I have been using VMware NSX load balancer across the board. The below details will provide an overview of what to enter for the health monitors. Note – If you are using something more meaningful for your environment leave feedback in the comments section. I will try to implement the same and update the blog later.
VMware Unified Access Gateway (UAG)
Create a new Service Monitor under NSX and call is UAG_https_monitor. Refer to the screenshot for more details.
Send String: GET /favicon.ico
Send String: GET /favicon.ico
Send String: GET /favicon.ico
Send String: GET /favicon.ico
Send String: GET /favicon.ico
VMware Identity Manager (VIDM)
Create a new Service Monitor under NSX and call is VIDM_https_monitor. Refer to the screenshot for more details.
Send String: GET /SAAS/auth/login Response code: 200s
Horizon Connection Servers
Create a new Service Monitor under NSX and call is Horizon_https_monitor. Refer to the screenshot for more details.
Send String: GET /broker/xml/ Receive string: /styles/clientlaunch-default
VMware App Volumes
Create a new Service Monitor under NSX and call is AV_https_monitor. Refer to the screenshot for more details.
I hope you will find these monitors useful in monitoring the VMware EUC products.
On 9th Aug 2018, I took the most difficult decisions of my life to leave my country India and one of the best companies in information technology VMware after working for 4.5 years. Our search for a better standard of living in a developed country and secured future for my kids ended up in Australia. We did evaluate Canada & Germany as well, but looking at all the factors, Australia was the place which we locked down to migrate and settle.
Back in early June, I started looking for an internal transfer within VMware. However, after talking to multiple bosses and divisions, nothing was materializing for an internal move. I had to make a hard choice to leave VMware and move ahead with my decision of moving countries. I began my job hunt during my notice period within VMware and 15 days later I came across a wonderful opportunity in Dell EMC @ Sydney, Australia. I am pleased that I got an opportunity in the parent and consortium of companies
Although I am going to miss working with a lot of colleagues @ VMware. But I am looking forward to working with new colleagues, projects and challenges in Dell EMC. It would be fun learning new things and solving problems from the real world and get an outside perspective. Will keep in touch on Twitter and LinkedIn
Note: The procedure of upgrade is applicable and tested on vSphere 6.5 U1 or vSAN 6.6 environments
We were running the support Driver/Firmware as all vSAN Health checks were green. However, there was a latest build available which included few additional fixes. Let me show you how easy it was to update the Storage Controller Drivers and Firmware using the VMware Update Manager and vSAN Configuration Assistant Upgrade Tool.
The Sequence that we need to execute is as follows:
Upgrade the Driver – LSI_mr3 VIB driver using the VMware Update Manager
After doing the above step you will start seeing the Controller Firmware and Avago Management Tool listed in the vSAN Configuration Assistant Update Tool
Step 1 – Sync Cluster to Perform Online Test
Add the my.vmware.com account in the vCenter to enable checking/sync with the online engine
Enter the Username and Password
Step 2 – Update Storage Controller Driver
The VMware Update Manager (VUM) will perform the Controller Driver Update in rolling reboot fashion one ESXi Host at a time
Select the Cluster and Choose the lsi_mr3: Avago Native MegaRAID SAS driver
Click on the Remediate Button
Select VSAN Cluster under Baseline Groups and the VIB Driver LSI under Baselines
Click Next
Select all the Host in the Cluster (E.g. If you want to perform a quick test you can select one-host). In our case we selected all the 21 hosts
Select the Package
Click on Ignore warning
Select Do Not Change Power State and leave the timings to defaults
Select the three options as below
Disable DPM
Disable HA admission control
Migrate Powered-off VM
Click Finish
Click on Pre-check Remediation and see the current configuration
The upgrade will start in a rolling reboot (1-by-1)
Make sure to verify the versions of the driver is showing updated/passed in the VSAN health tests
Step 3 – Storage Controller Firmware
Once the Driver is installed the Controller Management Tools and Firmware for Avago get listed together in the vSAN Configuration Assistant Update tool.
