If you’re using Azure AD, and have Hybrid Azure AD joined machines, special considerations must be made with non-persistent VDI workstations and VMs. This applies to Instant Clones on VMware Horizon.
Due to the nature of non-persistent VDI, machines are created and destroyed on the fly with a user getting an entirely new workstation on every login.
Hybrid Azure AD joined workstations not only register on the local domain Active Directory, but also register on the Azure AD (Azure Active Directory).
The Problem
If you have Hybrid Azure AD configured and machines performing the Hybrid Join, this will cause numerous machines to be created on Azure AD, in a misconfigured and/or unregistered state. When the non-persistent instant clone is destroyed and re-created, it will potentially have the same computer name as a previous machine, but will be unable to utilize the existing registration.
This conflict state could potentially make your Azure AD computer OU a mess.
VMware Horizon 8 version 2303 now supports Hybrid Azure AD joined non-persistent instant clones using Azure AD Connect. If you are using an older version, or using a different platform for non-persistent VDI, you’ll need to reference the solution below.
The Solution
Please see below for a few workarounds and/or solutions:
Utilize login/logoff scripts to Azure AD join and unjoin on user login/logoff. You may have to create a cleanup script to remove old/stale records from Azure AD as this can and will create numerous computer accounts on Azure AD.
In my environment I elected to remove the non-persistent computer OU from Azure AD Connect sync, and it’s been working great. It also keeps my Azure Active Directory nice and clean.
After upgrading from Horizon 8 2006 to Horizon 8 2012, audio stopped working. When connected to a VDI session, audio is not being passed through to the client.
The Problem
Audio simply does not work. Using the Chrome and multimedia redirection, audio will work, but this is most likely due to the fact the client is handling multimedia.
The Fix
Removing the audio drivers (forcing uninstall/deleting the audio driver) and re-installing the agent does not correct this.
Uninstalling and reinstalling the Horizon Client does not correct this.
Audio does function on the Horizon Android client so I isolated this to the Windows client.
After further troubleshooting, I opened the Windows Sound mixer (Right click on the audio icon in the system tray, select “Open Volume Mixer”). I noticed that not only was the VMware Horizon client at 0, but it was also muted.
VMware Horizon View Client Audio Mixer
Unmuting this and raising the volume slider resolved the issue.
In this post I’m going to explain what VDI is in the most simplest form and how you can benefit from using virtual desktop infrastructure (virtualized desktops) in your EUC strategy.
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
VDI standards for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure. Think of your existing physical desktop infrastructure (your desktop computers, also called end user computing), now virtualize those desktop computers in a virtual environment much like your servers are, and you now have Virtual Desktop Infrastructure.
End User Computing (EUC)
Traditionally end user computing has been delivered by means of deploying physical (real) computers to each user in your office (and possibly remote users). This brings with it the cost of the systems, the time/cost to maintain the systems and hardware, and the management overhead of maintaining those systems.
By utilizing VDI, you can significantly reduce the cost, management, and maintenance required to maintain your EUC infrastructure.
What is VDI
When you implement a VDI solution, you virtualize your desktops and workstations on a virtualization server, much like your servers are probably already virtualized. Users will connect via software, a thin client, or a zero client to establish the session to transmit and receive the video, monitor, and keyboard of workstation that is virtualized.
This might sound familiar, like RDS (Remote Desktop Services). However, in an RDS environment numerous users share the same server and resources and access it un a multi-user fashion, whereas with VDI they are using a virtualized Windows instance dedicated to them running an OS like Windows 10.
How does VDI work
Using the software, thin client, or zero client, a user establishes a session to a connection broker, which then passes it along to the Virtual Machine running on the server. The Virtual Machine encodes and compresses the graphics and then connects the users keyboard and mouse to the VM.
What’s even cooler, is that remote devices like printers and USB devices can also be forwarded on to the VM, giving the user the feeling that the computer that’s running on the server, is actually right in front of them.
And if that isn’t cool enough, in an environment where 3D accelerated and high-performance graphics are required, you can use special graphics cards and GPUs to provide those high end graphics remotely to users. Technically you could game, do engineering work, video and graphics editing, and more.
