VMware Horizon Community
pmsb
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

VMware Horizon View PCoIP black screen and disconnect

Hello,

i have a problem with View sessions over PCoIP.

When i connecting to a desktop via RDP all works fine. After changing the display protocol to PCoIP i will get a black screen and after 10 seconds disconnect. Also all applications from the pool doesnt work.

I'm using following revisions of vmware:

vmware tools 9.4.10 (esxi 5.5 u2)

agent: 6.0.2

client: 3.3.0

connection server: 6.0.1

I have no idea, what's the problem.

The whole environment is in one physical network without any firewall. Windows fw is disabled.

Can anybody help me?

Best regards

Tobias

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9 Replies
TechMassey
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

I have had this issue in the past. There are a couple items you can check.

1. Check the status column of the VMs in the pool. If there is an issue where the VM can't render PCOIP or BLAST. Then the status will be "Protocol Error."

2. This can typically be caused due to a bad installation of the view management client. There is a specific order you want to go through when installing the various VMware agent packages.

  • VMware Tools - Install this first because VMware Tools has its own video driver and it will overwrite Views.
  • VMware View Agent
  • VMware View Remote Experience.

Finally, you can also review the PCOIP logs on the VM which can be very useful as they will show you the handshake process between the client device and VM. Location: C:\ProgramData\VMware\VDM\logs

The pcoip_server log is the most useful.


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pmsb
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hello WarrenM01,

i checked the VM Pool, the status is 'available' so i can't see any issue.

During the installation i noticed the order.

1. VMware Tools

2. View Agent

I think in the new revision i am using, the remote experience is already integrated, so i doesn' need anyseparate installation of this.

Attached are two pcoip logfiles, but for me the problem is still unclear.

Do you have any idea?

Thanks for your help

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TechMassey
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Comparing the logs to a successfull PCOIP login, it appears it gets to the very end where the client and agent will begin communication and disconnects. Since RDP works and PCOIP does not. I'm inclined to think it is networking related in regards to port traffic (PCOIP 4172).

I know you mentioned you have everything on one subnet with no firewall. Can you explain that further, are all Horizon View components on the same subnet? Are you using a security server? If so, try changing your client to point to the connection server directly as a troubleshooting step.


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john_f2004
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I believe this was the same issue we were having. A user could be using their desktop no problem and maybe immediately or a few hours later, when reconnecting, they would get a black screen. We could connect via Vsphere and the desktop would be black. However if we used RDP to it, you could see the desktop. We opened a ticket with support and they had us remove tools, the agent and re-load it all in proper order and we would still get random black screens.

The only fix was to go back to the 5.3 agent. After we did that, we have not had 1 call about a black screen. We've spoke with others using 6.0.2 agent and they report the same thing. VMware doesn't say that this is fixed in 6.1 so we are not quick to update to that version either since 5.3 is working fine.

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Sapherz99
Contributor
Contributor

I changed from 6.0.1 to 6.1 and it didn't fix it. Will try 5.3

Edit: 5.3 didn't work for me either, my issue must be something else Smiley Sad

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TechMassey
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

I'm running View 5.3 and typically the issue is the order in which the agents are installed. I had a similar issue and re installing the agents, starting with VMware tools resolved it.


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john_f2004
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Just uninstalling the 6.02 client and installing the 5.3 client doesn't fix it.  The problem is in the 6.02 video driver and the uninstall does not remove this driver.  So when you go to install the 5.3 client thinking its a clean install, the 6.02 drivers are still there and it chooses to use those instead of the 5.3 video drivers.  I think we wound up uninstalling 6.02, uninstalling the video card, removing the video driver folder in the program files\common files\vmware folders, then installing 5.3.

There is a KB article on vmware's site which has the video driver versions related to the agent versions.  As of yesterday, its still only updated to 6.01.  Going back to the older 5.3 video driver solved the random black screen problems.

As another FYI, it looks like uninstalling 6.02 and installing 5.3 also broke the USB redirection.  You pretty much have do the same procedure above with the USB drivers.  This was just confirmed with VMware last week.

Above came from my boss on another forum. This was maybe a month back.

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Sapherz99
Contributor
Contributor

Thank you, removing the folder did make it install the right drivers, I got them to 7.14.1.2021 (Win 7 5.3.2) but still black screen then disconnect.

Also tried 8.14.1.1 (Win7 6.0.1) and 8.14.1.24 (Win8 6.1 or 6.0.1)

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pmsb
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hello WarrenM01,

yes of course. All machines are in one subnet without any firewall. All windows fw are deactivated.

We installed a security server. I tried to connect instead of the securiy server to the connection server. But the disconnect and black screen still appear.

Best regards

Tobias

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