C H A P T E R  3

Administration

The Virtual Desktop Connector provides a Web-based GUI to simplify the tasks of creating and managing pools of virtual machines, assigning virtual machines to users, and monitoring the current system state. This chapter describes the Admin GUI and the basic tasks associated with administering the Virtual Desktop Connector.


Setting Up the Admin GUI

The VDC Admin GUI provides an interface for managing virtual machine assignments and monitoring the state of the underlying virtualization platform. To enable the Admin GUI:

1. Go to http://localhost:1800 (or http://<servername>:1800 if remote administration is enabled).

If secure communication has been enabled, you will be automatically redirected to an HTTPS port.

2. Log in using a valid administrator account for that host.

Initially, only the system’s super user (root) is configured as administrator, so if you log in for the first time, you must do so as root, with the corresponding password. You can define additional administrator accounts later, as described under Administrators.

3. Click the Start Configuration button to launch the Connection Wizard.

VMware VirtualCenter Connection Wizard

The following table describes the fields in the VirtualCenter Server Connection Wizard:


TABLE 3-1 VMware VirtualCenter Connection Wizard

Field

Description

Server Information

Enter the name and authentication credentials for the VMware VirtualCenter Server, and click the Next button.

To make sure that all VMware Datacenters can be controlled, enter a name that corresponds to a local or domain user who has been assigned the VMware Administrator role. All members of the local or domain administrators group are assigned this role by default. If you wish to create a local or domain user specifically for the purpose of VMware administration, ensure that the user has been assigned the VMware Administrator role for the desired VC entity, such as Datacenter, Folder, Virtual Machine, etc., before that person tries to connect. For more information on VMware roles, see www.vmware.com/support/pubs.

If you specify a domain user account, the system hosting VirtualCenter must be joined to the domain.

Verify the SSL Certificate

The wizard tries to connect to the Virtual Desktop Connector agent running on the specified server. Upon successful communication with the Virtual Desktop Connector agent, the agent’s SSL Certificate is displayed. If the details of the certificate match the details of the agent running on the specified server, then click the Next Button to proceed. If no agent is running, then communication fails, and you must make sure that the Virtual Desktop Connector agent is installed and running on the server and that you provided the correct credentials in the Server Information step. You need to install the Virtual Desktop Connector agent on the server manually.

Select Datacenters

The wizard displays the table of available VMware Datacenters. Select the Datacenters you wish to manage, and click the Next button.

Review Selections

Review the details displayed, and click the Finish button to complete configuration of the VirtualCenter server. The clusters contained in the selected VMware Datacenters are now viewable on the Hosts & Clusters tab.



Using the Admin GUI

The Admin GUI is organized around primary Virtual Desktop Connector objects, such as hosts, virtual machines, pools, and storage. A simple tab navigation model with several sub-tabs makes it easy to drill down into system details and view or modify any desired settings. All tables can be sorted by clicking on the column headers. You can also use each table’s preferences dialog to display or hide table columns.

Navigation Hierarchy

View Virtual Machines of Host/Cluster

View Virtual Machine Details

Edit Details (change assignment)

Edit Pool Details (Virtual Machine template, lifecycle policy, etc.)

View Virtual Machines of Pool (in preparation/available/used)

Hosts & Clusters Tab

The Hosts & Clusters tab gives you an overview of the status of the underlying virtualization platform. It lists all computers (hosts) that provide physical resources, such as memory and CPU power, for the execution of virtual machines. You can click on the host name to display additional details, such as the operating system, model, and total number of virtual machines.

Using VirtualCenter as the virtualization platform allows several hosts to be clustered to maximize high availability and load balancing. Clustered hosts work together closely and can, in many respects, be viewed as a single computer. Consequently, the Admin GUI displays the names of clusters, not the names of the individual hosts forming the cluster or clusters. The names of hosts that do not participate in a cluster appear as separate table entries.

Virtual Machines Tab

The Virtual Machines tab lets you browse through all available virtual machines and to view them by owners or by pools. You can also search for specific machines by name, host, or storage location. Clicking on the machine name displays additional details, such as the guest operating system, IP address, CPU, and memory settings. You can also check the virtual machine’s state as well as start, stop, suspend, or delete it.



Note - Running virtual machines cannot be deleted.


The Virtual Machines tab also enables viewing and editing of the machine assignments to owners or pools. See Managing Virtual Machine Assignments for further details.

Pools Tab

The Pools tab lets you create and maintain pools of virtual machines to be assigned dynamically to users. It lists, for each pool, how many virtual machines are in preparation (when cloning is in progress), available, and in use.

You can choose to populate a pool with virtual machines manually, or to have the Virtual Desktop Connector service create, or clone, additional virtual machines automatically, as needed, from a template. You can define the lifecycle and minimum/maximum number of virtual machines for each pool.



Note - A pool that contains running virtual machines cannot be deleted. You must stop or suspend the virtual machines before deleting the pool.