Why use VDI
So your desktops are now virtualized. This means you no longer need to maintain numerous physical PCs and the hardware that is inside of them.
You can deploy a standardized golden image that instantly clones as users log in to give them a pre-configured and maintained environment. This means you manage 1 or few desktops which can get deployed to hundreds of users, instead of managed hundreds of desktops.
If a thin client or zero client fails you can simply re-deploy a new unit to the user, which are very inexpensive, and reduces downtime.
In the event of a disaster, your VDI EUC environment would be integrated in to your disaster recovery solution, meaning it would be very easy to get users back up and running.
One of the best parts is that the environment can be used inside of your office and externally, allowing you to provide a smooth experience for remote users. This made business continuity a breeze for organizations that need to deploy remote users or “Work from home” users on the fly.
The cost of VDI
The cost to roll out a VDI solution varies depending on the number of users, types of users, and functionality you’d like.
Typically, VDI is a no-brainer for large organizations and enterprises due to the cost savings on hardware, management, and maintaining the solution vs traditional desktops. But smaller organizations can also benefit from VDI, examples being organizations that use expensive desktops and/or laptops for uses such as engineering, software development, and other uses that require high-cost workstations.
One last thought I want to leave you with; imagine an environment with 50-100 systems, and all the wasted power and CPU cycles when users are just browsing the internet. In a virtual environment you can over-allocate resources, which means you can identify user trends and only purchase the hardware you need to based on observed workloads. This can significantly reduce the cost of hardware, especially for software development, engineering, and other high performance computing.
If you’re like me and use an older Nvidia GRID K1 or K2 vGPU video card for your VDI homelab, you may notice that when using VMware Horizon that VMware Blast h264 encoding is no longer being offloaded to the GPU and is instead being encoded via the CPU.
The Problem
Originally when an environment was configured with an Nvidia GRID K1 or K2 card, not only does the card provide 3D acceleration and rendering, but it also offloads the VMware BLAST h264 stream (the visual session) so that the CPU doesn’t have to. This results in less CPU usage and provides a streamlined experience for the user.
This functionality was handled via NVFBC (Nvidia Frame Buffer Capture) which was part of the Nvidia Capture SDK (formerly known as GRID SDK). This function allowed the video card to capture the video frame buffer and encode it using NVENC (Nvidia Encoder).
Ultimately after spending hours troubleshooting, I learned that NVFBC has been deprecated and is no longer support, hence why it’s no longer functioning. I also checked and noticed that tools (such as nvfbcenable) were no longer bundled with the VMware Horizon agent. One can assume that the agent doesn’t even attempt to check or use this function.
Symptoms
Before I was aware of this, I noticed that while 3D Acceleration and graphics were functioning, I was experiencing high CPU usage. Upon further investigation I noticed that my VMware BLAST sessions were not offloading h264 encoding to the video card.
VMware Horizon Performance Tracker with NVidia GRID K1
You’ll notice above that under the “Encoder” section, the “Encoder Name” was listed as “h264 4:2:0”. Normally this would say “NVIDIA NvEnc H264” (or “NVIDIA NvEnc HEVC” on newer cards) if it was being offloaded to the GPU.
Looking at a VMware Blast session (Blast-Worker-SessionId1.log), the following lines can be seen.
You’ll notice it tries to load the proper functions, however it fails.
The Solution
Unfortunately the only solution is to upgrade to newer or different hardware.
The GRID K1 and GRID K2 cards have reached their EOL (End of Life) and are no longer support. The drivers are not being maintained or updated so I doubt they will take advantage of the newer frame buffer capture functions of Windows 10.
Newer hardware and solutions have incorporated this change and use a different means of frame buffer capture.
To resolve this in my own homelab, I plan to migrate to an AMD FirePro S7150x2.
In the ever-evolving world of IT and End User Computing (EUC), new technologies and solutions are constantly being developed to decrease costs, improve functionality, and help the business’ bottom line. In this pursuit, as far as end user computing goes, two technologies have emerged: Hosted Desktop Infrastructure (HDI), and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). In this post I hope to explain the differences and compare the technologies.
