Nov 10

GPU Virtualization Links (Part 1)

Dilbert.com

Today I start a series of blog posts on GPUs and 3D rendering in VMware Horizon View. I’ll be sharing much of my knowledge on the technical aspects of GPUs. In this post I will be sharing links that will be helpful as you plan and deploy a graphically intensive workload. In future posts I will be sharing how to do sizing calculations, hardware install tips, and many other GPU related items. I hope to put out a post every week or two on this.

If you have questions or there is a topic on GPUs you would like me to touch on please drop me a note or add a comment.

Below are a list of links I use when working with GPUs in VMware. This isn’t a comprehensive list by any means. If you have more to add please be sure to put them in the comments.

The Cards

We’ll start with the GPUs. This is based on the VMware HCL for ESXi hosts 5.5 U2 at the date of this blog post. (http://partnerweb.vmware.com/comp_guide2/search.php?deviceCategory=vsga)

NVIDIA GRID Cards:

 

 

 

 

AMD FirePro:

 

 

The Servers

With the cards addressed here are some links to hardware vendors whose servers have been certified with one or more of these cards. (http://partnerweb.vmware.com/comp_guide2/search.php?deviceCategory=server&details=1&pFeatures=60&page=1&display_interval=50&sortColumn=Partner&sortOrder=Asc&bookmark=1) Due to time constraints I’m only going to list a few of the many possible servers.

Cisco C240 M3/M4

 

Dell

 

 

 

HP

 

VMware

With a majority of the physical addressed here are links to VMware GPU materials.

 

 

I know this isn’t a comprehensive list. If there is a link that you think is helpful please add a comment below with the link.

In my next post I will cover calculating how many users you can get out of a single card. Look for it in the next week or so.

Cheers.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.wondernerd.net/gpu-virtualization-links/

Oct 14

Configuring VMware Virtual Flash in vSphere 5.5

I recently had a question come in at work about configuration limits on VMware Flash Read Cache limits. I thought this is some material the community might like as well as a walk through on how to install and configure it.

Before we get into how to setup VMware Virtual Flash is I think it’s wise to give a quick overview of what it is. VMware Flash Read Cache lets you offload some read IO’s from your storage by caching the data on local flash storage. In other words store you can keep a local copy of heavily read data in cache on the host.

In addition to this you can also leverage the Virtual Flash on an ESXi host as a swap caching location. This means if VM’s are consuming more (oversubscribed) RAM than the ESXi host has, the host can swap memory pages to the SSD drive allowing for improved performance when compared to swapping to spinning disk. This also allows SMB’s get more bang for their buck by leveraging less expensive SSD than higher density higher priced memory modules.

I will look at configuring both of Flash Read Cache and swap caching below. For more information about VMware vSphere Virtual Flash, refer to the VMware vSphere 5.5 documentation (http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-55/topic/com.vmware.vsphere.storage.doc/GUID-07ADB946-2337-4642-B660-34212F237E71.html) and the links at the end of this post.

I have my trusty small lab environment (it runs on my laptop) setup so lets walk through the process and look at configuring and the limits of the flash read cache.

 

First off, this is what we will need to setup Virtual Flash:

  • vSphere 5.5 or later
  • ESXi hosts 5.5 or later with:
    • SSD storage
      • With 8 or less SSD drives for Virtual Flash Volume (VFV)
      • Each drive 4TB or less
      • Maxing out at a combined 32TB or less (8 drives X 4TB = 32TB)

Once we have these in place lets configure some Virtual Flash.

Configuring Virtual Flash

With the SSD installed in the ESXi host login to your vCenter web client (this can’t be done through the vSphere executable client). Now we want to navigate to our host we want to configure the read cache on (you can also do this across a cluster, see the vSphere documentation for information). Select the manage tab then go to the settings button. Once there we want to scroll down to the bottom of the list and select the Virtual Flash Resource Management section. We then want to click on the Add Capacity button.

Add_vFlash

The add capacity screen appears listing all SSDs in the ESXi host. Place a check mark to the left of the SSDs you would like to use for the Virtual Flash resources (see red check mark in screen shot below).

When we click the OK button all of the data on the selected SSD disk drives will be erased!

At this point we can click the OK button. If we wanted to we could have added up to 8 devices here and had up to 32TB total flash storage. We are now returned to the settings screen.

