Tag: VMWare

VMware Workstation 7.1.4

    What’s New

    Support for Windows 7 SP1

    Security Fixes

    • Workstation 7.1.4 addresses a local privilege escalation in the vmrun utility

      VMware vmrun is a utility that is used to perform various tasks on virtual machines. The vmrun utility runs on any platform with VIX libraries installed. It is installed in Workstation by default. In non-standard filesystem configurations, an attacker with the ability to place files into a predefined library path could take execution control of vmrun. This issue is present only in the version of vmrun that runs on Linux

      The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2011-1126 to this issue.

        Other Resolved Issues

        • In Workstation 7.1, the default main memory VA cache size (mainMem.vaCacheSize) for 32-bit Windows guests was reduced to accommodate 3D emulation memory requirements. However, the reduced value resulted in performance loss. For 7.1.4, the default main memory VA cache size has been be increased to 1000 MB and performance is improved.

        • Because Workstation failed to identify more than 10 USB host controllers in newer Windows guests, some USB devices did not appear in the Removable Devices menu. Now Workstation shows all USB devices in the Removable Devices menu as long as they are connected to the first identified 16 USB controllers.

        • When using the Capture Movie option, the captured video stopped playing around the 1GB mark if the video file exceeded 1GB. Now you can capture and play video files that are greater than 1GB. 

        • On Windows host systems that have more than 4GB of memory, Workstation sometimes crashed during cryptographic operations, for example, when performing disk encryption.

        • VMware Tools upgrade could be started by a non-administrator user from the VMware Tools Control Panel in a Windows guest. In this release, only administrator users can start VMware Tools upgrade from the VMware Tools Control Panel. To prevent non-administrator users from starting VMware Tools upgrade from a guest by using other applications, set isolation.tools.autoinstall.disable to TRUE in the virtual machine configuration (.vmx) file.

        • When a virtual machine running on a Windows host was used to access an Omron Industrial CP1L Programmable Logic Controller, Workstation generated an unrecoverable error.

        • When using NAT virtual networking on Windows hosts, the traceroute command did not work when used within virtual machines.

        • Workstation crashed with an access violation when a user tried to open the sidebar after closing all tabs in Quick Switch mode. 

        • The VMware Tools HGFS provider DLL caused a deadlock when making calls to the WNetAddConnection2 function from an application such as eEye Rentina in a Windows guest operating system.

        • There was no option to disable guest time sync when a host resumes. Now you can set time.synchronize.resume.host to FALSE in the virtual machine configuration (.vmx) file to disable guest time sync when a host resumes. See VMware Knowledge Base Article 1189 for other time sync options.

        • Setting a hidden attribute on a file in a shared folder from a Windows guest on a Linux host failed with an error. This problem caused applications such as SVN checkout to fail when checking out to shared folders on Linux hosts from Windows guests

        VMware vCenter XVP Manager and Converter

          VMware vCenter XVP Manager and Converter provides basic virtualization management capabilities for non-vSphere hypervisor platforms towards enabling centralized visibility and control across heterogeneous virtual infrastructures. It also simplifies and enables easy migrations of virtual machines from non-vSphere virtualization platforms to VMware vSphere.

          Features

          • Management of the following Microsoft Hyper-V platforms:
            • Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008
            • Microsoft Windows Server 2008 (64-bit) with Hyper-V role enabled
            • Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2
            • Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V role enabled
          • Familiar vCenter Server graphical user interface for navigating through and managing non-vSphere inventory
          • Ease of virtual machine migrations from non-vSphere hosts to vSphere inventory
          • Compatible with VMware vCenter Server 4.0 & 4.1
          • Scalable up to management of 50 non-vSphere hosts

        For more detailed information refer to the vCenter XVP Manager and Converter Technology Preview Release Notes and Installation Guide (included in zip file download).

        VIDEO’s

        Installation

        Host Operations

        Convert HyperV VMs to vSphere

        Guest VM Operations inside HyperV

        Download: HERE

        VMware View 4.6 New Features

        VMware released VMWare View 4.6

        Updated Features:
        Security servers can now accommodate PCoIP connections – Security servers now include a PCoIP Secure Gateway component. The PCoIP Secure Gateway connection offers the following advantages:

        • The only remote desktop traffic that can enter the corporate data center is traffic on behalf of a strongly authenticated user.
        • Users can access only the desktop resources that they are authorized to access.
        • No VPN is required, as long as PCoIP is not blocked by any networking component.
        • Security servers with PCoIP support run on Windows Server 2008 R2 and take full advantage of the 64-bit architecture.

