongoing issue with it. Randomly i get an error on first boot after installation stating that the enhanced keyboard is in an undefined state or something similar. Recently i received the attached error as well. I have been in touch with VW support and they informed me to remove the tick from options for the enhanced keyboard, click ok, reopen the options box and place the tick back on the enhanced keyboard. This has not made any difference.

Has anyone else been experiencing a similar issue? It has gotten to the point now where we are beginning to think that ACE just has too many bugs still and is not as ready as we had hoped or we are wanting to use it in a way in which it is not designed.

I work at school that offers a full laptop program and this was seen to be a great alternative for machines that were bought from outside the school supplied package. Especially for those machines from our boarding students who bring varied machines from all around the world!

Thanks in advance,

Dean.

Error while opening the ACE: The master copy of this virtual machine has been corrupted.

dlupisella — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 05:01:55 GMT

So the issue is that I believe a sync was not complete when the user removed the USB drive causing it to corrupt the ACE. Is there anything that can be done to recover the contents of the ACE? It is running Windows XP SP3 (guest) and the host OS is also Windows XP SP3. I am attaching the log contents when I try to run the ACE.

Sep 25 00:42:59.468: player| Log for VMware Player pid=2112 version=2.5.3 build=build-185404 option=Release
Sep 25 00:42:59.468: player| Host codepage=windows-1252 encoding=windows-1252
Sep 25 00:42:59.468: player| VMware Player: VMware virtual machine player
Sep 25 00:42:59.468: player| Command line: "C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Workstation\vmplayer.exe" "E:\VMware ACE Packages\WinXP_Pro_Portable_3\VM\WinXP_Pro.vmx"
Sep 25 00:42:59.515: player| Could not open registry path: Software\Thinprint, ret = 2
Sep 25 00:42:59.734: player| HostDeviceInfo: Failed to enumerate host parallel ports via the registry. Could not open device map parallel port registry key.
Sep 25 00:42:59.734: player| HostDeviceInfo_FindHostDisks: \\.\PhysicalDrive3 is neither SCSI nor IDE. Error: The device is not ready
Sep 25 00:42:59.734: player| HostDeviceInfo_FindHostDisks: \\.\PhysicalDrive4 is neither SCSI nor IDE. Error: The device is not ready
Sep 25 00:42:59.734: player| HostDeviceInfo_FindHostDisks: \\.\PhysicalDrive5 is neither SCSI nor IDE. Error: The device is not ready
Sep 25 00:42:59.859: player| HOSTINFO: Seeing Intel CPU, numCoresPerCPU 2 numThreadsPerCore 1.
Sep 25 00:42:59.859: player| HOSTINFO: This machine has 1 physical CPUS, 2 total cores, and 2 logical CPUs.
Sep 25 00:43:00.546: player| Foundry Init: setting up global state (0 threads)
Sep 25 00:43:00.546: player| Vix_InitializeGlobalState: Use Preference. vixLogLevel = 0
Sep 25 00:43:00.546: player| Vix_InitializeGlobalState: vixDebugPanicOnVixAssert = 0
Sep 25 00:43:00.546: player| Vix_InitializeGlobalState: vixLogRefcountOnFinalRelease = 0
Sep 25 00:43:00.546: player| LOCALE windows-1252 -> NULL User=409 System=409
Sep 25 00:43:00.546: player| VixHost_ConnectEx: version -1, hostType 3, hostName (null), hostPort 0, options 515
Sep 25 00:43:00.718: player| PlayerFrame::OnActivateApp: m_bActive=1
Sep 25 00:43:00.734: player| REM-USB: Initializing 'Generic' backend
Sep 25 00:43:00.750: player| USBGW: Connected to HCMON version 3.1
Sep 25 00:43:00.781: player| Opening ACE instance.
Sep 25 00:43:00.968: player| Roaming VM init: master 'E:\VMware ACE Packages\WinXP_Pro_Portable_3\VM\WinXP_Pro.vmx'
Sep 25 00:43:00.968: player| Roaming VM init: shadow 'C:\Documents and Settings\testing\Local Settings\Application Data\VMware\Roaming VM cache\520b284e38f5aa6f-c6ed29dbb5342b15\WinXP_Pro.vmx'
Sep 25 00:43:00.968: player| Speed test: Beginning test (500 ms) for E:\VMware ACE Packages\WinXP_Pro_Portable_3\VM
Sep 25 00:43:02.750: player| Speed test: 65536 bytes written in 1775 msec
Sep 25 00:43:02.750: player| Speed test: 36 KBps
Sep 25 00:43:02.750: player| Speed test: Beginning test (1000 ms) for E:\VMware ACE Packages\WinXP_Pro_Portable_3\VM
Sep 25 00:43:03.765: player| Speed test: 3866624 bytes written in 1001 msec
Sep 25 00:43:03.765: player| Speed test: 3772 KBps
Sep 25 00:43:03.859: player| Roaming VM init: master 'E:\VMware ACE Packages\WinXP_Pro_Portable_3\VM\WinXP_Pro.vmx'
Sep 25 00:43:03.859: player| Roaming VM init: shadow 'C:\Documents and Settings\testing\Local Settings\Application Data\VMware\Roaming VM cache\520b284e38f5aa6f-c6ed29dbb5342b15\WinXP_Pro.vmx'
Sep 25 00:43:04.203: player| Roaming VM init: master 'E:\VMware ACE Packages\WinXP_Pro_Portable_3\VM\WinXP_Pro.vmx'
Sep 25 00:43:04.203: player| Roaming VM init: shadow 'C:\Documents and Settings\testing\Local Settings\Application Data\VMware\Roaming VM cache\520b284e38f5aa6f-c6ed29dbb5342b15\WinXP_Pro.vmx'
Sep 25 00:43:04.437: player| Roaming VM init: master 'E:\VMware ACE Packages\WinXP_Pro_Portable_3\VM\WinXP_Pro.vmx'
Sep 25 00:43:04.437: player| Roaming VM init: shadow 'C:\Documents and Settings\testing\Local Settings\Application Data\VMware\Roaming VM cache\520b284e38f5aa6f-c6ed29dbb5342b15\WinXP_Pro.vmx'
Sep 25 00:43:04.937: player| PolicyCheckEmbeddedLicenseInternal: Found valid embedded license.
Sep 25 00:43:04.984: player| VmdbCtxCheckOneof: One-of: /vm/#670885733a13daba/mvm/policyState/val/policySet/authentication/auth/ password none
Sep 25 00:43:04.984: player| VmdbCtxCheckOneof: One-of: /vm/#670885733a13daba/mvm/policyState/val/policySet/authentication/auth/ password none
Sep 25 00:43:04.984: player| VmdbCtxCheckOneof: One-of: /vm/#670885733a13daba/mvm/policyState/val/policySet/authentication/auth/ password none
Sep 25 00:43:05.125: player| Roaming VM init: master 'E:\VMware ACE Packages\WinXP_Pro_Portable_3\VM\WinXP_Pro.vmx'
Sep 25 00:43:05.125: player| Roaming VM init: shadow 'C:\Documents and Settings\testing\Local Settings\Application Data\VMware\Roaming VM cache\520b284e38f5aa6f-c6ed29dbb5342b15\WinXP_Pro.vmx'
Sep 25 00:43:05.515: player| DISKLIB-SPARSE: "E:\VMware ACE Packages\WinXP_Pro_Portable_3\VM\WinXP_Pro-000001-cl2-pending002-s003.vmdk" : failed to open (15): Failed to load header.
Sep 25 00:43:05.515: player| DISKLIB-LINK : "E:\VMware ACE Packages\WinXP_Pro_Portable_3\VM\WinXP_Pro-000001-cl2-pending002.vmdk" : failed to open (The file specified is not a virtual disk).
Sep 25 00:43:05.515: player| DISKLIB-CHAIN : "E:\VMware ACE Packages\WinXP_Pro_Portable_3\VM\WinXP_Pro-000001-cl2-pending002.vmdk" : failed to open (The file specified is not a virtual disk).
Sep 25 00:43:05.515: player| DISKLIB-LIB : Failed to open 'E:\VMware ACE Packages\WinXP_Pro_Portable_3\VM\WinXP_Pro-000001-cl2-pending002.vmdk' with flags 0x15 (The file specified is not a virtual disk).
Sep 25 00:43:05.515: player| DISKLIB-LIB : Failed to enum 'E:\VMware ACE Packages\WinXP_Pro_Portable_3\VM\WinXP_Pro-000001-cl2-pending002.vmdk' : 15
Sep 25 00:43:05.515: player| SNAPSHOT: ConfigInfoExpandDisksInt: Failed to enumerate the disks for 'E:\VMware ACE Packages\WinXP_Pro_Portable_3\VM\WinXP_Pro-000001-cl2-pending002.vmdk'.
Sep 25 00:43:05.515: player| SNAPSHOT: ConfigInfoExpandDisksInt: Unable to find all files for 'E:\VMware ACE Packages\WinXP_Pro_Portable_3\VM\WinXP_Pro-000001-cl2-pending002.vmdk'
Sep 25 00:43:05.515: player| SNAPSHOT: SnapshotConfigInfoExpandDisks: Error 7
Sep 25 00:43:05.515: player| SNAPSHOT: SnapshotConfigInfoExpand: Error 7
Sep 25 00:43:05.703: player| VE_VVEF: Failed to get suspend files.
Sep 25 00:43:05.703: player| PolicyValidateMVMEncryption: waiting for roaming VM to cache
Sep 25 00:43:05.921: player| DISKLIB-SPARSE: "E:\VMware ACE Packages\WinXP_Pro_Portable_3\VM\WinXP_Pro-000001-cl2-pending002-s003.vmdk" : failed to open (15): Failed to load header.
Sep 25 00:43:05.921: player| DISKLIB-LINK : "E:\VMware ACE Packages\WinXP_Pro_Portable_3\VM\WinXP_Pro-000001-cl2-pending002.vmdk" : failed to open (The file specified is not a virtual disk).
Sep 25 00:43:05.921: player| DISKLIB-CHAIN : "E:\VMware ACE Packages\WinXP_Pro_Portable_3\VM\WinXP_Pro-000001-cl2-pending002.vmdk" : failed to open (The file specified is not a virtual disk).
Sep 25 00:43:05.921: player| DISKLIB-LIB : Failed to open 'E:\VMware ACE Packages\WinXP_Pro_Portable_3\VM\WinXP_Pro-000001-cl2-pending002.vmdk' with flags 0x15 (The file specified is not a virtual disk).
Sep 25 00:43:05.921: player| DISKLIB-LIB : Failed to enum 'E:\VMware ACE Packages\WinXP_Pro_Portable_3\VM\WinXP_Pro-000001-cl2-pending002.vmdk' : 15
Sep 25 00:43:05.921: player| SNAPSHOT: ConfigInfoExpandDisksInt: Failed to enumerate the disks for 'E:\VMware ACE Packages\WinXP_Pro_Portable_3\VM\WinXP_Pro-000001-cl2-pending002.vmdk'.
Sep 25 00:43:05.921: player| SNAPSHOT: ConfigInfoExpandDisksInt: Unable to find all files for 'WinXP_Pro-000001-cl2-pending002.vmdk'
Sep 25 00:43:05.921: player| SNAPSHOT: SnapshotConfigInfoExpandDisks: Error 7
Sep 25 00:43:05.921: player| SNAPSHOT: SnapshotConfigInfoExpand: Error 7
Sep 25 00:43:05.921: player| ConfigInfoExpand failed: A needed file was not found (7)
Sep 25 00:43:05.921: player| RoamingVM: Failed to point disks to parent
Sep 25 00:43:05.921: player| VMHSVMLoadConfig failed: The master copy of this virtual machine has been corrupted
Sep 25 00:43:05.984: player| Cmd /host2/#_client/util/vm/cmd/##9c/op/manageVM/ failed: The master copy of this virtual machine has been corrupted
Sep 25 00:43:06.000: player| VMDlg::ShowDialog: Error while opening the ACE: The master copy of this virtual machine has been corrupted.
Sep 25 00:43:06.078: player| PlayerFrame::UpdateActivePlayer: action=0
Sep 25 00:43:06.078: player| PlayerFrame::UpdateActivePlayer: Ungrab MKS
Sep 25 00:43:08.968: player| PlayerFrame::OnActivateApp: m_bActive=0