AddFlashDialog

The Virtual Flash Resource Management screen is now updated reflecting the amount of Cache we have available.

AvailableCache

At this point we have two directions we can go. We can either configure the Virtual Flash Host Swap Cache or configure the Read Cache on a VM. Because the flash in my system is limited I am going to setup the host swap cache first and use the rest for my VM’s.

Configuring Virtual Flash Host Swap

To do this we want to click on the Virtual Flash Host Swap Cache Configuration on the left side of the ESXi hosts settings button. Now we just click the Edit button.

HostSwapCache

In the edit dialog we can check the Enable virtual flash host swap cache option. Then we can configure how much should be allocated to the host swap cache. In my case I will allocate 8GB. The amount you allocate will vary. You will also notice that you are able to see the min, max, & current values for the Host Swap Cache. When finished we can click the Ok button.

ConfigVFHswap

We now have Virtual Flash Host Swap Cache configured. This means that if we start swapping on our VM’s the swapping can first consume the space we allocated for it before it starts swapping to slower speed storage.

Configuring VMware Flash Read Cache

With the remaining space we can configure a read cache for select VM’s. In my case I will be working with a windows template VM. You will want to apply this to your VM’s on a per VM basis for those VMs that would benefit from a Read Cache and only for those disks that would benefit.

To start, we right click on the VM we want to provide a read cache too and select Edit Settings from the popup menu. Select the disk you want to work with and expand the storage for the disk. You will then see a Read Cache option. If you don’t see it check the VM Hardware Version, it may not be version 10 or later, in which case you will need to upgrade the virtual hardware version.

It’s also worth noting, as you can see in the screen shoots below that this can be done non-disruptively. You can enable read cache while the VM is running.

Enter the amount of Read Cache for the vDisk. In my case I’ll give it 5GB’s. You should choose what’s best for your VM.

VFRC_VM_Basic

You can also click on the advanced button. There you can control the block size of the Read Cache. Note that if you change the reservation here it will change the Read Cache amount on the previous screen.

VFRC_VM_Adv

Sizing of the Read Cache is beyond the scope of this document. The best resource for this at this time is to refer to the “Performance of vSphere Flash Read Cache in VMware vSphere 5.5 white paper” which can be found here: http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/vfrc-perf-vsphere55.pdf

It is also worth noting that you cannot exceed the remaining amount of Virtual Flash resources. This is also known as over subscribing the Virtual Flash. So if you only have 5 GBs of Virtual Flash left you can only use 5GBs amongst all of your VMs.

Once you have set the Read Cache for the vDisk(s) click the OK button. You can repeat this process for any other VM’s as needed.

 

That’s all there is too it.

Enjoy.

Here are some good resources as you configure Virtual Flash on your own.

 

If there is a topic your curious about please let us know.

Tony

 

This blog post has been cross posted on the EMC Community Network (ECN) and can be found here: https://community.emc.com/community/connect/everything_vmware/blog/2014/10/14/configuring-vmware-virtual-flash-in-vsphere-55

Permanent link to this article: https://www.wondernerd.net/configuring-vmware-virtual-flash-in-vsphere-5-5/

Oct 04

Mirage 5.1 Web Client Install Quirk

I thought I would add a quick post on the Mirage 5.1 web client install. I’ve been setting up a lab recently with all of the VMware EUC products and Mirage is one that I’ve been working on.

I went though the install of the Mirage 5.1.0 server and that install went smoothly. No errors or issues I could use the MMC snap-in to manage the mirage deployment without any issues. I then turned my attention to using the web management deployment for my Mirage instance.

Since this lab is just a small deployment I decided to install it on the same box as my Mirage server. It didn’t look all that hard. All I thought I had to do is run the mirage.WebManagement.x64.11204.msi to install it and if there were any config issues it would let me know. Similar to other installs I have done.

It turns out that this is not the case. Most of the time when I’m installing a new version of an application I will have the install guide open so I can look up steps that seem confusing. Well nothing seemed confusing about this. I just ran the MSI and it told me it was installed successfully.

When I try and access the web interface though nothing happened. At first it was this website can not be displayed messages. So I go back to the trusty manual. In the manual it says that you need more components of IIS than just the minimal defaults. In fact there are two groups of things that need installed. (You can see them here: http://pubs.vmware.com/mirage-51/topic/com.vmware.mirage.installation.doc/GUID-63B2D3FE-3DA5-41C9-8A17-06175EC05CFE.html)  Once all of these items have been included in the IIS role and you try to access the web management interface you get an error like the screen shot below.