        Enhanced USB device compatibility – View 4.6 supports USB redirection for syncing and managing iPhones and iPads with View desktops. This release also includes improvements for using USB scanners, and adds to the list of USB printers that you can use with thin clients. For more information, see the list of View Client resolved issues.

        Keyboard mapping improvements – Many keyboard-related issues have been fixed. For more information, see the list of View Client resolved issues.

        New timeout setting for SSO users – With the single-sign-on (SSO) feature, after users authenticate to View Connection Server, they are automatically logged in to their View desktop operating systems. This new timeout setting allows administrators to limit the number of minutes that the SSO feature is valid for.
        For example, if an administrator sets the time limit to 10 minutes, then 10 minutes after the user authenticates to View Connection Server, the automatic login ability expires. If the user then walks away from the desktop and it becomes inactive, when the user returns, the user is prompted for login credentials. For more information, see the VMware View Administration documentation.

        VMware View 4.6 includes more than 160 bug fixes – For descriptions of selected resolved issues, see Resolved Issues.

        Support for Microsoft Windows 7 SP1 operating systems (Not Experimental of RC wrong on the VMware site)

        VDI Documentation
        VMware View 4.6 Release Notes
        VMware View Architecture Planning
        VMware View Administration
        VMware View Installation
        VMware View Upgrades
        VMware View Integration
        View4_Marketecture_05

        Unable to connect from the View Client on Windows 7 to the View Connection Server after installing the patch kb2482017 or kb2467023

        This issue occurs when you have installed one of these Microsoft patches, 2482017 or 2467023.

        If you have already installed these patches, you can install VMware View Client (build 353760) or uninstall the Microsoft patches.

        If you have not installed these patches, delay the installation of the Microsoft patches until you have installed VMware View Client (build 353760).

        VMware View Client build 353760 has been tested on:

        • Windows 7 Enterprise 32 bit +  Internet Explorer 8
        • Windows 7 Enterprise 64 bit +  Internet Explorer 8
        • Windows 7 Home 32 bit +  Internet Explorer 8 

        The View Client patch can be downloaded from here. Enter your credentials, accept the EULA and download the appropriate file:

        • If you are using Windows 7 32-bit, use VMware-viewclient-4.5.0-353760.exe.
        • If you are using Windows 7 64-bit, use VMware-viewclient-x86_64-4.5.0-353760.exe.

        To apply this patch

        1. Click Start > Settings > Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs.
        2. Choose the previously installed VMware View Client and click Remove.
        3. Navigate to where you downloaded VMware-viewclient-xxx-4.5.0-353760.exe and run the executable file.
        4. Follow the installation installation wizard to complete installation.
        5. Reboot the computer.

        Very Important: VMware View Clients with build number 353760 or later are not affected by this issue.

        SCVMM RDS Connection Broker plugin released

        SCVMM RDV plug-in enables dynamic placement of VDI VMs for both personal and pooled VMs. The key benefit of using this plug-in is that it reduces the number of Hyper-V servers required since VMs are placed on demand rather than statically placed.  Dynamic placement is achieved by integrating SCVMM 2008 R2 with the RDS Connection Broker in Windows Server 2008 R2.

        Dynamic Placement for Personal VM is available in Windows Server 2008 R2. Pooled VM requires Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1.

        Figure below shows the integration:

        The bits and content are available at: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=195952

        For those of you that don’t understand how this works Ill write a little process workflow so you understand.

        1. The VDI client tries to connect to the last VM it was using via the Connection Broker.

        2. The Broker, knowing where it was in the cluster, in communication with SCVMM, tries to wake the VM from a save state

        3. Problem is that the server its trying to start the VM on is already at capacity and it cant start there

        4. SCVMM gets involved as part of this and moves the VM to another node in the cluster based on its dynamic placement algorithm, via a SAN move

        5. The Connection Broker is then told which host the VM is now on and running

        6. The user connects to the VM

        Nice huh Winking smile

        Microsoft Desktop Virtualization is going to be a real competitor against VMware View

        Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 5.5

        The Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit (MAP) is an agentless, automated, multi-product planning and assessment tool for quicker and easier desktop and server migrations. MAP provides detailed readiness assessment reports and executive proposals with extensive hardware and software information, and actionable recommendations to help organizations accelerate their IT infrastructure planning process, and gather more detail on assets that reside within their current environment. MAP also provides server utilization data for Hyper-V server virtualization planning; identifying server placements, and performing virtualization candidate assessments, including ROI analysis for server consolidation with Hyper-V.

