Tag Archives: organizational units

Deploying VMware View 5 – Part 1: Configure Active Directory and Deploy VMware Connection Server

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KB ID 0000594

Problem

Note: This is an old post for VMware view version 5, you might want to read Deploying VMware Horizon View instead.

VMware View is a big product, deploying it can be daunting, and if you’re not sure what you’re doing it’s pretty easy to deploy ‘misconfigured’, or at the very least not configured as well as it should. I’m going to run though most requirements, but it would seem sensible to break this up into a few different articles.

Solution

Configuring Windows Active Directory for VMware View

1. Before you start, on your domain controller open active directory users and computers (dsa.msc). Create an OU for your View Desktops, also to make administration easier create a separate OU for any linked clones you are going to deploy. In the example below I’ve nested one inside the other to keep my AD neat and tidy.

2. Also whilst in AD users and computers, create some groups, one for ViewUsers, and one for ViewAdministrators. Add in your users to the groups as required.

Note: You can call the groups whatever you like, and have as many different groups as you like.

3. Now connect to your Virtual Center Server, and add the domain ViewAdministrators group to the LOCAL Administrators group on that server.

Installing and configuring VMware View 5

4. Run the installer for VMware Connection Server (there is a x32 and an x64 version, make sure you download the correct one as VMware call the x64 bit version VMware-viewconnectionserver-x86_64-5.0.1-640055.exe, which at first glance looks like a x32 bit file). Accept all the defaults until you see the following screen, and select View Standard Server.

View Standard Server: Select if this is the first Connection Server you are deploying. View Replica Server: Select this if you already have a connection server and you want to copy the configuration from that server, once in operation it just becomes a standard replica server. View Security Server: Usually placed on an edge network or in a DMZ to broker connection requests. View Transfer Server: Only required if your clients are going to use ‘Local Mode’ for their View desktops..

5. Accept all the defaults and finish the installation.

6. Connect to the VMware View administrator console, this is a web connection to https://{Connection-server-name/admin Note: Adobe Flash is required for it to work.

7. The first time you connect it will take you straight to View Configuration > Product Licencing and Usage > Select “Edit Licence” and type/paste in your licence key.

8. To point the connection server to your virtual center server, select View Configuration > Servers > vCenter Server section > Add.

9. Give it the vCenter server name, and a username and password for a user who is a member of your ViewAdministrators group.

Note: If your vCenter server has VMware composer installed this is where you would enable it. At this time I do not, but I will return here later after I’ve installed it when I cover VMware Composer and ‘linked clones’.

Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links

Deploying VMware View 5 – Part 2: Configure Windows 7 to be a VMware View Desktop

Bulk Export Users From One Domain, and Import Into Another

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KB ID 0000794 

Problem

I’ve written in the past about bulk importing users with CSVDE, but what if you want to move/migrate your users to another domain? You first need to export all the users, then import them into the new domain.

Solution

Step 1 Export Domain Users to CSV File

1. Here all my users are in one OU, if that OU has ‘nested OU’s within it that’s OK.

2. The command to ‘export’ is as follows;

Note: You need to ‘run as administrator‘

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csvde -d {LDAP Path} -f c:\filename.csv

Example

csvde -d "ou=Main-Site,dc=pnl,dc=com" -f C:\ExportedUsers.csv

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3. The users will be exported. If it fails at this point it will give you a descriptive error, CSVDE has been around for a while, Google the error (most fixes are pretty simple).

4. Now open the CSV File with Excel, the second line will probably be the OU, you can leave this here if you want but if your target OU is different (or Like me you prefer to create it manually), then delete row 2 (Don’t delete Row 1!).

5. You do not need all the columns, delete all the columns EXCEPT,

DN
objectClass
ou
distinguishedName
name
cn
sn
givenName
displayName
sAMAccountName
userPrincipalName

So when complete it should look like the following;

6. Change any details in the LDAP path that are different for the new domain.

7. You may also need to change the domain name that’s listed on the userPrincipleName.

Step 2 Import Domain Users from CSV File

1. On the target domain, (if you are not importing the OU’s, then make sure they already exist). The syntax for the import is;

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csvde -i -f c:\filename.csv

 

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9. Your users should be imported.

10. By default they will be disabled, but you can bulk enable them.

11. At this point all the users have no password, this can also be bulk set.

Windows – Reset all User Passwords in an OU

 

Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links

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