Table of Contents Chapter 1: Fine-Tuning the End-User Experience 1 Configuring Active Directory 1 Creating an Organizational Unit (OU) 3 Creating Group Policy Objects (GPO) for Horizon View 3 Importing and applying Horizon View ADM templates 6 Enabling loopback policy 11 Configuring the policy settings 12 PCoIP Session Variables 12 PCoIP Client Session Variables 29 VMware Horizon URL Redirection 30 VMware View Agent configuration 32 Smartcard Redirection 33 Local reader access 33 True SSO configuration 34 View USB Configuration 37 Client Downloadable only settings 41 Agent Configuration 43 Agent Security 46 Unity Touch and Hosted Apps 47 VMware FlashMMR 48 View RTAV Configuration 48 View RTAV Webcam Settings 49 Scanner Redirection 51 Serial COM 53 PortSettings 53 View Agent Direct-Connection Configuration 55 VMware Blast 62 VMware View Client Configuration 69 VMware View USB Configuration 72 Settings not configurable by Agent 73 Scripting definitions 75 Security settings 78 VMware View Common Configuration 83 Log Configuration 85 Performance alarms 88 Security Configuration 92 VMware View Server Configuration 94 PCoIP tuning tool 96 Activating the profile 97 Managing profiles 98 Clear profile settings 98 Show session stats 98 Show session health 98 Teradici support tools 98 Monitoring the end-user experience 99 Summary 100 Chapter 2: Troubleshooting Tips 101 General troubleshooting tips 101 Looking at the bigger picture 101 Is the issue affecting more than one user? 102 Performance issues 102 User-reported performance issues 102 Non-VDI-related issues 103 Bandwidth, connectivity, and networking 104 Compute 105 Disk 106 Troubleshooting Horizon View issues 107 View general infrastructure issues 108 View infrastructure component issues 109 Fixing View Composer issues with the ViewDBChk tool 110 vRealize Operations for Horizon 111 Third-party management tools 113 Getting further help 113 Summary 114 Index 115 [ ii ] 1 Fine-Tuning the End-User Experience So, now we have built our Horizon View infrastructure, deployed and optimized our virtual desktop operating system, and configured our user entitlements by means of creating Horizon View desktop pools. This means end users can now access their virtual desktop machines. In this chapter, we will look at how to fine-tune the end-user experience, by which we mean how the desktop will perform and the features that will be made available to the users. We have already talked about optimizing the virtual desktop operating system and how we tune the OS so that it behaves as a virtual desktop machine. However, now we will talk about fine-tuning and configuring the delivery protocol, as well as enabling and disabling certain functionalities relating to how the user interacts with their virtual desktop machine. By this, we mean configuring things, such as whether or not you can cut-and-paste text between the endpoint device running the client and the virtual desktop machine. These configuration options are all centrally deployed and managed using active directory group policy. Configuring Active Directory The behavior of a virtual desktop machine and how a user interacts with it is governed by an AD policy. As we mentioned previously, this policy configures things such as a graphics experience and cut-and-paste options, to name but a few. Fine-Tuning the End-User Experience To make life easier, the templates for these policies have already been created and are shipped as part of the Horizon View software that was downloaded as part of the software downloads in Chapter 4, Installing and Configuring Horizon View, and can be found in the ZIP file named VMware-Horizon-View-Extras-Bundle-4.0.0-3616726. The first thing to do is to unzip this file and save it to the shared software folder. You will see that it contains 15 Administrative Template (ADM) files, as shown in the following screenshot: In the following section, we will look at the OU requirements for the deployment of virtual desktop machines and the things you need in place before you start to configure and tune your environment. [ 2 ] Chapter 1 Creating an Organizational Unit (OU) The first thing you need to do is to create an Organizational Unit (OU) for your virtual desktop machines. It's best practice to have a separate OU for virtual desktop machines, so as to ensure that you don't end up applying the wrong policies to them-such as those used for your physical machines-which could potentially contain components that may impact performance, and vice versa. You don't want to apply VDI-based policies to the physical desktop estate. Depending on your own environment, you may want to create an OU for different use cases. For example, you may want a different OU for each