I am attaching a screenshot of the contents of my USB drive so you can see the vmdk's that are on it. If you can help me recover the contents on the ACE I would be very grateful. Thanks in advance for any help!

how to update Ace policy manually

laddison — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 02:59:25 GMT

I am running ACE 2.52 and want to be able to run the ace image, if connected to any ethernet network, wireless and with a 3G card. When the ace image starts, it looks for the server and finds the policy with ethernet and wireless fine. IT does not run the policy when the 3G card is connected and wireless and ethernet is not available. Quite a bit of these laptops will use 3G connection versus ethernet or wireless. I am also launching the image so they are not able to go back to the host.

Is there some sort of script or command I can run to make sure the new policy gets updated from the ace management server? Or are there any suggestions to this scenario.

Troubleshooting policy scripts

marius — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:54:04 GMT

I am performing tests with policy scripts and I got an error saying:

"Error running your ACE's power on hook policy script: An internal error was encountered while running your ACE's policy script".

The file vmware.log reports that: "Sep 11 16:38:02.484: vmx | PolicyScriptRun: Command '"<script path> and <script name>.vbs"' failed to run: 6.

How can I troubleshoot this error and maybe other similar errors?

Regards

Marius

Licensing Question

mickgreen — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 20:21:33 GMT

Hi guys,

I am really confused about the licensing options for ACE.

I have WS6 with the ACE Option Pack - well I assume it is the ACE option pack as I cannot find any reference to it in WS!! The reason I believe I have it is because I have an option in WS to 'Enable ACE features' which lets me set the deployment settings and policies etc...

The problem I have is this....Having created a VM in workstation I wanted to deploy it to a USB drive which I had no problem doing. I then took the USB drive to another computer where the VM duly complained about not having a license.

From what I understand each device is licensed with a ACE client license not the VM itself. I also thought that if you had the ACD option pack you also have volume key licensing as part of it?? What license do I have to enter into the player to get this to work? Are any client licenses included in the VLK?

Any help is apprecated

Thanks

Limit ACE image to specific host

virtualbryan — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 23:04:36 GMT

I'm working with a hospital that wants to make sure an ACE image can only be booted on one of their physical desktops. Verify the domain membership of the host PC, or the MAC or something else. Can that be done?

thanks in Advance!

Bryan

eth0 missing in ACE package

TheodoreYoung — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 05:49:16 GMT

Hi,

I just purchased VMWare workstation which came with the ACE options pack. I built a vm with Debian 4. It works beautifully when run by itself. However, when I convert it to an ACE master and preview that (or package it, install it and run it as an ACE package), I no longer have eth0 as an ethernet device. In fact, ifconfig only brings up lo (the loopback device). FWIW, VMWare -> Troubleshoot -> ACE Information says the Network Adapter is bridged, Network Access Compliance Condition is None, Current Zone is Default Zone, and Current Access Level is Normal. The log file doesn't seem to indicate an ethernet oriented error either.

I must be missing something obvious because a day's search of the internet has turned up nothing.

Thanks,

Ted Young

VMware ACE install error

BrokenEngrish — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 17:02:29 GMT

I am unable to finalize the install of a VMware ACE Virtual Machine ( vmware-install.pl)

it gives me this error during the install....

"Finalizing ACE... ACE finalization would result in a clock rollback. Please make sure that your clock is correctly set.

Operation failed.

This ACE was not finalized correctly undoing installation...

............

...........

Execution aborted."

Has anyone seen this error and know where to fix it?

