Archive | April, 2020

Report all VMware App Volumes Writable Volumes with Status Disabled and Orphaned

22 Apr

Often within the App Volumes Manager, there are Writable Volumes that will show up as Status “Orphaned” and essentially that can be caused by active directory user accounts that have been disabled in AD.

Writable Status = Orphaned

There is also a Status called “Disabled” and that can be caused when an App Volumes administrator decides to disable the Writable Volumes.

Writable Status = Disabled

Now if you have a enteprise environment with 1000’s of users, it’s hard to perform this activity from the UI. I have created a script that can report on the status of “Orphaned” and “Disabled” send you the output in *.csv report on a daily/weekly basis as per your needs.

####################################################################
# Get List of Writable Volumes from AppVolumes Manager for Status Disabled and Orphaned
# Author - Aresh Sarkari (@askaresh)
# Version - V2.0
####################################################################

# Run at the start of each script to import the credentials
$Credentials = IMPORT-CLIXML "C:\Scripts\Secure-Creds\SCred_avmgr.xml"
$RESTAPIUser = $Credentials.UserName
$RESTAPIPassword = $Credentials.GetNetworkCredential().Password


$body = @{
    username = “$RESTAPIUser"
    password = “$RESTAPIPassword”
}

Invoke-RestMethod -SessionVariable DaLogin -Method Post -Uri "https://avolmanager.askaresh.com/cv_api/sessions” -Body $body

$output = Invoke-RestMethod -WebSession $DaLogin -Method Get -Uri "https://avolmanager.askaresh.com/cv_api/writables" -ContentType "application/json"

$output.datastores.writable_volumes | Select-Object owner_name, owner_upn, title, status | Where-Object {[string]$_.status -match "Orphaned" -and $_.title -match "(disabled)"} | Export-Csv -NoTypeInformation -Append D:\Aresh\Orphaned.Disabled-Writables.$(Get-Date -Format "yyyyMMddHHmm").csv

#send an email (provided the smtp server is reachable from where ever you are running this script)
$emailfrom = 'writablevolumes@askaresh.com'
$emailto = 'email1@askaresh.com', 'email2@askaresh.com'
$emailsub = 'Wrtiable Volumes with status Orphaned and Disabled - Weekly'
$emailbody = 'Attached CSV File from App Volumes Manager. The attachment included the API response for all the Writable which are orphaned and Disabled in UI'
$emailattach = "D:\Aresh\Orphaned.Disabled-Writables.$(Get-Date -Format "yyyyMMddHHmm").csv"
$emailsmtp = 'smtp.askaresh.com'

Send-MailMessage -From $emailfrom -To $emailto -Subject $emailsub -Body $emailbody -Attachments $emailattach -Priority High -DeliveryNotificationOption OnFailure -SmtpServer $emailsmtp

GitHub – https://github.com/askaresh/scripts/blob/master/wrtiable-orph-disa

Depending upon the output, you can have your service desk get in touch with the Active Directory teams to get the affected end-users to be removed from the App volumes writable volumes entitled groups and then proceed towards clean up of their writable volumes if there is no legal hold requirements.

I hope you will find this script useful to get a report for all writable volumes with status Orphaned and Disabled. My request if you further enhance the script or make it more creative, I hope you can share it back with me?

Thanks,
Aresh Sarkari

Report all VMware App Volumes Writable Volumes with low disk space

20 Apr

We have provided end-users with 30 GB Writable Volumes, and within the App Volumes Manager console there is an ability in the UI to see the Writable Volumes disk free under the view called – “Usage View”

Writable Volumes - Usage View
Writable Volumes – Usage View

The biggest challenge is if you have 1000’s of users, it’s hard to perform this activity from the UI. I have created a script that can send you the output in *.csv report on a daily/weekly basis as per your needs.