Storage Tab

Sufficient disk space is essential for the creation of additional virtual machines, and it also affects general system performance. The Storage Tab provides an overview of the disk space, available and consumed, taking into account the storage media attached to each host. This tab allows you to detect bottlenecks early and to perform corrective actions before the system runs out of disk space.

Log Files Tab

The Log Files Tab provides sub-tabs that allow Web-based access to the main Virtual Desktop Connector log files. This makes it easier to detect error conditions from a remote location without the need to log in to each host locally and access the log files through the file system.

Advanced Settings Tab

The Advanced Settings Tab has sub-tabs that provide access to more advanced, system-wide settings. These include global settings for the cloning of virtual machines (clone/recycle interval, preferred storage), the list of users who have administrative privileges, settings for the VDC service, and status information on the VDC agent instances. See Advanced Settings.


Managing Virtual Machine Assignments

The main focus of the Virtual Desktop Connector is the preparation and assignment of virtual machines (VMs) to users. Two common usage scenarios are described under Usage Scenario and Virtual Machines Tab. In particular, users who require their own virtual machines should receive static assignment.

For those users who have fewer requirements for customizing and maintaining their desktop environments, dynamic assignment is more appropriate.

How Users Connect to a VM or VM Pool

An unmodified Virtual Desktop Connector uses information stored in SRSS and SGD to identify users and start the desired virtual machine.

When users access their Windows desktops via the SGD Web interface (by clicking on the My Desktop link or by accessing http://<servername>/sgd/mydesktop), the Virtual Desktop Connector identifies them by SGD login name.

When users access their Windows desktops via a Sun Ray desktop unit (DTU), the Virtual Desktop Connector evaluates the information associated with the smart card inserted in the DTU.

If the smart card has been registered in SRSS (you can register tokens on the SRSS Admin GUI’s Tokens tab), the Virtual Desktop Connector reads the smart card’s Owner and Other Information settings. By default, the Other Information setting specifies the virtual machine pool name, and the Owner setting specifies the user identifier. If the smart card is not registered, the Virtual Desktop Connector uses the smart card number.

The Virtual Desktop Connector evaluates both the user identifier and the pool name to select and start the correct virtual machine.

If a pool name has been specified, the Virtual Desktop Connector selects the next available VM from the desired pool. If no pool name has been specified, the user identifier is used to check for any statically assigned VM. If no matching assignment can be found, the Virtual Desktop Connector selects an available VM from the default pool as fallback (seePool Settingsl).

The Virtual Desktop Connector starts the selected virtual machine, if necessary, and connects the user to the Windows desktop.



Note - For a description of how you can adapt the mapping of user identifiers and pool names to users, see Production Environments.


Assigning a Virtual Machine to an Owner

The Virtual Desktop Connector Admin GUI simplifies the task of assigning virtual machines to users. Use the Virtual Machines tab to browse through all available VMs, or use the Search function to look up specific VMs by name, host, or storage location.

1. To display details such as guest operating system, IP address, and CPU and memory settings, click on the VM name.

You can also check the virtual machine’s state and start, stop, or suspend it, if necessary.

2. To modify the VM assignment, click the Edit button.

You can assign the VM to a specific user (owner) or to a VM pool. In the static assignment scenario, you would assign the VM to the desired user.

The Virtual Desktop Connector ordinarily utilizes the user name as an identifier, but you can use more complex items, such as a security token stored on a smart card, depending on your needs.

Assigning a Virtual Machine to a Pool

For those users who do not need static assignment to a particular virtual machine, virtual machines can be picked up on demand, or allocated, from a virtual machine pool (seeManaging Pools).

In some cases (especially for testing purposes), you may find it is easier to populate a pool manually with existing virtual machines. The procedure is:

1. Select the desired virtual machine in the VM table and open the Assignment Actions drop-down.

2. Click on the Assign to Pool <poolname> entry to assign the selected VM to the pool.

You can also make the pool assignment from the VM’s details page.


Managing Pools

A pool maintains a collection of available and used virtual machines.

The Pools Tab enables the creation and maintenance of pools of virtual machines. These pools can later be used to assign virtual machines dynamically to users. You can populate a pool with virtual machines manually, or the Virtual Desktop Connector can create (clone) additional virtual machines automatically, as needed, from a template. You can define the lifecycle and minimum/maximum number of virtual machines for each pool.

A dynamically assigned virtual machine is created from a standard golden image, or template, and preserved in a virtual machine pool.

A virtual machine is returned to its pool at the end of its recycle interval if:

When a virtual machine is returned to its pool, it can be returned to its previous state, reused, or destroyed, depending on the recycle policy (see Recycle Policy).

Creating a New Pool

To create a new pool:

1. Click the New button in the Pools tab.

2. Specify the details of the new pool on the Create New Pool page.


TABLE 3-2 Required Settings for Creation of a New Pool

Setting

 

 

Comments

Name

 

 

Specify the name of the new pool. It is usually a good idea to base the pool name on the user group or function for which the pool will supply VMs.

Cloning

 

 

A pool can be populated and maintained with machines cloned from a specified template virtual machine, or it can be manually populated with existing virtual machines. Choose one of the following settings:

 

None
(No Cloning)
Populate the Pool Manually

 

Choose this option to create an empty pool and to assign virtual machines to the pool manually. No cloning of machines will occur for this pool.