VMware ACE - Kiosk mode

ahartiga — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 09:58:31 GMT

I am urgently seeking a solution to an issue that we have encountered with VMware ACE.

The ACE image has been created with Workstation 6.5 for Windows, configured to enter "Kiosk" mode, which effectively prevents any access back to the host operating system.

What I am trying to figure out, is how to get the VM to start automatically (done), and remove the requirement to click the "Enter Kiosk mode" dialog.

I presume that there is a command line switch / or vmx file line entry for this, but I cannot find this anywhere... any help you could give would be most appreciated!

Thanks in advance,

Regards,

Alan.

VMware ACE Client License Evaluation...

BrokenEngrish — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 16:21:43 GMT

Can anyone point me in the right direction to find a VMware ACE Client License Evaluation....

Trying to run an instance on Linux and it is asking me for an ACE Client License .... so I'm looking for that in Evaluation form...

Thanks!

Use VM ACE to make a BOOTABLE USB

BrokenEngrish — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 19:14:20 GMT

I am looking to create a Bootable USB through VM ACE....

Basically I use VM workstation to create a virtual machine then I use VM ACE to make a pocket ACE package on a USB....

I want to be able to plug in my USB into a machine and have that machine bootup the USB and go straight into my Virtual Machine....

I have read all over the place that it can be done, but there hasn't been any links to any kind of procedures on how it's done....

Even a point in the right direction would be great.... if any of you guys can help I'd really appreciate it....

Ace Deployment for Education Computer Lab

newsboy001 — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 21:16:15 GMT

I am currently working to administer 120 computers spread across 6 computer labs. There are numerous classes that run in these labs some requiring windows, linux, or specialized software. In the past we have used removable drives to accommodate the different operating systems. In a few months we will be purchasing new workstations that are not compatible with the current drive trays. We are looking to VM for solutions.

I have tested and successfully deployed ace vm's through creating an administrative install and subsequently using group policy to deploy and install the ace image. However, this is a slow and tedious process. The 8 gig ace image took almost 3 hours to deploy to 20 workstations. Moreover, I created a transform to the msi specifying "INSTALLDIR=c:\ace_packages\". When I was attempting to roll out 3 images one after another using group policy. After the first ace package was installed the workstation returned an error that an ace package was already installed in that directory.

Are there any suggestions to work around this without having to create a different transform for each install? Or if you have an entirely different idea at how to approach deployment I would love to hear it.

Thanks,

Mike

problem with license

aldi84 — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 12:51:54 GMT

I have downloaded vmware workstation and the vmware ace management server appliance. after registration i get the licenses for ace 2 management server and ace 2 volume licensing key for a test period of 30 days. at the end of installing workstaion, workstation ask for the serial number. after entering the serial number workstation show the error message " The serial number entered did not match any any licences".

i don't understand why this error is showen.

who can help me.

Deployment of Pocket ACE w/ 6.5.0 build 118166, and other Slow things....

ESZ — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 20:10:14 GMT

With the advent of 16GB/32GB thumb devices, we have been hoping to deploy of small Linux based USB computers, preloaded with software and data that a client can work with. The deployment of a 30GB image just took my dual core 4GB computer close to 20 hours to complete. That certainly puts a crimp in the process to say the least.....

Based on some perusing of information around I am aware that some of the speed issue is due to the USB unit itself, and I would hope to be able to do a survey of brands to try and identify a particular vendor who give best performance.

But the question is why is this such a slow process? The creation of a package is time consuming enough and I would think the deployment is simply streaming the data to the USB device.... is there any tricks to speed this up? I would hope that this is currently a very active development topic since it is a real hindrence.....

Also, in upgrading from 6.0 to 6.5 it seems everything runs slower (on the same machine, no other changes), but this may be subjective. The new Unity mode is a great new feature, but again there seems to be performance drag.....is that video card/memory limited?

Anyway, would appreciate some comments. I am trying to make the case for a larger scale enterprise deployment of ACE units and cannot with the current performance issues.

Which client license with ACE 2.5 and Workstation 6.5 ?

UKr@TP — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 13:22:32 GMT

Hi,

I tried to get informations about this all over the VMware homepage, but everything refers to ACE 2.0 and ACE option for Workstation 6. So nothing about the latest ACE version 2.5 what comes integrated in Workstation version 6.5.x today.

My question is can I use ACE Volume Licensing keys (VLK) in Workstation 6.5 (without a ACE Management Server) to license the ACE packages I deploy instead of buying a ACE Client licenses for each ???

Regards,
UK.

Stupid question, simple answer?

WattsAndAssoc — Tue, 26 May 2009 21:07:14 GMT

Hello. I'm sure this is a dumb question, but after reading through tons of text I just can't seem to get the simple answer that I wanted (or I'm just not understanding something correctly). I have a virtual machine at work that we currently copy to 6 portable hard drives (all the 'raw' files, no packaging). Each HD has exactly the same thing. We do this as if someone in our company needs to run a demonstration, the proper tools are in the virtual machine, so they just hook it up to their PC, run VMWare Player, and open the VM. We have 6 HDs because most of the time, half of them are missing or with someone so I need as many spares as possible. This method works for the most part, as long as people know what their doing, but I was hoping for a little bit better solution, such as packaging the VM via ACE. The problem is that I only have 1 client license. Will I be able to use my 1 license to package my 1 VM and copy it to the 6 HDs so that anyone who needs it can use it? Or must I have 6 licenses for each of the portable HDs, plus more licenses for each and every PC the ACE may be played on? Thank you for your help.

How to automate updates of VMplayer in ACE-Clients under Windows?

peter5 — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 12:28:53 GMT

Hello,

as described in the manual, it's possible to automate the install process of ACE-Clients to call "setup.exe /s/v/qn" as a silent installation. So installing the SW is possible by a silent script without going around all client-computers.

But this will fail, if there is already an older version of vmplayer installed. The help message will guide you to manualy deinstall the older player by start->settings_>control panel->software

This is possible for one or a few client computers, but does this realy mean we have to go around all clients and deinstall the player manualy?

Is there a better way to update, or if neccessary to deinstall, the player by a script?

Regards

Peter

Questions about ACE capabilities

shotoyan — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 20:22:55 GMT

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to figure out if ACE can accomplish a couple things for us with VM's in VMPlayer. In our environment our physical machines are locked down without any local admin access, but some users have special cases, so we've deployed VMPlayer and a sandbox VM (the VM is running a standard XP install in workgroup mode, no security). In VMPlayer we disable the bridged network, so the guest can only use the host-only or NAT networks. This esentially gives the users a sandbox to do their special needs type stuff, without compromising our internal network.

So here's my questions:

1. Is there anyway to limit VMPlayer so that it can only play the VM's we're providing?

2. With the guest VM being a non-domain system with local admin, is there anyway to limit specific things? We want to make sure the users can't mess around with the AV client we preload, as well as the Websense client (to content filter their internet usage).

Thanks,

Shant

ACE 2.5 Pocket Package slow on Win 7 RTM 64bit

joined — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 08:16:07 GMT

Hi to all,

why n ACE 2.5 Pocket Package that run really quick on Win XP 64 bit or Win 7 32 bit is REALLY slow on Win 7 64 bit?

Best regards...

Fabio Dell'Aria.

Convert an ACE 2.5 Pocket Package to a classic VM

joined — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 07:16:12 GMT

Hi to all.

How I can convert an ACE 2.5 pocket package to a classic Virtual Machine?

Best regards...

Fabio Dell'Aria.

Error while opening the ACE: invalid session

bravopapa — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 15:54:53 GMT

VMware player gives me this message each time I try to power on an ACE package. The VM then fails to power on. The package was created on a separate host, and I'm able to use the preview feature to power it on with VMWare workstation.

Any ideas as to what is invalid about the session, or how to resolve this issue?

Very slow sync ACE 6.0 - improved in later versions?

jerdos8 — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 18:00:30 GMT

Hello -

I have deployed a Vm to a 16gb usb thumb drive. This was built with ACE 6.0, and the performance of the sync is very very slow. Have there been any improvements with the later versions of ACE specifically to the sync speed?

