BarryUWSEFS Tracker

Instant Clone Pool Provisioning not Creating AD Account

BarryUWSEFS — Fri, 05 Feb 2021 22:06:41 GMT

First of all I am curious if anyone else has found VMware Horizon Support MIA. This is the second time in the last month I have opened a case and not received a response in a full 7 day week other than the initial "Hi I am John and I am your support engineer...." So here I am with the issue.

We recently upgraded from 7.11 to 7.13 and converted our desktop pools to instant clone. We have four pools, Windows 10 1909. In one pool only, users started getting the error "The SAM database does not have the computer account..." and they are unable to connect to a desktop. We discovered that the SPN account was not getting created in AD. The only solution is to discover which machine it is and remove it from the pool, then the user can connect to a different machine. The user cannot successfully reconnect until the problem machine is removed. This is happening occasionally, but enough to generate a few help desk calls every week.

Being new to instant clones, I am not even sure which logs to view. And because we have to delete the offending machines it is hard to view those logs!

Thanks

Horizon 7.13 Use Reporting

BarryUWSEFS — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 22:35:17 GMT

Hi Group,

I have recently been tasked with reporting on our Horizon Desktop and RDH pools. Basically I just need usage, as in which pools are being used the most, the least, and perhaps by who. We don't have licensing for any advanced tools like vROPS. My research led me to the Horizon Toolbox fling, but I see it is not being maintained and doubtful to work with 7.13. I also see the fling Horizon View Events Export Utility, which may be of some help for this.

I know all the info is in the Events database, but I am no DBA, although if I have scripts to start with I usually do okay.

Anything else I am missing?

Of course the boss just asked for this a day ago and I need to report on Wednesday!

Thanks

Re: Integrated printing defect - default printer

BarryUWSEFS — Fri, 08 Jan 2021 05:30:01 GMT

Good news, thank you.

Re: How to Deploy a new Snapshot to Instant Clone Pool in Horizon 8

BarryUWSEFS — Tue, 05 Jan 2021 16:51:46 GMT

Click the "Maintain" drop down, select "Schedule" and then it is pretty much is the same wizard as compose was. At least this is how it looks in 7.13. When I first changed to Instant Clones I was a bit puzzled as well. I don't think that "Maintain" is a great word to use for pushing out a new image.

Re: VDI-UAG

BarryUWSEFS — Tue, 05 Jan 2021 16:41:18 GMT

If this is a classic DMZ then you must also have a firewall between the UAG and a connection server, and you do not mention that. It may be that the problem is the configuration between the UAG and connection server. If you are sure the traffic is going through the UAG then examine the connection server logs. Also port 4172 is only PCoIP, which is probably the default for the thin client, but if it is configured for Blast you need port 8443 as well, unless you specifically configure Blast for 443.

Re: 7.13 to 2006 Upgrade no go

BarryUWSEFS — Mon, 04 Jan 2021 01:46:21 GMT

Yes, no worries here. We'll upgrade to 8 during our next maintenance window in four months. I work for a school so during the quarter when class in session we don't make changes if we don't have to. Thanks!

Re: Can't undo some settings after running the VMWare OS Optimization Tool

BarryUWSEFS — Mon, 04 Jan 2021 01:41:11 GMT

Yes that looks right. I had figured this out almost a year ago and couldn't remember all the steps. Thanks.

Re: 7.13 to 2006 Upgrade no go

BarryUWSEFS — Sat, 02 Jan 2021 18:36:32 GMT

LOL, yep, there is no upgrade for 7.13. But as you can see in my last post seeking upgrade advice, we assumed 7.13 was the stepping stone to 8.

https://communities.vmware.com/t5/Horizon-Desktops-and-Apps/Horizon-7-upgrade-to-8-Queston-Linked-Clones-to-Instant-Clones/td-p/2813354

Oh well, we all know what assume means!

Thanks

7.13 to 2006 Upgrade no go

BarryUWSEFS — Sat, 02 Jan 2021 17:31:46 GMT

This is more informational than it is a question, but I am surprised it is not documented. We were on Horizon 7.11 Standard, which means we did not have the license for instant clones. Then 7.13 came out and included instant clones with the standard license, I assume to assist users with upgrading to Horizon 8. So on my project to upgrade to Horizon 8 I first upgraded to 7.13, and converted all my pools to IC, and then decommissioned composer. Then, today, I went to upgrade to Horizon 8 2006 and when I ran the Horizon 8 installer on the connection server I received the error: This installer can not upgrade over the existing Horizon connection server version. Please uninstall the existing version before attempting to install this version." I went back to review the upgrade documentation and nowhere does it say you first have to uninstall the 7.x connection server. A bit research on Google, and the only place I see any comment about this is in the esteemed Carl Stalhood's 2006 Connection server document, in the comments https://www.carlstalhood.com/vmware-horizon-8-connection-server/ .

He suggests that since 7.13 is newer than 8 2006, 7.13 users should wait until the next release of 8. So essentially 7.13 - 8 2006 is a downgrade. All this is to say if you are on 7.13 wait for the next release of 8.

Re: Can't undo some settings after running the VMWare OS Optimization Tool

BarryUWSEFS — Sat, 02 Jan 2021 17:03:24 GMT

I ran into this exact issue early last year and figured out the registry setting to re-enable thumbnail view. I am sorry to say I cannot remember exactly what I did but I figured it in OSOT using the "My Templates" tab where is basically shows you exactly what registry changes are made for each setting. I left notes I believe in the OSOT comments section but cannot find them. However maybe this will get you on the right track: https://blogleodegroot.wordpress.com/2020/03/07/explorer-thumbnail-view-disabled-after-running-osot/

Re: Integrated printing defect - default printer

BarryUWSEFS — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 15:35:52 GMT

Hi Mat, thanks for you response and your work with the .bat files. I am ahead of my project schedule for upgrading from 7.11 - 7.13 - 2006, so it looks like I will be going to 2006 this weekend and I'll be re-installing the agent anyway so I can revert back to virtual printing or just leaving my users with network share printing only. Most of them are still working from home though. I do have a scenario coming up for one group where I may need integrated printing so I'll keep your work around handy.

