Setting up a VMware Horizon View Cloud Pod

I know there are more blogs about Cloud pod configuration but while building one I noticed that more information is useful for every setup is a bit different. To make sure you don’t run into the same very small issues I ran into I wrote this blog.

Part 1 will be about setting it up while part 2 will be about assigning users to the cloud pod and how to manage it when changes occur in your environment.

Lots to tell so let’s get started.

Environment

First let’s show you what we got setup.

We setup two pods in two different locations, Den Haag and Delft, to cities in The Netherlands.

We got a number of connection servers running and external access is done through a security server setup.

The desktop pools will be running Microsoft Windows 7 and performance is provided with local SSD’s. The VMware Horizon View version of course is 6 as we are building a cloud pod.

We had some issues recomposing the environment but they are solved as you have read in my previous blog about that. If you didn’t please so for it could happen to you when your security officer is tightening the rules.

Setup

Before we start you have to know some ground rules, each pod has a primary connection server. The first connection server installed there is the primary, we work from that one. Don’t switch to others in between, stick to the first ones.

Secondly it’s all command line and it really picky about CapItALs, it sounds like horror but actually once you typed a few lines you get the idea. Every command start with a small letter and every word that comes after that start with a CAPITAL. So addsite has to be entered addSite, it’s a simple as that.

If you don’t honor these ground rules you’re in for a headache.
Also please don’t copy paste but type the command, I learned that copy and past change the “” often which results in various funny errors that are not related to anything.

So now that we got this out of our way let setup a cloud pod.

Initialize

Log on to your first and primary connection server in the primary pod.
First step is to initialize the functionality.

All command are entered through good old command prompt, reason behind this is that VMware had the functionality ready but no time to build a GUI yet. they decided to ship it so that we can make use of it, shipping the GUI later… or never 🙂

Browse the toolsbin folder of you connection server and let the show begin.

Command to be entered is shown here, the commands have to be entered with a double -, so –.

lmvutil.cmd –initialize –autDomain –authAs –authPassword “*”

The password can be entered a “*” so that you are prompted for a password instead of typing one clear text. I rather type my password a few times too much every day that entering it clear text somewhere.

Entering the command will ask for a password as mentioned and off it goes, it can take several minutes it says.

Well it can take several minutes, don’t be alarmed…

Joining servers

Once the Cloud Pod functionality is initialized we are ready to join the servers of the second pod to the cloud pod. We initialized the Cloud pod from the primary connection server in the primary datacenter. Now we will join the servers in the secondary datacenter with that pod.

The command is show here.

lmvutil.cmd –authAs –authDomain –authPassword “*” –join –joinServer –userName –password “*”

When I entered the command I followed the command I took from a knowledge base and it seems that there was a type in the command. The option username was not written correctly, it should have been userName instead. So I got an error as shown below.

Once I corrected that the task went on. You are asked to enter your password twice once for the Cloud pod and once to add a server.

and on and on….

Create a site

After joining the servers we can setup the sites, each pod location will be a site. The command for this is;

lmvutil.cmd –createSite –siteName –authDomain –authAs –authPassword “*”

The sitename can be anything and when you use spaces in between you need to put “” around the name.

So I created to site for each location one, there is no output shown on the command line.

If you want to check if the creation of sites has gone well, no output makes you feel a bit uneasy, there is a list option.

lmvutil.cmd –listSites –authDomain –authAs –authPassword “*” will show you whether the sites have bee created properly.

The output gives you a clue of what you need for the next part.

Assign pod to site

Next step is to assign a pod to a site, now we’re getting closer to actually connecting something.

The command for this is;

lmvutil.cmd –assignPodToSite –podName –siteName –authDomain –authAs –authPassword “*”

podName here is the name that is shown on top of the dashboard of your View environment but also inthe output of the previous step. So here it’s Cluster-.

The siteName is the name you just entered for the sites, so reenter them here and the rest is getting very familiar I suppose. Sure you get the hang of the command already.

Once we enter that the pods are assigned, no output is given again.

Because no output is given we have to check again. It’s the same command we used earlier so use the keys to browse back into you command set.

Global Entitlement

The cloud pod is setup, the servers are connected, we are ready to setup a global entitlement.
This is one step away from adding the local desktop pools to the cloud pod.

The Command for this is a lengthy one;

lmvutil.cmd –createGlobalEntitlement –entitlementName –scope ANY –isFloating –authDomain –authAs –authPassword “*”

The EntitlementName is the one you used a few command back, for me it was ….. Global standaard desktop. The scope can be Local, any specific site only or local.
If you enable a floating desktop pool you give the option –isFloating, if the pool is persistent the option is –isDedicated.

The command entered don’t give an output but the finish with a new line.

If you want to check the option, and I assure you it is useful use the following command;

lmvutil.cmd –listGlobalEntitlements –authDomain –authAs –authPassword “*”

Notice that there are several options to be set here.. most important ones are;

– From home
– Default protocol
– Allow protocol override
– Allow reset.

From home is an interesting one for that allows you to redirect your user to their home site. very useful in a multi datacenter environment. The rest is pretty obvious, make sure the align with you desktop pool for if you don’t… read on

Well I tried to do the next step, that is to add the local desktop pool was setup differently than the global one.

Next of course was to look at the command reference on the VMware site but I couldn’t find the edit global entitlement command to edit this setting. There are many option to be edited but this one wasn’t there. Good for me we’re still building so let’s revert this step and add the options while building it.

The command for deleting a global entitlement is;

lmvutil.cmd –deleteGlobalEntitlement –entitlementName

Enter the command and the entitlement is gone.
Next step was to recreate the global entitlement with the correct options, so I added –preventProtocolOverride and –fromHome. Created in a second. move on.

The cloud pod is ready now, only steps to do are add local pools and assign users. I’ll cover that one and management in the next blog.

Hope my errors will help others. 🙂

Written by robbeekmans

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