H.264 Check?

[YorickStap]

Hi friends,

I've got my self a question.

Ill start with my setup.

I am using vmware Horizon 7 with a vsphere cluster with 2 hostst

They are running:

• Hypervisor:VMware ESXi, 6.7.0, 16316930
• Model:ProLiant DL380 Gen9
• Processor Type:Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2667 v4 @ 3.20GHz
• Nvidia Tesla M10 Card on 1 GB Profiles

I have around 45 users using a 4k monitor.

Now the problem, If they start using H.264 the videocard just does not like this. it will run at 100% for everyone if only 1 or 2 people use h.264. ( Im not sure why)

Now because of Covid people start working from home via laptop that I didn't install so I don't know if they are using h.264 or not. I can see with what protocol they connect (Vmware Blast) but not with what settings. Is there a way without getting in contact with my users to see if they are using h.264 or not?

Or is there a way to only accept the connection if the user is not using h.264?

Thanks in advance!

Greetings,

Yorick Stap

[alienjoker · Accepted solution]

Hi,

You can configure H264 preferences for the virtual desktops using the ADMX GPO as per the following article:-

VMware Blast Extreme Optimization Guide | VMware

Or you could use DEM (if you have it in your environment) to target specific users/machines for those that do/don't need it.

The article above also shows you how to identify the protocols and codecs in use by those connected.

Thanks

Andrew

[YorickStap]

Andrew,

Thank u for ur time.

so when configured. It does not matter with what settings users are trying to connect ?

[alienjoker]

Hi YorickStap​ - yes that's correct. The administrative setting will determine the configuration at all times, regardless of the configuration of the client. If you make the change at the GPO level against the computer object and perform a gpupdate /force, the session will immediately flip to "adaptive" from "h264".

If you have the Vmware Horizon Performance Tracker application installed on the VDI, you can see this under the "At a Glance" tab and "Encoder" as follows (the following was from my lab):-

 

Hope that helps.

Thanks

Andrew