I ran into some permission issues while installing VMware View agent on base Windows XP image. If you are unable to install VMware view agent then you are definitely missing some of the requirements

For installing VMware View 3 agent on Windows XP/Vista virtual machines running on VMware ESX make sure you have latest VMware tools installed. While installing VMware View 3 agent on Windows XP virtual machine (vm) i received error “you need administrative privileges to install this software” even though i was logged in as Active directory domain administrator. This is more of Windows Security issue where vmware view active directory domain administrator accounts needs to be added to Windows XP local administrator group to install the VMware View agent software. If you cannot install VMware View 3 agent on Windows XP vm because of same error then try adding active directory administrator account to local administrator group.

1. Login in to Windows XP virtual machines using local administrator account on Windows XP vm.

2. Open Windows computer management by running compmgmt.msc from Run

3. Select Groups under Local users and Groups and add VMware View administrator active directory account. This VMware view administrator account has to be same account you use for VMware View Manager server.

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Linked clone desktops are virtual desktops that can be created using VMware View Composer from a single base image and use considerably less storage space than non linked clone desktops.

Because each linked clone virtual machine is cloned from a common source, desktops in the pool can be deployed extremely rapidly and simultaneously upgraded, patched, and maintained without affecting user data. Linked clone.

The VMware View Composer feature enables View Manager Administrators to rapidly clone and deploy multiple desktops from a single centralized base image, called a Parent VM. Once the desktops have been created they remain indirectly linked to a snapshot residing on the Parent VM. For using Linked clone technology you must install VMware View Composer agents on the parent virtual machine when you install VMware View agent on XP/Vista desktop.

As shown in picture above to generated linked clone VM’s VMware View composer first create a repica, replicas are created from base image (Parent VMware Virtual machine) and snapshot taken off that parent VM.These steps will appear as tasks under vCenter client when you use VMware View Manager to deploy Linked clone Virtual desktops.

In my lab environment i am successfully running Windows vista virtual desktops using VMware View linked clone feature, this is really one of the great feature i have ever seen in virtualization product. VMware View helped me save lot of disk storage space in deploying VMware virtual desktop using linked clone feature on my EMC SAN.

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If you are planning to install VMware View 3 in your environment then you have two choices .First you can use VMware View 3 Composer with existing VMware Infrastructure environment or if you are planning to do new VMware infrastructure then you can install VMware View composer with it by purchasing VMware View 3 Premier Edition. Once you have completed VMware ESX 3 installation, vCenter and VMware View 3 Connection Server installation you need to setup View Composer server. When i was working on VMware View setup i was wondering where i need to install View Composer server. So Let me try to answer this question on where to install VMware View Composer?

Where to install View Composer

VMware View 3 composer server can only be installed on vCenter (VMware Virtual infrastructure ) server, and requires the use of a Microsoft SQL database. You need to create new  MS-SQL database instance and a new Data Source Name (DSN) which connects to VMware View database. You have to make sure that you are not configuring VMware View Composer to use the vCenter DSN. This would result in View Composer using the same database as used by vCenter serve, which  is not supported . You can use the same MS-SQL database server as vCenter, but you need to setup separate database instance with separate DSN only to be used by View Composer server.I did find the one and only one documentation link on VMware View 3 at VMware site, here is the documenstation link on VMware View 3 Server installation and administration that i have used to setup VMware View 3 :

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I will do my best to simplfy this for you .To get started lets take a case where  you are already running VMware Infrastructure in your environment and intesreted to purchase VMware View 3 for virtual desktop deployments ,then you only need to purchase VMware View 3 Enterprise edition which costs $50/concurrent desktop (ccd) .VMware View 3 Enterprise edition will give you ability to use VMware View Manager (Connection server – a broker  and a web console) , to manage virtual desktops, you would need to install VMware connection software on existing VMware vCenter Server (formerly VMware virtualCenter Server) . However if you are looking for  application virtualization and you have plans to deploy large number of virtual desktop then you should seriouly look into buying Premier version of VMware View 3, which comes with ThinAPP and linked clone technology offered by VMware View Composer , costs $150 ccd.

If you are not running VMware Infrastructure in your IT environment and planning to get your hands on VMware View 3 then it would cost $150 ccd for buying VMware View Enterprise editon and $250 for Premier edition. Those who are new to VMware they have to decide whether they want Application virtualization and Linked cloned technology to buy Premier or less expensive Vmware View 3 Enterpriser version. For large virtual desktop deployments buying Premier VMware View 3 really make much sense because by using VMware View Composer Linked Clone technology to create virtual desktops from a single master image they can save up to 70 percent less storage space.. that’s a huge saving on SAN expense.

