VMware

Step By Step Install VMware Horizon 8 – Part 4

Mohammad Hossein Khoshraftar Yari

Hi, today I created an Event database to log Horizon events to a SQL Server instance, making the event data available to analytics software. For example, you can find the following types of events in the database:

  • Alerts that report system failures and errors
  • End-user actions, such as logging and starting desktop and application sessions
  • Administrator actions, such as adding entitlements and creating desktop and application pools
  • Statistical sampling, such as recording the maximum number of users over a 24-hour period.

Prerequisites for Setting Up the Events Database

  • SQL Server instance – This is the database server on which you will create the Events database.
  • Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio 
  • Microsoft SQL Server Configuration Manager  
  • SA credentials ­– To create the necessary logins for the database, you will log in to the SQL Server instance as the sysadmin (SA) or as a user account with SA privileges.

How to install and configure the Events Database?

1- Click on SQL Server Installation and then Click on New SQL server

2- Select Specify a free edition or Enter your product key

3-Acept license Term

4-

5-Select Default and Next

6- Default Server Configuration and Next

7- Select Mixed Mode and enter a password for sa username and add domain administrator account for SQL server administrator

8- Click on Install

9-Finish

10-Install Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio

11- In the Object Explorer, right-click Databases, and select New Database from the submenu. Name the database and click OK.

12- My Database name is Horizon

Finish 🙂

Step By Step Install VMware Horizon 8 – Part 3

Mohammad Hossein Khoshraftar Yari

Hi, today I want to install Replica Connection Server.

How to install Horizon Replica server?

1- Create two VMs and install two Windows servers and join them to your domain.

Guest OS – Microsoft Windows Server 2019
CPU – 4
Memory – 4 GB
New Hard Disk – 40 GB
New SCSI Controller – LSI Logic SAS
Network Adapter Type – VMXNET3

2- Download Connection server from this link and copy it to connection server’s VM.

3- Welcome page, Next

4- License Agreement, Next

5- Destination Folder

6- Installation Options

Standard installation – Generates a Connection Server instance with a new Horizon LDAP configuration.

Replica installation – Generates a Connection Server instance with a Horizon LDAP configuration that is copied from an existing instance.

Enrollment Server installation – Installs an enrollment server that is required for the True SSO (single sign-on) feature, so that after users log in to VMware Workspace ONE Access, they can connect to a remote desktop or application without having to provide Active Directory credentials. The enrollment server requests the short-lived certificates that are used for authentication.

I select Horizon Replica Server, Next.

7- On the Data Recovery page, enter the password you want to use for recovering data backups of the Connection Server.

8- Enter First Horizon Server HostName

9- On the Firewall Configuration page, accept the default, which is Configure Windows Firewall automatically.

10-  On the Initial Horizon Administrators page, for this exercise and for simplicity, I recommend authorizing an Active Directory domain group.

11- On the User Experience Improvement Program page, you can deselect the Join the VMware Customer Experience Improvement Program option to opt out of the program.

12- On the Ready to Install page, leave the default for the drop-down list, which is General, to indicate that you are deploying the Connection Server in an on-premises environment, and click Install.

12- On the Installer Completed page, click Finish.

13- You can launch the Horizon Console

https://<connection-server-hostname>/admin/

Finish 🙂

Step By Step Install VMware Horizon 8 – Part 1

Mohammad Hossein Khoshraftar Yari

Hi, today in this post, I decided to explain about how we can install VMware Horizon 8 in high availability mode.

You can find more detailed information about What’s New in this link.

You can find more detailed information about Horizon Administration in this link.

What is my plan:

What is our pre request:

1- Active Directory domain controller – The authentication infrastructure for your setup must include Active Directory, DNS, and DHCP. The Connection Server joins to Active Directory and sets up a lightweight directory service instance for the storage of Horizon configuration information.

2- SQL database Server – This is the database server on which you will create the Events database, which records actions that occur on the Horizon servers. For the example in this post, i used Microsoft SQL Server 2019.

3- VMware vSphere and vCenter Server – you must have a VMware vSphere infrastructure that contains at least one VMware ESXi host and one VMware vCenter Server instance.