If so, what would be the best course of action to upgrade this thumb image so that the sync performance is improved (later rev of ACE)?

Thanks for any help!

ACE Instance Customization fails with SP3

eickst — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 18:31:32 GMT

Workstation 6.5, Ace 2.5, instance customization fails with SP3.

When creating the package, first step is "Sealing virtual machine".

The machine powers on, then the progress updates to "preparing customization bundle". Progess updates the %done but the process never logs in to the VM to do anything.

Stays at "Deploying customization bundle" all the way through 55%done to 98% done, takes forever (10 minutes +) and then the process errors out with this (see attachment for image)

"The virtual machine failed to shutdown in a timely fashion. Make sure the latest VMWare Tools version is installed in the VM and that the sysprep files for the VM's OS and service pack are available in the appropriate directory."

Just before someone asks me, yes I have the latest VMWare tools installed, and yes I have the SP3 sysprep tools in the correct folder.

Any ideas?

vmware ace creating pocket ace error

mshorrosh — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:42:04 GMT

When I click on create new pocket ace package, I'm recieving the error missing ace.dat in my documents and settings folder. Anyone have any idea what is causing this?

vmware pocket ace - getting license prompt when I plug the USB device into another machine

JMDudley — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 17:02:48 GMT

I recently downloaded vmware workstation as a trial. I created an XP image, I then packaged it as an ACE package. Then deployed it to a USB thumb drive. It works perfect on my machine with vmware workstation loaded, however when I take it to another machine to test it...it then prompts me for an ACE Client License. I have an ACE volume license key that support gave me, but when I put that in it states there were no matches for the license entered. Help!! I want to be able to test for a client who wants to use these for summer interns as a portable solution. Any help would be appreciated.

A simple question - What does ACE stand for?

JamesVan — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 14:25:29 GMT

It seems odd that I have created and deployed ACEs using Workstation for a few years now, but I have no idea what ACE stands for.

Encryption key security in memory

brendanw — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 08:00:13 GMT

I am evaluating ACE for use as a java development environment for offshore developers. The developers have full access to the source code, but in order to guard our intellectual property, must not be able to cut and paste, or transfer files outside the company network.

We are currently using RDP to machines (locked down) at a company site, but response times can be so slow as the make this unusable.

The ACE solution alternative I was considering:

1. Encrypted ACE vm containing development environment on developer PCs.
2. Restricted networking, only allowing connection to a VPN server. VPN connection requires certifcate installed in ACE vm.
3. Copy and paste to host disabled.

I see at least one potential problem which may allow the encrypted vmdk disk file to be unlocked thus allowing the source code to be transferred electronically.
The ACE/vmplayer executables will be executing as a normal user program and it seems fairly simple to write a win32 program that will dump the memory of any process, thus exposing the encryption key for the configuration file which in turn can be used to find the find the disk encryption key.

Does the vmware ace executable guard against reading of the encryption key for the configuration file and the disk encryption key by another process?

(I understand that the source code could be much more simply captured using screenshots from the host then scanned using OCR - but this could be error prone. If the key can be exposed using the above method then repeating the procedure using the gained knowledge and toolset will be rapid)

Computer naming in an ACE deployment

mgroover — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:06:07 GMT

Hey,

I'm just wondering if anyone has had any experiences around customizing the computer naming in an ACE instance? The current solution of being able to add a number of characters from the hosts computer name isn't doing it for me.

We currently have computer naming schema which is: SSSSS-T-NNNNNNN (S = SITE, T = ComputerType, N=incremented computer number)

T(Computer Type) is currently one of W(orkstation)/L(ab)/S(erver) .. What I would like to do is taking the current workstation/laptop name (example UKLON-W-0001234) and get the ACE instance to be called UKLON-V-0001234.

Any ideas if it is possible to do this during the final customization phase when the user has launched it in the VMWare Player through the VIX API?

Vmware Ace SN error

thedugan — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 13:33:33 GMT

User install Vmware 2.0 player fine with no errors, was running the vm fine then one day gets this error.

Error while opening the Ace: Cannot find a valid license to run this Ace. Please enter a serial number or contract your Ace administrator

The version of Player is licensed under the free public Player license. To upgrade to an Ace Client license, enter an Ace Client license key below.

This is happening to 5 users so its not unique to one instal or one machine

ACE Management Installation on CentOS 5.3

midwestmex — Thu, 21 May 2009 16:00:55 GMT

Greetings,

I'm trying a first installation of VMware ACE Management Server on a fresh installation of CentOS. I'm using the RHEL4 RPM package off the website and I'm running into an issue starting apache. Here is the error I'm receiveing:

Starting httpd: Thu May 21 10:58:49 2009 warn module ldap_module is already loaded, skipping
httpd: Syntax error on line 210 of /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf: Syntax
error on line 7 of /etc/httpd/conf.d/acesc.conf: API module structure
`xmlrpc_module' in file /var/lib/vmware/acesc/lib/mod_xmlrpc.so is
garbled - perhaps this is not an Apache module DSO?

Any suggestions on moving forward? I'm rather new to VM so apologize for being green behind the ears. Thanks.

Running multiple ACE desktops

pwalton — Thu, 21 May 2009 15:03:47 GMT

Hi,

We have some users that wish to run multiple ACE desktops on the same physical PC simultaneously, is this possible or would it prove to much a burden on the PCs resources? The reason for this is the need to be running various operating systems (NT, 2000 and XP).

Thanks.

How do I create a Live CD/ PE Connection to ACE ?

bdmeyersc — Thu, 07 May 2009 16:23:55 GMT

I have been asked to come up with a method to connect to our ACE server.

ACE runs fine, currently we authenticate via RSA Tokens.

What I would like to do is, provide end users a USB Flash Drive that they can boot their home PC to, it will run something like UBCD4WIN, Barts PE, or actually, any Live CD type environment. This is all easy enough. What I would like some idea's for is overcoming these requirements without reinventing the wheel:

Java is installed
Webstart is installed
Once the Live CD is launched it immediately launches the browser
Change the default home page of the browser to point to our server.
When the user exits the browser/ACE environment, the USB Booted Live CD Environment reboots the machine.

Has anyone done anything like this, or aware of a good Live CD / PE environment that would be a good starting point for this?

I would just hate to spend a lot of time building my own only to find out their is already some sort of project working on this I could join.

Thanks for any help,

--Bruce D. Meyer

Update:

Reading around, I found 'Pocket Ace' It seems that this actually runs a stored image from the thumb drive, and doesn't actually connect to an ACE server. Or is it possible to have Pocket Ace connect to and run from the ACE server ?

I also thought about VMPlayer. Perhaps their is a solution to this using VMPlayer... Just thinking out loud...

Is it possible to Create 1 ACE package containing 2 operating systems?

TroyAus — Mon, 11 May 2009 05:40:10 GMT

Previously in ACE 1 it was possible to package up two operating systems into 1 package for deployment.

I've now upgraded to using ACE 2 with the Management server. However I haven't figured out how (or if it's possible) to package 2 operating systems into the one package as I did in ACE 1.

Is this still possible?

I've been searching through the communities etc but haven't found anything on this, and documentation doesn't have anything on it either.

ACE Policy Management

Crawfy — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:23:07 GMT

I am trying to evaluate ACE, specifically Pocket ACE and ACE Management server to see how much control is possible from the corporate head office. I've installed ACE mgmt server and created a pocket instance that I have installed onto a USB memory stick. I can see the ACE instance in the management server when I boot it up, but am having trouble publishing updated policies to it. Can anyone enlighten me as to which policies can be pushed out dynamically to the ACE instances? For example, if I change the Enhanced Virtual Keyboard to 'ask user' if a keylogger is detected then this polivy doesn't seem to dynamically update, but if I enable the Administrator mode policy this will get updated.

Is there a definitive list of policies and whether each one can be dynamically or statically enabled?

