VMware NSX Presentation

2017, The Final Quarter

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It’s been a busy few weeks (when does ‘busy’ stop being ‘busy’ and just become ‘BAU’?), and with the final quarter upon us, I’m working to complete the last of our projects and implementations, and there aren’t many on my list bigger than a major data centre migration.

One item from the list I’m excited about is our in-house training. Compared with other projects, technical designs, or R&D, internal training can sometimes be seen as a secondary concern, however, rather than simply handing over a solution to an operational support team, I’m a huge fan of getting every member of the team around a table to discuss, challenge, and question the solution, the designs, and the technology. Specifically, myself and colleagues within our Technical Operations team (made up of both Infrastructure and Network Architects) will regularly provide internal training and/or overview sessions to both business owners and technical teams, as well as deep dives into the technologies we either have in development or the designs and implementations we are transitioning into live service.

At this time of year, it’s nice to step back and try not to take things for granted. It’s a real privilege to be able to work with such great partners, technologies (VMware NSX, Horizon, Pure Storage), our colleagues, and being part of a team that’s so passionate about the solutions we design and deploy; ultimately enabling the business to support both our users and members. Thanks to such projects and technologies we have been able to enhance security and automation within the SDDC, provide micro segmentation of critical workloads, and deliver anything services and applications wherever the’re located.

VMware NSX Presentation

VMware Horizon Logo

Customising the VMware Horizon Web Portal – Part 1

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Following a recent VMware Horizon 7 upgrade, we had a few issues whereby users were unable to download the VMware Horizon Client via the Web Portal. Specifically, clicking the Install VMware Horizon Client link simply resulted in a 404 error. So, where had the installation media gone?

On closer inspection, it appears VMware Horizon 7 handles this configuration slightly differently than in previous versions, but the issue can be easily remedied.

Customising the VMware Horizon Web Portal
Installing the VMware Horizon Client via the Web Portal
Customising the VMware Horizon Web Portal
Attempts to download the VMware Horizon Client result in a 404 error

1. First of all, we’ll need to download all clients relevant to your environment (Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS, Android, etc.) via www.vmware.com/go/viewclients. These will need to be saved to C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware View\Server\broker\webapps\downloads on each of your Connection servers.Customising the VMware Horizon Web Portal

2. The URL utilised in the Web Portal is defined in the portal-links-html-access.properties configuration file (available at C:\ProgramData\VMware\VDM\portal\). Amend each of the links (or rather the filenames) accordingly to your required platforms:

32-bit Windows installer:
link.win32=https://Server-FQDN/downloads/VMware-Horizon-Client-x86-build#.exe

64-bit Windows installer:
link.win64=https://Server-FQDN/downloads/VMware-Horizon-Client-x86_64-build#.exe

Windows Phone installer:
link.winmobile=https://Server-FQDN/downloads/VMware-Horizon-Client-build#.appx

32-bit Linux installer:
link.linux32=https://Server-FQDN/downloads/VMware-Horizon-Client-build#.x86.bundle

64-bit Linux installer:
link.linux64=https://Server-FQDN/downloads/VMware-Horizon-Client-build#.x64.bundle

Mac OS X installer:
link.mac=https://Server-FQDN/downloads/VMware-Horizon-Client-build#.dmg

iOS installer:
link.ios=https://Server-FQDN/downloads/VMware-Horizon-Client-iPhoneOS-build#.ipa

Android installer:
link.android=https://Server-FQDN/downloads/VMware-Horizon-Client-AndroidOS-build#.apk

Chrome OS installer:
link.chromeos=https://Server-FQDN/downloads/VMware-Horizon-Client-ChromeOS-build#.apk

Following the amendments, your portal-links-html-access.properties file should resemble something like the below. Please note, I mention ‘https://ConnectionServerFQDN/ below. In my instance, and as this utilises multiple this is the load-balanced address. When complete, save and close.

# Configure whether download page is accessible
enable.download=true

# Configure whether web client page is accessible
enable.webclient=true

# Configure the download page's URL address
link.download=https://www.vmware.com/go/viewclients

# Configure the help page's URL address
link.help=https://www.vmware.com/support/viewclients/doc/viewclients_pubs.html

# Links of view clients installers on different platforms
link.win32=https://ConnectionServerFQDN/downloads/VMware-Horizon-Client-4.6.1-6748947.exe
link.win64=https://ConnectionServerFQDN/downloads/VMware-Horizon-Client-4.6.1-6748947.exe
link.linux32=https://ConnectionServerFQDN/downloads/VMware-Horizon-Client-4.6.0-6617224.x86.bundle
link.linux64=https://ConnectionServerFQDN/downloads/VMware-Horizon-Client-4.6.0-6617224.x64.bundle
link.mac=https://ConnectionServerFQDN/downloads/VMware-Horizon-Client-4.6.0-6607320.dmg

3. Lastly, restart the VMware Horizon View Web Component service.Customising the VMware Horizon Web Portal

4. Revisit the Web Portal and all should now be well.Customising the VMware Horizon Web Portal