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hagemon
Contributor
Contributor

Dedicating View desktop to specific thin client?

Greetings Programs!

Were using View 5 w/ fx130 clients.  There's an attribute within DTos "Desktop Name" that's supposed to assign said dasktop if its available.  This is not working for some reason.

Is there a way to link a thin client to a cpecific View desktop on the View 5 side of the house?

Thanks!

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9 Replies
etieseler
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I do not think this is possible, because you assign a desktop to a particular user, and not to the device the user is logging in to.

The only think I can think of that would "accomplish" this, is if you can pre enter a username that cannot be changed into a thin client, then every time its logged into it would go to an individual virtual desktop. The problem, of course, is that it would need to be a shared password and users would not get their own desktop.

Why would you want to tie a virtual desktop to a specific thin client, and not to the user instead?

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hagemon
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks for the reply!

We've got legacy software that binds various periferials to an IP address.  So when user-1 sits at client-1 they always need to be assigned vm-1.  If for example user-1 sits at client-1 and get's assigned vm-2, they would essentially be accessing periferials not located next to their client.

I've been reading that client logon scripts could automate the selection of a specific pool - which would work.  I've got no experience with thin client logon scripts so I'm digging for an example!

^_^

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reyntjensw
Contributor
Contributor

Hi Hagemon,

We are having this same problem, could you share your solution with us?

Thanks

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etieseler
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

What happens if User 2 Sits at Client 1, should they be getting VM2, or VM1?

Because what you described, where User1 sits and Client1 and needs to always be on VM1, that is one of the ways desktops are assigned in Connection Manager. You can assign a User to a VM.

The question is do you need User 2 to also log into VM1 when he sits at Client1, or can he log into VM2, basically, should the desktop be tied to the User logging into them, and not so much the this client they are logging in from?

http://pubs.vmware.com/view-51/topic/com.vmware.view.administration.doc/GUID-E20AE465-0400-4766-BFFD...

See the documentation at that link, under 'VMWare View Administration' -> 'Creating Desktop Pools' -> Provisioning Desktop Pools' -> User Assignment in Desktop Pools'.

That should help get you started if you need to link a User to a particular VM, and not so much to the Client that the user is sitting at.

Ed

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hagemon
Contributor
Contributor

Hey Ed,

Thanks for the info!

What we would like to have happen is for  vm1 to be assigned to anyone who logs into client 1.

So...

user1 + client1 = vm1

user2 + client1 = vm1

user1 + client2 = vm2

Still looking for a solution.  DToS allows you to specify a default pool - and if that pool only has one desktop - that desktop will be assigned to the client by default.  This however, will require a dedicated pool for each VM - which kind of defeats the purpose.

- Scott

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scmIT
Contributor
Contributor

I believe the question is not how to assign a USER to a DESKTOP, but how to assign a CLIENT to a DESKTOP.  Assigning a user is easy...

The reason you'd want a client device to always get the same VM desktop no matter what user signed in is simple... you may have a license of software, or a particular configuration, that ONLY needs to be used in the location where this particular client device sits, no matter who logs into it.

Now, the easy answer is just to put a PC there, but then you loose the capabilities of VMWare.

I would love to know how to do this.  I have a whole  department of workstations that are location-specific... plus, I have 7 workstatons, 7 licenses of a particular software, and 14 employees.  I don't want to buy 7 more licenses because they are per-machine, not per-person, and would totally negate the cost savings of a pcoip zero-client device over a PC.

Any ideas?

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vedeht
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

I would create a desktop pool for the workstation.

Example:

Floating Desktop Pool - Workstation1  entitle all the users that would use workstation1 device and peripherials. 

Floating Desktop Pool - Workstation2 entitle all the users that would use workstation2....

This might not be a scalable solution if you had say.... 1,000 special workstations.  But if you had 1,000 I bet each user would only need to be entitled to a few and not all 1,000.

This would allow the users to log on and off of that special workstation and share it as they would before you went with a VDI environment.

Try our VMWare View Demo on www.virtualdojo.com
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EricConley
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Well, depending on your budget and AD setup you could implement a kiosk mode type setup where each thin client autologs in with a different generic user account and autoconnects to a dedicated pool so that generic user account always logs in to a specific desktop.  Then you implement an SSO solution like Imprivata OneSign to allow the user to enter their individual credentials on the VM and the SSO app would cache their credentials for each individual application.  Jumps through a few hoops and costs a bit more but effectively locks an endpoint to a VM and keeps security in place becuase the users would have to enter their credentials prior to gaining access to the desktop.  Added bonus would be that "login" times for the end user would be effectively zero because the users are only entering their credentials to the SSO app so you would see a greatly improved user experience.  Added downside, you would need to license View by the endpoint vice by the user since each endpoint would pretty much be constantly logged in to a VM with the generic account.  Again, not pretty or cheap but would be effective for you.  

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scmIT
Contributor
Contributor

Ok, I've found a workable solution... 

First step is to disable single signon... by adding a string entry"AllowSingleSignon"   with a value of "false" to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc.\VMware VDM\Agent\Configuration.

to the VM that you want to assign to a specific client.  You can do this with regedit, or with a GPO.  You can do this either on the source for a pool, an individual machine in a pool (but it will be overwritten with a recompose), or for a single non-linked clone vm in a pool.  You create a AD user, depending on your client device's autologin requirements for the username naming convention, and then assign that user to that VM.

When the device logs in, it will get its assigned VM based on the username.(Make sure you only assign that user to a single pool/vm).  Since single sign on has been disabled, it does not pass the view credentials to the VM... requiring the user to log in.

I originally found an article with the "offical" kiosk mode setup... and found it overly complicated.  This is so much easier, and (to me) faster to set up.

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