Requirement for View?

[jpool]

Trying to get View setup and am wondering is Virtual Center a requirement?

I have Conection server setup and in trying to add desktops to use, can't find ant docs about doing it without Virtual Center.

[lamw]

Yes, vCenter 2.5u3 is required for VMware View 3.

Take a look at all the resources here including the guides for View:

=========================================================================

William Lam

VMware vExpert 2009

VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at:

If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

[TomHowarth]

That is because vCenter is a requirement for a View deployment

If you found this or any other answer useful please consider the use of the Helpful or correct buttons to award points

Tom Howarth VCP / vExpert

VMware Communities User Moderator

Blog: www.planetvm.net

Contributing author for the upcoming book "VMware Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing ESX and the Virtual Environment”.

[jpool]

Thanks

[lbourque]

Well...

You can do it without vCenter. It's not supported to do it without. If you want to do vCenter pushed out templates and linked clones, you MUST use vCenter.

If you have an existing environment of handbuilt VMs (on ESX, Xen, etc.) you can add those as individual machines.

When installing the agent on the desktop do the following at the command line where the exe for the agent is located:

VMware-viewagent-3.x-<build>.exe /V"VDM_VC_MANAGED_Agent=0"

During the install, it will ask what View connection server to connect to and add a PAE-SERVER entry in (used to identify non-vCenter controlled VMs). Note that there is no space between the /V and "VDM_VC_MANAGED_Agent=0"

[TomHowarth]

Now that was really useful infomation

If you found this or any other answer useful please consider the use of the Helpful or correct buttons to award points

Tom Howarth VCP / vExpert

VMware Communities User Moderator

Blog: www.planetvm.net

Contributing author for the upcoming book "VMware Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing ESX and the Virtual Environment”.

[lbourque]

LOL.. think outside the box. just remember: it's NOT supported to run without vCenter.

[TomHowarth]

true, but insider information does help a little bit

If you found this or any other answer useful please consider the use of the Helpful or correct buttons to award points

Tom Howarth VCP / vExpert

VMware Communities User Moderator

Blog: www.planetvm.net

Contributing author for the upcoming book "VMware Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing ESX and the Virtual Environment”.

[lamw]

That is some really useful information, just learned something new

Is it really think outside of the box or should it be sphere now?

=========================================================================

William Lam

VMware vExpert 2009

VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at:

If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

[lbourque]

Well, this isn't really new. It's documented in the admin guide under Unified Access. Basically, if you entirely use Unified Access then there is no need for vCenter.

As for vSphere.. eh. This present version of View will not be supported on vSphere. The version that will be supported on vSphere will be released later (date unknown at this time but I'd imagine it'd be soon after vSphere)

[TomHowarth]

yep and the second comment is already causing me greif with my customers who are clambering to upgrade to vSphere, only to be told by me that they will have to wait, or else their VDI deployment will fall over. this is not acceptable. View's development cycle should be sync'd with ESX and vCenter so that customers are able to upgrade.

If you found this or any other answer useful please consider the use of the Helpful or correct buttons to award points

Tom Howarth VCP / vExpert

VMware Communities User Moderator

Blog: www.planetvm.net

Contributing author for the upcoming book "VMware Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing ESX and the Virtual Environment”.

[lbourque]

I know that the engineering team working on View is trying to push it as fast as possible. That said, the two main things that have to be considered and adjusted for is the linked-clone technology included with vSphere (upgraded from existing View Composer) and the linked vCenters (how would the ADAM in View match up with the ADAM in vCenter, etc.). It's annoying but believe me when I say they are trying hard to release it sooner than later but to do so when it works well.

[Netwelle]

I posted on this subject in another thread

http://communities.vmware.com/message/1234500#1234500

I am worried about the licenseing model with VDI. I purchased VDI less then year ago. Since then it has changed names and now will not even be compatible with the new vsphere.

My big issue is the VI3 license that is bundled with VDI. I use that license on an ESX host that is being used in DRS. Will I now lose that host if I upgrade? That license is not listed in my upgrade letter. So will I now have to purchase another 2 cpu license for vsphere to connect that host? That seems a bit unfair. I still have a support contract and I purchased this last fall.

[lbourque]

Netwelle, contact your sales team in regards to that. They are working on a version of View to suppoer vSphere. The reality is that vSphere introduces two concepts that View has to address: linked vCenters and linked clones updated (different than the 1.0.0 version included with View). Generally speaking your licensing will work fine as is and you won't lose support because of being on VI3. It will still be supported for AT LEAST 18 months (last time I checked) but may be longer than that. View is NOT supported on vSphere so no you do not have to buy a new license -- unless you choose to update to vSphere and View version that will run on vSphere (whose release date has been yet to be announced but will come at some point).

If you are only using this for View, then it makes no sense to upgrade.

If you are using View without composer or want to upgrade just the servers that run server VMs, then do just those. You do not have to do all your servers. As I said, talk to your sales rep as they can help with this.

[Netwelle]

Thanks, I have an email out to my sales rep. I am only using VDI for 8 desktops. It is a small install. I am mostly using the license for servers. I have 4 hosts and one of them is licensed using the VDI licensing. I am hoping that my sales rep can sort this out for me. I would like to upgrade. If I have to wait a few months then that is fine. I just don't want to waste tax payer money buying more licenses.

[Michelle_Laveri]

Well, this isn't really new. It's documented in the admin guide under Unified Access. Basically, if you entirely use Unified Access then there is no need for vCenter.

I'm preping to deliver the View3: Install, Configure & Manage course where the /V"VDM_VC_MANAGED_Agent=0" parameter is covered...

But I'm not seeing it in the official admin guide... Could you give a page ref?

What I'd also like to do - is user a web-browser on a TS desktop to get to the View3 Portal. Even though we can install the View3 Full Client to servers - you still can't get to View Portal from a server desktop...

This is because of the use of the UserAgent to find out the OS via the web-browser.

function checkOS(){

// Determine operating system and choose suitable configuration object

if (navigator.userAgent.indexOf("Windows NT 5.1")!=-1) myOS = windowsxp;

else if (navigator.userAgent.indexOf("Windows NT 6.0")!=-1) myOS = vista;

else if (navigator.userAgent.indexOf("Windows NT 5.0")!=-1) myOS = win2k;

else if (navigator.userAgent.indexOf("PSO VDM Linux")!=-1) myOS = pso_linux;

else if (navigator.userAgent.indexOf("Mac OS X")!=-1) myOS = macosx;

else if (navigator.userAgent.indexOf("Linux")!=-1) myOS = other_linux;

else myOS = UnsupportedOS("Unsupported", "VMware View Portal does not support your Operating System", true, false);

}

Regards

Mike Laverick

RTFM Education

http://www.rtfm-ed.co.uk

Author of the SRM Book: http://www.lulu.com/content/4343147