ForgeFlakshack's Posts

Thanks for the help, that solved my issue. To recap if anyone else has this problem: On the view connection server I used ADSI edit to connect to dc=vdi, dc=vmware, dc=int on localhost. In OU=Data Disks, I found the disks that were the problem by checking the pae-DataDiskDatastorePath property. Deleted the node and the disk disappeared from View Administrator. Used SQL Enterprise Manager to check the View Composer database for orphans by cross referencing SVI_SIM_CLONE and SVI_SC_PDISK_INFO.  All the disks there were correct so no changes needed.

Thanks for the reply. 1.  The Pools no longer appear in View Administrator. 2.  The VMs are no longer in vCenter and the VMDK files are no longer in the Datastore. 3.  To my knowledge, we did not do any back-end operations (restoring the Connection Server, manually deleting VMs, etc). When the pool was deleted, the option was selected to delete all the persistent disks.  We did not want to keep them. We don't have a lot in our View Administrator yet since we're still doing proof of concept work.  Failing all else, I can just reinstall.  I was just hoping to learn from this experience now in case something similar happens again once we're in production.

after your initial log on the View Log On box appears. Is there a way to keep that from happening? The VMware View client should not ask for credentials.  It should automatically login as the current user.  This assumes that: you installed the Single Sign-On option (when installing VMware View Client on the ThinPC) and the Login as current user group policy option is enabled (as specified above). Also, is there anyway to by pass the View Certificate warning that pops up? This warning only appears when you have a certificate issue.  If you are using an Active Directory CA cert, be sure that the CA's root certificate is installed on the ThinPC.  You can do this via group policy.  The best option is to just buy a certificate from godaddy.com for $70.  This way if you have users that will connect from home or via an iPad, they won't see the certificate warning. I also set the policy to "Remove Task Manager" which works great. You mentioned setting a different Group Policy with permissions to allow helpdesk to login and configure the ThinPC, could you tell me where to do that. So basically what you want to do is add a new group policy that reverses the "Remove Task Manager" setting for your admins.  To do this: Launch Group Policy Management and find the OU you setup for your ThinPCs.  Create a new Group Policy object and link it to that OU.  Edit the group policy, find that Remove Task Manager setting and set it to disabled. Back in Group Policy Management, click on the new GPO.  On the right side, in the Security Filtering section, remove "Authenticated Users" and insert the group for your admins/helpdesk.  This way, only people in this group will apply this group policy. Back in Group Policy Management, click on the OU name and on the right side you will see a list of "Linked Group Policy Objects."  Use the arrow buttons to set the priority so that this new GPO is #1.  Since your admins will apply both policies, you need to be sure that the new GPO is applied last.

This is designed for Microsoft Windows ThinPC, which is basically a stripped down copy of Windows 7. Create an OU in Group Policy for your ViewThinPC computers.  Create a new group policy and attach it to the new OU.  Below you'll see a screenshot of the group policy I use on my OU.  Note that some of the settings are from the View Client group policy template (a copy of them is on your View Connection Server). - The important ones are: Use Enhanced Keyboard on Windows Client if available This can prevent the ThinPC from intercepting a normal CTRL-ALT-DEL and instead sends it to the VM.  For this to work, you have to do the following steps: Make sure you are using the VMware View client with local mode. You don't need to use a local mode VM, you just need this install for this feature to work. Set the ThinPC's UAC to the lowest setting Right-click on "C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware View\Client\bin\wswc.exe" and go to Properties...Compatibility tab.  Click on the "Change Settings for all users" button and set the program to always run as administrator. Add the user account (Domain Users or another group) as an administrator of the ThinPC. Note that in the time before the View session is established, the user can still send a CTRL-ALT-DEL to the ThinPC.  From there, they can launch Task Manager and then Explorer.exe to get a taskbar.  You may wish to set the group policy setting to "Remove Task Manager" in System\CTRL-ALT-DEL Options.  If you do this, be sure to set a different group policy (with permissions) to allow your helpdesk to login and configure the ThinPC. User Group Policy loopback processing mode Only allow local user profiles Prevent Roaming Profile changes from propagating to the server This will cause the User Configuration in this group policy to override the user's roaming profile settings.  Although not illustrated here, you can use group policy to further lock down the ThinPC. Delete user profiles older than a specified number of days on system restart Remove any unused local profiles after 30 days. Custom User Interface This will replace the taskbar (explorer.exe) with a vbscript that launches the View client. We use a script instead of launching the view client directly, because if we don't tell the shell what to do when the view client exits, the computer will just display a blank screen with no UI.  For the shell setting, we used wscript c:\view\view.vbs.  This is the vbscript that we use: set shell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell") 'Launch the View client and wait for it to close shell.run """c:\program files\vmware\vmware view\client\bin\wswc.exe""",,1 'Logout of the ThinPC shell.run "shutdown /l" set shell = Nothing Some people configure the script to loop and relaunch View, but I think this way provides a more consistent user experience:  they've logged out of their VM, so they are pushed back to a regular login screen. Default value of the 'Log in as current user' checkbox This wil cause the View client to automatically login as the current user. You might also consider using EWF (Enhanced Write Filter) to lock down the ThinPC.  Basically when you enable EWF, the ThinPC becomes read-only in the sense that when the computer is rebooted, any changes are discarded.

You can get the experience you describe without having to replace the Windows login.  One of the advantages of the Windows CTRL-ALT-DEL login is that it ensures that you are not typing your password into a fake login screen.  If you're talking about the Win 9x Netware clients, the main difference is that they didn't support this basic security feature. This is possible with the current software:  Computer starts up running lightweight Windows ThinPC.  User presses Ctrl-Alt-Del and logs in their domain credentials.  Roaming profile is not downloaded, only a local profile is used (configured with loopback processing and doesn't copy back to the network).  Local profiles older than XX days are automatically removed so the local disk space is wasted.  The Explorer shell has been replaced by the View client, so as soon as the login happens, View loads....the normal Windows interface is hidden and inaccessible. View logs in automatically as the current user (no other clicks or keystrokes necessary).  If the user presses Ctrl-Alt-Del, that key combination is passed through to View and is not intercepted at all by the local ThinPC.  When the user disconnects or logs off from the View session, the Thin PC session logs off and returns to the Thin PC login screen. Other than seeing the View login screen flash by quickly, there's actually little to indicate that the user is not working with a local PC. I can post some more directions if this is what you are talking about.