View 6 persona management service

[crgnjul]

I'm troubleshooting a Persona Management issue in View 6.0.1 (we had the same issue in 5.3 but didn't trouble shoot as I was already in the process of building a 6.0 environment from scratch).

In my troubleshooting I noticed something that I need clarification on.  On every parent machine the VMware Horizon View Persona Management service is disabled.  When a user logs into a linked clone pool, that services is set to automatic and is started.  Is that normal behavior?

I have a ticket open with vmware and they are telling me that it should be set to automatic on the parent and this is the root of my issue.  However when I try to start it on the parent, it fails to start.

I really don't understand how a service on the parent can be set to disabled, but on a linked clone it's set to automatic and has started.  I have looked at my GPOs and I don't see one that is turning that on.

Thanks in advance for any insight.

Craig

[twrangham]

Is VSS Disabled in the Parent Image? Only other thing I can think is if there is a GPO changing the setting?

[crgnjul]

VSS is turned off. Funny thing about that - We discovered about 2 months ago that even though VSS was being turned off by Group Policy and verified by looking at Offline Files in the Control Panel as well as the Offline Files Service - if we ran msinfo32 and looked at the system drivers, the Kernel Driver was still starting. I found an article where someone else had this issue in Vista How to Properly Disable Offline Files in Windows Vista - Ask the Directory Services Team - Site Hom... that is what we were seeing too.  We disabled the kernel driver by running "sc config csc start= disabled" from an elevated cmd prompt as per this KB article VMware KB: View Persona Management features do not function when Windows Client-Side Caching is in e...

So VSS is off completely at this point and I don't see any of my GPOs turning the service on.

Can anyone else with View 6 using Persona confirm their settings?  Is the Persona service started in your parent?  What about in your linked clones?

[crgnjul]

Ok, I have been able to verify:

1. Persona Managment service is disabled in all parents.  If I un/reinstall the agent it is still off.  If I try to start the service it fails with a time out.

2. In a linked clone where the user does not get their desktop icons and favorites, the service is in a disabled state.

3. in a linked clone (yes in the same pool) where a user does have their desktop icons and favorites the service is set to automatic and started.

Can anyone shed some light on this? Even if you aren't having the problem, can someone confirm the status of the service in their parent machines?

Craig

[mittim12]

I can confirm in my image the service is disabled.   I've never had any issues and always assumed that the service was enabled and set to automatic when the GPO was applied to the machine.

[crgnjul]

Thank you.

Can anyone else chime in?

VMware support is asking for the persona management log file, but since the service is not starting there is no log file.  I need to figure out why it's disabled in the parent (I think by design) and not starting in the linked clone, but support is focused on troubleshooting why PM is not moving files, rather than why the service is starting on most machines but not all.

Craig

[mittim12]

It seems in a lot of cases that support just runs through some kind of script.     That might not be true but they do seem to get tunnel vision a lot on items I've dealt with.     You should just be adamant that you need to fix the service starting first and then focus on the file sync issues.

[crgnjul]

Great point.  I need them to focus on the service starting, because when it starts, there are no sync issues.

I'm still being told that the service should be started on the parent, but your post says your's is not that way and a friend of mine who runs view also says the service is disabled in his parent.

[mittim12]

I don't feel like it should be started on the parent because it limits your use cases.   I have my parent deployed in several locations and some of those I don't want to use Persona.     That is what makes the GPO aspect so convene.  

[crgnjul]

This issue just went away for us one day.  All of a sudden Persona was working for everyone.  Now, 6 months later, the issue is back.  It's only happening to about 5-10% of our desktops, but in 100% of the cases if persona does not sync the profile, the PM service is not running on the linked clone.

Since it's been 6 months; Has anyone else seen this issue?

Craig

[csledd]

Did you ever figure it out?

We are now seeing this exact case in our deployment of View 6. (Service is disabled in the master image, started and set to automatic on the ones that are working, and disabled on the ones that are not).

[NguyenLuong]

I also have trouble same with you, but after several days I look GPOs to Deploy Persona Management

Start\ run\gpedit.msc and then at Computer configuration\Administrator templet \ Classic Administrator templet

Add ViewPM.adm and then enable Persona management

After I configured GPO then I text GPUPDATE /FORCE

I go to Services.msc and I see Horizon view persona management service status is Started ( Before this status is Starting and can not config )

After all I make image and I have success using horizon view by clinked mode and Users in AD login successfully

Luong Bang (VN)