Mirage WebMngt Error 5.1

 

 

The long and short of the message is Bad Module in “v” and it has a few messages that sort of help. Specifically that ASP.net needs installed. The part that threw me though is if I went into services the ASP.net service was running on the machine.

After some digging and poking I finally figured out what was up with it. ASP.net was not installed, at least not fully. So how can this be fixed? It’s actually really simple.

  • Open up a command prompt on the system you are trying to install the Mirage Web Management on.
  • Enter the following command: C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\aspnet_regiis -i
  • OR cd to the path: C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\
    • Then issue the command: aspnet_regiis -i

Below is what this process looks like.

Mirage WebMngt ASPnet install

I had been poking around the web for a while and found what I’d been looking for on a stack overflow forum here:  http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13749138/asp-net-4-5-has-not-been-registered-on-the-web-server

Once completed, when you open a connection to the mirage web client it should look something like this.

Mirage WebMngt Console

 

 

And that is how you get around the “Managed Pipeline Error” when installing the Mirage Web Management.

This blog post has been cross blogged on the EMC Communities page as part of my job and can be found here: https://community.emc.com/community/connect/everything_vmware/blog/2014/10/04/mirage-51-web-client-install-quirk

Permanent link to this article: https://www.wondernerd.net/mirage-5-1-web-client-install-quirk/

Jul 28

I shot an arrow into the air… (New Job)

My parting message when I left VCE on May 23rd of this year was based on Longfellow’s poem “The Arrow and the Song.” The jist being that “I shot an arrow into the air, it fell to the earth I knew not where.” With my announcement today I complete the poem, “Long, long afterward, in an oak I found the arrow, still unbroken.”

[pullquote align=”right” textalign=”left” width=”30%”]

The Arrow and the Song
– Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For, so swiftly it flew, the sight
Could not follow it in its flight.

I breathed a song into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For who has sight so keen and strong,
That it can follow the flight of a song?

Long, long afterward, in an oak,
I found the arrow, still unbroken;
And the song, from beginning to end,
I found again in the heart of a friend.

[/pullquote]

Today I’m pleased to announce that I am now a Sr. Tech Marketing Manager for EMC, a large oak in the computer industry.

In my new position I will be part of the Federation  (http://www.emcfederation.com/) developing technical material for our internal teams, partners, and clients. Much of this will leverage my knowledge of EUC technologies. I will also get the opportunity to expand my cloud knowledge along with other areas of the Federation.

I’ll be working for @BGracely and @theSANzone. Along with some with great teammates including @VMTyler who just joined the team a few weeks ago.

This is an extraordinary opportunity to grow not only my knowledge but the communities shared knowledge as well. I think that is one of the most exciting things about my new position. I hope with this position I will be able to continue to pay it forward. The community has given me so much and I hope to be able to reciprocate.

I’m looking forward to the exciting times ahead and I want to thank everyone who has offered encouragement while I looked for this new oppertunity.

 

Tony

Permanent link to this article: https://www.wondernerd.net/i-shot-an-arrow-into-the-air/

Jul 17

Backing Up My WordPress Site

Thought I would share a quick post on how I protect this site. For those who don’t know me I started my career working in the backup industry. As such I am a firm believer in the saying “if you don’t have 3 copies of it then it doesn’t exist.” As such I try to keep several copies of wondernerd.net floating around.  How many can vary at any given time but needless to say its a lot.

I’ll start with the first level of protection. Basic backups of my wordpress site. How do it do it? I use the UpdraftPlus (http://updraftplus.com/) to backup my wordpress site. One of my main reasons for choosing this is that UpdraftPlus also gets clean dumps of the sites databases. You can configure it to send a copy to a cloud provider if you want. There is a whole list of them on the updraftplus website. I’m a bit more paranoid than just sending them to a cloud site.

Once a backup completes, I then have a post process task running on my home computer that logs into my website and pulls down the backup to my home network and distributes copies to various locations. I make the connection and get copies of the files with PSCP (the same folks who make putty).