different department within your organization. This would then allow you to apply different VDI-based policies to each OU, for example, a particular department might use the high-end graphics, which would mean that PCoIP would need to be configured to deliver a richer end-user experience over that of a standard office user; or it could be a policy specific to LAN users, whereby the policy governs the behavior based on the available bandwidth of the network. In the example lab, an OU called Horizon View Desktops has been created, to which the polices are going to be applied. Creating Group Policy Objects (GPO) for Horizon View Now that you have created an OU for your virtual desktop machines, you can create group policy objects to link to that OU. In the example lab, the policy is called Horizon View Virtual Desktop Policy: 1. To start the configuration, click the Start menu button, or press the Windows key, and then click on the Administrative Tools icon to launch the admin tools: [ 3 ] Fine-Tuning the End-User Experience 2. You will now see the Administrative Tools screen displayed, as shown in the following screenshot: [ 4 ] Chapter 1 3. Double-click on Group Policy Management (1) to launch the Group Policy Management configuration screen, as shown in the following screenshot: 4. Expand out the folders for Forest:pvolab.com, Domains, and then pvolab.com. Click and highlight the Horizon View Desktops OU (2), and then right-click on it. From the contextual menu that appears, click the option for Create a GPO in this domain, and Link it here… (3). [ 5 ] Fine-Tuning the End-User Experience You will now see the New GPO dialog box, as shown in the following screenshot: 5. In the Name box (4), type in a name for the new policy. In the example lab, this is called Horizon View Virtual Desktop Policy. 6. Click OK once you have entered the name for the GPO. You will now return to the Group Policy Management configuration page, with the newly created policy displayed. In the following section, we will add the Horizon View ADM templates to the policy. Importing and applying Horizon View ADM templates Now that you have created a policy, the next step is to edit it and add the ADM templates so that you can start to configure the various policy options: 1. To do this, from the Group Policy Management configuration page, highlight the Horizon View Desktops OU (1), click and select the policy (2), and then right- click. From the contextual menu, click on Edit (3). [ 6 ] Chapter 1 You will now see the Group Policy Management Editor configuration page, as shown in the following screenshot: 2. Expand the Computer Configuration and Policies folders. Then, click and select the Administrative Templates: Policy definitions option, right-click, and then from the contextual menu, select the option for Add/Remove Templates… (5). [ 7 ] Fine-Tuning the End-User Experience You will now see the Add/Remove Templates dialog box, as shown in the following screenshot: 3. Click the Add… button (6). You will now see a Windows Explorer dialog box from where you can navigate to and choose the templates that you want to add, as shown in the following screenshot: [ 8 ] Chapter 1 4. Navigate to the location at which you saved the ADM template files. In the example lab, they are in the shared software folder on the file server. Once located, select all the .adm files, with the exception of the ViewPM.adm template. We will cover this template in Online Chapter, Managing User Environments in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure available at h t t p s : / / w w w . p a c k t p u b . c o m / s i t e s / d e f a u l t / f i l e s / d o w n l o a d s / 5 6 5 7 _ M a n a g i n g U s e r E n v i r o n m e n t s i n V i r t u a l D e s k t o p I n f r a s t r u c t u r e . p d f, as this policy template provides options for managing user profiles. 5. Once selected, click the Open button. You will now see the templates that will be added in the Add/Remove Templates box, as shown in the following screenshot: 6. Click the Close button when you have selected all the templates and to return to the Group Policy Management Editor screen. You can now check that the templates have been added. 7. Under the Horizon View Virtual Desktop Policy, expand out Computer Configuration (7), and then the folders for Policies (8), Administrative Templates Policy definitions (9), and then Classic Administrative Templates (ADM) (10). [ 9 ] Fine-Tuning the End-User Experience In the right-hand pane, you will see all the different policy categories (11), as shown in the following screenshot: In the example lab, we are going to add all the templates to the one policy just to illustrate the various different options.