Any help would be greatly appreciated as there does not seem to be too many detailed docs about the management server (only the admin manual which doesn't really explained in any detail).

Many thanks

Andy

No network settings in player

marius — Wed, 06 May 2009 15:13:53 GMT

I distribuited some ACE packages created with ACE 2 on WMware Workstation 6.5.0.

Users report that they can't change the network settings from the player and I confirm they can't. There is no option neither icon in the player to allow users configure network settings. They can run vmnetcfg but they can't change anything.

I configured ACE settings to provide full network access.

What else should I check in order to let users configure network settings and switch between "bridged" and "host only" based on their needs?

Can the problem be connected to the version of the original guest, 5 at the moment?

Regards

Marius

Could not join domain. Error: 1355

hassc — Wed, 06 May 2009 09:04:44 GMT

I am attempting to evaluate ACE server. I have created some packages and the installation fails with the error Could not join domain. Error: 1355. My deployment settings are:

Domain: alecta.local

OU Full path: OU=VPC,OU=Servers,DC=alecta,DC=local

plus a username and password.

I have tested with this script which works:

netdom join %computername% /domain:alecta.local
/OU:OU=VPC,OU=Servers,DC=alecta,DC=local /userd:CENSORED /passwordd:CENSORED

Can anyone help me?

Thanks

/Hass

Message was edited by: Texiwill: Removed unused format commands.

ACE Hardware Requirements - For a Training Lab setup

mkicha — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 16:08:11 GMT

I am looking for a good ACE hardware recommendation for the following. This is for a training host server where I can create 10 instance of the same vm all in one box and use them for 10 students.

My apps are

1. Oracle DB 10g

2. Weblogic 10

3. Siebel CRM

Thanks

Murali

Training Lab Setup

mkicha — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 02:33:23 GMT

I have been evaluating both ACE and LabManager/VC/Infrastructure Server for a classroom setup. I do not see any reference materials for best VMWare solution for setting up a classroom with virtual machines.

Can someone please tell me which is the best VMWare solution and setup for a classroom setup ? I have 10 students per class usually and our software runs on windows 2K or Linux Server. What VMware solution does VMWare recommend?

Thanks

ACE Starter Kit and VMplayer license

momantai — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 14:05:15 GMT

I downloaded a Workstation ACE 2 starter kit and created a "Pocket ACE package" on a USB-stick. When I try to run it on a separate PC the VMplayer gets installed but pops up a message telling it is running on a "free public" license and want me to enter an "ACE client license key". What key is this ? I tried the "Volume license key" which came with the starter kit, but no success. What am I supposed to do now ?

VMware ACE Starter kit 30-day evaluation

momantai — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 11:03:30 GMT

Does the 30-day evaluation version of the ACE starter kit support "Pocket ACE packages" ?

The page "http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=1000645&sliceId=1" states the following:

"Note: If you have a Volume License for Workstation 6
ACE Option Pack, you will not see this prompt because the Volume
License embeds client licenses in the package. You do not need to enter
separate licenses for any ACE client, in this case."

However, no matter what I try, the client's VMplayer always comes up it is running on a public free license but requires a "VMplayer ACE license key".....

Advice on using ACE for mulitple package deployments

ATGMC — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 10:21:18 GMT

I'm in the process of setting up a training environment for both onsite and offsite training courses. For our onsite training I plan on using VMware View and so far that seems straightforward. Since the offsite classes can't guarantee reliable Internet connections I was looking at Vmware ACE as this will enable us to apply an expiry policy. I wasn't planning on using the management server but I'm struggling to understand how the licensing will work. If we purchase 50 client licenses and run a class for say 10 people if the original ACE package is copied multiple times how can the licensing keep track plus when the class is over and the VMs expired how can we reclaim those licenses?

Any advice appreciated.

Disappearing icon for network access status.

MrHutz — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 00:17:32 GMT

Having a similar issue on 3 host systems with ACE VMs loaded.

The tray icon which shows the status of the network access policy has disappeared from the host system. Some of these users have been having network connectivity issues at remote sites and are unable to identify if the access policy is being applied incorrectly. When ACE is started, the VM does display the correct network access information. The hosts are running a mixture of Windows XP Pro SP2 and SP3. The loaded ACE version is 2.5.1, build 126130.

Is there a way to force the icon to appear on the host?

ACE client no longer able to connect to domain

KellyLogan — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 05:21:16 GMT

Hello all,

I am running Vista 64-bit on my HP Pavilion laptop. I have had an ACE client running on this laptop for the last several months with no problems until a few nights ago. During a session with the client, which connects to a remote domain for login using Cisco services, the ACE client window locked up and wouldn't release focus (Ctrl-Alt-Del not withstanding). I had to pull the battery/plug and reboot. When the laptop came back up,the ACE client would start, but the Cisco service was unable to start.

The only event I've found that seems to be related is that my protection software, Bitdefender Internet Security 2009, updated around the time of the lockup. This seems to be related as the deep system scan that I ran later found these:

I've gone through several days of uninstalling workstation, uninstalling the ACE client and trying various combinations and orders of reinstalls, but I get the same response now, the initialization of the client fails on the domain join. From the log (see attached for more details):

Mar 19 00:57:35.086: vmx| DISKLIB-DSCPTR:DescriptorComposeNoIOInfo : couldn't get adapterType
Mar 19 00:57:35.086: vmx| DISKLIB-DSCPTR:DescriptorComposeNoIOInfo : couldn't get hwVersion
Mar 19 01:02:08.914: vcpu-0| Instance customization is done with errors. Failed in state: domain_join. Status returned: 5. Description of failure: Invalid reply len for get remote domain join details request. Reply's size: 1361.
Mar 19 01:02:08.921: vcpu-0| PolicyImcHandleFailure: Instance Customization failed. Reason: 5, state: domain_join, description: Invalid reply len for get remote domain join details request. Reply's size: 1361.
Mar 19 01:02:11.837: vcpu-0| Msg_Post: Error
Mar 19 01:02:11.837: vcpu-0| http://msg.policyImgCust.TranslateError Instance customization failed. Please contact your administrator or retry instance customization by powering on the ACE.----------------------------------------

I am now running VMware Workstation 6.5, which is working fine on it's own (I can still open up other images), as well as it every was (I've had issues with getting the images to see the internet). Note again that this was working fine for many months.

If I uninstall Workstation, and install just the ACE client, it errors out much earlier when I run the client, saying that the vm authentication service is not running.

Any ideas?

Where to read the Host Machine name

thedugan — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 15:27:05 GMT

VmWare Ace 2.0

Where can you read the name of the host machine name? We want to run a report to match the Guest machine name to the Host machine name. We do not have access to the host to run a report so we can only do this from within the guest. Is there a log file that saves this info. Do we need to use VMrun to create custom report?

We do not use the Ace Management Server

-Doug

VMware ACE Management Server on Debian

dave92082 — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 21:42:41 GMT

I have downloaded the ACE management server virtual appliance and noticed that it is running under Debian. This is all great for our environment, however when I go to download the ACE Management server application to integrate into our existing debian environment, the only packages available are for SLES and RHEL. Is there are debian package available, or are the files tar.gz'd anwhere to download and set up into an existing debain environment?

Ace serial number when evaluating workstation

mitchVM — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 14:13:25 GMT

I have an Eval license for Workstation 6.5.

I created an ACE package which I distributed to a different PC to test the ACE functionality as part of our evaluation.

When I start the ACE package on the 2nd PC, it asks for an ACE Serial number.

I've tried starting a separate ACE eval to get a serial number but thoses serial numbers do not work.

Any ideas? Should I be able to test an ACE package with a workstation eval license?

Thank you.

VMware ACE no longer starts

JosephB3 — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 14:15:43 GMT

We recently deployed a second (concurrent) ACE image for our S/W Developers. Now after installation, neither ACE image will start. This is happening on multiple, independent PC's.

During installation of the second ACE image, the version of VMware Player was automatically upgraded.