4- TLS/SSL certificate – (Optional) By default, Horizon servers include a self-signed certificate that can be used for testing purposes.

5- Network and Storage

What is a Connection Server?

Connection Server acts as a broker for client connections by authenticating and then directing incoming remote desktop user requests to the appropriate virtual desktop, physical desktop, or terminal server. You must run Connection Server on a 32-bit or 64-bit dedicated physical or virtual server.

How to Install Horizon

1- Create two VMs and install two Windows servers and join them to your domain.

Guest OS – Microsoft Windows Server 2019
CPU – 4
Memory – 4 GB
New Hard Disk – 40 GB
New SCSI Controller – LSI Logic SAS
Network Adapter Type – VMXNET3

2- Download Connection server from this link and copy it to connection server’s VM.

3- Welcome page, Next

4- License Agreement, Next

5- Destination Folder

6- Installation Options

Standard installation – Generates a Connection Server instance with a new Horizon LDAP configuration.

Replica installation – Generates a Connection Server instance with a Horizon LDAP configuration that is copied from an existing instance.

Enrollment Server installation – Installs an enrollment server that is required for the True SSO (single sign-on) feature, so that after users log in to VMware Workspace ONE Access, they can connect to a remote desktop or application without having to provide Active Directory credentials. The enrollment server requests the short-lived certificates that are used for authentication.

I select Horizon Standard Server, Next.

7- On the Data Recovery page, enter the password you want to use for recovering data backups of the Connection Server.

8- On the Firewall Configuration page, accept the default, which is Configure Windows Firewall automatically.

9- On the Initial Horizon Administrators page, for this exercise and for simplicity, I recommend authorizing an Active Directory domain group.

10- On the User Experience Improvement Program page, you can deselect the Join the VMware Customer Experience Improvement Program option to opt out of the program.

11- On the Ready to Install page, leave the default for the drop-down list, which is General, to indicate that you are deploying the Connection Server in an on-premises environment, and click Install.

12- On the Installer Completed page, click Finish.

13- You can launch the Horizon Console 

https://<connection-server-hostname>/admin/

Finish 🙂

Step By Step Install VMware Horizon 8 – Part 2

Mohammad Hossein Khoshraftar Yari

Hi, today I want to configure the following thing on Connection Server:

If you don’t see part 1, please click here.

  • Add license
  • Add vCenter

How to add license for Connection Server?

1- Login to Connection Server 

https://<connection-server-hostname>/admin/

2- My domain name is khoshraftar.com. Enter your domain user administrator.

3- Click on VMware Horizon HTML Access

4- go to Settings –> Product Licensing and Usage –> Edit License

Enter the serial number of the product license key and click OK.

Add a vCenter Server Instance

1- In the Horizon Console, navigate to Settings > Servers, which takes you to the vCenter Servers tab, and click the Add button.

2- On the Add vCenter Server page, complete the following text boxes before clicking Next:

  • Server address – Enter the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the vCenter Server instance.
  • User Name and Password – Use the format name@domain.com for the name of the vCenter Server user account.
  • You can leave the default settings for the other text boxes.

Finish 🙂

Step By Step Install VMware Horizon 8

Mohammad Hossein Khoshraftar Yari

Hi, today in this post, I decided to explain about how we can install VMware Horizon 8 in high availability mode.

You can find more detailed information about What’s New in this link.

You can find more detailed information about Horizon Administration in this link.

What is my plan:

We have in

Part 1

How to install Connection server?

Part 2

How to add a license for Connection Server?

How to Add a vCenter Server Instance?

Part 3

How to install Horizon Replica server?

Part 4

How to install and configure the Events Database?

Part 5

How to create a Domain User Account and OUs in AD for Clone Operations?

How to add an instance – Clone Domain Administrator?

Part 6

How to create a Single – User Desktop Pool?

Part 7

How to Create RDSH – Published Desktop and Applications?

Part 8

How to provision Users and Access Desktop and Apps?

Finish 🙂

How to remove the unused extension from vCenter 7

Mohammad Hossein Khoshraftar Yari

Hi, Today I will show you how we can remove the unused extension from VMware vCenter.

