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chadlang
Contributor
Contributor

Does anyone have any experience with Bloomberg Professional software running on an XP VM accessing via VDI?

I have it running successfully but I cannot get the biometric keyboard to be recognized by the software. I am trying Wyse G90 XPe thin client with the BBG keyboard with drivers installed locally and running the Wyse TCX USB virtualizer software.

I know this is a long shot and very specialized question, but hopefully there is somewhere from the financial services community that may have an idea.

Thanks all in advance

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kingsfan01
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi Chad,

Sorry I don't have an answer for you but I was wondering... have you loaded the BBerg KB drivers into the VM as well? Within Device Manager on the VM, do you see any un-recognized devices or anything with a yellow exclamation point?

If you figure it out, please post back. I am looking into setting up VDI for my DR site and BBerg will play a large role for our traders and analysts.

Tyler

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CLang50
Contributor
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Keyboard drivers have been loaded on the XPe client and the VM. The VM does not recognize it at all. Wyse and Bloomberg are currently working on a solution, who knows when it may be.

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EXPRESS
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi All,

Wondering if anyone has found a fix to use Bloomberg Keyboards Biometrics on VM???

Thanks,

Thank you, Express
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EXPRESS
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

So... has anyone figured out how to get a Bloomberg keyboard biometric to work on a VM using a V10L ??? Does anyone have any good information? or driver???

Thanks,

Thank you, Express
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duhaas
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

any updates from anyone on this issue? or lack of support???

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EXPRESS
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi ALL GREAT NEWS,

If you haven't heard already, Bio-Metrics on the Bloomberg Keyboard is finally working!!! I have tested and we have a user on it as well. It took about 8 months but Wyse got it to work, we are using Wyse V10L Term, XP vm, with firmware 6.3.0_12 and USB Virtualizer 2.1.0.

Thank you,

Express

Thank you, Express
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virtualmike50
Contributor
Contributor

What were the steps? Any light would be helpful. thx

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KenRingsen
Contributor
Contributor

Although this is an old thread, I encountered this issue and made more headway on it than the posts I found on Google so here is what I came up with.

The issue with the Bloomberg fingerprint reader is rooted in the network latency inherant to redirecting USB. The driver assumes that communication should take place as fast as it would when the USB device is connected to the same physical machine that the driver is running on. If you consistently have 1ms latency or less between client and VM, the driver will work fine. If you have a single "spike" of more than 2ms latency, the driver assumes that there is a USB and/or hardware problem and it attempts to "recover" the device with a software reset of the USB port. This reset command is not supported on View 4.5 so the USB redirection of the fingerprint device is dropped. It will only reconnect if you unplug & replug the keyboard. If you have latency consistently higher than 5ms or so, the driver may not work at all (resetting & dropping immediately) but I haven't tested exactly where the latency thresholds are for this driver.

VMware has provided me with a mitigation patch for View 4.5 that adds support for the USB port reset. It doesn't fix the fingerprint reader's inappropriate response to network latency, but it at least allows the device to reconnect when the driver resets the USB port. This patch may be included in View 4.5.1. Until then you will need to contact VMware support to obtain it.

Ultimately, this requires an update to the Bloomberg Keyboard driver to resolve (which I'm persuing) but the VMware patch looks like it will mitigate the issue on lower latency networks.

UPDATE:

The patch to View 4.5 provided by VMware appears to successfully recover the fingerprint reader device when the driver resets the USB port. Now that it stays connected I was able to test with a network latency simulator. I found the fingerprint reader to be very responsive at 1ms latency or less, just like a local physical PC. Between 2-25ms performance has a flat decrease to 3-4 seconds to obtain a fingerprint scan. Past 25ms latency performance decreases steadily. For example, it takes the reader 8 seconds to obtain a print scan at 30ms latency. 23 seconds at 100ms latency and 103 seconds at 500ms latency.

I'm passing this info along to Bloomberg so hopefully they can update the driver to communicate more efficiently when redirected over a network.

But at least VMware's patch seems to keep the device connected.

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JoseMatamis
Contributor
Contributor

What is the process of getting this patch?  What is the patch called, and what does the patch do?

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smiler1
Contributor
Contributor

I too would be interested in this patch. We have a number of users running bloomberg with VMware View 4.1 Windows 7 & and Wyse P20. Its taken a while to get it working, we started this time last year on view 4.0. We are just waiting for the next release to enable the sound on the bloomberg keyboards as that does not work either.

Regards

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KenRingsen
Contributor
Contributor

I've just finished successful user testing of the Bloomberg FRE100 Keyboard on a quad-monitor Wyse R90LEW client to VM via PCoIP.  VMware is going to write up a KB article based on the results.

A summary of what you need to do to get the Bloomberg Keyboard working:

1) You need to get a client and agent patch from VMware to prevent the fingerprint reader from dropping.  It's a View 4.5 patch.  I don't think it's formally published yet so I can't provide a link.  For now you will need to contact VMware support to obtain it.

2) To get the Bloomberg Audio working you need to disable the PCoIP audio direction on the client and use the Bloomberg drivers.  Bloomberg has bundled custom functionality into their audio driver including functionality of the MESSAGE key and volume controls.  The PCoIP audio mixer won't handle the custom functions.

Set the following registry key on the client to disable PCoIP Audio Redirection:

HKLM\Software\Policies\Teradici\PCoIP\pcoip_admin\pcoip.enable_audio=dword:0

When PCoIP audio redirection is disabled and the Bloomberg Keyboard Audio driver is installed on the client and host, the Bloomberg Keyboard Audio will appear as a redirected USB device and is useable.

Note that disabling the generic PCoIP audio redirection will make the Bloomberg Keyboard Audio the only audio device for that client.  If the client connects to a host that does not have the Bloomberg Keyboard Audio driver installed, there will be no audio redirection..

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smiler1
Contributor
Contributor

Hi KenRingsen

interesting post. We initailly looked at the R90LEW for our quad screen users but didnt like the embended xp operating system. We have only gone live with the zero client P20 and have been told by Teradici that the audio will not work until 4.6 is available. We are still waiing for a zero client quad screen solution to come to market.

How is the performance of the R90, would you consider your users high end users?

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KenRingsen
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I went with the R90LEW because Business management has set Bloomberg Keyboards and quad-monitor VMs as must-have requirements with a non-negotiable implementation date of April 2011 (The office is moving and VDI must be in place).  Teradici chip zerio clients are out as they can't meet quad-monitor VM requirement until the next gen Teradici chip.  Linux thin clients are out because the Linux clients of most vendors are a step behind in feature support comparied to Win32 clients and these are the features we need.  A quad monitor Win32 based PCoIPI thin client is pretty much the only way to achieve what we need, by the time we need it.

We have demanding high-end financial users and the R90LEW is the only client I found that has the feature & device support and also the performance to meet our needs and timeframe.

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smiler1
Contributor
Contributor

May I ask what is you line of buisness. Mine is an interdealer broker (trading floor). what servers have you used and how many users did you get to a server? 

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