A typical backup methodology might be the following:

  • Keep the latest 3 backups for 3 days (or cycles)
  • Keep the end of week backups for 2 weeks (or cycles)
  • Keep end of month backups indefinitely

I’ve illustrated it in this picture.

Website Backup Diagram

How typical backups might work. 

  1. Backups are run on the website.
  2. Those backups are then pulled to the local system as daily backups.
  3. A copy of the daily backup from the start of the week is moved to the weekly backups location
  4. At the begining of the month a copy of the backup is moved to the First of Month Backup location.

 

 

Here is the basic script that I use to do this:

setlocal enabledelayedexpansion

C:
cd "C:\Website_Backup\"

set MyYear=%Date:~10,4%
set MyMonth=%Date:~4,2%
set MyDay=%Date:~7,2%
set DOW=%Date:~0,3%

REM move the oldest to a temp directory for deletion 
ren "E:\Wondernerd_netBackup\5" "temp"

REM Keep For x days
set KeepFor=3

Set /A PrimeRead=%KeepFor%-1
REM Day counter
set NextDay=%KeepFor%
set /A PrevDay=%KeepFor%-1

FOR /l %%x IN (1,1,%PrimeRead%) DO (
  ren "C:\Website_Backup\!PrevDay!" "!NextDay!"
  set /A PrevDay=!PrevDay!-1
  set /A NextDay=!NextDay!-1
)

md "E:\Wondernerd_netBackup\1"

md "C:\Website_Backup\1"

pscp.exe -v -r -C -batch -sftp -pw PASSWORD USERNAME@YOURWEBSITE ↵
      .COM:/home/WEBSITE/wp-content/updraft/* C:\Website_Backup\1 >> C: ↵
      \Website_Backup\1\quicklog.txt

rmdir /Q /S "C:\Website_Backup\temp\"



REM Snag monthly backups and keep indefinitely, Grabs the first day of the month

if %MyDay%==01 (
  md "C:\Website_Backup\MonthEnd\%MyYear%-%MyMonth%-%MyDay%"
)

if %MyDay%==01 (
  xcopy /s "C:\Website_Backup\1" "C:\Website_Backup\MonthEnd\%MyYear%-%MyMonth%-%MyDay%"
)

Z:
set EOW=Sun
REM Sync a copy every Sunday to third storage area 
if %DOW%==%EOW% (
  rmdir /Q /S "Z:\Website_Backup\Temp"
)

if %DOW%==%EOW% (
  ren "Z:\Website_Backup\Second" "Temp"
)

if %DOW%==%EOW% (
  ren "Z:\Website_Backup\First" "Second"
)

if %DOW%==%EOW% (
  md "Z:\Website_Backup\First"
)
if %DOW%==%EOW% (
  xcopy /s "C:\Website_Backup\1" "Z:\Website_Backup\First"
)

if %DOW%==%EOW% (
  rmdir /Q /S "Z:\Website_Backup\Temp"
)

 

This is how the above bat script works.

  • First we make sure to change to the correct base directory on my local system.
  • Next we break the date out into a useable form we can use for keeping backups for a given time.
  • Next we shuffle our directories so we can age off the oldest backup at the end of the process. This script keeps 3 backups. You can change this by changing the KeepFor variable and creating the needed folders.
  • Now we create our latest directory where the backups will be placed.
  • Once we have that we are ready to go get the files. For this task I am using PSCP to securely download the files from my web server.
    • Note that in the above script it appears as three lines with a “↵” at the end of the first two lines. The pscp command is actually a single line.
    • The parameters should be fairly obvious in the PSCP command. At least the ones in capital letters should be.
    • I also output the download process to a file so I can have a quick list of files backed up along with any errors that occur during the backup
    • [warning] Your password is stored in clear text make sure to take appropriate precautions with this script.[/warning]
  • Once the files are downloaded I then get rid of the temp directory that contains the oldest backup in the set.
  • Now we get to the long term protection. If its the first of the month (or what ever day you want to set it for) we copy the latest backup to a date identified long term backup directory.
  • The last 6 IF statements copy a weekly copy of the backup to a designated folder if its a Sunday. I would shorten it down but if statements in bat scripts don’t do well with multiple lines of code.
  • I put the above bat script in a directory with PSCP and all of the other directories (except the temp directories) per-created.
  • Now all that needs done is to schedule the bat script to run.