We’re at a point where due to the low cost of backend server computing, performance, and storage, it doesn’t make sense to waste end user hardware and resources. By deploying thin clients, zero clients, or software clients, we can reduce the cost per user for workstations or desktop computers, and consolidate these on the backend side of things. By moving moving EUC to the data center (or server room), we can reduce power requirements, reduce hardware and licensing costs, and take advantage of some cool technologies thanks to the use of virtualization and/or Storage (SANs), snapshots, fancy provisioning, backup and disaster recovery, and others.
See below for the video, or read on for the blog post!
And it doesn’t stop there, utilizing these technologies minimizes the resources required and spent on managing, monitoring, and supporting end user computing. For businesses this is a significant reduction in costs, as well as downtime.
What is Hosted Desktop Infrastructure (HDI) and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
Many IT professionals still don’t fully understand the difference between HDI and VDI, but it’s as sample as this: Hosted Desktop Infrastructure runs natively on the bare metal (whether it’s a server, or SoC) and is controlled and provided by a provisioning server or connection broker, whereas Virtual Desktop Infrastructure virtualizes (like you’re accustomed to with servers) the desktops in a virtual environment and is controlled and provided via hypervisors running on the physical hardware.
Hosted Desktop Infrastructure (HDI)
As mentioned above, Hosted Desktop Infrastructure hosts the End User Computing sessions on bare metal hardware in your datacenter (on servers). A connection broker handles the connections from the thin clients, zero clients, or software clients to the bare metal allowing the end user to see the video display, and interact with the workstation instance via keyboard and mouse.
Pros:
Remote Access capabilities
Reduction in EUC hardware and cost-savings
Simplifies IT Management and Support
Reduces downtime
Added redundancy
Runs on bare metal hardware
Resources are dedicated and not shared, the user has full access to the hardware the instance runs on (CPU, Memory, GPU, etc)
Easily provide accelerated graphics to EUC instances without additional costs
Reduction in licensing as virtualization products don’t need to be used
Cons:
Limited instance count to possible instances on hardware
Scaling out requires immediate purchase of hardware
Some virtualization features are not available since this solution doesn’t use virtualization
Additional backup strategy may need to be implemented separate from your virtualized infrastructure
Example:
If you require dedicated resources for end users and want to be as cost-effective as possible, HDI is a great candidate.
An example HDI deployment would utilize HPE Moonshot which is one of the main uses for HPE Moonshot 1500 chassis. HPE Moonshot allows you to provision up to 180 OS instances for each HPE Moonshot 1500 chassis.
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure virtualizes the end user operating system instances exactly how you virtualize your server infrastructure. In VMware environments, VMware Horizon View can provision, manage, and maintain the end user computing environments (virtual machines) to dynamically assign, distribute, manage, and broker sessions for users. The software product handles the connections and interaction between the virtualized workstation instances and the thin client, zero client, or software client.
Pros:
Remote Access capabilities
Reduction in EUC hardware and cost-savings
Simplifies IT Management and Support
Reduces downtime
Added redundancy
Runs as a virtual machine
Shared resources (you don’t waste hardware or resources as end users share the resources)
Easy to scale out (add more backend infrastructure as required, don’t need to “halt” scaling while waiting for equipment)
Can over-commit (over-provision)
Backup strategy is consistent with your virtualized infrastructure
Capabilities such as VMware DRS, VMware HA
Cons:
Resources are not dedicated and are shared, users share the server resources (CPU, Memory, GPU, etc)
Extra licensing may be required
Extra licensing required for virtual accelerated graphics (GPU)
Example:
If you want to share a pool of resources, require high availability, and/or have dynamic requirements then virtualization would be the way to go. You can over commit resources while expanding and growing your environment without any discontinuation of services. With virtualization you also have access to technologies such as DRS, HA, and special Backup and DR capabilities.
Both technologies are great and have their own use cases depending on your business requirements. Make sure you research and weigh each of the options if you’re considering either technologies. Both are amazing technologies which will compliment and enhance your IT strategy.
In response to COVID 19, VMware has extended their VMware Horizon 7 trial offering up to 90 days and includes 100 users. This includes both VMware Horizon 7 On-Premise, as well as VMware Cloud on AWS.
