Prepping a VM for VMWare VDI

john@johnwray.com — Tue, 15 Dec 2015 23:21:00 -0500

Creating a new desktop from scratch. I create a new VM using the typical settings. I pick the OS, nic (VMXNET3), thin provision the hard drive. I then go into the setting before powering it on. Edit the memory and vCPU count. Change the boot options to dump you in to the BIOS when you power it on.

I also change the SCSI Controller type to VMware Paravirtual.

Next attach a floppy driver to load while you install so you can see the hard disk.

I used this for a windows 7 install.

Attach the CD iso and boot the VM. You should go into the BIOS screen. Disable the com and parallel ports and save. Next you will go into the OS install. Next until you get the Where do you want to install Windows screen. You will need to add a driver. Browse to your A: drive, then the subfolder. You should eventually get the ParaVirutal adapter loaded. At that point should see your hard drive. Hit Shift+F10 to bring up a command prompt.

Type these commands

diskpart
select disk 0
convert GPT
clean
create partition primary size=400
active
format fs=ntfs label="System Reserve" quick
create partition primary
format fs=ntfs label="OS_Drive" unit=8192
assign
exit
exit

Click on the refresh button to update the partitions, select OS_Drive and install normally. Install the tools once you get up to a desktop to get network connectivity.

Removing stuck or missing desktops from VMware Horizon View

john@johnwray.com — Sat, 20 Sep 2014 02:56:00 -0500

Every once in a while you will get View Desktops stuck in View Administrator that won’t delete or were deleted and are showing as missing. You will need to manually clean them from the ADAM database. First connect to the ADAM database from one of the connection servers. Normally DOMAIN-VDCS1

Windows Server 2008

To connect to the View ADAM database:

Log in to one of the View Connection Servers.
Click Start > Administrative Tools > ADSI Edit.
In the console window, right-click ADSI Edit and click Connect to.
In the Name field type: View ADAM Database
Select Select or type a Distinguished Name or Naming Context.
In the field below, type dc=vdi,dc=vmware,dc=int
Select Select or type a domain or server.
In the field below, type localhost
Click OK.
Click View ADAM Database [localhost] to expand.
Click DC=vdi,dc=vmware,dc=int to expand.

Next, locate the GUID of the stuck/orphaned VM you would like to disappear.

Removing the virtual machine from the ADAM database

Note: Before removing entries from the ADAM database, note the virtual machine name of the desktops that are being removed for reference when editing the Composer Database.

Connect to the View ADAM Database. For more information, see Connecting to the View ADAM Database (2012377).
Locate the GUID of the virtual machine

Right-click the Connection View ADAM Database [localhost:389], and click New > Query.

Under Root of Search, click Browse.. and select the Servers organizational unit.
Click OK.
In the Query String, paste this search string:

(&(objectClass=pae-VM)(pae-displayname=VirtualMachineName))

Where VirtualMachineName is the name of the virtual machine for which you are trying to locate the GUID. You may use * or ? as wildcards to match multiple desktops.
Click OK to create the query.
Click the query in the left pane. The virtual machines that match the search are displayed in the right pane.

Once you clean out all of the GUIDs, refresh the query to make sure you got all of the VMs.
Check the View Administrator before you go any further, you may have unstuck enough to where the rest of the process completed.

Notes:

Check if there are entries under OU=Desktops and OU=Applications in the ADAM database.
A broken pool that does not contain any desktops can be removed from View Manager by removing the pool entry from both the Server Groups and Applications organizational units. However, removing one entry and not the other from the ADAM database results in the java.lang.nullpointerexception error when attempting to view the pools or desktops inventory in View Manager.

Removing the linked clone references from the View Composer database

After cleaning out the VMs from the ADAM database you may get an error about a VM with the specifications already exists.

To remove the linked clone references from the View Composer database:

sviconfig -operation=removesviclone -vmname=<name of vm> -adminuser=username -adminpassword=password -ServerUrl=https://localhost:18443/SviService/v3_0

SviConfig is located on vCenter Server hosting View Composer (or standalone Composer server) at:

32-bit servers: Install_drive\Program Files\VMware\VMware View Composer

64-bit servers: Install_drive\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware View Composer

John Wray's Blog - View

Prepping a VM for VMWare VDI

Removing stuck or missing desktops from VMware Horizon View