All that happens is the outside border is drawn. See attached screen shot and log files.

Host does not appear to be busy. ACE image appears to be 'stalled'.

Attempting to shut down the session gives the message "The virtual machine is busy".

How to prevent starting a foreign VMware Image on ACE Host-System ?

vmakn — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 12:12:45 GMT

After installing a VMware ACE instance on a Host-System, it is possible to start any vmx file by double-clicking on the installed VMware Player. Is there any possibility to prevent starting foreign VMware images?

How to Defrag an ACE Virtual Disk??

Gerry.Deutsch — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 19:59:21 GMT

Is it possible to defrag an ACE virtual disk once it is deployed? The ACE was built with VMware Workstation Version 6.5.0 Build-118166. My develoeprs are complaining about response time issues with the ACE after they have used it for awhile. The disk is NOT pre-allocated in size so it grows in size on the host. They are defraging the host disk using the normal Windows disk deframnetation process. Is there anything that can be done via an ACE function to deframent the ACE short of using Windows disk defragmentation within the ACE? The ACE is running Windows 2003 Standard Server 2003 Service Pack 2. The ACE images are NOT running on a host that has VMware Workstation installed. They are running Windows XP as a host platform. What are the VMware Best Practices for this situation?

Memory restriction in ACE managed images?

malcolml — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 11:38:20 GMT

Hi All,

Can anyone confirm for me whether it is possible to set an upper limit on the memory that an ACE managed vmware image can access. For example, suppose I have a host with 8GB memory, can I restrict the memory allocation of individual virtual machines to, say, 2GB each?

Many thanks,

malcolm

Need advice on setting up training room

GBingham — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 19:33:04 GMT

I'm considering using ACE to setup a training room. I have not used it before, and so would greatly appreciate some guidance from those who have.

My business has a training room with 12 workstations. There is a broad variety of training courses offered. Several of them are on IBM products and involve the use of VMWare images to get hands on experience with products (e.g. WebSphere).

These images are large, and handling updates, distribution etc is difficult. The issues we face are:

control of the desktops - although the VMWare images can be reverted, the underlying host OS needs to be ghosted to be cleaned - cumbersome process
the vmware images need to be managed. Consider offering 20 courses. 20x12 images with snapshots - quickly gets out of control
securing the workstation - right now the underlying OS is a headache, needing to be reimaged - ala ghosted - resulting in two layers of management and more licenses (we'd move to Linux but seek a 'virtualized' solution instead requiring no host/guest)

I'm looking for a way that I can manage the workstations centrally, secure the workstations, and handle deploying these images. So on Friday - for a Monday course, I'd like to have a central repository where I can remotely reimage each of the 12 workstations. ACE seems to fit this bill, but I'm not quite sure how it works at the workstation. I am not clear on several things:

what level is the deployment at - is there an underlying OS - or is it a 'guest'
where would the images sit - do they get deployed from a central server through the network
can it do reverts

One other question on licensing... Does the start edition license pack include the server (which seems to handle all the central management features) . There is a starter pack with 10 licenses. I saw I can buy an additional 2 licenses at $99 each. Did not see any mention of the server being bundled. Doesn't the ACE setup require the server?

Am I barking up the wrong tree, or does ACE provide a close fit for my training room? Would greatly appreciate any guidance.

How can I expand an existing disk drive?

Gerry.Deutsch — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 18:22:51 GMT

I have created an ACE package using VMware WorkStation verison 6.5.0 build-118166. The ACE images are managed by an ACE Management Server. I setup the ACE images so they had a 50 GB hard disk. The hard disk was not pre-allocated in size. One of my developers is asking if there is a way to grow the size of the drive to larger than 50 GB. Is this possible? If not, is it possible to add a 2nd hard disk once the image is already deployed?

Ace player error - The computer does not have enough available space on the disk...

Orphius — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 07:27:11 GMT

Hello,

I've deployed a couple of ace instances in our organization and after a while we come accross a couple of people receiving the following fault when trying to start their ACE.

The computer does not have enough available space on the disk for this virtual machine to run. Do you want to synchronize to the device now? YES NO

The ACE package is 60 GB, but there is 38 GB free on the host, 20 GB free in the ace instance & (if it matters) 200 GB free on the management server.

So i have no idea where he get's that fault from? When you hit yes, nothing happens (black screen) when you hit no it closes down...

Any suggestions?

Problem while connecting two virtual machines in different hosts

davidcol — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 16:19:04 GMT

Hello,

I need to configure two virtual machines in different hosts. I use two different host because memory and performance limitations in my host. Then I had to install a client and a server software in this virtual machines. However while configuring the networking for these virual machines, I have the following problems:

1) In one virtual machine, I can ping other pcs in my network. However, when I try to ping this machine from a pc in my network, it doesn't answer.

2) In the other virtual machine, I had the following error:

"The network bridge on device Vmnet0 is not running". In the tab of Host Virtual mapping doesn't appear the network driver.

Thanks beforehand for the help. I don't have a lot of experience using vmware ace.

VM move has caused installed software to lose its license

gkin — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 13:23:41 GMT

Hi all,

I've been using vmware for a good number of years and just come across something I can't explain ..

I have a VM with some 3rd party licensed software which I have used for some time on my laptop. Now that the powers-that-be have eventually given me a proper machine (one with a com port!) I moved the VM over and fired it up.

When prompted, I clicked "Moved" so that the original UUID would be kept but now my software is asking for an activation key! Theuuid.location hasobviously changed in the .vmx file but I have checked and the uuid.bios is as it was and the MAC address has stayed the same. Have I missed something?

TIA

Ace Package and VPN Client

bouncer_98 — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 03:05:19 GMT

I created my first ACE package with much success. I was really impressed with the ease of creating the package and how quickly I could get it operational in a user environment. I do have an issue with the VPN client not working. The specifics is that it is a Windows XP sp2 package with firewall turned off. I also have the host firewall turned off and applied the package to both a Windows XP and Vista OS. I use the Checkpoint VPN SecureClient. It makes its initial connection but looks like it fails when it tries to give the vm client an IP Address. I have tried this both as a NAT and bridged network connection. I also checked the network policies and it is opened both ways. Opened both ways.

The client was built with the latest workstation and ACE download from last Thursday. Anymore information needed I will gladly provide.

Ace User serial number does not work

phillogue — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 00:37:10 GMT

I have created a VM Ace virtual application in Windows Vista. I have downloaded a trial Ace licence file however this licenbce file does not work on the Ace virtual instalation.

Expiration control for VMware ACE.

kodaks — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 09:22:53 GMT

Hi all,

I would like to clarify the expiration feature of VMware ACE.

If I create a VM with expiration and send it to our client for trial.
Basically, the client will run the VM in their site without connection to our ACE server.
How can we expire the VM after a certain period, let's say 30 days.

Thanks!

Administrative rights ?

nxbp — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 16:02:18 GMT

Hi all.

I'm wondering if there is a way to use Pocket ACE on a PC without having the administrator's rights.

I'd like to have my VM's on a USB key and be able to use them from anywhere, without having to beg for admin rights to install the player.

Thanks for your insight

Awful ACE Player Error: Error While opening the ACE: This virtual machine is partially synchronized...

the-waves — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 06:30:22 GMT

Hi All,

I am currently trying to open an ACE package with VMware player and getting the following error:

Error While opening the ACE: This virtual machine is partially synchronized from an earlier session. To avoid corruption of this virtual machine, you must return to the earlier session and finish the synchronization process.

The data on the device is crucial and I am having a really hard time figuring out how to:

a) Get rid of this error

b) Recover data from the devive

This is getting kind of desperate - is there anybody I could pay to fix this?

Error while opening the ACE

impact1560 — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 16:21:29 GMT

My computer crashed while the synchroization process was taking place. I'm now trying to used the USD Drive in another computer but the VMware Player keeps saying Error while opening the ACE: The virtual machine is -----------, you must reture to the earlier session and finish the synchroization process. Is there anyway I can get pass this? Thank You

ACE - Create a package from a VM fails with error

tweyell — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 08:22:09 GMT

Hi,

I am new to ACE and I have a question.