And that’s it. I now have lots of copies of my website with relatively little effort and since its more than 3 copies… it really does exist!

If you’ve made it this far you are probably thinking this is great how do I implement this. That’s fairly simple.

  1. Install and configure UpdraftPlus for your wordpress site.
  2. Create your backup directory.
  3. In the backup directory place:
    1. A copy of PSCP (unless you’ve changed the path in the script)
    2. All of the backup sub directories (1-3, First, Second) the rest should be automatically created. NOTE: If you plan to place weekly backups on a different storage location you will need to create a separate directory for First & Second directories.
  4. Create a bat file
    1. Copy the above code into a text document.
    2. Make any changes you want such as directories that you are saving to and how many backup sets you want to keep on your local system.
    3. Save the file with a .bat extension into the backup directory.
  5. Create a Windows schedule to run the bat file created in step 2.

That’s all there is to it. You now have a fairly complex backup system for your website. And if you’re like me you can place copies across several different sets of storage so you are protected locally and remotely.

If you have any feedback to share please do. It would be great to continue to improve this script. Hopefully this has been helpful.

 

Permanent link to this article: https://www.wondernerd.net/backing-up-my-wordpress-site/

Apr 30

Casting a Wider Net

castingNetFor the past 19 months I’ve had the awesome opportunity to work at VCE as a solutions architect specializing in the VMware Horizon Suite. Which is a fancy way of saying an end user computing (EUC) subject mater expert (SME). During this time I’ve been able to work with some of the smartest people in the industry. Plus I’ve helped to create some very cool products and solutions. In the last month I was asked to relocate to the Dallas area. The opportunity just wasn’t right for me and my family to find our way to Dallas and continue with my current team.

That said, I’ve been looking for a new opportunity internally with VCE for a few weeks now, and thus far I haven’t found that new challenge that will rock the industry. Starting today I’m casting a wider net. I’m looking for opportunities to join a new team and share my 9 years of virtualization knowledge to help us both go farther than we could go alone.

If you feel that I might be a good fit for your team then we should talk. You can reach out to me on LinkedIn or through one of the contact methods here on my site. You may also want to look at my resume / curriculum vitae (CV). If you know a group or individual who is looking for a game changer be sure to send them a link to this page.

Stay tuned for what happens next. It’s an exciting ride.

 

Cheers,

 

Tony

 

← Back

Thank you for your response. ✨

Permanent link to this article: https://www.wondernerd.net/casting-a-wider-net/

Feb 03

Signing up for a VMware Advanced Exam

For those of us out there who are seeking an advanced VMware exam like a VCAP-DCD or VCAP-DCA at VMware Partner Exchange or PEX or for any other reason. You may have discovered its not quite as easy as it once was.

After talking with folks at both VMware (Partner, Education, and Certification) and Pearson VUE. I think I’ve figured out the secret to scheduling an advanced exam…

If you sign in to your Pearson VUE account http://www.pearsonvue.com/vmware under the Advanced Level Exams section you will notice that you don’t have any exams listed. Even though your myLearn mylearn.vmware.com/myGettingStarted.cfm getting started screen shows you have exam authorizations for the advanced exam you want to take and your candidate ID is the same for both professional level exams (VCP) and the advanced (vCAP) ones.

After several emails this is what I received back from Pearson VUE that finally did the trick:

” […] VMware testing accounts can no longer be combined with any other Pearson VUE account for a different testing program and require a unique username for access. In our system, you will have twp separate testing accounts for VMware Inc. and VMware Advanced (even [though] both of your VMware Candidate ID number[s] are the same) because both will associated to different authorized exams which [are] approved by VMware. As [such these …] two testing programs are considered different clients in our database. ”

What this means is you need to create two Pearson VUE testing accounts one for your professional level exams and one for your advanced level exams. You can use the same authorization number to create them (provided you have received an exam authorization for the advanced cert).

Once you create the new account you will then see your advanced level certs that you can register for.

I hope this helps folks and save you some time as you progress in your VMware certifications.

Cheers,

Tony

Permanent link to this article: https://www.wondernerd.net/signing-up-for-a-vmware-advanced-exam/

Sep 25

Configuring Soft 3D in VMware Horizon View 5.2

On September 25th, 2013 I had the pleasure of presenting to the Dallas Fort Worth VMUG Regional Conference. I had the opportunity to present on VMware Horizon View Soft 3D Graphics. Here is how you to configure soft 3D graphics in Horizon View 5.2.