This is great if you’re planning or about to implement and deploy VMware Horizon 7.
In it’s simplest form, Horizon 7 allows an organization to virtualize their end user computing. No more computers, no more desktops, only Zero clients and software clients. Not only does this streamline the end user computing experience, but it enables a beautiful remote access solution as well.
And Horizon isn’t limited to VDI… You can install the VMware Horizon Agent on a Physical PC so you can use VDI technologies like Blast Extreme to remote in to physical desktops at your office. It makes the perfect remote access solution. Give it a try today with an evaluation license!
In all my years assisting and providing support with VMware Horizon, one of the most common problems that customers report with their VDI implementations, is the VMware Horizon Blank Screen.
When a user is presented with a blank or black screen when using the VMware Horizon Client, the problem can be caused by a number of different things. In this post, I will address and provide solutions for some of the common issues that cause the VMware Horizon blank screen.
VMware Horizon Blank screen issue
This troubleshooting guide applies to VMware Horizon 8, VMware Horizon 7, as well as earlier versions of VMware Horizon.
VMware Horizon Blank Screen Causes
There’s a number of different causes of a blank or black screen when connecting and establishing a VDI session to Horizon View. Click on the item below to jump to that section of the post:
Now that we have a list, let’s dive in to each of these individually. Some of these will require you to do your own research and will only guide you, while other sections will include the full fix for the issue.
VMware Tools and Horizon Agent Installation Order
When deploying the VMware Horizon View agent, you are required to install the agent, along with VMware tools in a specific order. Failing to do so can cause problems, including a blank screen screen.
The installation order:
Install GPU/vGPU drivers (if needed)
Install VMware Tools Agent
Install the VMware Horizon Agent
Install the VMware User Environment Manager Agent (if needed)
Install the VMware App Volumes Agent (if needed)
It is important to also consider this when upgrading the agents as well. When upgrading VMware Tools, it is recommended to re-install the Horizon agent in versions up to and including Horizon 8 2103. As of Horizon 2106 and later, you no longer need to re-install the Horizon Agent when performing a VMware Tools upgrade.
Network ports are blocked (Computer Firewall, Network Firewall)
For the VMware Horizon agent to function properly, ports must be accessible through your firewall, whether it’s the firewall on the VM guest, client computer, or network firewall.
The following ports are required for the VMware Horizon Agent when connecting directly to a View Connection Server.
Destination
Network Protocol
Destination Port
Details
Horizon Connection Server
TCP
443
Login, authentication, and connection to the VMware Connection Server.
Horizon Agent
TCP
22443
Blast Extreme
UDP
22443
Blast Extreme
TCP
4172
PCoIP
UDP
4172
PCoIP
TCP
3389
RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol)
TCP
9427
Client Shared Drive redirection (CDR) and Multi-media redirection (MMR).
TCP
32111
USB Redirection (Optional), can be incorporated in to the Blast Extreme connection.
Network Ports Required for VMware Horizon View to View Connection Server
The following ports are required for the VMware Horizon Agent when connecting through a VMware Unified Access Gateway (UAG).
Destination
Network Protocol
Destination Port
Details
Unified Access Gateway
TCP
443
Login, authentication, and connection to the Unified Access Gateway. This port/connection can also carry tunneled RDP, client drive redirection, and USB redirection traffic.
TCP
4172
PCoIP via PCoIP Secure Gateway
UDP
4172
PCoIP via PCoIP Secure Gateway
UDP
443
Optional for Login traffic. Blast Extreme will attempt a UDP login if there are issues establishing a TCP connection.
TCP
8443
Blast Extreme via Blast Secure Gateway (High Performance connection)
UDP
8443
Blast Extreme via Blast Secure Gateway (Adaptive performance connection)
TCP
443
Blast Extreme via UAG port sharing.
Network Ports Required for VMware Horizon View to VMware Unified Access Gateway (UAG)
You’ll notice the ports that are required for Blast Extreme and PCoIP. If these are not open you can experience a blank screen when connecting to the VMware Horizon VDI Guest VM.
Certain types of IPS (Intrusion Prevention Service) can also intercept and block traffic. IPS may cause intermittent issues.