Here is a link on VMware website for information on License pricing and features you will get with VMware View 3

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VMware View 3 is not only a renamed product but newly  added technologies like VMware View Composer, VMware ThinAPP, Offline desktop, Unified Access, Virtual Printing and virtual desktop multimedia redirection really makes VMware View 3 a  enterprise-class solution available in today’s market.The VMware View  Composer is a new product which  uses Linked Clone technology to create virtual desktops rapidly from a baseline desktop (XP/Vista) image while consuming up to 70 percent less storage space. The VMware View composer comes with VMware View 3 premier Editon, i am going to talk about VMware View 3 product offering later on.The VMware View 3 Composer most outstanding feature is automated image preparation and provisioning technology which take only seconds and are centrally controlled by VMware View Manager. In addition, View Composer can reduce management costs by enabling IT to update thousands of individual virtual desktops by simply updating the single master image with a patch or application update and then applying the changes to each desktop cloned from the master image. View Composer provides this one-to-many image updating while preserving user data, settings, and preferences so patching is seamless to end users.

If you are new to VMware View 3 then you should look into VMware View 3 product offering.VMware View 3 is a family of products available in two editions:

• VMware View 3, Enterprise Edition: includes VMware Infrastructure Enterprise Edition and VMware View Manager 3, a flexible desktop management server enabling IT administrators to quickly provision and tightly control user access.
• VMware View 3, Premier Edition: includes VMware Infrastructure Enterprise Edition, VMware View Manager 3, VMware ThinApp for agentless application virtualization and VMware View Composer, a new product that enables IT staff to create multiple virtual desktops from a single image, increasing the speed of provisioning desktops and reducing storage requirements.

If you are currently running VMware Infrastructure Enterpirse in your environment then deploying VMware View 3 gets much easier because you can use existing VMware ESX hosts to create pool of virtual desktops and VMware vCenter server (formely VMware virtual center) to setup VMware View 3 Composer server. The only thing you will need to setup is VMware connection server (broker) that runs on Windows 2003 server, you can setup  VMware View 3 connection server on VMware ESX virtual machine (vm) or on physical servers.

If you want to try new VMware View 3 then VMware has 60 days trial program, here is the link for VMware View 3 trial offer :

Try  VMware View 3 for 60 days .

In VMware View 3 trial program you will get 60 days license for following products

VMware View Manager 3 with Composer and Offline Desktop for 100 VM’s

VMware ESX 3.5

VMware vCenter Server

VMware ThinApp 4.x Packager

VMware Workstation 6 (Windows)

In Next couple of days i will be deploying VMware View 3 in my lab and post my experience here. stay tuned.

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Still not convinced , i am not gonna force you to buy this book, but hey you wouldn’t mind reading it for free, off course not , no body dislike Free stuff. I am attaching Free PDF version of VMware ESX Server in the Enterprise Planning and Securing Virtualization server Book here on my site. Enjoy and you want to Buy it please come back to my site and as a favour you can buy it from here.

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Steps to enable HA by command line in VMware ESX host:

1. Login as root into ESX host using ssh :

2. Run service restart on ESX host for enabling HA:

One VMware management service restarts you can re-enable HA back

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Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate
Price: USD 272.48

25 used & new available from USD 266.95

Last week while working doing new VMware View setup i was deploying some Windows XP desktops running as VMware ESX guest , i noticed some weirdness.

I received this error when i was deploying Windows XP workstation from VMware Virtual Center :

A general error occured : Failed to create journal File provider

Strangely enough i created several desktops before but when i was working on fresh Windows XP VMware virtual desktop deployment it failed when i tried to power-on the VMware virtual desktop.Looking closely into the error message it appeared to me that something is wrong on VMware ESX host server where /var/log filesystem uses journaling . The /var/log file system on VMWare ESX stores all log related to alerts, monitoring and all operations related to VMware guest OS.

So i logged onto the esx server using ssh from my Putty terminal. By running a quick df -h on all filesystems , i noticed /var/log was 100% , to me that definitely sounds wrong.I removed some older archived kernel alert files to free up some space and then Jumped back onto my Virtual Center Console . As soon as i powered-on the Windows XP VMware guest it worked very well without any error message. So if you are getting this errror “

A general error occurred :Failed to create journal File provider” ,

then look into /var/log filesystem on VMware ESX host for disk space.

