VMware Horizon View Environment Install Guide

Transcription

1 VMware Horizon View Environment Install Guide This document provides high-level guidance for installing Layer8 software agents in VMware virtualized desktop and virtualized app environments. It should be viewed alongside the standard Layer8 Advanced Installation Guide. Version: 3.5

2 Contents 1. Deploying Layer8 to Horizon View Desktop Pools 2. Deploying Layer8 to Horizon View Application Pools 3. Deploying Layer8 with ThinApps Layer8 Horizon View Install Guide v3.5 Page 2

3 1. Deploying Layer8 to Horizon View Desktop Pools Layer8 supports all variants of VMware Horizon View; VDI Desktop Pools, Application Pools and ThinApps. The following details the tested method for deploying Layer8 to a Desktop Pool environment: As per the standard installation guide, deploy Layer8 to the relevant VMware template as you would do with other software. This can be done using either the manual install script from a network share, or via AD Group Policy/SCCM. It is also possible to install the Layer8 software after an image has been deployed to the user. This image shows a Windows 8.1 client using the VMware Horizon Client connected to a VDI workstation, which is itself running Windows 8.1. The Chrome browser has been started which shows a BBC news article. The Layer8 agent is running in the background, measuring Active and Wait times for all applications, including Chrome: Layer8 Horizon View Install Guide v3.5 Page 3

4 This image shows a raw event generated by Layer8 for the Chrome application being used by the Horizon end-user: The fields of interest that have been highlighted are: LogonID= horizon\administrator SessionName= console ExePath= c:\program files (x86)\google\chrome\application\chrome.exe WindowsTitle= Home BBC News Google Chrome ActiveTime=71.40 (seconds) The take-away here is that User Experience is measured in exactly the same way as other systems, although the controlling client in this case is the VMware Horizon View Client. In this example the PcoIP protocol was selected to be used in the Horizon View Client. Layer8 Horizon View Install Guide v3.5 Page 4

5 2. Deploying Layer8 to Horizon View Application Pools This variant of deployment allows users to access hosted applications without needing an entire desktop to be delivered to them. The following details the tested method for deploying Layer8 to a Horizon View Application Pool: As per the standard installation guide, deploy Layer8 software to the relevant RDS Host(s) as you would do with other software. This can be done using either the manual install script from a network share, or via AD Group Policy/SCCM. This has the effect of installing the Layer8 Forwarder Service (dcac.exe), which will run as the Local System account as normal. A user-context Layer8 User Experience Meter (uxmtr.exe) will also run for each user logged onto the shared server, courtesy of the login script which runs the User Experience Meter Agent. User Experience will be measured for each user separately, even though there is no desktop visible to the end-user. o Create a login script (deployed via Group Policy or similar) that runs uxmtr.exe upon login, an example follows: IF EXIST "C:\Program Files (x86)\logfiller\layer8\uxmtr.exe" START "" "C:\Program Files (x86)\logfiller\layer8\uxmtr.exe" The requirement for the login script is to ensure that the uxmtr.exe process will run for a given user, whilst no desktop environment is being presented to the user something that occurs automatically otherwise. NOTE: Windows Server 2012 R2 introduces a 5 minute Logon Script Delay by default. In order for your Logon Script to run immediately after Logon you will need to disable this: GPME -> Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System -> Group Policy Layer8 Horizon View Install Guide v3.5 Page 5

6 This image shows a Windows 8.1 client using the VMware Horizon Client to connect to a Horizon Application Pool which has both the Calculator and Google Chrome applications configured as Entitlements on the VMware Horizon Connection Server. The User Richard has launched the Calculator application, which is being delivered via a Windows 2012 R2 RDS Host. (The RDS Host has both the Horizon Agent and the Layer8 agent installed) This image shows a raw event generated by Layer8 for the Calculator application being used by Richard, the end-user: The fields of interest that have been highlighted are: LogonID= horizon\richard SessionName= vmware-rds#1 ExeName= calc.exe ActiveTime=75.17 (seconds) The take-away here is that User Experience is measured in exactly the same way for hosted applications, although the controlling client in this case is the VMware Horizon View Client. Layer8 also detects that this is a VMware-specific RDS session, meaning that intelligent metrics can be gathered in the Layer8 dashboards as a result. Layer8 Horizon View Install Guide v3.5 Page 6

7 This image shows the Windows Task Manager running on the back-end RDS Host specifically all the processes running for Richard to serve the Windows Calculator application. Note the uxmtr (32bit) process the Layer8 User Experience agent is running alongside to gather the UX metrics during the Horizon View session: Layer8 Horizon View Install Guide v3.5 Page 7

8 3. Deploying Layer8 with ThinApps No special configuration of Layer8 is required to support ThinApps. Follow the standard Layer8 installation guide instructions. This image shows a Windows 8.1 desktop which has had Notepad++ delivered to it as a ThinApp This image shows a raw event generated by Layer8 for the Notepadd++ application being used by the end-user: The fields of interest that have been highlighted are: ExePath= c:\program files (x86)\notepad++ (vmware thinapp)\notepad++.exe WindowTitle= *new 0 Notepadd++ [Administrator] ActiveTime=57.34 (seconds) The take-away here is that User Experience is measured in exactly the same way for ThinApps, even when the controlling client is Horizon View. Layer8 will measure the User Experience where the application is running, regardless of the deployment method or client access technology used. Layer8 Horizon View Install Guide v3.5 Page 8