Both the components get installed onto the ESXi host together:
Click on Download and that will turn the status in Ready to install
Click on the Update All and select the second option Rolling reboot (one host at a time)
Install the Firmware on all the ESXi Host within the cluster.
Make sure to verify the versions of the firmware is showing updated/passed in the VSAN health tests
Check the Up-time of the ESXi host (Check every 2 hours and update the tracker)
This step will enable you to track the progress of the cluster as on how many host are done. In our scenario for the Driver (8 hr) and Controller (8 hr) combined together for a 21 host cluster it took close to 16 hours. Off course this number will vary depending upon the cluster usage.
I hope you will find these steps useful in upgrading the VSAN Controller/Driver firmware easily using the Update Manager + Configuration Assist Update Tool. Let me know, if you have additional questions in the comments section.
I had been intrigued by the Samsung DeX mode post its launch but didn’t have the courage to buy the 125$ (Rs. 10,000/- INR) Samsung DeX Station. I was on a look-out for an alternate Hub which could do the DeX mode on my Galaxy S8+ for a lot less. After searching @ AliExpress I finally managed to find a hub called EASYA Thunderbolt 3 USB C to HDMI Adapter DeX Mode for Samsung Galaxy S8/S9 which had some good positive reviews and for 33$
The moment of truth was to plug-in the Galaxy S8+ and try the DeX mode. Attempt-1: Managed to plug the phone to the hub and HDMI monitor as the output. Next thing I noticed was the screen mirror got enabled and DeX Mode pop-up wouldn’t come or get detected.
Attempt-2: Additional to the above I plugged in the Power in the USB-C 3.1 PD Port and magically the pop-up appeared on the phone “Start DeX Mode”
If you don’t have the wireless mouse plugged in the entire Galaxy S8+ screen acts like a mouse trackpad which can come-in handy.
Productivity with VMware Horizon:
The Horizon Client available on the Android Store has integration with DeX mode that enables you to use the Virtual Desktop in Full screen mode. I launch my Windows 10 Desktop and use it for an entire day. I was easily able to work on the following applications without any issues
Microsoft Outlook Client
Chrome and Firefox browser
Skype for Business (Audio/Chat Only) – Video was having issues
VMware Performance Tracker was showing the CPU and Network Bandwidth Usage graphs in real-time
There was no lag or any sign of slowness in any form
CPU Usage on the phone at an average of 4-6%
Known Observations:
The phone didn’t heat all day during its usage
The HUB was reasonably warm during the entire day usage
The limited DeX compatible Application works good in full-screen
More Picture on the Usage
DeX Mode and Horizon Client Launch
DeX Mode and Full Screen – Windows 10 + Dell 24 inch Monitor
Hardware Setup – Logitech M140 Bluetooth Keyboard + Mouse
More Documentation on Samsung DeX + VMware Horizon
I hope you find this HUB review and DeX mode usage with Horizon useful and will be able to use it as a daily driver. Let me know if you would like to know more in the comments section
If you are using multiple vRealize Operations Manager (vROPS) – Management Packs like Horizon, VSAN, NSX and vCenter and want to monitor their availability of the adapter/POD in terms of whether they are “Collecting Data” and get notified via email when the collection of data stops due to unknown reasons. Then go ahead and read further.
If you don’t setup the monitoring one doesn’t get notified until someone logins to the vROPS Manager and see the adapter status physically.
