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Using Windows Server 2008 R2 as a desktop OS in VMware Horizon View

Francesco 04/03/2014 Guides No Comments

 

Starting with Horizon View 5.3 VMware officially support Windows 2008 R2 (Data center edition) as a Desktop operating system for clients. This feature is disabled by default. This post want to cover the necessary steps to enable this feature.

In order to choose the Windows 2008 R2 from the available VMs, you must perform the following steps:
  1. Manually set an attribute in View LDAP to make View Administrator treat Windows Server 2008 R2 as a supported operating system for View desktops.
  2. Explicitly install View Agent in desktop mode on the Windows Server 2008 R2 virtual machines that you plan to use as desktop sources or templates. If you do not perform this step, View Agent configures the Windows Server 2008 R2 virtual machines as terminal server sources.
To make View Administrator treat Windows 2008 R2 as a supported operating system for View desktops:
  1. On your View Connection Server host, start the ADSI Edit utility and configure the connection settings as in figure.
  2. ADSIEdit_connection_settings
  3. Navigate to the object DC=vdi,DC=vmware,DC=int > OU=Properties > OU=Global > CN=Common.ADSIEdit_properties
  4. In the Attribute Editor for the DC=vdi,DC=vmware,DC=int > OU=Properties > OU=Global > CN=Common object, set the pae-EnableServerInDesktopMode attribute to 1.
  5. Schermata 2014-02-28 alle 17.46.15
Important: After this feature is enabled, infrastructure virtual machines might appear in View Administrator as potential desktop sources. Make sure that you do not use infrastructure virtual machines in desktop pools or as templates. You can disable this feature by setting the pae-EnableServerInDesktopMode attribute to 0.
 
To create a Windows Server 2008 R2 virtual machine and install View Agent in desktop mode:
  1. Verify that the Remote Desktop Services role is not installed.
  2. Create a Windows Server 2008 R2 (Data center edition) virtual machine and configure it as you would configure a Windows 7 virtual machine.Important: You must select the VMXNET 3 network adapter for the virtual machine. Selecting the default E1000 adapter can cause customization timeout errors on the virtual machine.
  3. Install Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1).Note: If you do not install SP1, an error occurs when you try to install View Agent in the virtual machine.
  4. Install the Windows Server 2008 R2 Desktop Experience feature.Note: If you do not install this feature, VMware Horizon View HTML Blast access does not work correctly. Desktop_Experience_feature
  5. Install View Agent with the VDM_FORCE_DESKTOP_AGENT flag set to 1.Note: You can set this flag as a system environment variable or pass it as an argument to the View Agent installer. For example:VMware-viewagent-x86_64-5.3.0-xxxxx.exe /v”VDM_FORCE_DESKTOP_AGENT=1″
    If you do not perform this step correctly, you cannot select components and you must explicitly register the virtual machine with View Connection Server.VMware_viewagent
  6. Select the components to install.
 
Enabling Windows Aero on Windows Server 2008 R2 Desktops
 
When you create or edit a Windows Server 2008 R2 desktop pool, you can configure 3D graphics rendering for your desktops. The 3D Renderer setting offers a Software option that allows users to run Windows Aero on the desktops in the pool.
To use Windows Aero on a Windows Server 2008 R2 desktop, you must manually enable the Desktop Experience feature and start the Themes service on the desktop after you enable 3D support for the pool.
  1. In the Windows Server 2008 R2 virtual machine, select Start > Administrative Tools > Server Manager to launch Server Manager.
  2. In Server Manager, select Features in the left pane and click Add Features in the Features Pane.
  3. On the Select Features page, select Desktop Experience.
  4. Click Install to install the Desktop Experience feature.Note: You might need to restart the operating system.
  5. Select Start > Administrative Tools > Services.
  6. In the Services list, click Themes.
  7. In the Startup Type list, select Automatic and click Apply.
  8. Under Status, click Start and click OK.
  9. Theme_service
  10. To configure an Aero theme, right-click anywhere on the desktop, select Personalize, and select the Aero theme.
 
Unsupported Features in Windows Server 2008 R2 Desktops
These features and capabilities are not supported for Windows 2008 R2 Server desktops in VMware Horizon View 5.3:
  • Smart card SSO on Windows Server 2008 R2
  • Virtual printing (ThinPrint)
  • Multimedia redirection (MMR)
  • Unified Communications (UC) APIs
  • Microsoft Lync 2013 SDK
  • View Persona Management
  • vCenter Operations Manager functionality
  • Local-mode desktops
  • Not Supported for linked clone (Sysprep)
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About The Author

fbonetti

I'm currently working as a Solution Architect, Sr. System Engineer, Virtualization Specialist at RTC S.p.A. where I'm mainly focused in the design, implementation and support of the virtual infrastructures. My skills include storage, backup, disaster recovery, network and firewall.

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