View Client Freezing

[kbl]

I have a View Client installed on a Windows XP desktop with 2 monitors. We are using View 5.01, ESXi5U1 and vCenter 5U1. Periodically the View Client freezes where the user can't do anything on the View VM. If we disconnect the session and reconnect, the user can continue to work where they left off. This is a new View environment built specifically for hosting View desktops. When this has happened the user was working in the VM using Outlook or Internet Explorer. The problem seems like it is related to the View Client since a disconnect and reconnect fixes it - we are using PCoIP and have not tested using RDP.

Any ideas?

[mittim12]

If you let it sit long enough in the frozen state does it eventually disconnect on it's own?    Have you looked through PCOIP logs to see what is happening from the connect standpoint? 

[kbl]

We left it for quite a while and it didn't disconnect by itself. I did look at pcoip logs but I don't really know how to interpret the messages.

[mittim12]

There is a free tool that assist in reviewing PCOIP logs that can be found here, http://mindfluxinc.net/?p=195.    Also review Andre's site that shows what to look for in PCOIP troubleshooting, http://myvirtualcloud.net/?p=751

[RandyBrown]

We are experiencing the exact same issue.  It happens with both Windows XP VMs and Windows 7 VMs.  Running on ESXi 5.0.

The funny thing is, although the PCOIP session is frozen, the mouse movements actually still work (for instance, clicking on the START button brings up the Start menu, just the screen does not update).  This can be proven by using a remote control application or RDP connection to the VM while it is in the frozen state.

According to the VMWare Support person that I spoke with, this problem is caused by lack of appropriate bandwidth to handle the PCOIP traffic.  If this was the case, it seems to me, then the connection should just completely drop.  The support person was unable to help me determine what is causing the lack of required bandwidth and has left it up to me to troubleshoot.

I've been using the PCOIP Log Viewer and it does not appear to show anything out of the ordinary with regards to bandwidth or performance.  Once my PCOIP session freezes, I have to disconnect, then log out of my physical computer.  Once I log back into my physical computer, I am able to reconnect to my View Desktop.  If I do not logout of my physical computer, I am not able to reconnect to my View Desktop.  It shows as an option but as soon as I attempt to reconnect, the View Client just closes and nothing happens.

Anyone have any ideas or solutions to this very annoying problem?

[sfsiher]

We are having a very similar issue. After upgrading to 5.1 some of our users VDI session freezes. The mouse still works and they can go the view ribbon at the top of the screen and disconnect. After they disconnect and log back on everything is up and running like there was no issues.

When the VDI session freezes on the task manager on the physical machine shows process ID vmware-remotemks.exe is running at 50% CPU and 250 MB ram. Once we kill that process the VDI session is disconnected and we reconnect and everything is good on the VDI again.

We have configured all VDI pools for 4 monitors and 2560X1600 resolution.

[RandyBrown]

Are you using Trend Micro Deep Security version 8.0 by chance? VMWare Support was leaning towards that causing our problem. They had us install Deep Security Service Pack 1 and we thought that this solved our problems…however, we just experienced the problem again this afternoon.

-Randy

[sfsiher]

We don't use trend micro. VMware support just hit me with a mks recommendation On freezing screens.

Sent from my iPhone

[RandyBrown]

Out of curiosity, what was their recommendation?

[KyleCompassion]

I'd be interested in finding out what VMware's recommendation is too.

I'm having a similar issue, but with a particular website. Everything works fine until users click a button in this website, which opens a popup, then if they try to resize the popup their entire session seems to freeze and stops responding to mouse clicks. We found if they hit the windows key that keyboard input is still accepted, and usually after hitting the windows key their mouse again becomes active, however, the popup window always goes into Not Responding and you have to use task manager to kill it.

We haven't found any causes in Event Viewer or any other logs we know to look at. We are running McAfee MOVE Agentless so don't really have "AV" that could be causing the problem. Running view 5.1, agent 5.1, happens on desktops, laptops, and zero/thin clients.

[rseabrooke]

Same problem here View 5.1.1, ESXi 5.0 768111, Vcenter 5.0 804277. Vm` windows 7 and clients FX160 XPSP3

Screen freezes disconnect and reconnect everything back to normal. Same network View 4.6  ESXi 4.1U2, VM`s W7 and Clients FX160 XPSP2 no problems.

[RandyBrown]

VMWare Support gave us a Teradici PCOIP hotfix that consisted of a .DLL file and a .PDB file.  After installing these files on our client machines, the problem seems to have stopped happening.  We did an upgrade from View 5.0 to View 5.1.1 and also upgraded the clients and the problem came back.  VMWare instructed us to put the hotfix files back (even with the new client) and the problem seems to have stopped once we put those files back in place.

[kbl]

Do you know if this hotfix is available on the VMware or Teradici site, or do we have to call support and request it?

[RandyBrown]

Pretty sure you'll need to call support and request it.  The files are:

pcoip_client_win32.dll

pcoip_client_win32.pdb

-Randy

[rseabrooke]

Thanks

I wonder if that fix is in the 5.2 client?

[KyleCompassion]

where does the .pdb get placed? I see where the .dll is, but don't see an existing .pdb on my laptop or inside the VM?

[sfsiher]

They told us to install the 5.2 client. We have installed this on computers that froze frequently and they have not froze in 3 days.

Sent from my iPhone

[RandyBrown]

In the same folder as the DLL. I did not initially have a PDB file either.

[rseabrooke]

Did they say that this client has the hot fix in it? Also how often where your users getting disconnected? Are these users using dual monitors?

[sfsiher]

Had to disconnect at least once a day. Users are using dual and triple screens.

Sent from my iPhone