First of all, Where is the extenstion?

Please go to this address:

https://vCenter IP address → Administration → Solution → Client Plugins

I want delete this plugin from my vCenter.

1- go to the below address

https://vCenter IP address/mob

2- Enter your vCenter username and password

3- In the Properties Section, Click on Content

4- On the next page, click on ExtensionManager

5- Find your extension name. For example, I searched for the HPE plugin

Copy the extension name

6- Go to the Methods section under the page and find and click on UnregisterExtension

7- Paste or write your extension that you want to delete here and click on Invoke Method.

Finish 🙂

How to join ESXi to the domain and set Active Directory groups to log in to ESXi via PowerShell.

Mohammad Hossein Khoshraftar Yari

Hi, Today I want to set the ESXi host to join to the domain and I adjust Active Directory groups to log in to ESXi with domain’s account, through PowerShell.

1- Run PowerShell as Administrator

2- Install VMware powercli 

Install-Module VMware.PowerCLI

3- Connect to vCenter

Connect-VIServer -Server "your Server FQDN or IP address" -user "your username"

4- Enter your vCenter username and password

5- Create a variable 

$ESXiHost = Get-VMHost

6- Join to Domain

$ESXiHost | Get-VMHostAuthentication | Set-VMHostAuthentication -JoinDomain 
"DomainName" -user "Username" -password "password" -Confirm:$false

7- Add your Active Directory Group that member’s of that group want login to ESXi Host.

$ESXiHost | Get-AdvancedSetting -Name Config.HostAgent.plugins.hostsvc.esxAdminsGroup | Set-AdvancedSetting -Value "Group Name"

For Example:

Connect-VIServer -Server vcenter.khoshraftar.com -User administrator@vsphere.local

$ESXiHost = Get-VMHost

$ESXiHost | Get-VMHostAuthentication | Set-VMHostAuthentication -JoinDomain -Domain khoshraftar.com -user khoshraftar -password *******  -Confirm:$false

$ESXiHost | Get-AdvancedSetting -Name Config.HostAgent.plugins.hostsvc.esxAdminsGroup | Set-AdvancedSetting -Value  VirtualizationTeam

Now, I have a username that is a member of VirtualizationTeam, I can login with it to ESXi UI.

Finish 🙂

How to reset iLO 5 password from ESXi 7 shell

Mohammad Hossein Khoshraftar Yari

Hi, Today I need to reset forgotten ilo password, and I can’t reset my ESXi host.

If you install ESXi from HPE customized ESXi image, you can use hponcfg application, that exists on ESXi.

First SSH to your ESXi, Then go to this address:

cd /opt/tools
or
cd /opt/hp/tools

Then we need to create an XML file. I used vi tools.

vi resetpassword.xml

You must copy and paste this below information and save and exit.

<RIBCL VERSION="2.0">
<LOGIN USER_LOGIN="Administrator" PASSWORD="yourpassword">
<USER_INFO MODE="write">
<MOD_USER USER_LOGIN="Administrator">
<PASSWORD value="yourpassword"/>
</MOD_USER>
</USER_INFO>
</LOGIN>
</RIBCL>

Then run this command:

./hponcfg -f ./resetpassword.xml

You see a successful message.

Finish 🙂

How to change a node hostname in vRealize Operations Manager 8.6

Mohammad Hossein Khoshraftar Yari

Hi, Today I installed a new vRops version 8.6, and I realized, that it’s name is photon-machine.

Before I start my cluster, I want to change it.

How?

1- First, SSH to vRops server or appliance address and login as a root user.

2- write this command

$VMWARE_PYTHON_BIN /usr/lib/vmware-vcopssuite/utilities/bin/sethostname.py <NewHostName>

For example:

My old name is photon-machine and I want to change it to vrops01.

$VMWARE_PYTHON_BIN /usr/lib/vmware-vcopssuite/utilities/bin/sethostname.py vrops01

3- After that, Type reboot, then press Enter to reset your server.

4- Use the vRops admin UI to bring the cluster online.

Reference:

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2108689

Finish 🙂