VMware Horizon Community
JohnTwilley
Hot Shot
Hot Shot
Jump to solution

DEM 10.x Computer Environment - Refresh After Logon

I've been trying to use the new DEM Computer Environment options to set the "Idle time until Disconnect" and have run into a few issues...maybe someone could help me figure it out.

Screenshot 2020-10-01 113029.jpg

These are Thin Client devices used in hospitals.

 

I'd like to trigger the "Idle Timeout Policy" based on the EndPoint Thin Client name, which normally is the HKCU\Volatile Environment\ViewClient_Machine_Name variable

The Computer Policy can not see that variable. I get an error that the Key does not exist.

When running Regedit.exe as the System account, I can see that System does not see the current session attributes for the HKCU registry keys.

OK.  Plan B

I've decided to create a HKLM attribute upon user login that the System account can read AFTER a user logs in, so the policy needs to run every 30 minutes or so.

Here's my Issue/Question.

There are two registry keys to set to allow the DEM Computer policies to update after login.

  1. ContinueRefreshAfterLogon - If set to 1 and interval-based refresh is enabled, computer environment settings continue to be refreshed after a user logs on
  2. RefreshInterval- .If configured, computer environment settings are refreshed starting from when they are applied at computer start-up. By default, computer environment settings are refreshed until a user logs on. If ContinueRefreshAfterLogon is set to 1, the settings continue to be refreshed after a user logs on.  The configured interval specifies the amount of time to wait in seconds between those refresh events.

How do I know if this Refresh After Login policy is actually working?  After setting the values on a pool, the Debug Log I defined is never updated.  If I manually login to a desktop, and run "Flexengine.exe -UemRefreshHorizonComputerPolicy" the log is created and is read.   Will the System account update this log?  Or is it only generated at the User level when run?  They are also no event log entries under Immidio Flex+.

1 Solution

Accepted Solutions
DEMdev
VMware Employee
VMware Employee
Jump to solution

Hi JohnTwilley,

I've decided to create a HKLM attribute upon user login that the System account can read AFTER a user logs in, so the policy needs to run every 30 minutes or so.

I'm not sure whether changes to the Idle time until disconnect policy setting are picked up by the Horizon agent once the session has started.

As for refreshing computer environment settings: based on the configuration settings from your other thread, I would expect to see event log messages in the Application event log shortly after startup of FlexService stating "Computer environment settings are enabled. Settings will be refreshed periodically and will be reverted at shutdown." and "Computer environment settings will be automatically refreshed after 900 seconds."

In addition there should be computer settings-related logging in file C:\temp\DEM_ComputerLog.log.

Computer environment settings are enabled. Settings will be refreshed periodically and will be reverted at shutdown.

View solution in original post

Reply
0 Kudos
3 Replies
DEMdev
VMware Employee
VMware Employee
Jump to solution

Hi JohnTwilley,

I've decided to create a HKLM attribute upon user login that the System account can read AFTER a user logs in, so the policy needs to run every 30 minutes or so.

I'm not sure whether changes to the Idle time until disconnect policy setting are picked up by the Horizon agent once the session has started.

As for refreshing computer environment settings: based on the configuration settings from your other thread, I would expect to see event log messages in the Application event log shortly after startup of FlexService stating "Computer environment settings are enabled. Settings will be refreshed periodically and will be reverted at shutdown." and "Computer environment settings will be automatically refreshed after 900 seconds."

In addition there should be computer settings-related logging in file C:\temp\DEM_ComputerLog.log.

Computer environment settings are enabled. Settings will be refreshed periodically and will be reverted at shutdown.

Reply
0 Kudos
JohnTwilley
Hot Shot
Hot Shot
Jump to solution

Thanks DEMdev

I'm not sure whether changes to the Idle time until disconnect policy setting are picked up by the Horizon agent once the session has started.

I think you are correct here.  I've tried altering the VDIIdleTimeout registry value created here: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\VMware, Inc.\VMware VDM\Agent\Configuration

and the Horizon Agent does not seem to pickup the changes... I was hopeful, but it seems that this is not dynamic like some of the Blast variables.

Here's my thought process for those following along:

We have Thin Client devices that share a pool of Clinical Horizon desktops.  I'd like for some of those endpoints, like Surgery devices, to have a longer Idle Timeout.

VMware Horizon has historically made it difficult to manage this Idle Timeout value, and many of use have resorted to 3rd Party screensavers, etc to handle it.  I was hoping DEM was going to help streamline this for us... My issue is that I need a more dynamic method of updating this value, based on the Session's "ViewClient_Machine_Name" value.  Maybe someday... but I'll keep hoping.

Thanks for you assistance.

DEMdev
VMware Employee
VMware Employee
Jump to solution

Hi JohnTwilley,

As powerful as DEM's Horizon Smart Policies can be, they are just another mechanism for configuring Horizon settings – DEM has no control over when the corresponding Horizon components read their config. As you said, Blast is pretty good at dynamically picking up changes in configuration, but most of the other components require their settings to be in place when they start up.

I fully understand your use case. Allowing the idle timeout to be changed during the session might be worth a shot as a Horizon feature request?

Reply
0 Kudos