DNS Issues
While VMware Horizon View usually uses IP address for connectivity between the View Connection Server, guest VM, and client, I have seen times where DNS issues have stopped certain components from functioning properly.
It’s always a good idea to verify that DNS is functioning both internally and externally. DNS (forward and reverse) is required for VMware Horizon Linux guests VMs.
XDR, EDR, and AV Platform causing momentary blank screen at logon
When using an XDR (Extended Detection and Response), EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response), or special AV solution with non-persistent desktops, one may experience a momentary blank screen on user session logon. I have observed this with Sophos XDR as well as Cortex XDR, with blank screens varying from 10-30 seconds on user login.
Removal of the platform can reduce the momentary blank screen down to 1-5 seconds.
I highly recommend configuring and tweaking policies as much as possible to enhance and optimize your environment. There will always be a trade off of performance for security, and the decisions should be made by those in the organization who make cyber security related decisions.
Incorrectly configured Unified Access Gateway
A big offender when it comes to blank screens is an incorrectly configured VMWare Unified Access Gateway for VMware Horizon.
Sometimes, first-time UAG users will incorrectly configure the View Connection server and UAG.
When configuring a UAG, you must disable both “Blast Secure Gateway”, and “PCoIP Secure Gateway” on the View Connection Server, as the UAG will be handling this. See below.
Secure Gateway Settings on View Connection Server when used with UAG
Another regular issue is when admins misconfigure the UAG itself. There are a number of key things that must be configured properly. These are the values that should be populated on the UAG under Horizon Settings.
Connection Server URL
https://ConnectionServerIP:443
Connection Server URL Thumbprint
sha1=SSLTHUMPRINT (Thumbprint of the SSL certificate your View Connection Server is using)
PCOIP External URL
UAG-EXTERNALIP:4172
Blast External URL
UAG-InternetFQDN:443
Tunnel External URL
UAG-InternetFQDN:443
You must also have a valid SSL certificate installed under “TLS Server Certificate Settings”. I’d recommend applying it to both the admin and internal interface. This is a certificate that must match the FQDN (internal and external) of your UAG appliance.
Once you’re good, you’re green!
VMware Unified Access Gateway showing valid
You should always see green lights, all protocols should work, and the connections should run smooth. If not, troubleshoot.
GPU Driver Issue
When using a GPU with your VM for 3D graphics, make sure you adhere to the requirements of the GPU vendor, along with the VMware requirements.
Some vendors have display count, resolution, and other limits that when reached, cause Blast Extreme to fail.
An incorrectly installed driver can also cause issues. Make sure that there are no issues with the drivers in the “Device Manager”.
Blast Extreme log files can be found on the guest VM in the following directory.
C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware Blast\
Looking at these log files, you can find information that may pertain to the H.264 or display driver issues that will assist in troubleshooting.
When using GPUs such as Nvidia GRID and AMD MxGPU, it is recommended to disable the VMware SVGA 3D Driver and adapter inside of Device Manager after you install the applicable GPU drivers.
NVIDIA vGPU Issues
You may be experiencing issues related to the NVIDIA vGPU platform, either inside of the VM guest, or on the VMware ESXi host.
A corrupt VMware tools install, whether software or drivers can cause display issues. Make sure that the drivers (including the display driver) are installed and functioning properly.
It may be a good idea to completely uninstall VMware Tools and re-install.
If you’re experiencing display driver issues (such as a blank screen), before re-installing VMware Tools try forcibly removing the display driver.
Open “Device Manager”
Right click on the VMware Display adapter and open “Properties”
On the “Driver” tab, select “Uninstall”
Check the box for “Delete the driver software for this device”.
This will fully remove the VMware driver. Now re-install VMware Tools.
Make sure that if you are running 64-bit Windows in the VM then you install and use the 64-bit Horizon Agent.
You may experience issues with the “VMware Horizon Indirect Display Driver”. Some users have reported an error on this driver and issues loading it, resulting in a blank screen. To do this, I’d recommend forcibly uninstalling the driver and re-installing the Horizon Agent.
