This Month on the VMTN Forums – 7/12

Interesting Q&A’s from July:

• Question: Is the VMware View 5.0 client compatible with View 5.1?
• Answer: Yes, the 5.0 version of the View Client is compatible with version 5.1. Versions 4.x of the View Client, however, must be upgraded.

• Question: How can the license count be found in VMware View?
• Answer: The license count is not available via the View Administrator, and the product works on the honor system as long as there is a valid key. The count can be viewed from the ‘My VMware‘ licensing portal. It is best practices to combine multiple license keys into a single key to be applied within the View Administrator licensing page.

• Question: How to properly move virtual desktops among datastores with VMware View?
• Answer: For full virtual desktops (non-linked clones) then a traditional svMotion will suffice; however, regular storage vMotion is not supported with linked clone pools. To move Linked Clones, you will want to use the rebalance functionality within View (KB 1028754).

• Question: Can VMs be moved among AMD/Intel processors when powered off?
• Answer: From a vSphere standpoint, there are no problems with this. The concern here is when using a guest OS that is compiled specifically for either AMD or Intel. Modern, stock kernels should not have a problem moving between the two. For example, RHEL had issues due to installing with optimized kernels (KB 1909), but this is no longer done in RHEL 5 or 6.

• Question: How to use a static IP with floating desktop pool?
• Answer: Despite being named differently, a dedicated pool with refresh after first use would technically achieve this goal.

• Question: How to allow users to change their virtual desktop screen resolution with zero clients?
• Answer: The screen resolution will need to be changed on the zero client itself. Users should be able to do that via the menu on the top left, unless it has been explicitly locked down. View will only give the resolution that the zero client requests.