XenDesktop 4 has raised the bar for virtual desktop (VDI) solutions. It’s now easier to provide a virtual desktop to users on differing operation systems and platforms. And having Citrix on the iPhone / iPad is just amazing eye candy too.
By default, all the tutorials for installing XenDesktop use the defaults. This means that under Windows, using a browser to connect and launch a session from web interface uses the online plug-in module. It works, provides multi-monitor capability, but has display artifacts and no nifty bar to manage USB connection and such. Besides this client, the Desktop Viewer can also be used as the default (if installed).
Continue reading Best Presentation of XenDesktop 4 on Windows
Recently I did a “few” upgrades to the home lab. Besides an upgrade to enhance shared storage for vSphere (my old NAS was at 502 days uptime), I took the opportunity to enable jumbo packets on my Dell PowerConnect 5324 and the new fire-and-forget Thecus N7700PRO NAS. As the basis for new lab infrastructure to test VMware, Hyper-V and Xen, it’s a good improvement.
Since the first use was to test some of the new features of vSphere / vCenter 4.1, I also took the opportunity to change over to ESXi from ESX. According to VMware, 4.1 is the last release of ESX, so time to get cracking with ESXi, vMA, and the differences in managing the hosts.
I wanted to take advantage of jumbo frames on my ESXi systems. However, I didn’t decide this until I’d already installed the hosts (and didn’t see an advanced option to set the management interface MTU).
Continue reading ESXi 4.1 and the 9000 Byte MTU (on vmk0)
This is an update post to reflect the differences in vCenter 4.1 vs the older vCenter 25 install. The older post can be found here.
Certain third party products such as XenDesktop respect the expiration date on the vCenter SSL certificate. The vSphere Client doesn’t mind so much, nor it appears do the vSphere (ESX/ESXi — err vSphere Hypervisor) hosts, but when your VDIs suddenly can’t be reached, it’s a bad thing. I’m sure other products may have the same issue.
By default, vCenter will create a self-signed certificate issued to “VMware default certificate“. Unlike previous vCenter installs, the certificate is valid for 10 years, but still can cause problems for third parties that want to see the proper common name (e.g., FQDN of the vCenter server).
In our case, since we’re not publishing any SSL services to the public and already have a Microsoft Certificate Authority, we can create and sign our own vCenter certificate. And just like the newer version of vCenter, we’ll set it up for 10 years too.
This can be completed in just under 15 minutes if all the prerequisites are in place. Took me an hour (including this documentation).
Continue reading Replacing vCenter 4.1 SSL Certificate with Active Directory Issued One
I’d love to use Foxit’s super fast PDF iflter for my test SharePoint 2010 setup, but at $700, it’s not going to happen. However, the Adobe one works fine, after some regedit goodness. Looking online, there are lots of articles mentioning the SharePoint beta, but not the RTM. Here are the quick steps to get it operational:
Continue reading SharePoint 2010 and PDF iFilter (Adobe)
Certain third party products such as XenDesktop respect the expiration date on the vCenter SSL certificate. The vSphere Client doesn’t mind so much, nor it appears does the ESX hosts, but when your VDIs suddenly can’t be reached, it’s a bad thing.
By default, vCenter will create a self-signed certificate with just the host name. In our case, since we’re not publishing any SSL services to the public and already have a Microsoft Certificate Authority, we can create and sign our own vCenter certificate. And just like the newer version of vCenter, we’ll set it up for 10 years too.
This can be completed in just under 15 minutes if all the prerequisites are in place. Took me an hour (including this documentation).
Continue reading Replacing vCenter 2.5 Self-Signed Certificate with Active Directory Issued One
VMware’s Update Manager has always been too complex and cumbersome for small installations. However, back in the EX 3.5 days, it at least worked. Late last year when vSphere 4 Update 1 came out, I once again tried using good ol’ Update Manager.
Continue reading vSphere 4 (ESX) Update 1 Sadness
I love OS X and every iteration has gotten better and better. But every once in a while tasks that should be simple–aren’t. Take the case of trying to add a S/MIME certificate to the Keychain.
In the past, simply double-clicking on the .p12 file would prompt for the passphrase and import it into the login chain. After getting my certificate issued by StartSSL and stored in Firefox, I exported the certificate and private key, set a passphrase, double-clicked, and….
An error has occurred. Unable to import an item. The contents of this item cannot be retrieved. You failed to provide the necessary administrator authorization. (Added so the search engines will pick this up)
Continue reading Snow Leopard Certificate Sillyness
DeltaCopy is a great easy to use rsync client (and server) for Windows. Based on Cygwin, it front-end the rsync client and adds the capabilities to schedule tasks and send email notifications.
In the past under Windows XP, scheduling tasks was a breeze. It still is under Windows 7, except by default they don’t run. I assume the application hasn’t been fully tested under Windows 7, and I know it can have issues with UAC and the scheduler.
I’ll explain the steps I’ve taken to get backup tasks to operate. Continue reading DeltaCopy on Windows 7 and Scheduled Tasks
Overall Photoshop CS4 Extended is running like a champ in 64-bit mode. It sees 6GB of RAM and all my plugins are working fine. However, my older Wacom Graphire tablet isn’t working for pressure sensitivty in Photoshop. There is a solution!
Continue reading Wacom Graphire Tablet and Photoshop CS4 64-Bit
Linux and Windows Active Directory (AD) integration has come a long ways since 2000. It is now quite easy to take advantage of Kerberos for managing authentication at the host level (user logins and such). Surprisingly, it’s just as easy to the same in Apache now.
This posting will walk you through the steps needed to configure and test authentication against a valid AD user.
Prerequisites
It is assumed the following prerequisites are in place:
- CentOS 5.2 Server – fully updated
- Apache, Kerberos, and supporting packages installed
- Samba configured as member server (net ads join has been successfully performed)
- Windows Server 2003 R2 or 2008 SP1 with UNIX Identity Management extensions installed
- Kerberos working (kinit from a AD user properly authenticates and klist shows tickets)
Continue reading CentOS 5.2 – Apache – Kerberos / Active Directory Authentication
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