        MAP helps make the following IT planning projects faster and easier:

        • Migration to Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Microsoft Office 2010
        • Migration to Windows 7 compatible versions of Internet Explorer
        • Migration to cloud-based services
        • Server virtualization with Hyper-V
        • SQL Server consolidation and migration to SQL Server 2008 R2
        • Assessment of current software usage and client access history for simplified software asset management
        • PC security assessment and migration to Microsoft Forefront Client Security

        You can use MAP to inventory the following technologies:

        • Windows 7
        • Windows Vista
        • Windows XP Professional
        • Office 2010 and previous versions
        • Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2
        • Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2003 R2
        • Windows 2000 Professional or Windows 2000 Server
        • VMware ESX
        • VMware ESXi
        • VMware Server
        • Linux variants
        • LAMP application stack discovery
        • SQL Server 2008
        • SQL Server 2008 R2
        • MySQL
        • Oracle
        • Sybase

        Download MAP 5.5 HERE

        Clipboard Copy and Paste option is disabled in vSphere Client 4.1

        I upgraded my home test server to ESXi 4.1 and I the Clipboard Functie is disabled by default and that is so annying

        Solution:

        Starting with vSphere 4.1, the Copy and Paste options are, by default, disabled for security reasons.

        To be able to copy and paste between the guest operating system and the remote console, you must enable the Copy and Paste options using the vSphere Client. Alternatively, you can use RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) to connect to the Windows virtual machines.

        To enable this option for a specific virtual machine:

        1. Log into a vCenter Server system using the vSphere Client and power off the virtual machine.
        2. Select the virtual machine and click the Summary tab.
        3. Click Edit Settings.
        4. Navigate to Options > Advanced > General and click Configuration Parameters.

        5. Click Add Row and type the following values in the Name and Value columns:

          • isolation.tools.copy.disable – false

          • isolation.tools.paste.disable – false
            Note: These options override any settings made in the VMware Tools control panel of the guest operating system.

        7. Click OK to close the Configuration Parameters dialog, and click OK again to close the Virtual Machine Properties dialog.
        8. Power on the virtual machine.

        Note: If you vMotion a virtual machine to a host where the isolation.tools.*="FALSE" is already set, the copy and paste options are automatically activated for that virtual machine.

        To enable this option for all the virtual machines in the ESX/ESXi host:

        1. Log in to the ESX/ESXi host as a root user and open the /etc/vmware/config file using a text editor.
        2. Add these entries to the file:
          isolation.tools.copy.disable="FALSE"
          isolation.tools.paste.disable="FALSE"
        3. Save and close the file. The Copy and Paste options are only enabled when the virtual machines restart or resume the next time.

        For more information, see the Limiting Exposure of Sensitive Data Copied to the Clipboard section of the  ESX Configuration Guide.

        http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1026437

        Performance Best Practices for VMware vSphere 4.1

        VMware has released another great “technical paper” regarding Performance Best Practices for VMware vSphere 4.1. It can be found in the Technical Resource Center which by the way contains a lot of awesome docs.

        The technical paper, Performance Best Practices for VMware vSphere 4.1, provides performance tips that cover the most performance-critical areas of VMware vSphere 4.1. It is not intended as a comprehensive guide for planning and configuring your deployments.

        Chapter 1 – “Hardware for Use with VMware vSphere,” provides guidance on selecting hardware for use with vSphere.

        Chapter 2 – “ESX and Virtual Machines,” provides guidance regarding VMware ESX™ software and the virtual machines that run in it.

        Chapter 3 – “Guest Operating Systems,” provides guidance regarding the guest operating systems running in vSphere virtual machines.

        Chapter 4 – “Virtual Infrastructure Management,” provides guidance regarding resource management best practices.

        http://www.vmware.com/pdf/Perf_Best_Practices_vSphere4.1.pdf

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