VDI Zero Client Disconnect

[voelk01]

Having some random disconnects for some of our VDI zero clients.  We have a small environment that consists of all Wyse PS25 zero clients connecting over WAN links.  Randomly, different users are reporting that they will be working on their client/VM or the client/VM is sitting idle and they will receive a message that their session has been disconnected. The user is forced to log back in all the way through Horizon View and then Windows. The VMware logs on the ViewConnect server states that the client has been disconnected, but does not offer any further details. If I open the Windows event viewer for the VM that was disconnected, every instance of this type of disconnect has the following events in the Windows Application Event Log. The source for all the events is listed as VMware Tools and the Windows Event ID is 1000.

[ warning] [vmusr:hgfsd] Setting HGFS server capability failed!

[ warning]

[vmusr:vmtoolsd] Error sending capability unity: (null)

[ warning] [vmusr:vmtoolsd] Error sending capability unity.taskbar: (null)

[ warning] [vmusr:vmtoolsd] Error sending new-style capabilities: (null)

I have tried to uninstall / reinstall VMware Tools on the VM that gets disconnected, but it does not seem to help. I don't think its the Wyse Client or Horizon View, but maybe the VM machine itself?? Has anyone else ran into this issue?

[nzorn]

When users are disconnected are they able to reconnect to the same desktop and resume working?

[voelk01]

The user receives a message that they have been disconnected, they are able to reconnect to the same desktop but have to go through the entire login process through Horizon View and then Windows on the VM. Any applications or files that user had open on the desktop have been logged off.

[Linjo]

Is it after a certain amount of time? The default session time is set to 600 minutes (10h) disregardning reconnections.

// Linjo

[Gaurav_Baghla]

It is an issue with tHe vmware tools on that machine

Please refer to this Link and search for hgfs you might need this patch http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2062302 or update to 5.1 U2

Apart from this Are you using any hardening for these Virtual machines?

[voelk01]

@Linji

No, it is not the default session timeout. It is random, have seen it where it is as low as 30 minutes and high as 8 hours.

[voelk01]

@Gaurav_Baghla

Thank you for the link, but I don't believe it applies to our environment.  We are running the VMware 5.5.0 Update 1a and all the latest patches have been installed. All the VM's are the same, and the majority of the clients are not being affected. Just random VM's. No, we are not doing extra hardening for these virtual machines.

[bjohn]

Do the P25 clients have the latest firmware?

[voelk01]

@bjohn

Yes, they are running the latest firmware.

[markbenson]

voelk01 wrote:

...

I have tried to uninstall / reinstall VMware Tools on the VM that gets disconnected, but it does not seem to help. I don't think its the Wyse Client or Horizon View, but maybe the VM machine itself?? Has anyone else ran into this issue?

After you reinstall Tools, you must then reinstall View Agent. Can you try this and see if it helps.

Mark

[voelk01]

@markbenson

Thank you Mark, that is something that I have not tried.  The next time I see this happening I will perform a reinstall on the Tools and then reinstall the Agent afterwards.  I will update this post with the results.

[voelk01]

Unfortunately, the recommendation from Mark does not seem to solve the issue.  Users still receiving the same VMware Tools warning messages in the Event Log, and at the same time the workstation disconnects the user. For the workstations this was effecting, I reinstalled VMware Tools and the performed a "Repair" to the VMware Agent.  After making those changes, the same user has the same symptoms and then gets disconnected.

Anyone has any suggestions?

[aakalan]

did you fix it ?

[rcmcguir]

I'm having the same issues.  Lab of 66 student computers.  Random disconnects on Zero Clients. I'll update as I find more information.

[rcmcguir]

Hey Voelk01,

What Firmware version is the Zero Client running?  We are running 4.1 at the moment because I haven't yet updated the PCoIP Management Console to be compatible with the new profile settings.  Just checking in case it's a firmware thing.

Thanks

[rcmcguir]

I should add that when we get disconnects, they seem to occur together.  We'll have multiple fail in a row at near the same time.

[rcmcguir]

In order to get a baseline disconnect to compare against, I powered off a Zero Client and then checked the VM that was disconnected.  The same events show up.  So I don't believe these events to be related to the issue.  Let me know what firmware you are running though.

Thanks.

[rcmcguir]

Turns out our disconnects are being caused by Session Timeouts but the odd thing is the session times never hit the 20 hour maximum set.  So I'm still looking into it.

[rcmcguir]

Our issue ended up being related to the fact the new Zero Clients we got don't power off when you hit the power button once.  The tech for the lab was just hitting the power button once, but this only turned off the monitor and left the connection open.  So eventually after 20 hours, the server would disconnect the Zero Client.