Adapter Status:
Collection State/Status:
To achieve the above its a 3 steps process. You will have to create the following:
Custom Symptom Definition
Custom Alert Definition
Custom Notification
Symptom Definitions
We will create four custom Symptom Definition (SD) for Horizon Adapter, Horizon POD as it collects data, vCenter instances and VSAN Adapter. Following are the SD combined:
Horizon Adapter Instance
Open the vROPS Manager and navigate to Alerts – Symptom Definitions
Click on the +
Under the Base Object Type Select – View Adapter Instance
Under Metrics Select vRealize Operations Generated – Availability
Enter a Symptom Definition Name – SD_Horizon_Adapter_Avail
is – Critical
metric – is less than
Numeric Value – 1
Under Advance
Wait Cycle – 3
Cancel Cycle – 3
Recommended – The wait/cancel cycle of 3 means that in case of any failure user will be notified after 15 minutes (3 cycles x default 5 minutes data collection interval)
vCenter Adapter – vCenter
Open the vROPS Manager and navigate to Alerts – Symptom Definitions
Click on the +
Under the Base Object Type Select – vCenter Server
Under Metrics Select vRealize Operations Generated – Availability
Enter a Symptom Definition Name – SD_vCenter_Adapter_Avail
is – Critical
metric – is less than
Numeric Value – 1
Under Advance
Wait Cycle – 3
Cancel Cycle – 3
Recommended – The wait/cancel cycle of 3 means that in case of any failure user will be notified after 15 minutes (3 cycles x default 5 minutes data collection interval)
View POD
Open the vROPS Manager and navigate to Alerts – Symptom Definitions
Click on the +
Under the Base Object Type Select – View POD
Under Metrics Select vRealize Operations Generated – Availability
Enter a Symptom Definition Name – SD_View_POD_Avail
is – Critical
metric – is less than
Numeric Value – 1
Under Advance
Wait Cycle – 3
Cancel Cycle – 3
Recommended – The wait/cancel cycle of 3 means that in case of any failure user will be notified after 15 minutes (3 cycles x default 5 minutes data collection interval)
VSAN Adapter Instance
Open the vROPS Manager and navigate to Alerts – Symptom Definitions
Click on the +
Under the Base Object Type Select – VSANAdapter Instance
Under Metrics Select vRealize Operations Generated – Availability
Enter a Symptom Definition Name – SD_VSAN_Adapter_Avail
is – Critical
metric – is less than
Numeric Value – 1
Under Advance
Wait Cycle – 3
Cancel Cycle – 3
Recommended – The wait/cancel cycle of 3 means that in case of any failure user will be notified after 15 minutes (3 cycles x default 5 minutes data collection interval)
Alert Definitions
We will create four custom Alert Definition (AD) for Horizon Adapter, Horizon POD as it collects data, vCenter instances and VSAN Adapter. Following are the AD combined:
Horizon Adapter Instance
Open the vROPS Manager and navigate to Alerts – Alert Definitions
Click on the +
Enter a Name – AD_Horizon_Adapter
Under the Base Object Type Select – View Adapter Instance
Under the Alert Impact
Impact – Health
Criticality – Symptom Based
Alert Type and Subtype – Virtualization/Hypervisor: Availability
Wait Cycle – 1
Cancel Cycle – 1
Under Add Symptom Definitions
Defined on – Self
Symptom Definition Type – Metric /Property
In the search box enter the previously created Symptom Definition – SD_Horizon_Adapter_Avail
Under Add Recommendations – Search and Select “Check if the resources are available. If it isn’t restart it. If it is available check the network connectivity between the remote checks and the resource”
vCenter Adapter Instance
Open the vROPS Manager and navigate to Alerts – Alert Definitions
Click on the +
Enter a Name – AD_vCenter_Adapter
Under the Base Object Type Select – vCenter Server
Under the Alert Impact
Impact – Health
Criticality – Symptom Based
Alert Type and Subtype – Virtualization/Hypervisor: Availability
Wait Cycle – 1
Cancel Cycle – 1
Under Add Symptom Definitions
Defined on – Self
Symptom Definition Type – Metric /Property
In the search box enter the previously created Symptom Definition – SD_vCenter_Adapter_Avail
Under Add Recommendations – Search and Select “Check if the resources are available. If it isn’t restart it. If it is available check the network connectivity between the remote checks and the resource”