####################################################################
# Get List of Wrtiable Volumes from AppVolumes Manager for free space less than 3 GB out of 30 GB
# Author - Aresh Sarkari (@askaresh)
# Version - V2.0
####################################################################


# Run at the start of each script to import the credentials
$Credentials = IMPORT-CLIXML "C:\Scripts\Secure-Creds\SCred_avmgr.xml"
$RESTAPIUser = $Credentials.UserName
$RESTAPIPassword = $Credentials.GetNetworkCredential().Password


$body = @{
    username = “$RESTAPIUser"
    password = “$RESTAPIPassword”
}

Invoke-RestMethod -SessionVariable DaLogin -Method Post -Uri "https://avolmanager.askaresh.com/cv_api/sessions” -Body $body

$output = Invoke-RestMethod -WebSession $DaLogin -Method Get -Uri "https://avolmanager.askaresh.com/cv_api/writables" -ContentType "application/json"

$output.datastores.writable_volumes | Select-Object owner_name, owner_upn,total_mb, free_mb, percent_available, status | Where-Object {$_.free_mb -lt 3072}  | Export-Csv -NoTypeInformation -Append D:\Aresh\Writableslt3gb.$(Get-Date -Format "yyyyMMddHHmm").csv

#send an email (provided the smtp server is reachable from where ever you are running this script)
$emailfrom = 'writablevolumes@askaresh.com'
$emailto = 'email1@askaresh.com', 'email2@askaresh.com' #Enter your SMTP Details
$emailsub = 'Wrtiable Volumes Size (free_mb) less than 3 GB out of 30 GB - 24 Hours'
$emailbody = 'Attached CSV File from App Volumes Manager. The attachment included the API response for all the Writable Volumes less than 3 GB of free space'
$emailattach = "D:\Aresh\Writableslt3gb.$(Get-Date -Format "yyyyMMddHHmm").csv"
$emailsmtp = 'smtp.askaresh.com'

Send-MailMessage -From $emailfrom -To $emailto -Subject $emailsub -Body $emailbody -Attachments $emailattach -Priority High -DeliveryNotificationOption OnFailure -SmtpServer $emailsmtp

GitHub – https://github.com/askaresh/scripts/blob/master/writablevolumesdiskusage

Depending upon the output, you can have your service desk get in touch with the affected end-users to clear-up disk space or provide options for further expansion.

I hope you will find this script useful to get a report for all writable volumes nearing their disk space usage. My request if you further enhance the script or make it more creative, I hope you can share it back with me?

Thanks,
Aresh Sarkari

Intermittent Clipboard issues on VMware Horizon virtual desktop

18 Apr

Recently, we had an issue within our environment where-in end-users complained of intermittently one-way clipboard not working(Virtual Desktop to Endpoint will fail). The tricky part here was it would happen intermittently to anyone without any set pattern.

Environment Details:
VMware Horizon 7.11
VMware App Volumes 2.18.1
VMware Dynamic Environment Manager 9.10
VMware Horizon Client 5.x

Process of elimination

  • We were not using the Horizon Blast GPO for setting the clipboard.
  • The clipboard was setup using DEM Horizon Smart Policies – Enabled Both Directions
  • Upgrade the Horizon Client to the latest version to remove any Client related issues
  • We already had the anti-virus process exclusion of VMwareViewClipboard.exe
  • We disabled the Writable Volumes, and the clipboard issue will never occur.

Resolution

The above test made it evident that something within the Writable Volumes was causing the intermittent clipboard issue. The next thing that came to mind is adding path/process exclusion within the snapvol.cfg. One may ask how did you determine that path, but recently we have had many application issues that needed exclusion to make them work.

What I didn’t know was which path or process, until the task manager showed a clipboard process for Horizon called – VMwareViewClipboard.exe and its Path – C:\Program Files\Common Files\VMware\Remote Experience\x64. I read many communities post having mentioned this process. However, I wasn’t sure if adding the entire path exclusion made sense as I could see many Horizon process *.exe and wasn’t sure what additional repercussions it can have. I went ahead, adding the below process exclusion.

exclude_process_name=VMwareViewClipboard.exe
Process exclusion in writable volumes snapvol.cfg

Post adding the exclusion, all the end-users with intermittent clipboard issues were always able to do two side clipboard. In this blog, I am not outlining the steps on how to add the snapvol.cfg exclusion as my ex-colleague Daniel Bakshi outlines on a VMware blog post on how to do it step by step.

Update 2nd May 2020
We had a VMware GSS support case open on the same issue, and they came back with a suggestion to exclude this registry path instead of the process exclusions. Note we been told there is no impact with process or registry, but its a good practice to do registry/path exclusions instead of the process. This registry/subkeys are responsible for the Clipboard – DEM Horizon Smart Policies.

exclude_registry=\REGISTRY\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc.\VMware UEM
Process exclusion in writable volumes snapvol.cfg

I hope you will find this information useful if you encounter intermittent clipboard issues.

Thanks,
Aresh Sarkari

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