 

A Long time ago in a datacenter far, far away…

Episode IV
A NEW HOPE

It is a period of civil war in companies all over the world. Rebel server admins, striking from a hidden datacenter, have won their first victory against the evil Help Desk.

During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Help Desk’s ultimate weapon, the DEATH TOP, an armored work station that consumes enough power to destroy the entire planet.

Pursued by the Help Desk’s sinister agents, Princess Leia races to her cubical and her BYOD tablet, custodian of the stolen plans that can save her staff  and restore freedom to the enterprise…

 

What’s covered in this post:

  • Vocabulary
  • Software Based 3D Graphics
    • What is Soft 3D
    • Why Soft 3D
    • Enable and Configure
  • Limitations of Soft 3D
  • Alternatives to Soft 3D
  • Sizing Considerations for Soft 3D

 

Vocabulary

Lets start by looking at some of the vocabulary that shows up when we are discussing 3D graphics in the virtual world.

First we have the terms: SVGA, Soft 3D, VMware SVGA 3D

These three terms can all be used interchangeably with each other. They are basically the term for  software based 3D Graphics. In other words a piece of virtual hardware. This is even reduced further in that its really just a check mark and a RAM setting on a VM’s Virtual Hardware Video Card settings.

The term SVGA stands for Super Video Graphics Array Software 3D Renderer and describes what the check mark in the Virtual Hardware settings do. It uses the ESXi hosts resources to render the images. Or put another way it uses the RAM and CPU from the ESXi host to create the image.

The driver used in the VM is the VMware WDDM (Windows Display Driver Model) 1.1-compliant driver. This allows the VM to actually display the graphics correctly. As you can imagine this means that you need to install VMware Tools on your VM’s to take advantage of most 3D graphics in a virtual environment.

vSGA

This stands for Virtual Shared Graphics Acceleration. It is often confused with SVGA (the v & the S are switched, and the v is lower case). They are not the same protocol and function in two different ways.

vSGA uses a Shared GPU in the ESXi host. That means that instead of CPU and RAM resources being used from the ESXi host for rendering it will use the GPU resources to render the graphics. This means that the VM’s can operate in a more efficient manner.
Because this is shared hardware there are limits to how many VM’s can use the GPU at any given time. This is scaled based on the amount of RAM in the GPU and how much of it is given to each VM.

vDGA

Also known as Virtual Dedicated Graphics Acceleration is where dedicated hardware GPU’s are passed directly through to the VM. This allows the VM full access to the GPU as well as dedicated GPU resources. This is typically used for high end desktops that require a lot of discrete GPU power.

It’s also worth noting that when using vDGA that you can use the hardware vendors driver in the VM. This allows for optimal use of the hardware.

 

With that said lets hop into Soft 3D.

As I said before in the vocabulary lesson, Soft 3D is entirely software based rendering of 3D graphics and uses the local resources on the ESXi host to render those graphics. We then leverage the WDDM graphics driver in VMware Tools as the driver in the desktop.

Why do we want to start using Soft 3D you might ask. There are lots of reasons to start moving towards a GPU solution. In my opinion 3D graphics capabilities have been a limiting factor in why desktop virtualization has not caught on.

By enabling 3D graphics, Soft 3D or otherwise, we are allowing users to get more work done with applications and functions they have become used to using. This includes windows features like Aero. It also includes tools such as HTML5 and Google earth that consumers of IT services are demanding more and more of.

By enabling these services we can span the digital divide and start bringing more control and accessibility to the desktop.

At this point we can walk through setting it up. We can set this up on individual desktops or at the Horizon View level. Lets start with the individual desktop.

  1. Login to your vCenter select the desktop you want to enable 3D graphics on.
  2. You will need to shut it down if it is currently powered on.
  3. Edit settings for the VM.
  4. Select the video card from the Virtual Hardware list.
  5. Check the Enable 3D Support from the settings
  6. Adjust the Video RAM accordingly. 128MB is the maximum amount for VMware View. The settings will let you adjust all the way up to 512MB on the individual machine. Going beyond 128MB though is not supported in Horizon View.
  7. Set the number of displays to use. The maximum is 2 for Horizon View.
  8. Click OK.
  9. Power back up the VM.