View POD
Open the vROPS Manager and navigate to Alerts – Alert Definitions
Click on the +
Enter a Name – AD_View_PODS
Under the Base Object Type Select – View Pod
Under the Alert Impact
Impact – Health
Criticality – Symptom Based
Alert Type and Subtype – Virtualization/Hypervisor: Availability
Wait Cycle – 1
Cancel Cycle – 1
Under Add Symptom Definitions
Defined on – Self
Symptom Definition Type – Metric /Property
In the search box enter the previously created Symptom Definition – SD_View_PODS_Avail
Under Add Recommendations – Search and Select “Check if the resources are available. If it isn’t restart it. If it is available check the network connectivity between the remote checks and the resource”
VSAN Adapter Instance
Open the vROPS Manager and navigate to Alerts – Alert Definitions
Click on the +
Enter a Name – AD_VSAN_Adapter
Under the Base Object Type Select – vSAN Adapter Instance
Under the Alert Impact
Impact – Health
Criticality – Symptom Based
Alert Type and Subtype – Virtualization/Hypervisor: Availability
Wait Cycle – 1
Cancel Cycle – 1
Under Add Symptom Definitions
Defined on – Self
Symptom Definition Type – Metric /Property
In the search box enter the previously created Symptom Definition – SD_VSAN_Adapter_Avail
Under Add Recommendations – Search and Select “Check if the resources are available. If it isn’t restart it. If it is available check the network connectivity between the remote checks and the resource”
Notifications
We will create four Notification Rules for Horizon Adapter, Horizon POD as it collects data, vCenter instances and VSAN Adapter. Following are the Rules for Email Alerts combined:
Rule – Horizon Adapter Instance is down
Open the vROPS Manager and navigate to Alerts – Notification Settings
Click on the +
Enter a Name – _Horizon_Adapter is down
Under Method Select – Standard Email Plugin
Instance – SMTP (previous configured)
Enter Recipients – Email Address
Notification Trigger – Alert Definition
Add the previously created _AD_Horizon_Adapter
Rule – vCenter Adapter Instance is down
Open the vROPS Manager and navigate to Alerts – Notification Settings
Click on the +
Enter a Name – _vCenter_Adapter is down
Under Method Select – Standard Email Plugin
Instance – SMTP (previous configured)
Enter Recipients – Email Address
Notification Trigger – Alert Definition
Add the previously created _AD_vCenter_Adapter
Rule – View POD is down
Open the vROPS Manager and navigate to Alerts – Notification Settings
Click on the +
Enter a Name – _View_POD is down
Under Method Select – Standard Email Plugin
Instance – SMTP (previous configured)
Enter Recipients – Email Address
Notification Trigger – Alert Definition
Add the previously created _AD_View_POD
Rule – VSAN Adapter is down
Open the vROPS Manager and navigate to Alerts – Notification Settings
Click on the +
Enter a Name – _VSAN_Adapter is down
Under Method Select – Standard Email Plugin
Instance – SMTP (previous configured)
Enter Recipients – Email Address
Notification Trigger – Alert Definition
Add the previously created _AD_VSAN_Adapter
I hope you will find this post useful and will help you improvise on monitoring/alerting of your vROPS Management Packs. A big thanks to Gagik Manukyan in demonstrating the ability to configure this in our internal setup.
In this post I will demonstrate the configuration that are required to deploy the VMware Enrollment Servers for High availability and redundancy. This includes two Certificate Authority CA’s and Enrollment Servers
My colleague Tarique Chowdhury has an excellent post on the TrueSSO Lab Setup. However in that deployment it talks about a single Enrollment Server and Certificate Authority Server.
This post is not a replacement of the Setting Up TrueSSO guide on VMware Pubs. However the below mentioned two sections complement during the configurations for everything else follow the setup guide/blogs:
Deploying the Enrollment Agent (Computer) certificate onto this server, we are authorizing this ES to act as an Enrollment Agent and generate Certificates on behalf of users.
