View PowerCLI - Add-ManualPool - No Option for Floating User Assignment?

[thranx]

Add-ManualPool -pool_id MyPoolName -displayName MyDisplayName -powerPolicy AlwaysOn -autoLogoffTime Immediately -isUserResetAllowed 1 -allowMultipleSessions 1 -vc_id "%%IDREMOVED%%" -defaultProtocol PCOIP -allowProtocolOverride 1 -id "VirtualMachine-vm-75557"

When I use the above command, my manual pool is created successfully, however, I need to create the manual pool as a floating manual pool.  Using the command above, it creates it as a dedicated pool.  I can't figure out how I can do this and there appears to be no command switch that will allow you to choose between floating and dedicated.  Has anyone figured this out previously?

[npeter]

Refer VMware View Integration Guide Page 37

use with the -poolType parameter to specify the type of a desktop pool

Manual  :Specifies a pool of manually configured floating (nonpersistent) desktops that are
managed and configured by a vCenter Server.

-noble

[mpryor · Accepted solution]

Hi again. The joys of changing terminology between releases. Dedicated/Floating used to be known as Persistent/NonPersistent but this was changed in the admin UI as some customers confused it with persistent/non-persistent disk types in ESX. The option you want to use is "-Persistence NonPersistent", this is detailed in the 4.5 integration guide.

Mike

PS. I see you're using allowMultipleSessions, I assume that's because you're setting up a classroom-type environment where everyone logs in as the same user account?

[thranx]

wer'e actually not logging in multiple, but view's disconnect can be quite flakey.  We'll get users that disconnect with the X on the remote bar (whatever it's called, across the top of the display) and view won't actually disconnect the session.  So there might be a kid logged on in an entirely seperate room/lab and locked out because the session is hung elsewhere.  The issues 'causes many other problems, but thankfully this flag fixes this one symptom.

I always too persistant/non-persistant to mean that the actual VM's file structure was preserved.  In a non-persistant setup, a VM would revert to it's last locked state, similar to an XP Embedded unit iwth EWF enabled.  I know that dedicated and floating have nothing to do with the disk persistance as it's a tool for VM assignment to a user.

Am I confusing my understanding of persistance?  Is this a case where in 4.0 View /ESX used the same term for different things?

Either way... I'll try both of these recommended switches and report back.

[mpryor]

wer'e actually not logging in multiple, but view's disconnect can be quite flakey.  We'll get users that disconnect with the X on the remote bar (whatever it's called, across the top of the display) and view won't actually disconnect the session.  [...] but thankfully this flag fixes this one symptom.

I've never heard of that before, have you looked at the client and agent logs? You should raise a support request for such an issue.  Your workaround means that a user cannot reconnect to their existing session from a different client machine.

Am I confusing my understanding of persistance?  Is this a case where in 4.0 View /ESX used the same term for different things?

Yes, exactly. Floating/dedicated is definitely a better term as it avoids confusion but in 4.0 those were known as non-persistent and persistent pool types - not to be confused with VM disk types. [Edit: my browser does not play well with the HTML input box]

[thranx]

ok, awesome.  Thanks for the added input.  Makes sense that they could change it.

Sadly, we've had numerous tickets open on the issue with VMWare and the response has been utter crap.  I have never dealed with them directly as we have an actual VMWare certified guy on staff that generally handles that... but it's still a problem.  I feel like I have a pretty good handle on how everything works, but the big bosses prefer him working on things.  Scripting one-to-ones and entitlements just hasn't gotten done, hence this work I'm doing.   Makes things a helluva lot easier when I've got about 200 to do.

[thranx]

Fantastic.  I'm good to go.  The key there was the -persistent NonPersisent once I got that in there, my script works like a charm.  Combined with some string manipulation (we set our displayname to the same name as our thin clients so that the shortcuts on the thin client can point to %computername% and the user never has to actually select a VM) and a parameter, I'm now able to create a view connection and get it entitled with a single short command (ViewIt.ps1 -vm CompName).  Love it, works great.

My final manual pool command looks like this:

Add-ManualPool -pool_id MyPoolName -displayName MyDisplayName -persistence NonPersistent -powerPolicy AlwaysOn -autoLogoffTime Immediately -isUserResetAllowed 1 -allowMultipleSessions 1 -vc_id "%%IDREMOVED%%" -defaultProtocol PCOIP -allowProtocolOverride 1 -id "VirtualMachine-vm-75557"