I created a ACE Server on Windows in my Workstation. I also created a other Windows Machine and enabled ACE for this VM. I changed some propeties e.x. the date of expire and created a package. This works perfect. The VM was able to start and so on.

Then I created a new package from the same VM. This package was not able to start. I get the following error:

"Error while opening the ACE: Access to this ACE is blocked. This ACE was not installed properly or it has been corrupted."

Can you give me some information about this? Is it only possible to create one package from one VM?

Thanks,

Thomas

VMware ACE Player - Has anyone had success with ACE and VMCI / VIX or similar?

IamTHEvilONE — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 19:56:52 GMT

Has anyone attempted (successfully) to use some of the VMware APIs with the VMware ACE Player? Since I haven't personally done it and someone asked me, I'm curious to know if anyone has done this.

As an example: Has anyone attempted to use VMCI with a few VMware ACE instances? I think this may be possible, by doing the custom tools install and include the vmx changes in the ACE Master. That is unless it requires something that only workstation provides.

VIX states Workstation, but not player, so I don't think VIX would work. And I can't think of other APIs at the time of posting this.

Thanks!

EvilONE

Points will be awarding for any helpful posts!

How to use USB HDD as a boot hard drive?

senglory — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 08:56:15 GMT

VMWare Workstation ACE v6.0.4-93057

I set USB HDD as a bootable hard disk in my WinXP-based machine. But when I start from CD inside of it it tells me that there's no HDD. How to fix this problem?

Is it possible to start an ACE instance as a service on Windows Vista without logging in to the host?

wwward — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 16:44:44 GMT

My design calls for a kiosk mode ACE instance to start on a Windows Vista host without requiring the user to logon to the Windows Vista host.

For security policy compliance, I cannot leave the Vista host logged on, or automatically logged on.

Ideally, I would have the ACE instance launch as a service, and then take over the display as a kiosk - the user would then logon to the instance as if it was natively running on the computer. This is to accommodate a legacy desktop platform while we comply with a mandate to deploy Vista.

Ace 2.0 Dual Monitor Support

thedugan — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 19:24:43 GMT

Hope everyone can help me with this one

We set our Ace 2.0 package to single monitor. Is there a way in the VMX file to set it to Dual Monitor for a handful of users without sending out a package update?

For those who are using ACE 2.0 with dual monitors and running the vm in full screen --- when you click a host based application does your vm minimize or stay active?

Thanks in advance

Doug

Blue Screen with Vista Host

ElectricBlue — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 03:01:34 GMT

Hi Guys

Does anyone get a Blue Screen crash with a Vista 32 host and a XP pro VM when the Lan is bridged directly and you try to browse the Virtual machine's PC on the host network.

I get an instand blue screen when you click the virtual machine on the Lan.

Can anyone confirm?

recommend 16 flash drive for pocket ACE

gregorcy — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 20:47:04 GMT

I am getting this message when I start my ACE instance from my flash drive:

"The Pocket ACE performance test currently rates this system configuration as unsatisfactory...."

The host that I am running on is:

Dell 755 Optiplex
WIndows XP SP3
2gb memory
Intel Q6600 (Quad Core)

I do not get this message when I install the ACE image directly on the host, so I am thinking it is my USB drive that is causing this. Can anyone recommend a good 16 GB USB drive. Alternativly can anyone recommend something that I am doing wrong that is causing this warning message

Thanks

Slow Performance on Flash Drive

edjrwinnt — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 15:15:33 GMT

I'm using the latest version of VMWare 6.5 and ACE 2.5 and I just created an ACE package on a 32 Gig USB flash drive but the VMDK files are all 2 gig's in size. I didn't see where to create just one large VMDK file on the flash drive when I deployed the ACE package from VM Workstation. How do I enable it to use one large VMKD file and will it speed up performance? I keep getting the message that my Pocket Ace Performance is unsatifactory with the flash drive I'm using and I know my computer is fastest enough with plenty of ram. It's usable but sometimes it's a little unresponsive. If there is no way to optimize my ACE setup can anyone recommend a flash drive or SD card that is fast enough? Right now I'm using the "Kingston Data Traveler 150" USB Flash Drive.

Slow startup after installing packages

marius — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 16:48:27 GMT

Some users report that their PCs (mainly notebooks) have a slow startup (up to ten minutes) after installing an ACE pachage.

If they remove their ACE package the startup performances returns normal.

If they reinstall the ACE package the startup returns slow.

How can we troubleshoot and solve this issue?

Regards

Marius

ACE Host Network Access Policy

daza35 — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 11:57:13 GMT

Am looking at deploying ACE for temp workers in our company. From the manuals I understand that if you use a network access policy to restrict Host access on the Internal network (but allow guest) this is still active even when the ACE instrance is not running on the host.

Does the network access policy expire if you have the ACE instance set to expire, or do you have to uninstall the ACE instance (and or VMPlayer) to disbale the Network Access policy ?

thanks

Workstation/ACE performance on AMD desktop/laptop processors

arjaysam1 — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 18:01:13 GMT

I would be interested in hearing other people's experience with Workstation/ACE (newer builds) on AMD dual-core desktop and/or laptop processors. In another thread I have been describing my trials and tribulations with WS6.5/ACE package creation of Vista builds on an HP laptop with an AMD Turion X2 Ultra ZM-82 (2.2GHz) CPU. In a word, ACE fails on the package build consistently with what appears to be a timeout issue inside Vista during package creation. The package creation works perfectly when the files are transferred to a Core Duo machine ( a "slow" Core Duo at 1.6GHz). Both host machines are running Vista as the host O/S. In the case of the laptop the whole process has been tried under Vista Buisness 32bit as well as 64bit and results have been identical -- a dismal failure.

The Turion machine seems reasonably speedy in all other aspects and XP builds inside ACE package just fine. I know Core Duo's tend to be faster and better performing than Turion dual-cores but it seems silly to me that a 1.6GHz Core Duo is THAT much faster than the AMD running at 2.2GHz. And if anyone from VMware is looking at this it would be nice to know if there are known "issues" with using Turion machines.

Vista package creation fails in Ace 2.5 build 118166

arjaysam1 — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 17:11:15 GMT

I have bene going around in circles trying to create a Vista package under Ace 2.5, build 118116 for the last week. Regardless of the process I follow (and I have looked at all sorts of links regarding this issue and tried many of the suggestiuons found) I can never produce a working package. I see that a previous build was supposed to correct errors with the installationa customization features in ACE that stopped ACE form producing working Vista packages. Does anyone know if this is still an issue with the current build? I have a trainign centre that wants to use ACE but it's quite critical that ACE be able to package Vista; there is no issue at all with XP, package creation is perfect with XP.

3D acceleration (not software)

scylla — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:45:49 GMT

Hello,

I've been told that it is possible to use real 3D acceleration (not software) with ACE by making the local 3D video card on the host available to the virtual machine.

Is this true, if so, were is it documented (specs, howto's ,etc).

We want to be able to use CAD software and not be limited by performance issues created by 3D acceleration functionalities simulated through a software abstraction.

Thanks.

VMWare ACE player on Mac OSX

eickst — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 23:04:04 GMT

Is this possible?

Centrally managing ACE VMs (not instances)

eickst — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 23:38:26 GMT

Minor issue, if I create a VM and enable ACE, I realize that the server can manage activated instances. But what if someone else needs to modify the package or send an update to someone and my workstation is the only one that has the VM on it?

I didn't see anything about this in the admin manual, and just curios as to a best practices method of accomplishing this. I don't have the space nor do I want to have several hundred gig's of VMs on my notebook as it's too slow as it is.

Pocket ACE "Successfully" Deployed Without a Configuration (.vmx) File

Lopaka43 — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 16:55:05 GMT

Has anyone faced the subject problem?

