alwynstrydom
Contributor
Contributor

High CPU usage on VDI VM as soon as OWA is accessed on VMware View 3.0.1

Good day.

Anyone had any issues with OWA (Outlook Web Access) in VMware View 3.0.1?

We have a client with Exchange 2007 and the latest patches for Exchange. The OS that is used as a template for a non-persistent pool is Windows XP Sp3 and IE7. IE7 is also patched to the latest.

Problem:

When accessing OWA, CPU usage shoots up to 100% and remains there until the webpage is closed.

Steps taken:

Vanilla image was created with IE6 and problem continued to persist. Loaded IE7 with its latest patches and then accessed a VM from the pool via RDP, VMware infrastructure client and from VMware View webpage. This works fine and we left the OWA session open for more than 15min. Tested this on several different created VM's. Loaded VMware View agent 3.0.1 on several PC's and laptops and tested. Problem is seen once again. Installed VMware View client 3.0.0 and then all seems to be working fine.

Client would like to make use of the features provided by 3.0.1

Anyone have a possible solution or similar problem?

Reply
0 Kudos
mittim12
Immortal
Immortal

I'm not sure what steps should be taken next but I can share my experiences. We are running Exchange 2007 and I just accessed OWA through a XP vm running the 3.01 agent without any types of issues. In one instance you referenced running the View agent 3.01 and the other referenced installing the View client. Is the agent or the client that you have found to be causing the issue?

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

Reply
0 Kudos
alwynstrydom
Contributor
Contributor

Hallo

My apologies. It does the exact same with the 3.0 VDI client. The problem seems to only be with the client and nothing else. When you use the web interface to access a VM in the pool, everything works fine.

Please find some screenshots attached depicting the problem.

Reply
0 Kudos
mittim12
Immortal
Immortal

The only difference between the client installed from the web and the full client is the USB redirection and the printer redirection utilizing thinprint. I would remove these features starting with the printer redi rection and see if the problem persist.

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

Reply
0 Kudos
alwynstrydom
Contributor
Contributor

Hallo

Installed VMware View 3.1 with the same issue. Problem in 3.1 you can't deselect printer and USB redirection. Sometimes when you way long enough you get an error from IE7. (See attached)

Any known issues with 3.1? We went back to 3.0.1 because we were getting pool provisioning errors. Client would log on and find that there are no available desktops and when you log onto the CB (connection broker) it shows +-5 desktops available.

Regards

Reply
0 Kudos
lbourque
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

A few questions about the environment:

1. When looking at taskmanager can you see what specific process is hitting 100%?

2. Any antivirus installed and, if yes, does it do Outlook/email scanning?

3. Where are the PSTs/OSTs located?

4. Do you have indexing or search enabled?

Want make a difference in the future of VMware Products? Feature request your ideas ( )!

Reply
0 Kudos
alwynstrydom
Contributor
Contributor

Hallo

1. The task that is indicated as using all or most of the CPU resources is IE

2. Yes, McAfee. Latest version of EPO and antivirus is installed not sure if mail scanning is enabled

3. The OST's are located on the same server as the one being used for OWA access

4. Not sure but will get back to you on that one.

Funny thing thou. The client went ahead and purchased the licensing for VMware View etc. Installed and setup the latest version of VDI 3.1.2 Issue still persists. We then tested it from a Wyse V10 terminal with the Wyse OS on it and this seems to work without any problems.

Just a "quick" update on the tests done thus far on their soon to be production environment:

Installed components versions:

  • ESX 3.5 Update4

  • Virtual Centre 2.5 Update5 (Problem was relavant on update 4 as well)

  • VMware View client 3.1.2

  • VMware View agent 3.1.2

  • VMware Connection broker server version 3.1.2

  • VMware View Composer agent 1.1.0-161885

Connections used in testing:

  • VMware View client 3.1.2 with offline files

  • VMware View client 3.1.2

  • VMware View webpage

  • Microsoft RDP

  • Virtual Centre console session

  • Wyse terminal

Versions of IE tested on (Note that Firefox etc are not an option due to GPO's that needs to be applied):

  • IE6

  • IE7

  • IE8 is not supported on most of their applications

Versions of Microsoft OS that was used in testing:

  • Windows XP SP3

  • Windows Vista Business SP2

  • Windows 7 Ultimate

Steps done in testing:

  • Loaded a new vanilla OS onto a business standard desktop. (Windows XP SP3 with IE7)

  • McAfee and Safend was loaded as per GPO

  • Removed all traces of Safend and McAfee

  • Installed VMware View 3.1.2 client

  • Used Wyse C10 with Wyse OS

Findings:

When connecting to the VDI environment, non-persistent or persistent pool, via the 3.1.2 client on a vanilla Windows XP SP3 desktop or from the VMware View webpage, the CPU usage shoots up to 100% utilization after +-20sec in OWA. When connecting to the exact same VM from either a separate MS RDP session or VMware Virtual Centre console to the VM, OWA works perfectly fine for any period of time. When using the Wyse C10 terminal, any given session also works perfectly fine.

All other applications and functions of the VMware View environment works without any issues

Reply
0 Kudos
alwynstrydom
Contributor
Contributor

Hallo

Please note that we are not using regular Outlook and Exchange, but OWA(Outlook Web Access) so the OST/PST and e-mail scanning would not have any impact.

Kind regards

Reply
0 Kudos
alwynstrydom
Contributor
Contributor

Hallo

Found a solution to my problem. This came from a highly unlikely place. There was a GPO on all the local PC's and VM's to disallow Internet Explorer as an exception thru the firewall. Corrected this by allowing IE thru the firewall and as if by magic. Proves that VDI/VMware View on Windows clients does not only use RDP for communication.

Regards

Reply
0 Kudos
Lee_Collison
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

View actually uses port 443 as well.

------ Lee Collison VCP - Enterprise Desktop
Reply
0 Kudos