To forcibly remove the “VMware Horizon Indirect Display Driver”:
Open “Device Manager”
Right click on the “VMware Horizon Indirect Display Driver” and open “Properties”
On the “Driver” tab, select “Uninstall”
Check the box for “Delete the driver software for this device”.
Now proceed to uninstall and reinstall the Horizon View Agent.
When running the Horizon Agent on Horizon for Linux, make sure that forward and reverse DNS entries exist, and that DNS is functioning on the network where the Linux VM resides.
Also, as a reminder, it is recommended that you re-install the Horizon agent in versions up to and including Horizon 8 2103 after upgrading VMware Tools. As of Horizon 8 2106, you no longer need to re-install the Horizon Agent when performing a VMware Tools upgrade.
Video Settings (Video Memory (VRAM), Resolution, Number of Displays)
When experiencing video display issues or blank screens on VMware Horizon View, these could be associated with the guest VM’s memory, video memory (VRAM), display resolution, and number of displays.
vSphere Video RAM Configuration for VMware Horizon
If you do not have enough Video RAM (VRAM) allocated to the virtual machine and/or you have too many displays (multi-monitor), then you can experience the blank screen with Horizon.
Make sure you are adhering to the specifications put forth by VMware. Please see the following links for more information.
While this isn’t likely to cause a blank screen issue (it can though), it’s always a good idea to set your image to a lower resolution before snapping or converting to a template for deployment.
It’s a lot easier for the VMs to start using lower resolution and VRAM (Video Memory) and then increase to what’s needed, instead of starting at a crazy high resolution and then getting adjusted down.
I consider it a good practice to reduce the graphics resolution before creating and deploying the image to the desktop pools.
Protocol
When troubleshooting blank screens with VMware Horizon, you need to try to identify whether it’s specific to the guest VM, or if it’s associated with the connection protocol you’re using (and the route it takes whether through a Connection Server, or UAG).
Always try different protocols to see if the issue is associated with all, or one. Then try establishing connections and find if it’s isolated direct to the Connection Server, or through the UAG.
If the issue is with a specific protocol, you can view the protocol log files. If the issue is with the UAG, you can troubleshoot the UAG.
Log files can be found in the following directory:
C:\ProgramData\VMware\
HTTPS Proxy and redirection issues
If you are connecting through a network that does passive and/or transparent HTTPS scanning or uses a proxy server, you may experience issues with inability to connect, or blank screens.
You’ll need to modify your firewall or proxy to allow the VMware connection and open the required ports for VMware Horizon and create an exception not to touch or manipulate the VMware Horizon related traffic.
Login banner or disclaimer (PCoIP)
I haven’t seen or heard of this one in some time, but when using VMware Horizon with PCoIP, sessions can fail or show a blank screen when the legal disclaimer login banner is used on the Windows instance (Windows 7, Windows 10, or Windows 11).
It never stops surprising me how old some of the VMware Horizon View environments are that some businesses are running. VMware regularly updates, and releases new versions of VMware Horizon that resolve known issues and bugs in the software.
While it may be difficult, simply upgrading your VMware Horizon environment (VMware vSphere, View Connection Server, VMware Tools, VMware Horizon Agent) can often resolve many issues.
Blank Screen connecting to Physical PC running Horizon Agent
After troubleshooting these issues, you should be able to resolve the issue.
Conclusion
As you can see there are a number of different things that can cause Horizon View to show a blank screen on login. It’s always best to try to understand how the technology works, and establish where the failure points are.
Let me know if this helped you out, or if you find other reasons and feel I should add them to the list!
After installing the VMware Horizon Agent on a Physical PC, you may have noticed some issues with USB redirection, audio, and hardware redirection. These issues include not working, or not working in it’s entirety.
On a few occasions I’ve had readers reach out to inform me that they are experiencing these issues. Most recently a reader by the name of “Sascha” reached out and reported issues with audio, particularly the microphone not functioning or being redirected from the VMware Horizon View Client to the Physical PC.
The Fix
In Sascha’s case (along with the other readers), we troubleshot the issue and realized that in each and every case the problem was due to the use of a Windows 10 Profesional license being used. As per the VMware Horizon release notes, a Windows 10 Enterprise license must be used when installing the Horizon Agent on a Physical PC.