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VMware launched First Free, Open-source VMware View desktop Linux client. On Feb. 03 VMware announced Free Open-Source VMware View client download availability. In December 08, VMware released new version of VMware desktop Infrastructure now called VMware View which allows users to access desktop, laptop and VMware virtual desktops through web browser or by installing VMware View Client. VMware View client was only available for Microsoft Windows users and there wasn’t any client available for Mac OS X and Linux users, since then lot of VMware users complained about releasing VMware View client for Linux and Mac OS X.

Finally VMware listened to their customers valuable advice and released VMware View Open clients for Linux that can be run on all Linux distributions including – Red Hat, Novell Suse Enterprise, CentOS, Fedora and Ubuntu Linux. VMware is facing strong completion from Citrix who offers their own Desktop virtualization solution which is pretty attractive to customers who are looking to bring unified virtual desktop solution into their IT environment, Citrix virtual desktop can be  accessed from any operating system – Linux, UNIX, Windows and Mac OS X because Citrix virtual desktop client uses own proprietary protocol called ICA (Independent computing Architecture) .VMware announcement of free VMware View Linux client is smart move for VMware, also i heard from reliable sources that VMware Mac OS client is underway that is going to be released pretty soon. These new VMware client releases (Linux and Mac OS X)  will put VMware View ahead of Citrix desktop offering.

VMware View Open Client is available under GNU public License as free downloads . You can download VMware View Open Linux client from Google code.

Free Linux VMware View downloads

Download VMware View 2.1.1-144385 for Debian

http://vmware-view-open-client.googlecode.com/files/VMware-view-open-client_2.1.1-144835_i386.deb

Download VMware View 2.1.1-144385 for Suse Linux Enterprise Thin Client

http://vmware-view-open-client.googlecode.com/files/VMware-view-open-client-lite-2.1.1-144835.i386.rpm

Download VMware View 2.1.1-144385 binary RPM for CentOS, Fedora, RHEL 3/4/5 Linux

http://vmware-view-open-client.googlecode.com/files/VMware-view-open-client-2.1.1-144835.i386.rpm

Download VMware View 2.1.1-144385 binary in tar format

http://vmware-view-open-client.googlecode.com/files/VMware-view-open-client-2.1.1-144835.tar.gz

Download VMware View 2.1.1-144385 Source to compile on Linux platforms

http://vmware-view-open-client.googlecode.com/files/VMware-view-open-client-source-2.1.1-144835.tar.gz

For installing VMware View Linux client installation instructions are available on VMware View open client Wiki.VMware View Linux client comes with ability to create secure tunnel using SSL. The VMware View Linux client also supports two factor authentication with RSA SecurID and full command line interface.However VMware view Linux client is missing USB redirection, Multiple desktop sessions and Multimedia redirection features.This new release of VMware View Linux client is compatible with VMware Virtual Desktop Manager (VDM) 2.0, 2.1, and VMware View Manager 3.0.

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VMware View Linux client installation on Linux distributions requires several package dependencies if you are compiling the source code. You can download the VMware view Linux client source tarball from google code and find more information on VMware View Linux client Wiki. I have installed the VMware View client on RHEL 5 using the RPM Package. On RHEL 5 Linux installing the VMware View Linux client requires the rdesktop package, if you don’t have rdesktop package installed on Red Hat enterprise Linux then you will get error on installing rdesktop package.

1. You can install rdesktop package on RHEL 5 using yum command to resolve the dependencies :

[root@google-labs tmp]# yum install rdesktop
Loaded plugins: rhnplugin, security
Setting up Install Process
Parsing package install arguments
Resolving Dependencies
–> Running transaction check
—> Package rdesktop.i386 0:1.4.1-6 set to be updated
–> Finished Dependency Resolution

Dependencies Resolved
==========================================================================================
Package          Arch                            Version                       Repository            Size
==========================================================================================
Installing:
rdesktop        i386                              1.4.1-6                  rhel-i386-server-5   117 k

Transaction Summary
==========================================================================================
Install 1 Package(s)
Update 0 Package(s)
Remove 0 Package(s)

Total download size: 117 k
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
rdesktop-1.4.1-6.i386.rpm
Running rpm_check_debug
Running Transaction Test
Finished Transaction Test
Transaction Test Succeeded
Running Transaction
Installing : rdesktop [1/1]

Installed: rdesktop.i386 0:1.4.1-6
Complete!

2. Install the VMware View Linux client

[root@google-labs tmp]# rpm -ivh VMware-view-open-client-2.1.1-144835.i386.rpm
Preparing… ########################################### [100%]
1:VMware-view-open-client########################################### [100%]

3. Once VMware Linux client is installed , run the VMware view command :

#./vmware-view

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