The screenshot below shows these settings for an individual VM.

Soft3D_VMsettings

See that wasn’t so hard. You could even set that on a template and deploy it for a large group of stand alone systems.

[notice]This doesn’t transfer into Horizon View though. This only applies to single desktops. If you do this to a golden image Horizon View desktops will not have 3D capabilities. You have to turn it on in Horizon View Administrator for the Pool.[/notice]

That being the case lets go through the steps to setup Soft 3D inside of Horizon View.

  1. Login to the Horizon View Administration Portal.
  2. Select the pool you want to enable 3D graphics on.
  3. Edit settings for the pool
  4. select the pool settings tab.
  5. Set the default display protocol to PCoIP
    Soft3D_ViewPoolSettings1
  6. Make sure not to allow user selection of the protocol. (This is important because Soft 3D is only supported on the PCoIP protocol)
  7. Set the 3D rendering accordingly. You can choose Automatic or Software for Soft 3D deployments.
    Soft3D_ViewPoolSettings2
  8. Configure the Video RAM. This is per desktop. Multiply the number of desktops in the pool by this number to see how much more RAM will be consumed. For Soft 3D the maximum amount of RAM is 128MB.
    Soft3D_ViewPoolSettings3
  9. Set the maximum displays for the pool. This would be 2 as VMware currently only supports 2 displays when using 3D graphics in any mode.
    Soft3d_ViewPoolSettings4
  10. Click ok
  11. Reboot the pool

 

That’s all there is too it. Your desktops can now run Soft 3D graphics and applications like Aero, HTML 5 and Google Earth.

 

Why not tweak this a bit so that it’s going to work well? Why not…

  • I know you get tired of hearing it. Update VMware tools. You have to have VMware Tools to take advantage of Soft 3D graphics. No tools no performance gain.
  • Check the CPU idle time on your thin clients. Depending on what your users are doing the CPU on the thin client may not be able to keep up and may cause slower performance.
  • Remember Soft 3D is only supported on Windows 7 or newer. This would be a great time to update those XP desktops… 🙂
  • If you set the 3D setting on both your Gold image and in Horizon View make sure that the Video RAM (VRAM) matches. If it does not match you will see messages in the View Logs that make no sense and don’t point to the VRAM not matching.
  • And lastly if at all possible use the VMXNET 3 network cards to get the best network performance for the VM.

Sticking with these tips will help you get great performance from your Horizon View Desktops.

It’s great that we have Soft 3D setup but what apps can we really run on this desktop? Below is an excerpt a table that VMware has released for different applications and if they are suitable for Soft 3D or not.

Application Soft 3D Appropriate
Windows Aero Yes
Microsoft Office Yes
Microsoft Visio Yes
Google Earth Yes
HTML 5/Web 3D Yes
Epic Yes
Adobe Photoshop No
SolidWorks View No
Team Center Vis No

 

As you can see there are quite a few different applications that can run on Soft 3D.

So how many desktops can we have running Soft 3D on a single host?

I’m glad you asked. It’s dependent on memory. Not only do we take away the normal memory for each desktop we also have to take away the VRAM for each desktop. That means deducting up to 128MB of RAM for each VM on a host. This could mean a loss of 4GB of RAM for every 32 desktops on a host.

Whats the best way to figure out how much VRAM we need for a desktop? That’s actually built in to the VM settings. When you go into the properties of your VM and select the display adapter you will see a Video Memory Calculator button. If you click on the button you will see the estimates for your desktops.

In addition to RAM you will probably also want to consider software requirements for the applications you want to run. Many of them perform best with 2 vCPU’s. That means you may need more processing for your ESXi hosts too.

If the desktops that use Soft 3D will be off the local network segment (Security Servers, Firewalls, WAN) consider using PCoIP cards in the ESXi hosts to help offload the transmission of the display.

Its also wise to consider reducing the maximum application frame rate setting inside of the guest VM.  There is no need to render most images 100 times a second. By reducing this we can reduce the load on the graphics processing components.

[important]

The App frame rate is set with the following registry key.

HKLM\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc.\VMware SVGA DevTap\MaxAppFrameRate

[/important]

The default for the application frame rate is 30 FPS.

Soft 3D is great! Are there other options besides this?