Once Sascha and the other users upgrades or installed a Windows 10 Enterprise license, the issues stopped immediately.
This is another reminder that you need an Windows 10 Enterprise license when installing the Horizon Agent on a Physical PC.
Looking to repurpose old PCs or laptops in to VDI Thin Clients (or Zero Clients)? Looking at implementing VDI but don’t have the budget for fancy Thin Clients or Zero Clients? Look no further! 10ZiG RepurpOS (also known as RPOS) allows you to repurpose PCs and laptops as VDI client endpoints.
You get all the power of a thin client, but built in to a piece of software that you can install on traditional x86 PC hardware. This means you don’t have to throw away semi-new hardware when rolling out your VDI deployment, it also means you can repurpose old hardware that was destined for recycling.
Read the post, or scroll down to watch the video!Please note that the screenshots may be a bit blurry since they were captured from the video recording.
The Software
10ZiG RepurpOS (RPOS) is built on Linux, similar to their NOS OS for Zero Clients. It install’s like an operating system on traditional x86 computer systems, and turns them in to a fully functioning Thin Client which can be used for VDI.
Pros of the Software
Easy installation
Installs on x86 hardware (PCs, Laptops)
Supports most VDI Technologies (VMware, Citrix, RDP/VDA)
You can also contact me (or 10ZiG) for a free 10ZiG Repurposing Trial.
Demonstration
Below you’ll see a demonstration video of the 10ZiG RepurpOS (RPOS) in action, followed further below by a text review of the software.
10ZiG RepurpOS (RPOS) Software Video Demonstration
The continuation of this blog post features the different segments of the video.
Setup and Configuration
Getting started is easy… You’ll be provided with a compressed archive that contains an ISO file (which you can burn to CD), or you can use an executable provided that will write the ISO to a USB stick, so you can boot the computer from that.
After booting the installer, you’ll see a very simple interface to get started.
10ZiG RepurpOS (RPOS) Installer
You’ll note that you have the capability of both running a Live Instance as a Live CD, or you can choose to install the 10ZiG repurposing software to the hard drive disk.
After choosing to “Install RepurpOS”, you select the disk and hit “Install”.
Install the 10ZiG RepurpOS (RPOS) to disk
After a few moments, the install will complete. You’ll hit “Exit” and then restart the PC.
10ZiG RepurpOS Installed
10ZiG RepurpOS Reboot after Installation
Interface and Usage
On first boot, you’ll notice the PC repurposing software has a very simple look and interface. We started off with a licensing message since we are using a demo.
10ZiG RepurpOS (RPOS) unable to obtain a license
To get started, theres a simple “Start menu”-like interface that allows you to configure and use the client. You can configure the thin client settings, or configure and add connections.
10ZiG RepurpOS (RPOS) Programs
And we have the settings menu.
10ZiG RepurpOS (RPOS) Settings Menu
I want you to keep in mind that while you can configure and use the 10ZiG RPOS software from this interface, in a large corporate environment you’d probably want to use the 10ZiG Manager software, and lock out the interface.
10ZiG RepurpOS Configuration and 10ZiG Manager Compatibility
All components of this software can be managed and configured via the 10ZiG Manager, just like the 10ZiG 5948qv and other 10ZiG Zero Clients. This makes the software extremely powerful since you can easily manage and maintain it, even if you have thousands of repurposed PCs running RPOS.
Inside of the 10ZiG Manager, the RPOS devices show up similar to how the other 10ZiG Thin clients and Zero clients would appear.
10ZiG RepurpOS (RPOS) with RPOS and NOS Clients
You can see above that I pushed my main configuration template to the RPOS demo devices. For more posts on 10ZiG Manager, please see the following posts:
As part of my main template, I have included SSL certificates for my VMware Horizon View connection server, so we’ll be able to test a VDI connection using BLAST.
Using the guides for the 10ZiG Manager above, you could fully configure the RPOS the way you want (for mass deployment), and then create a template and deploy it to a large batch of RPOS PCs. Or you could do all the initial configuration directly from the 10ZiG Manager.
The software supports a number of different protocols and technologies.
