Persona Management not capturing some data

[mwrinken]

So we have a few weird issues with Linked Clones and Persona Management.  We're running Office 2010 on these machines and the profile doesn't seem to capture the email signature, pinned items or any Outlook configuration changes to the interface (reading pane, etc).  Is anyone else seeing this and if so, how did you solve?

[mittim12]

We haven't deployed 2010 yet but i know with Outlook 2K7 at the very minimum our signatures are preserved.  

[mwrinken]

We also are having weird issues with items dissapearing from the start menu and icons that are pinned to the task bar.  After a log off, log back on, these are gone and are replaced with a white icon as if the shortcut doesn't know where to go.

If we delete the user profile on the shared storage and either recompose to get rid of the local copy or have them login to a different machine (we're using linked clones) then everything comes back, but of course it's a new profile.

Anyone with any ideas?

[calladd]

I am having this same exact problem.  I have a Window 7 32-bit template with persona management setup and a pool that is Linked-clone, Floating user assignment. The pool is also set to delete the dektop on logoff.

When I test the pool out I can see the profile get created on my network location and everything looks goo, but when the user logs out and back in to the pool, desktop icons they created are gone and anything pinned to the taskbar appear as white icons that do not work.

Anyone got any suggestions?

[MikeLarcher]

I have not been impressed with vmware's persona managment implementation.  I personally have been using Liquidware Labs profile unity.

[calladd]

I found a vmware publication that may help:  https://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/VMware-View-OptimizationGuideWindows7-EN.pdf

Attached to the PDF are two .bat files:

CommandsDesktopsReadyForPersonaManagement.bat

CommandsPersonaManagement.bat

These two files will ensure the proper services are set to automatic, as well as fine tune a Windows 7 installation for use as a VDI.

The two chagnes these files make that I believe are at the root of my problem are the following services, "Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider" (swprv) and "Volume Shadow Copy" (VSS), by default they are set to manual and Persona Management wants them set to Automatic. and started.

I am testing my pool now after running the above two scripts on my template and will be able to provide feedback shortly.

[calladd]

UPDATE!

So personas are working perfrectly now.  Here is what I did.

1. Created a new Windows 7 32Bit with SP1 installation VM
   
2. Installed VMware Tools
   
3. Installed my Anti-Virus
   
4. Installed Office 2010
   
5. Patched the OS installation fully
   
6. Installed the latest VMware View agent (VMware-viewagent-5.0.1-640055)
   
7. Ran the VMware scripts provided in https://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/VMware-View-OptimizationGuideWindows7-EN.pdf
   

   • CommandsDesktopsReadyForPersonaManagement.bat

     
     

   • CommandsPersonaManagement.bat

     
     

8. Installed all other base template applications

   
   
9. Setup the Persona Repository per the Microsoft recommendations in http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc757013(v=ws.10)
   
10. Added the addtional rights to the repository per this VMware KB: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=2008377
    
11. Imported the following GPO Templates into GPEdit.msc
    
    • pcoip.adm (Addtional PCoIP configuration options such as two-way clipboard sharing) *Optional*
      
    • vdm_agent.adm (Addtional Agent configurations options) *Optional*
      
    • ViewPM.adm (Persona Management configuration) *Required*
      
12. Configured the Persona Management GPO options in the Local GPO to use the repository configured in step 9-10.
    
    • Only the following Items were changed (Roaming & Synchronization)
      
      • Manage user persona -> Enabled
        
      • Persona repository location -> UNC path the repository configured in step 9-10
        
      • Roam local settings folder -> Enabled
        
13. Created the VDI pool as needed.
    

[mwrinken]

We're beating our heads against the wall as this still doesn't capture everything.  And it really makes no sense.

Why is it selective in what it captures and what it doesn't? There are whole folders missing from both the Local and Roaming folders in the AppData folder.

It can't be a permissions issue on the network storage or nothing would copy - we are getting about 1/2 - 3/4 of the profile.

It can't be a settings issue - we've enabled this via Group Policy just as the document steps you through - and it's pretty much an on or off switch.

So it makes no sense to me as to why this wouldn't work!

[andycanedd]

Persona management does not copy the local folder by default. You will need to enable using personam management group policy.

I have just checked the scripts that VMware provides in the new optimisation guide and they do not set the required services to startup in the main script that is called commandsdesktopreadyforpersonamanagement.txt. This appears to be an oversight as by default the services are set to manual.

The commands are in the CommandsDesktopReadyForPersonaManagement.txt and appear to be left off the main script.

Andrew

[amathison]

Changing this service Volume Shadow Copy" (VSS) to automatic, solved the problem

[h3nkY]

There are a lot of fixes on latest release.

Please test using latest release and enabling "Roam local settings folders" policy if you can reproduce the issue.

[PLGeneva]

Hello, I remember having a lot of problem with the persona at the begening of our VDI project (Horizon 6.0.2).

The main issue was also some files missing (outlook signature) from time to time and not all the time for the same users.

All our user profiles are stored on Microsoft DFS server and most of settings are redirected.

I tested almost possible and finally found that persona is not supporting user profile stored on DFS server with deduplication function activated (Windows 2012R2/DFS).

I disabled the dedup function on the user profiles disk and I never seen the problem again.

there is a kb somewhere about that and as far I know nothing new on the new version.

Hope it help.

Regards.

[h3nkY]

Yes it is correct that Persona can't work properly if DFS enabling dynamic destination (share folder) changes in the desktop.

However, in the latest release there is a fix for Outlook file replication failure as well.