As we talked about before there is vSGA and vDGA that will leverage physical GPU’s in ESXi hosts. The maximum number of GPU’s you can put in a host is 8.

We can actually leverage all the work we did up to this point when you decide to move to vSGA. How? VMware has this awesome tool, you may have heard of it. vMotion. You can just vMotion your Soft 3D desktops on to ESXi hosts with a GPU and keep right on trucking. The only thing you want to make sure of is that in the Horizon View Pool is set to use an Automatic pool setting.

 

This is great… Where can I find more information?

Checkout these links for more information.

 

Below you will find differant versions of the slides used at the DFW VMUG.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.wondernerd.net/soft-3d-in-view-5-2/

Jul 11

Random Musings for July, 11 2013

Today I had a lot of insights. So many that I figured I should blog about them lest I forget them. That and maybe they’ll help someone else. Most of these musings are related to the management audio books I’ve been listening to of late. (I’ll blog about that later.)
What follows may seem obvious until you’re in that strange position where its not obvious.

  • If you’re not going to add something to a meeting, instead of attending ask the organizer to contact you via email, IM, or phone if something comes up that you will add value to. Then work on other things till the meeting is over. There is no point in attending a meeting that you won’t add anything to. Instead spend the time working on stuff that will add value, even if its cleaning up your inbox. No point in helping the construction worker with the stop sign do his job while trying to do your’s too. One of you has too much free time.
  • Take pride in your accomplishments even if the credit is given to someone else. Credit every now and then is a good thing. Realizing that you want credit for shoveling the biggest pile of dung can sometimes put things in perspective. The pile still stinks and you have flowers to plant. Take credit for the flowers and don’t forget there may be opportunity on the other side of the pile.
  • No matter where you’re at in the food chain, credit is always nice. If it weren’t for the small fish the big fish would starve. The saying is “nice guys finish last.” You can still be nice and get credit for what you have done it just takes more work for it to happen. If you want the credit you’ll have to work harder for it. If its not worth working harder for its probably like the 6 month old kid that the parents bring to a party, when the kid starts to stink give him back to his parents its their problem now.
  • If you have more content than time put it on a web site and send people there. If you have more time the content go browse some websites. You can take a presentation and try and cover everything or you can make everything available and just hit the highlights of it. You can call and call for a dog with no legs but nothing you’ve got to say will make him come.
  • If you’ve got skills use them even if you get an I don’t know how this is going to work. And if it requires a blink tag to make it work then do it! I’m getting known for my “bat shit crazy” approaches and ideas. No one has ever done it that way can be a huge asset. It means you’re in uncharted territory, blaze the way. There is probably a mound of flowers waiting for your. And if not it could just be a high point so you can look around and see where to go next.

Those are some of my musings for today. Hopefully they help or are at least funny. Now I think I’m going to try and find my next mound of flowers.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.wondernerd.net/random-musings-for-july-11-2013/

Jun 20

Assign Horizon Workspace 1.0 Admin’s

It took me a bit of googleing and work to figure out how to add other users to the admin role for Horizon Workspace. I finally found it so I figured It would be nice to provide a quicker way for folks to figure this out.

If you want to do it without reading this article check out the Horizon Workspace Administrator’s Guide here:
http://pubs.vmware.com/horizon-workspace-10/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/horizon_workspace_10_administrator.pdf
(Hint: Look at the bottom of page 20)

Spoiler alert! Keep reading on if you want to find out what happens on page 20 of the above link. 🙂

Login to the Administrator Web Interface. The one with the url like this: https://<SomeName>-gateway-va.<domain.something>/SAAS/admin/

Now click the Users & Groups tab at the top of the page.

Click the Users button right underneath it.

Now click on the user you want to make an admin.

This takes you to a new page that’s all about the user…
(See the finished result below)

Underneath the name and email address of the user you will see a line that says Role(s) User

Click on the link next to the Role.

Select the Promote to administrator radio buttonPromote the user

Click OK and the user is now a Horizon admin.

To reverse this just select Demote to user instead of Promote to admin.

Finished results

User Settings Horizon Workspace

[notice]Its probably worth noting that you can’t set this role for just a group of users. It has to be done on a per user basis.[/notice]

Hope this helps!

Enjoy,

Tony

Permanent link to this article: https://www.wondernerd.net/assign-horizon-workspace-1-0-admins/