Re: Parent VM Recovery - Instant Clone Question and Issue

BarryUWSEFS — Sun, 27 Dec 2020 04:36:12 GMT

Well I had the primary vmdk and two from snapshots. I followed this KB to recover the VM by creating a new VM and adding the exisitng vmdk as hard drive. But that did not recover it with the snapshots. So I just updated it. Then I cloned it to get all the vmdk and files together in one folder. Now it is my new parent and its workig fine. Not sure if there is a better way in this situation.

Re: Parent VM Recovery - Instant Clone Question and Issue

BarryUWSEFS — Sun, 27 Dec 2020 01:17:58 GMT

Hi, no appstacks, but yeah, applications. I restored the vmdk to a new VM, but it did not pick up the snapshots, don't think there is a way to do that. So I just need to make the changes and updates from the two snapshots and I should be good to go. Then I am going to make a backup! Thank you.

Re: Parent VM Recovery - Instant Clone Question and Issue

BarryUWSEFS — Sat, 26 Dec 2020 22:15:25 GMT

And I just noticed that provisioning is failing for this pool. I didn't think the provisioning depended on the parent image until you pushed it out again.

Parent VM Recovery - Instant Clone Question and Issue

BarryUWSEFS — Sat, 26 Dec 2020 21:49:44 GMT

I just upgraded to 7.13 from 7.11 in order to convert to Instant Clone pools and then complete the upgrade to 2006. I am simply installing the 7.13 agent on the parent image and then creating the IC pools, then deleting the LC pools, as per VMware's guide. . Everything was going well until the last pool. After creating the IC pool, I deleted the LC pool, and the parent image disappeared. I went back and looked at all the tasks and could see all the deletions of the vm's from the pool, and the folder they were in, but there is not a task reporting the deletion of the parent. Very strange. I also notice on the cluster that this pool is on there are no cp-parents. Is that because the parent image is gone?

Anyway, the folder for the parent image was still in the data store with three vmdk files. So I recovered by creating a new VM and adding the vmdk for the hard disk. So basically, I guess have my parent VM back, although I notice not all the customization are recovered.

Question - I noticed that the cp-replicas and cp-template all have full clone options, clone to VM and clone to template. Would this also be a way to create a parent image if you did a clone to vm? Or clone to template and the template to vm?

Thanks!

Integrated printing defect - default printer

BarryUWSEFS — Sat, 26 Dec 2020 20:07:58 GMT

According to VMware we are supposed to report defects to the community. This is a known defect but apparently it is not being addressed. Integrated printing automatically assigns the client local printer as the default, and it cannot be changed, except to implement a bat file to delete a registry setting at every logon, and some people report that doesn't work consistently. I only just discovered this defect because I upgraded to 7.13 and recreated every desktop pool to instant clones. At the same time I added integrated printing thinking it was the latest and greatest. Most users use network printers, I only wanted to give them the option to use a local printer. On one pool this is causing a printing error at logon and the spooler is crashing. Now I have to go back and re-install the agent on every master to remove this "feature." Sorry for the rant but I just worked for two days straight in a small maintenance window to get all this done and now I have to redo every pool. I found a post from a few months ago (sorry I can't seem to find it again) that it was being addressed after 7.12 came out, but I have heard that this is still a problem in 2006.

So, anyone one know if this is going to be addressed?

Re: get orphaned vmdk information from vSAN

BarryUWSEFS — Sun, 13 Dec 2020 17:10:37 GMT

LucD,

Sorry for the delay, I got married and went on a little vacation. Thought I had responded to that effect but do not see it now. Anyway, I believe you nailed it, this looks good. Because this is a Horizon Linked Clone deployment, there are a lot more results than I believe there would be from persistant VM's. So I need to analyze a bit more before I would run a delete. Be curious if you have any experience running the script against Horizon non-persistant VM's. If I find anything that suggests an invalid rsult I will be sure to circle back and let you know. Meanwhile thank you for all your time and patience.

Re: get orphaned vmdk information from vSAN

BarryUWSEFS — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 19:51:41 GMT

The first time I simply extracted the script from the zip and used as is. Seems to work most of the time LOL! This time I simply opened it it in notepad++, added the line to the bottom and saved, and it ran. Thanks for your patience. I used out-file to get into text.

Re: get orphaned vmdk information from vSAN

BarryUWSEFS — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 18:14:50 GMT

Not sure, what can I be doing wrong?

PS C:\scripts> .\Remove-OrphanedData -Datastore VxRail-Virtual-SAN-Datastore-0cc5f2fb-e267-4c11-af7b-9e26443ee9a3 -Verbo
se
PS C:\scripts>
PS C:\scripts> ls

Directory: C:\scripts

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name
---- ------------- ------ ----
-a---- 12/3/2020 1:56 PM 6416 Remove-OrphanedData.ps1

PS C:\scripts> Get-Datastore -name VxRail-Virtual-SAN-Datastore-0cc5f2fb-e267-4c11-af7b-9e26443ee9a3

Name FreeSpaceGB CapacityGB
---- ----------- ----------
VxRail-Virtual-SAN-Datastor... 12,567.094 26,827.313

PS C:\scripts>

Re: get orphaned vmdk information from vSAN

BarryUWSEFS — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 22:01:51 GMT

This immediately returned to the prompt without error or output.