27 Jun 2012
By Yendis

How to Configure Default Device Access Behavior of Receiver 3.x and XenDesktop

Citrix,
With Receiver 3.x client, administrators might want to configure the default behavior for device access when connecting to a Citrix XenDesktop environment. The Desktop Viewer client device restrictions by default are based on the Internet region and this behavior can be changed by creating the Client Selective Trust feature registry keys under the HKey_Local_Machine hive in the registry and by adjusting the required values. With the default value, one of the following dialog boxes appears when accessing local files, webcams, or microphones: (more…)
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20 Jun 2012
By Yendis

Insufficient Video RAM

VMware, ,
I recieved a call today from a friend who was receiving an error message when he was vMotioning a server. The maximum resolution of the virtual machine will be limited to 1176 x865 at 16 bits per pixel. To use the confurable maximum resolution of 2360x1770 at 16 bits per pixel, increase the amount of video RAM allocated to this virtual machine by setting svga.vramSize="16708800" in the virtual's configuratio file The quickest way I have found to change this is to edit the VM's properties and change the video card to "Auto-detect video settings", one thing to remember is the VM must be powered off…
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19 Jun 2012
By Yendis

Enhanced vMotion Compatibility (EVC) processor support

VMware
Enhanced vMotion Compatibility (EVC) simplifies vMotion compatibility issues across CPU generations. EVC automatically configures server CPUs with Intel FlexMigration or AMD-V Extended Migration technologies to be compatible with older servers. After EVC is enabled for a cluster in the VirtualCenter inventory, all hosts in that cluster are configured to present identical CPU features and ensure CPU compatibility for vMotion. The features presented by each host are determined by selecting a predefined EVC baseline. VirtualCenter does not permit the addition of hosts that cannot be automatically configured to be compatible with the EVC baseline. See the full VMware article - http://bit.ly/Lwnd8e
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16 Jun 2012
By Yendis

Windows 2008 R2 screen and mouse sluggish!

Microsoft, VMware,
I've had a number of emails recently asking about why when accessing a Windows 2008 R2 server using the VM console the display and mouse are very sluggish. Well the answer to this is because by default a Standard VGA Graphics Adapter is installed (figure 1) when you have your video RAM set yo 8MB in your virtual machine properties. (figure1) To change this you will need to upgrade the display adapter by using the driver in C:Program FilesCommon FilesVMwareDriverswddm_video this will install the new WDDM device driver. After the upgrade and a reboot your system should be fully responsive. Look in device manager (figure2) and…
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14 Jun 2012
By Yendis

Enable Tech Support Mode Timeout

VMware,
Tech Support Mode is a great feature of ESXi that lets admins and support personnel access the command directly on a ESXi hosts. This can be done via SSH or thru the host console. The security risk is that the console does not shut down automatically by default. There is a simple fix for this however, you can set the auto-timeout so that Tech Support Mode will shutdown automatically after a certain time has passed. You can find a great article on tech support mode here. To enable the Tech Support Mode Timeout via the vSphere Client (from the KB Article):…
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13 Jun 2012
By Yendis

VMware vSphere 5.0 Hardening Guide

VMware,
Last Friday, VMware released their vSphere 5.0 Security Hardening Guide v1.0. It’s a great and extensive guide to completely secure your VMware vSphere 5 Infrastructure from ESXi host to vCenter server and from the vNetwork to virtual machine. The coincidence is that yesterday I had a discussion with a colleague on enabling root access on a customers ESXi hosts. Following this hardening guide will prevent people from adding vulnerabilities to a great product. With this new release the format of this guide has changed from previous versions. The guide is being released as a Excel spreadsheet only. The guideline metadata from earlier guides has been greatly…
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13 Jun 2012
By Yendis

VeeamZIP for your VMs

Tools
  A better way Cloning, copying or exporting a virtual machine (VM) can be time-consuming and resource-intensive. And if you have to power off or pause the VM, it can be disruptive, too. But with VeeamZIP™ you can easily backup a VM for restore on any host.   The perfect fit Whether you use VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V, or a combination of both, Veeam Backup Free Edition fits right into your environment. And however you do regular backups, Veeam Backup Free Edition is a must-have tool for managing your VMs. (more…)
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13 Jun 2012
By Yendis

Explaining and Troubleshooting Write Cache Disk Drive Letter Assignment

Citrix,
This blog explains the process involved on drive letter assignments for target devices and how to troubleshoot write cache drive letter changes. Mount Manager is the component responsible for managing volume names and drive letter assignments on windows. It has a database that is recorded on the registry under the HKLM/SYSTEM/MountedDevices key. When a new disk is installed on the system, the Mount Manager Creates a new unique ID for the disk and saves it into the registry with the "??Volume{GUID} naming scheme, this is unique and persistent for this system. If the disk is plugged on another system, a new…
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08 Jun 2012
By Yendis

Simplify your XenAppXenDesktop with DNS aliases

Citrix, VMware,
You can see this recommendation in few of our recent best practices – most recently in the excellent “XenDesktop and XenApp Best Practices document”: “The XenDesktop and XenApp servers should be configured to use DNS Aliases when accessinginfrastructure components such as the Citrix License Server and Database Server(s) rather than hostname or IP address. This helps to simplify management during certain maintenance and disaster recovery scenarios.” But what does it exactly mean and how should it be configured? I’m following this best practice for many years and I would like to share few information about how to use it and what are the…
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