VMware Horizon Community
rickwaddington
Contributor
Contributor

Sporadic Black Screen Issue

I know the black screen thing is common but I have already followed the normal guides. Nothing really matches what I get and none of it works anyway.

My setup...

- View 5.1

- Win 7 VMs both linked clones and dedicated.

- PCoIP

- 1 Connection broker that internal users go direct to

- 1 Security server that external users go to that is linked with the single connection server

For the most part, people connect fine. But, sometimes users get a black screen and need to log out / log in / reset numerours times before eventually getting in. It happens on linked clones and dedicated. It happens on internal users and external users. The only pattern is that it seems to happen to certain users more than others but I can see nothing different about their setup.

None of the KBs I have found have helped (most are for permanent and not sporadic issues) and VMWare themselves were no help as they simply stated packet loss... which doesn't really fit the scenario as it happens to internal users who have no such connection problems. It also doesn't explain why it happens to one person more often than another whilst he is sat in an office full of others working fine.

Guidance welcome!

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27 Replies
Linjo
Leadership
Leadership

Any hints in the logs? If not try to turn on debug logs to capture all information.

// Linjo

Best regards, Linjo Please follow me on twitter: @viewgeek If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".
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rickwaddington
Contributor
Contributor

Logs will show the user attempting to log in and then either say no available resources (which isn't true) or they will get a VM assigned but the VM will give a PCoIP protocol error.

If the user keeps trying it tends to flip between these two errors for a bit and then eventually get in after a number of tries (often around 5-10).

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memaad
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Hi,

Can  you increase video ram for affected users virtual desktop . ALso what is logon policy for users, like does users log off and power off after disconnection or does it remain power On.

Regards

Mohammed

Mohammed | Mark it as helpful or correct if my suggestion is useful.
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rickwaddington
Contributor
Contributor

I will try that and report back. The pool is set to always powered on. Disconneceted sessions are logged off after 2 hours. Connected sessions are left as is.

Some more info that may help. This problem used to be really really bad and happen all the time. At the time, we had about 6 connection broker replicas and each had it's own security server. We reduced this to 1 of each and things improved drasitcally but it still happens sometimes.

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memaad
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Hi,

How many desktop that you are managing from view connection server ?

Regards

Mohammed

Mohammed | Mark it as helpful or correct if my suggestion is useful.
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rickwaddington
Contributor
Contributor

265 Smiley Happy

we had multiple servers before because we used domain filtering per broker but we now just restrict to one domain and use UPN logins. We are a services provider so our VDI platform is used by multiple clients on multiple domains.

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memaad
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Hi,

Then what is memory and CPU alloted to this connection server .

Regards

Mohammed

Mohammed | Mark it as helpful or correct if my suggestion is useful.
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rickwaddington
Contributor
Contributor

10GB RAM and 4 vCPUs

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etieseler
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi,


What does your Connection Manager show for the desktops status while this is happening? Does it show 'Available' or something else? While the issue is happening, check the network connection of the Virtual Desktop. In our environment at one time the desktops were 'Disconnected' from the network, seemingly randomly and this, of course, prevented the user from logging in.

Ed

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MikeLarcher
Contributor
Contributor

Are their any windows level power settings in play on the windows machines that are giving you issues?  If something is telling the monitor or video card to go insto sleep mode, I have seen bad things happen.

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rickwaddington
Contributor
Contributor

The desktops do show as available and have working network connection... which makes the 'no resources available' somewhat perplexing!

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rickwaddington
Contributor
Contributor

No, definitely not this. It happens after the machine has just been rebooted so no time for sleep or anything to kick in!

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etieseler
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Perplexing indeed. Try this: When a user is having the issues logging in, log into the desktop via the console and restart the following services: "VMware Tools Service" and "VMware View Agent". Once both have been restarted, have the user attempt to log in again. What happens?

Ed

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rickwaddington
Contributor
Contributor

Do it a few times and keep trying and you get in eventually but perhaps just coincidental!

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memaad
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Hi,

Did you increase Vedio Ram for affected Virtual Desktop ?

Regards

Mohammed

Mohammed | Mark it as helpful or correct if my suggestion is useful.
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rickwaddington
Contributor
Contributor

I have yes. Expect to get some testing done tomorrow.

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memaad
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Hi,

To what value you have set to, set it to 128mb.

Regards

Mohammed

Mohammed | Mark it as helpful or correct if my suggestion is useful.
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rickwaddington
Contributor
Contributor

Perhaps I am doing this wrong. I increased the video ram through vSphere but it was then changed back to what it was before (35.1) by the VDI service account. Is there somewhere within the view platform that sets this? I'm not aware of setting it anywhere...

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memaad
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Hi,

Refer this Kb

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=103100...


Regards

Mohammed

Mohammed | Mark it as helpful or correct if my suggestion is useful.
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