VMware View assigned to devices

[vmuser2344]

Hello,

I am testing out VMWare View and wanted to know if it was possible to assign a VM desktop to a particular device (thin client) vs tied to a user.  Example: When a user logs into a VM desktop from thin client “A” they will be connected to VM “A”.  When that user is finished they can log off and the next user will log in and they will be connected to the same VM desktop “A”.  Pretty much like it was a physical PC.   Is this possible?  It seems I can only tie desktops to users and not actually the thin client devices.

Thx

[AWo]

Not that I know of with virtual machines. But you can connect physical PC's to the Connection server, as well.

AWo

[vmuser2344]

We use panologic now and I can assign the Pano client to each VM by using the pano broker.  I wanted to see if this can be done with view as I like to test using PCOIP - which pano doesn't use.

[mittim12]

In View you can utilize Persistent pools to associate user accounts with a specific desktop.  

[vmuser2344]

Unfortunately we have software that sends data to a particular device based on IP address on the VM so we need to make sure who ever logs into that particular VM always is set to the that device.  If I assigned desktop to users, the next person that logs in probably will have a different IP and the device will not work.

[mpryor]

So, what you're asking for can be done with a persistent pool, kiosk mode accounts and sso disabled. However, it sounds like the better solution is for your software to pick up the client details rather than using the VM's IP address, by using the location awareness variables in the desktop VM - how is it picking up the IP address, and is there a way to tell it to use an ID from another registry location / variable?

[vmuser2344]

The way we use the system is a little archaic.  Eventually we will be moving to a different platform but until then this is what has to be done.   This device is setup on our mainframe it only has the option to utilize IP address to send and receive the data to end device.  I am looking at Teradici Managment Console to see if I can tie PCOIP devices to VM's.  It states that this uses a one to one (fix seating) setup, but not sure if I can tie this with VM's.

Or maybe the kiosk mode with SSO disable might work.  I will have to check that out as well.

[dvhorvath]

If you don't mind a lot of additional administrative overhead, you could have individual pools for each PC that will connect to a VM, then use a launch script on the thin clients to connect to the pool dedicated to that thin client. The far better and easier way to do it would be to use service accounts that are assigned to the desktops in a dedicated assignment pool. If you're careful with the naming of the thin clients, the virtual machines, the pool name, and the service account names, you could use a single script on all of the thin clients to connect to the right pool with the right user account based on a variable created from the name of the thin client the script is running on.

Dave

[vmuser2344]

Hi Dave,

Actually creating individual pools for each VM was something I was trying out and then using Teradici Management Console to tie the thin client device to the VM by creating profiles.  This works however it is a lot of overhead to setup.  I might be able to do this because we are only using this for a few machines at remote areas.

[DSRSAS]

Hi,

Did you find solution this issue, Even I am using Panologic to bind the VM to Zero client due to software issue which uses the computer name to deliver data. I want to switch to view but I am unable to find this function in view.

[DSRSAS]

Just forgot to mention you that citrix Zendesktop does this job for the thin client but in a bit complicated way, where in you are required to run scripts from powershell on connection broker to map the vm to mac address of the thin client.

[traby0128]

First of all, "Holy thread resurrection batman!"

We are also moving from Pano to VMware view. So we have statically assigned VM to the zero client pano device. So when a end user tries to login they have a ctrl, alt, del screen opposed to a pano login screen. Im needing to find a solution that works with vmware horizon view and a 10zig thin client basically presenting the same thing. A windows login instead of a view login. Anyone have any ideas?

If found this idea but there has to be a better way....

quoted from https://communities.vmware.com/message/2129299

Ok, I've found a workable solution...

First step is to disable single signon... by adding a string entry"AllowSingleSignon"   with a value of "false" to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc.\VMware VDM\Agent\Configuration.

to the VM that you want to assign to a specific client.  You can do this with regedit, or with a GPO.  You can do this either on the source for a pool, an individual machine in a pool (but it will be overwritten with a recompose), or for a single non-linked clone vm in a pool.  You create a AD user, depending on your client device's autologin requirements for the username naming convention, and then assign that user to that VM.

When the device logs in, it will get its assigned VM based on the username.(Make sure you only assign that user to a single pool/vm).  Since single sign on has been disabled, it does not pass the view credentials to the VM... requiring the user to log in.

I originally found an article with the "offical" kiosk mode setup... and found it overly complicated.  This is so much easier, and (to me) faster to set up.