Both the Certificate Authority Server Enrollment Agent (Computer) certificate needs to be added. They are added one-by-one. The Personal –> Certificate store should look like below on the ES:
Configure TrueSSO on the Horizon Connection Servers:
Step1: Adding both the Enrollment Server (ES) – Adding the ES to the environment, we are able to query the ES about the domain and relevant True SSO info.
Step2 – List both the newly deployed Enrollment Server – We will get info about various components of the environment which will be useful for configuring True SSO.
Step3 – Adding the Connector for TrueSSO – A True SSO Connector is a configuration set where we specify details like ES(s), CA(s) and a Certificate Template to use for a certain Domain. When a Horizon CS gets a request to launch a desktop for an AD user, it will look up True SSO Connector for the domain the user belongs to and will use the components as specified to obtain a Certificate on behalf of the user.
Step4 – List the SAML Authenticator available in Horizon environment – A SAML Authenticator contains the trust and metadata exchange between Horizon View and vIDM. To use True SSO, we need to identify the correct SAML Authenticator and enable True SSO.
This blog post will be a two part series showing you step by step on how to load balance VMware Unified Access Gateway (UAG) using the VMware NSX. There are quite a few options such as F5, KEMP etc. available to do the load balancing of the UAG appliance but in this post we shall deep dive into NSX Load balancing. The objective in a production deployment is to load balance multiple UAG appliances deployed in the DMZ.
Load Balancing of multiple VMware UAG Appliances
There are plenty of guidance available on how to create the NSX Edge to do the load balancing. I am not going to cover those steps in this blog. Instead I will fast forward to the Load Balancing configurations required to do Unified Access Gateway.
Pre-Installation Checklist
This list should include everything that needs to be available BEFORE we start to install the UAG Load Balancer.
A pair of UAG Appliances should be deployed
The admin page of both the UAG appliances should be accessible
Create a X-Large NSX Edge and make sure its deployed using HA (Active/Passive)
Enable Syslog on the NSX Edge
Reserve the VIP IP address used by NSX
Step-by-Step guide (Part1 – We shall cover Global Configuration, Application Profiles and Service Monitoring)
1. Configure the Load Balancing – Global Configuration
Log into the Edge GW you need to configure and go to the Manage tab then the Load Balancer tab.
Click on Global Configuration
Check the Enable Load Balancer checkbox
Check the Enable Acceleration checkbox
Check the Logging checkbox
Change the Log Level dropdown to Warning
Leave the rest as the default
Click Ok
2. Configure the Load Balancer – Application Profiles
Overall we will be creating three Profiles – HTTPS, TCP and UDP as follows:
Click on the green plus sign to add the HTTPS profile
Set the Name to XX_External-SSL_Offload
Set the Type to HTTPS
Set Enable SSL Passthrough
Persistent to Source IP
Expires in (seconds): 28800 (Preferably match it from Horizon Administrator – Global Configuration Settings)
Everything else should be blank, grayed out, or None
Click Ok
Click on the green plus sign to add the TCP profile
Set the Name to XX_External-TCP
Set the Type to TCP
Persistent to Source IP
Everything else should be blank, grayed out, or None
Click Ok
Click on the green plus sign to add the UDP profile
Set the Name to External-UDP
Set the Type to UDP
Persistent to Source IP
Everything else should be blank, grayed out, or None
Click Ok
3. Configure the Load Balancer – Service Monitoring
Overall we will be creating three Service Monitors – HTTPS, TCP and UDP as follows:
Click on the green plus sign to add the Access Point TCP Monitor. This one monitor will be used for all APs.
Set the Name to default_tcp_monitor
Set the Interval to 5
Set the Timeout to 15
Set the Max Retries to 3
Set the Type to TCP
Click Ok
Click on the green plus sign to add the Access Point HTTP Monitor. This one monitor will be used for all APs.
