Quirky View issues

[cjsdad09]

I have two labs of 20 view machines and 12 view machines. The machines are basically used as web browsing and word processing machines. In December we upgraded (built from the ground up actually) to View 4.5. All is working much better and for the most part there have been no issues, except for a quirky problem with some websites. For example, users are able to go to YouTube and watch video ok, but if they go to a site such as Nasa.gov or AOL to check email the vm flashes likes it being disconnected. The screen goes back to the thin client desktop briefly and then the vm comes back but they are never allowed to complete their task, such as check AOL email, view Nasa.gov etc.

Any help would be greatly appreciated...

Thanks

[tacticsbaby]

Can you provide more information. What OS are you using for your desktops? What version of IE or other browser(s) are you using. You mentioned a thin client, what kind is it? One thing you may wish to look at is your view agent. It has been recommended to install the View agent right after installing VMtools on your base VM. Oh, and while we are at it, are you using linked-clones?

[cjsdad09]

Thanks for the feedback,

The desktops are Windows XP sp3. IE8 and Chrome are the browsers. We are using the HP t5730 thin client.We are not using linked clones and I will have to look into how the base image was built. We could unistall the tools and agent though in the interim and re-install in correct (recommended) order right?

Thanks

[tacticsbaby]

At this point I would say to leave tools and the agent as they are. If you were to install then the order that I recommend would be first install tools, second install the agent and then install the rest of your apps. By the way, have you experienced any problems with the nasa.gov website when connecting to the VM through rdp or the VI client console? This may shed some light. Also, what settings are you using in your pool for flash? I believe the NASA site uses lots of flash. If possible update the firmware on your thin client to the latest version. Hope this helps.

[cjsdad09]

I am only experiencing the issue thru the vi client. When the thin clients are booted up they automaticall launch the VI client and are given a desktop. I was thinking the issue was with the flash setting i have set on the pool. I have another thin client (t5630) that I am using for my desktop and it doesnt experience the same issues. I will re-flash the t5730 and test again. I have 40 t5730's and i dont think i can swap them all out for the t5630.

[tacticsbaby · Accepted solution]

Are you saying this is only an issue while using the VI client? If that is the case then don't worry about the agent or vmtools (except to make sure video acceleration is set to full). Perhaps firmware is the way to go. I know that View 4.5 introduced more optimizations for thin clients and in your situation you may need a few tweaks to the settings of your thin clients. I don't know what is available for thin clients, but if you look at the VMtools installation you will see that there is an option (not selected by default) that enables support for Wyse terminals.

You may wish to disable flash throttling in your pool settings if it is enabled. Also experiment with the amount of system RAM for your VM and/or Video RAM.

When you made your master image did you spend much time optimizing it for View. Here is a cool link for optimizing XP for view. I hope you find it helpful. I use View 4.0 with Wyse P20 thin clients. In my situation the only time I have had problems with the display on the Wyse terminal was either because of firmware version/settings.

http://www.ituda.com/Docs/VMware/Best_Practices_For_Creating_VMware_View_Golden_Master_Images.pdf

[cjsdad09]

Did some more testing over the last week. Changed the settings again on the pool. Flash performance is now back to where it was before the View 4.5 updgrade. Also updated HP thin client.

thanks

[tacticsbaby]

Great to hear you are up and running. Thanks for sharing your experiences.