I am creating Pocket ACE instances using Workstation 6.5 and ACE 2.5. Although I initially created a successful Pocket ACE that worked on another host, any new Pocket ACE instances that I create do not have .vmx files and don't run.

Would appreciate any ideas that you might have.

Thanks.

Bob

Help Getting Error: This virtual machine cannot be packaged because.......

justnice — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 12:30:24 GMT

Whenever I try to create Pocket Ace Package I am getting this error message on ACE version 2.5 This virtual machine cannot be packaged because: -The Virtual Machine must be upgraded to the latest hardware version . The package is of Windows XP Pro and hardware config is Core2Duo with 1GB RAM and Host operating system as XP Home and the VM state is shutdown

Attaching the snapshot of problem

thanks Justin

VMware Ace PACk and Vm ware Workstation

VMWARE NOVOICE — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 10:57:14 GMT

Dear All,

I have purchased VMware Ace Pack and VM Wareworkstation

I need to know How I can use it to setup my Eapplication .

presently, I just use Workstationa and link and create an environment.

Canyou please suggest how can I use ACE pack. Also, please pass on link to that material

regards

Latha

Migrate from Ace 2.0 to Ace 2.5

KrisBroux — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 14:12:43 GMT

Hi, has anyone done this update/upgrade already?
Are there things to lookout for. Can the server be upgraded or is it best to install an new Ace 2.5 server.

How does this affect current users. They use an ace image with vm-player on laptops.

Vista package creation in WS6.5/ACE

arjaysam1 — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 05:59:19 GMT

Here is a simple question to all: has anyone succeeded in creating an ACE Vista package in the latest version of WS 6.5/ACE using the ACE deployment settings? If so, can you please doucment how you got there? I keep bombing out in the mini-setup phase when I run preview. It looks like some sort of sysprep info is missing but I have no idea how to provide it or even get to the sysprep files the deployment process creates.

Thanks for any suggestions.

ACE bare-metals install

DJSL — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 00:02:45 GMT

Hi,

What are the reasons for a bare-metals (type 1 hypervisor) install not existing of ACE? I appreciate there are a lot more variations of desktop hardware to deal with than server hardware but even if it was just the big brands (Dell, HP etc) supported to start with this would be a very very powerful solution desktop imaging building taking it way beyond. The issue with ACE as it is is that you still have to get windows on as a host (linux support experimental??) which means doubling your license cost.

Any feedback VMware people?

Cheers

Microsoft licensing

maxou2 — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 07:39:31 GMT

Hi,

the same old question again but it seems that nobody has an answer ( Microsft first ).

The question is about the licensing of the MS product ( first of all the os ) that we want to virtualize in an ACE environment. To be more specific we have a certain number of clients with Vista OEM license ( downgraded to XP ) and we want to use an ACE environment to run legacy and other programs in a separate environment ( guest OS Windows 2000 ). These environments will be active as the same time. All the virtualization is local - on lthe client - no server . Keeping in mind that our company has a select Volume License the question is what Microsoft license schemas are suitable for this scenario? ( Microsoft sugggested SA and EA but this seems to be a persuasive position... )

Anybody face the same problem?

Thanks for your help

VMWare ACE Trial VLK Woes

toddja00 — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 20:24:15 GMT

Hello,

We are a midwestern university considering the use of ACE to do testing of various products. We have setup the management server (the linux appliance) and a workstation (our own key) VM with ACE enabled successfully. When I install an ACE package on my own machine (the one with a legit workstation license) everything works great. If we install the package on another computer with out the workstation license it says the following error: * Error while opening the ACE: cannot find a valid license to run this ACE. Please enter a serial number or contact your ACE administrator.*

When we try to insert the provided demo VLK from VMWare we get an error stating that it is not valid. So now my questions.

I was under the impression that there would be a keystore on the management server that would store the VLKs and hand them out to ACE clients. This does not appear to be the case. Is there a way that we can automatically put a VLK key into the ACE player install or do we need to provide a user with the key everytime we hand out a package? Or is there another way that we can get the key to the client with out giving out our VLK?

I hope this cluster of information makes sense, your help is appreciated and please ask for clarification.

Thanks,

Todd

Certificate did not verify

chewblocka — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 15:31:48 GMT

I'm trying to evaluate ACE. I have the ACE server running and my workstation with ACE pack running great. I created a simple ACE instance to try and deploy on my linux laptop. However, when I try and run it I get an error that the "certificate did not verify". I did upload an SSL certificate and did not use the self signed one (and it's a wildcard certificate). However, I'm not sure this is the issue. First off, the errors I saw in the log file looked like this....

Oct 22 10:50:38.315: vmplayer| Error loading libxmlrpc_xmlparse.so.3: libxmlrpc_xmlparse.so.3: cannot open shared object file: No such file or
directory
Oct 22 10:50:38.316: vmplayer| Error loading /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libxmlrpc_xmlparse.so.3-i386/libxmlrpc_xmlparse.so.3: /usr/lib/vmware/lib/lib
xmlrpc_xmlparse.so.3-i386/libxmlrpc_xmlparse.so.3: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
Oct 22 10:50:38.324: vmplayer| Error loading libxmlrpc_client.so.3: libxmlrpc_client.so.3: cannot open shared object file: No such file or dir
ectory
Oct 22 10:50:38.324: vmplayer| Error loading /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libxmlrpc_client.so.3-i386/libxmlrpc_client.so.3: /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libxmlr
pc_client.so.3-i386/libxmlrpc_client.so.3: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
Oct 22 10:50:38.334: vmplayer| Error loading libxmlrpc_util.so.3: libxmlrpc_util.so.3: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directo
ry
Oct 22 10:50:38.334: vmplayer| Error loading /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libxmlrpc_util.so.3-i386/libxmlrpc_util.so.3: /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libxmlrpc_u
til.so.3-i386/libxmlrpc_util.so.3: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
Oct 22 10:50:38.343: vmplayer| Error loading libxmlrpc.so.3: libxmlrpc.so.3: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
Oct 22 10:50:38.344: vmplayer| Error loading /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libxmlrpc.so.3-i386/libxmlrpc.so.3: /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libxmlrpc.so.3-i386/l
ibxmlrpc.so.3: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

None of the directories in the /usr/lib/vmware/lib had the '-i386' on the name so I created a bunch of symbolic links. However, that didn't fix the error and here's what the log says now...

Oct 22 11:18:39.046: vmplayer| Opening ACE instance.
Oct 22 11:18:39.349: vmplayer| ACESCLIB: AceSC.SessionOpen failed SSL certificate verfication (Curl failed to perform HTTP POST request. curl
_easy_perform() says: SSL certificate problem, verify that the CA cert is OK. Details:
Oct 22 11:18:39.349: vmplayer| error:14090086:SSL routines:SSL3_GET_SERVER_CERTIFICATE:certificate verify failed).ACESCLIB: Error in xmlrpc op
eration (-504): Curl failed to perform HTTP POST request. curl_easy_perform() says: SSL certificate problem, verify that the CA cert is OK. D
etails:
Oct 22 11:18:39.350: vmplayer| error:14090086:SSL routines:SSL3_GET_SERVER_CERTIFICATE:certificate verify failed
Oct 22 11:18:39.353: vmplayer| Cmd /host2/#_client/util/vm/cmd/##a8/op/manageVM/ failed: Certificate did not verify.

It's very hard to evaluate with errors like this.

How to install vmware esx 3.5 on vmware ACE?

rah_jad — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 04:00:49 GMT

Is this possible to install vmware esx 3.5 on vmware ACE or VMware Workstation 6.5.0? If yes? How to install it.

ACE instance Customization Issue

lourh — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 14:33:28 GMT

Hi,

I use the last version to customize ACE instance. the package is created correctly using settings to join de guest machine to domain.

Wen i try to install package, a DOS window is opened with c:\imgCustTemp\imgCustfinalization.exe title and receiving the following message:

"Instance customization failed, please contact your administrator or retry instance customization by powering on the ACE"

Thanks