10ZiG RepurpOS (RPOS) Programs List
The list of applications and programs on 10ZiG RepurpOS (RPOS)
And below we have the VMware Global Settings window.
10ZiG RepurpOS (RPOS) VMware Global Preferences10ZiG RepurpOS (RPOS) VMware Global PCoIP Settings10ZiG RepurpOS (RPOS) VMware Global RDP Settings10ZiG RepurpOS (RPOS) VMware Global Advanced Settings10ZiG RepurpOS (RPOS) VMware Global Settings
We also have the ability to configure the default connection from the Connection Manager. We can also configure whether we want auto-start a connection and enable automatic reconnection.
10ZiG RepurpOS (RPOS) Connections Manager and Startup options
On a final note, you can see there is multi-display support built in. This is more apparent when browsing through other sections of the UI on the 10ZiG RPOS.
VDI Connection Testing
It’s time to test out the main functionality of the 10ZiG RepurpOS (RPOS) software!
I’ve gone ahead and created a connection profile for my company “Digitally Accurate Inc.” to access our VDI environment.
10ZiG RepurpOS (RPOS) with Connection Profile to Digitally Accurate Inc.
Double clicking that icon, initiates the session. We login with my credentials.
10ZiG Horizon DUO Login10ZiG Horizon DUO Challenge10ZiG RepurpOS (RPOS) Horizon View with DUO MFA Login
And here we are presented with the available desktop pools. Please note, that you can configure it to automatically connect to a chosen desktop pool, or if only one is available it will automatically connect.
And finally, we have a fully functional connection to our VDI environment on our VMware Horizon View environment using the 10ZiG repurposing software.
10ZiG RepurpOS (RPOS) with active VDI session on VMware Horizon View
Again, please note that the screenshots may be a little fuzzy due to the capture from video, the interface in reality is sharp and clear.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the 10ZiG RepurpOS (RPOS) software is a great way to bring life to old or existing hardware, reduce spending during a VDI rollout, and bring value to your investment.
Further backing up that investment, is the ability to use the 10ZiG Manager which is free, and can be used to manage a large number of devices.
I’d highly recommend this software and I look forward to using it more!
Lately, I’ve been playing with video editing and encoding as a new hobby. It requires a powerful system for the production process for both editing, and encoding. While CPU power isn’t necessarily important, the CPU instruction sets and your GPU play a key part with editing and encoding.
For the last few weeks, I’ve been attempting to use my desktop rig with a couple of Nvidia GeForce cards and I’ve been struggling to be able to edit in real time, as well as encode completed video productions in a reasonable amount of time.
As part of my demo and homelab, I have an HPE ML310e Gen8 v2, with an Nvidia Grid K1 card. This setup is backed with an HPE MSA 2040 SAN for main storage and a Synology DS1813+ for backup and video storage.
It’s a beautiful desktop replacement as it’s silent, provides a desktop backed with a Intel Xeon Processor, and a high performance GPU.
VDI Video Editing and Encoding
For software, I’ve been using Cyberlink’s PowerDirector software. I’ve used this in the past for screen recording, as well as editing videos I use for demos.
On my physical desktop rig, even with two GPUs it struggles to allow me to preview in realtime the edits I’ve done on a project. The preview window is jolty with loss frames, and it’s hard to know what you’re doing. Also, when producing and encoding a finalized video project, it would take forever to complete even a small 5 minute video at 1080p.
When I first loaded this up on my VDI environment, the software instantly detected the Nvidia GRID card, and asked me if it could use it. From that point on the preview window was fluid, transitions and add-ins were rendered on the fly during previewing, and the final production encoding was literally over 20 times faster using 1080p. Keep in mind this VM only has one Nvidia K180q profile attached to it, so I’m only using less than 25% of the cards full capability.
Other benefits to video editing and encoding on VDI
There’s some other benefits that can be realized when doing video editing and encoding inside of a VDI environment:
Ability to connect remotely and work anywhere
Ability to work anywhere with a high performance system
High speed video storage on demand (since it’s all remote)
It can become part of your normal backup solution
This is just another great use case scenario for VDI. Whether it’s for the video professional, or a large organization.
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