 

Populate the Pool Using:

 

Specify the template virtual machine from which all members of this pool will be cloned.

 

 

Virtual Machine Name Prefix

The prefix to use for cloned virtual machine names in the pool. If none is specified, the name of the pool is used.

 

 

Custom Spec

Select a Custom Specification (sysprep) file to use for installing the cloned machines. Microsoft sysprep is a tool used to install Windows operating systems with minimal intervention by an administrator.

 

 

Minimum Size

The minimum number of available virtual machines a pool may contain.

 

 

Maximum Size

The maximum number of virtual machines a pool may contain.


3. Specify virtual machine lifecycle policies on a per-pool basis.

When a virtual machine that has been dynamically allocated has not been used for a specified interval (see Recycle Interval), or when certain other criteria have been met, the machine is returned to the pool for reallocation. This process is called recycling.


TABLE 3-3 Lifecycle Policy Settings

Setting

 

Comments

Idle Timeout

 

The length of time (in minutes) a machine can remain suspended before being made available to other users.

Maximum Age

 

The length of time a cloned machine can be used before being destroyed.

Recycle Policy

 

Virtual machines in this pool that are no longer in use and have exceeded the idle timeout interval are recycled. This setting specifies the action to be taken when these machines are recycled. The options are

 

Snapshot

The virtual machine is returned to its prior state before being assigned to the next user. Changes made on the machine made by a previous user are not saved. This is the default setting.

 

Destroy

The virtual machine is not re-used. It is destroyed after being used once.

 

Reuse

No cleanup or recycle actions are performed. The virtual machine is assigned as-is to the next user.




Note - See Pool Settings for details on specifying global pool settings.


4. Click the OK button to save the new pool.

If you have chosen to use a template for cloning, then the pool will begin to be populated with cloned machines after a few minutes.

Viewing Pool Details

single-step bullet  To view the details of a pool, click on the pool name in the Pools table.

The Pool Details page shows details for the pool as well as the number of virtual machines currently used, available, and in preparation for the pool.


Advanced Settings

Among the fields and settings provided on the Advanced tab are the following:

Pool Settings

The following items let you specify the global settings for all pools.

In the absence of specific information for a given user, the Virtual Desktop Connector assigns a machine from the default pool. It is up to the administrator to decide how pool information for users is retrieved. See Production Environments for details on how to customize the example session scripts provided with the Virtual Desktop Connector.

The length of time the Virtual Desktop Connector service waits before checking whether any pools require new clones to be built.

The length of time the Virtual Desktop Connector service waits before checking pools for old machines to be recycled.

Storage Settings

You can specify the list of allowed storage devices where pools should save cloned virtual machine data from among the available storage devices. Specify at least one allowed device.

Administrators

This setting lets you specify the list of administrators allowed on this server. The superuser (root) is automatically configured as administrator and cannot be removed from this list. To add another administrator, click the New button, and enter the username of a valid user on the server.

Service Settings

Two settings are displayed on the Service tab:

This setting lets you specify the port on the which the Virtual Desktop Connector service communicates. Leave the field empty to allow the Virtual Desktop Connector service to choose its own port.

This setting lets you specify the logging level for the Virtual Desktop Connector log files. The log files are located at /var/opt/SUNWvda/log/.


Production Environments

Virtual machines can be provided to users either from statically assigned virtual machines or from pools of identical, dynamically assigned virtual machines. Two sample approaches that use these assignments to deliver desktops to users in a SRSS or SGD production environment are included with the Virtual Desktop Connector:

/etc/opt/SUNWkio/sessions/vda

/opt/SUNWvda/lib/vda-wcpwts.exp

In both cases, the Virtual Desktop Connector client retrieves the IP address of a virtual machine assigned to the current user session and uses that address to connect the session to the assigned virtual machine.

The SRSS Kiosk Session and SGD login script are provided for convenience. They may be used as-is or modified to suit a specific environment.

Customization

To customize the SRSS Kiosk session:

1. Make a copy of the provided session descriptor /etc/opt/SUNWkio/sessions/vda.conf
and session directory
/etc/opt/SUNWkio/sessions/vda

2. Modify as appropriate.

Once you have created a new SRSS Kiosk session, you can select it with the SRSS Admin GUI. For more details on the contents of SRSS Kiosk sessions, see the kiosk(5)man page.

For a custom SGD login script:

1. Make a copy of the provided login script
/opt/SUNWvda/lib/vda-wcpwts.exp
and modify as appropriate.

2. Copy the resulting script to the SGD login script directory /opt/tarantella/var/serverresources/expect.

3. Register it with the SGD object manager.

For more information on the Sun Global Desktop Manager, please see the latest documentation on docs.sun.com.

Virtual Desktop Connector Client Usage

You can use the Virtual Desktop Connector client to retrieve the IP address of a virtual machine assigned to a given user session. If the specified assignment does not already exist, it will be created. For usage details, see the vda-client(1) man page.