Set the Name to default_http_monitor
Set the Interval to 5
Set the Timeout to 15
Set the Max Retries to 3
Set the Type to HTTP
Set the Method to GET
Click Ok
Click on the green plus sign to add the Access Point HTTPS Monitor. This one monitor will be used for all APs.
Set the Name to default_https_moinitor
Set the Interval to 5
Set the Timeout to 15
Set the Max Retries to 3
Set the Type to HTTPS
In the Expected field, type: HTTP/1.1 200 (note there is a space between the 1.1 and 200)
In this post we shall go over the remaining configuration on “Pools” and “Virtual Servers” of the NSX Load Balancing for VMware Unified Access Gateway.
4. Configure the Load Balancing – Pools
Overall we will be creating four Pools as follows:
Click on the green plus sign to add a new pool
In the Name field, type: XXX-UAG-POOL-8443
Leave the Description blank
For Algorithm, pick IP-HASH
Leave Algorithm Parameters blank
For Monitors, pick default_tcp_monitor
Click on the green plus sign to add a new pool
In the Name field, type: XXX-UAG-POOL-4172TCP
Leave the Description blank
For Algorithm, pick IP-HASH
Leave Algorithm Parameters blank
For Monitors, pick default_tcp_monitor
Click on the green plus sign to add a new pool
In the Name field, type: XXX-UAG-POOL-4172UDP
Leave the Description blank
For Algorithm, pick IP-HASH
Leave Algorithm Parameters blank
For Monitors, pick default_tcp_monitor
Click on the green plus sign to add a new pool
In the Name field, type: XXX-UAG-POOL-443
Leave the Description blank
For Algorithm, pick IP-HASH
Leave Algorithm Parameters blank
For Monitors, pick default_https_monitor
5. Configure the Load Balancer – Virtual Servers
Overall we will be creating six virtual servers as follows:
Click on the green plus sign to add a new Virtual Server
Click on Enable Virtual Server
Click on Enable Acceleration
Set the Application Profile to XX-External-UDP
In the Name field, type: XXX-UAG-8443UDP
Leave the Description blank
For IP Address, select IP address by click on the link
For Protocol select UDP
In Port/Port Range type 8443
Set Default Pool select XXX-UAG-Pool-8443
Everything else should be default
Click on the green plus sign to add a new Virtual Server
Click on Enable Virtual Server
Click on Enable Acceleration
Set the Application Profile to XX-External-UDP
In the Name field, type: XXX-UAG-4172UDP
Leave the Description blank
For IP Address, select IP address by click on the link
For Protocol select UDP
In Port/Port Range type 4172
Set Default Pool select XXX-UAG-Pool-4172UDP
Everything else should be default
Click on the green plus sign to add a new Virtual Server
Click on Enable Virtual Server
Click on Enable Acceleration
Set the Application Profile to XX-External-TCP
In the Name field, type: XXX-UAG-8443TCP
Leave the Description blank
For IP Address, select IP address by click on the link
For Protocol select TCP
In Port/Port Range type 8443
Set Default Pool select XXX-UAG-Pool-8443
Everything else should be default
Click on the green plus sign to add a new Virtual Server
Click on Enable Virtual Server
Click on Enable Acceleration
Set the Application Profile to XX_external_ssl_offload
In the Name field, type: XXX-UAG-443HTTPS
Leave the Description blank
For IP Address, select IP address by click on the link
For Protocol select TCP
In Port/Port Range type 443
Set Default Pool select XXX-UAG-Pool-443
Everything else should be default
Click on the green plus sign to add a new Virtual Server
Click on Enable Virtual Server
Click on Enable Acceleration
Set the Application Profile to XX_external_tcp
In the Name field, type: XXX-UAG-4172TCP
Leave the Description blank
For IP Address, select IP address by click on the link
We haven’t configured any “Application Rules”. I hope you find these steps useful and don’t have to invent the wheel when it comes to NSX LB for VMware UAG.
This year at VMworld, myself and my colleague Simon Long had the opportunity to talk about a project we’ve been working on for the past few years. We’ve been re-redesigning and deploying VMware’s internal Horizon Desktop environments.
