View 3.12 unassign persistent user then reconnect issue

[wharlie]

Hi,

I have a desktop pool with the following attributes, automated, persistent, linked clone, 3.12.

We have a number of users that have persistent assignments to a number of virtual desktops.

Some of these users left the department so I unnassigned them from the desktops so that new users could be assigned, I used the command vdmadmin.exe L -d <desktop_name> -u <user_name> -r.

All was working well, new users joined the pool and they were automatically assigned to the desktops that I had unnassigned from the previous users.

Then some of the old users that had been unnassigned returned to the department, now when they try to log in to the pool a number of issues occurr:

1. If someone is currently connected to their original desktop, then the old user gets an error message saying that there are no desktops available in the pool, even though there are plenty of desktops available and new users can connect to and be assigned these desktops.

2. If no-one is connected to their orginal desktop then the old user is logged into their original desktop, even though it is already re-assigned to another user. This results in 2 users connecting to the same persistent desktop (not simultaneaously).

for example:

original user a assigned to desktop x

user a unnasigned from desktop x (using vdmadmin.exe)

new user b assigned to desktop x

user a logs back in: if user b is connected to desktop x = error message can't connect, if user b isn't connected to desktop x = user a connected to desktop x

user b logs back in: if user a is connected to desktop x = error

message can't connect, if user a isn't connected to desktop x = user b connected to

desktop x

Does anyone know how to remove the user to desktop assignment without deleting the desktops? Obvioulsy the vdmadmin command only removes the user from the desktop, not the desktop from the user.

Thanks

[mittim12]

I know you said you were already on 3.12 but I found this in the knowledge base, . Sounds similar to what you are experiencing.

If you found this or any other post helpful please consider the use of the Helpful/Correct buttons to award points

[mikebarnett]

That's very interesting. From what I understand of how vdmadmin removes the entitlement it should have cleared the user and their SID from the desktop in the ADAM database. It looks like something may get left over when the command is run...

I don't believe the previous KB applies as it has to do with applying an assignment to a desktop not removing one.

I would file an SR if possible so that we can take a look at your ADAM database to see if there is an entry leftover that is causing this behaviour.

Mike

edited for spelling fail

[mittim12 · Accepted solution]

You are correct. I seemed to have misread the KB article, thanks for the clarification. I noticed in the command vdmadmin.exe L -d <desktop_name> -u <user_name> -r the - was not placed in front of the L. I assume that was left out by accident in the post as that would return an error message from the command line. Have you tested assigning the users a different desktop in that pool using the command line? I'm wondering if they would start following those assignments instead of logging into the already assigned desktops.

If you found this or any other post helpful please consider the use of the Helpful/Correct buttons to award points

[wharlie]

On further investigation and experimentation:

The old users pae-SIDString attribute is correctly being cleared from the desktop object (located in ADAM OU=Servers,DC=vdi,DC=vmware,DC=int).

And the new users SID is added as expected.

Strangley enough even though the desktop object now contains only the new users SID it still lets the old user connect to that desktop (and only that desktop).

There must be somewhere else that the user to desktop assignment is retained after running the vdmadmin tool to unassign a user.

I have had a look at the attributes of the users foreignsecurityprincipal object and can see no obvious link to any desktops.

BTW in the View Administrator GUI the under the Desktop Resources tab for the pool, the virtual machine user shows up as the new user whenever the new user or no-one is connected to the vm, but when the old user connects to the vm the user field changes to the old user, then changes back when they disconnect.

[mikebarnett]

Is it possible for you to attach a backup of your ADAM database for me

to take a quick look through?

Regards,

Mike

On Oct 28, 2009, at 10:57 PM, "wharlie" <communities-

[wharlie]

Manually re-assigning the desktops with vdmadmin worked. The users now log into the newly assigned desktops.

From now on I will just delete orphaned desktops instead of using the vdmadmin tool.

Would have been nice to use the tool , I was looking at writing a vbscript to look after cleaning up orphaned desktops, but looks like I'll stick to the manual method.

BTW the spelling mistake in the command line is straight from www.vmware.com/pdf/view31_command_line_tool.pdf, page3 .