I'm having some issues with Persona saving profiles on a DFS share.
We're running View 6.0.1 with floating linked-clones and Persona for profile management. The repository for the profiles lies on a DFS share.
Sometimes after users log off, all that's saved to their profile folder (username.V2) is a hidden folder with a name similiar to {d24f2895-651a-40cc-8e5c-c037b9994104} and inside that is a {d24f2895-651a-40cc-8e5c-c037b9994104}.db and a lock.{d24f2895-651a-40cc-8e5c-c037b9994104} file. Upon logging in again, their profile isn't loaded, but another one of these folders is created (and deleted again after logging off). No notification pops up saying it loaded a temporary windows profile and the eventlog seems fine, a persona entry says it loaded 2 files. When i delete or rename this hidden folder, a new profile is created. I've had to recover around 5 profiles from backup... I can't figure out why this is happening. NTFS rights are correct.
After analyzing the log files after a log in with an affected profile (could only get the ones after a log in, as i can't recreate the error above) i found the following:
| [0][01/21/2015 14:34:38:0184][VPLogonNotify_OnLogon | ] Logon Started: 13:34:38:184 |
- The time isn't correct, left is the computer time of the VM replica right? What's the other time?
| [0][01/21/2015 14:34:38:0934][VMWCreateMetadataTable | ] Failed Creating Table: 慴汢敭慴慤慴愠牬慥祤攠楸瑳s, 1 |
- No idea why there are chinese characters in the logfile?
To be honest I don't know what exactly i'm looking for in the logfile... I'm just wondering where the hell the profile data is actually going or where it is lost?!
Any help is appreciated.
Hi,
I'm sorry you are having this issue. I'm happy to help, but I think the most efficient way to get this resolved is for you to open a support case so we can get the right details and people on the case. Is that an option for you? If you already have a case, please let me know the case number and I will follow-up on it.
Regards,
Erik
I've seen that same error (Failed Creating Table: 慴汢敭慴慤慴愠牬慥祤攠楸瑳) while troubleshooting Persona syncing issues. I pointed it out to a support engineer and they had no idea. The persona syncing issue was never solved properly because it became too time consuming. I don't have time to beta test software unfortunately. Unfortunately opening a support ticket is sometimes not useful in these cases.
The "Failed Creating Table" error is cosmetic in nature and not something to worry about. You are seeing the non-English characters due to a trivial mistake in the code. It does not affect the functionality of the product.
I am "the" person who can fix this issue for you, so if you can give me a case number or open a new case, I will make sure it gets fixed. I would ask you to private message me the logs, but I don't think that's the best way for me to get and document all of the details for your case that I need to root cause the issue.
Thanks,
Erik
Thanks for your reply.
I will open a new case and message you the case number ASAP!
**edit** Ohh.. you weren't replying to me.
I can't send private messages yet on here.
Thank you Mathias. Right now GSS is looking into the issue and waiting for some details from you. They will work through some information gathering and troubleshooting steps with you. If they are unable resolve the issue it will be forwarded to another internal team called CPD, which includes a team of engineers knowledgeable about Persona issues. If they need assistance I will assist from that point.
Regards,
Erik
Hello,
I am seeing a similar issue with persona, have you found resolution to the problem?
I have SR open for one month and still no progress ![]()
BR
Andy
nope, no solution yet.
we deployed our environment based on the VMware AlwaysOn Desktop design guide using DFS-R.
well, funny thing is, VMware is reviewing the document as it doesn't meet Microsofts requirements for roaming profiles and the setup is "no longer" supported.
of course i'm expecting a solution from them. i can update the thread if you want once i have one. it will probably go in the direction of having 4 DFS Servers (1active and 1passive per site).
I'm getting the same too from VMWare Technical Support. They're basically saying, "there's a very slight variation from the documentation of permissions/shares, therefore it's not out fault and your permissions have to be exactly the same.". Great, you could have put that in your documentation originally that you can set up Persona to work perfectly fine for two years and then all of a sudden it'll just stop working for 10-20% of your users and they will lose data at random times. But it's our fault because we didn't follow the documentation exactly.
In my spending months on this issue, if I were doing it all over again, here is what I'd do:
* Use a Windows 2008 server. No NetApp vfilers. 2012 R2 is supported in 6.1 but I imagine you need to turn off de-duplication still.
* Follow the documented permissions exactly.
* Do not use the GPO setting where you can add domain admins to the profile NTFS permissions.
* Do not use de-duplication at all for profile data.
Don't rely on VMWare Support for realistic solutions about this. They're too interested in playing lawyer about the issue than actually helping.
Hi Erik,
As I noticed you're one of VMware's Persona experts I wanted to quickly consult with you regarding persona performance with fileshare
according to https://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/view/VMware-View-Persona-Management-Deployment-Guide.pdf
We have implemented as a File Server repository holding user profiles:
Win2012R2 File Server (MSCS based for best protection across Layer2 stretched Sites), with 8 vCPUs/16GB RAM, based on XtremIO SSD Drives, 10Gbps Network.
The View Clients are based on Win7 SP1 32bit with all the recommended performance tunning (Horizon View Performance Optimization Tool).
The Questions:
1. Can yo please explain if this can hold more than 1000 users per server? Where is this recommendation coming from? what is the main reason for that?
Microsoft claims that romaing profile (which is way worst than persona in efficiently handling profiles) is capable of supporting up to 10,000 users. Why with persona this is 1:1000?
Our customer has +6000 users and would like to use one file share for unity of configuration - is that possible using Windows 2012 File Share?
2. This document is related to View5. Is it also the recommendation for today's Horizon 6.1.1 / Horizon 7 with newer and stonger server HW and capabilites?
3. What is VMware performance best practice for File Server with UEM contorlled profiles? any specific performance limitations/recommendations as well?
Thanks,
Eyal