Session Summary
“How does VMware architect its own global VMware Horizon desktop environment?” “Has it encountered the same obstacles we are facing?” Over the past two years, VMware has been re-architecting and deploying its virtual desktop infrastructure with VMware Horizon, VMware App Volumes, and VMware User Environment Manager running on top of the full VMware software-defined data center stack (VMware vSphere, VMware vSAN, VMware NSX) and integrating with VMware vRealize Operations Manager and VMware vRealize Log Insight. In this session, the lead architects will reveal all.
I thought I would share some pretty exciting news with you guys, I’ve recently received an award internally within VMware for a cool project that myself and my colleague Simon Long have been working on for the past 6-8 months. The project in question is called OneDesk. I’ll explain more about OneDesk shortly.
CIO Innovation Award
The award we won is called the VMware CIO Innovation award. Here is the description of the Innovation category:
“The team which best accomplished the goal of creating and developing new products and/or services.”
Aresh Sarkari – VMware CIO 2017 Innovation Award
I wasn’t very lucky to receive the award in-person as the award arrived in India a couple of days late and by then Bask Iyer had to leave back for PA, CA.
OneDesk
The project myself and Simon Long have been working on is called OneDesk. For those of you who attended our VMworld session: The Secret Sauce Behind VMware’s Internal Horizon Desktop Deployments you’d have heard us talking about it during our session. For those of you who were unfortunate enough to miss it, I’ll explain all about it now.
What is OneDesk?
OneDesk is many things to many people. Here are some of its main functions:
EUC Dogfooding environment OneDesk is an End User Computing (EUC) environment created from un-used production hardware where we deploy pre-release versions of our EUC software (Horizon, App Volumes and User Environment Manager). This allows us to test our products before we make them publicly available to our customers and providing feedback to the product teams of any issues that we encounter throughout or testing.
Pre-Production Horizon Environment OneDesk also acts a Pre-Production environment for VMware’s internal Production Horizon desktop environments in the US, EMEA and India. The availability of our production Horizon deployments is extremely important to the business and often updating software can lead to service outages. By deploying the newly released EUC software into OneDesk as early as possible, we can use our experiences to make decisions on when we will upgrade the production environments.
Next-Generation EUC Environment OneDesk also acts a ‘Next-Generation’ environment for our production Horizon desktop environments in the US, EMEA and India. The availability of our production Horizon deployments is extremely important to the business and often introducing new products or configuration changes can lead to service outages. We will be deploying all new products and configurations into OneDesk first, allowing us to iron out any creases and monitor stability before we consider deploying these changes into the production environments.
VMware on VMware Last but not least, this is a VMware on VMware initiative. Where there is a business need, we look to utilize as many of VMware’s products as possible. By utilizing our own products early in the development cycle we are able to identify bugs and offer feedback to our product teams to help improve our customer’s experience once the products are released.
How is OneDesk different from the VMware production Horizon desktop environments?
The table below gives you an idea of how the services differ:
The table below gives you an idea of how the product version differs between OneDesk and Production: (Version may have changed since publication)
Here is a list of features that we’ve used OneDesk to test before we deploy the features into our production environments:
Instant Clones
Blast Extreme
Unified Access Gateway
Enrollment Server / True SSO
Skype For Business Plugin
Horizon Smart Policies (UEM)
NSX Edge Load-Balancer
NSX Distributed Firewall (Micro-Segmentation)
Sparse Swap Files
Client Cache
Product Improvement
Not only does deploying early releases of software allow us to test some really cool new features that we’ve been able to implement into Production, this also allows us to capture many bugs before we release the products to our customers. Hopefully, this means that you, our customers, have a must most stable product that you can rely on.
I’ve really enjoyed designing and deploying OneDesk and watching its value to VMware grow as we utilize it more and more. I’m looking forward to seeing where we can take OneDesk in the future. Watch this space.
