VMware View 4.5 WAN connectivity issue

Joined
Oct 12, 2007
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643
I have View 4.5 up and running, though I have run into an issue with connectivity from outside the network.

I have the View Connection server setup, and forwarded ports 80 & 443 to the view connect server inside - this is a temporary setup until we run everything through SSL VPN.

I can hit the server, download the client, connect, but when it tries to establish the session to the desktop, it disconnects. The logs in view show the user login and logoff, a packet capture shows my outside client terminates the SSL connecting after trying to connect. This behavior is the same with both PCoIP and RDP protocols.

My question here is: does View require you to setup a view security server for outside connections, am I missing a port for PCoIP / RDP, or something in the routes is bad?
 
From my testing, you are not required to have a view security server, however it is nice so you actual server names are not viewable by the end user, among other security issues.

My personal opinion, dump VMware view, unlike their server side hypervisor, view is NOT ready, mgmt sucks on it and other issues with desktop resolution are just wacky.

Go with Citrix or Parallels VDI
 
From my testing, you are not required to have a view security server, however it is nice so you actual server names are not viewable by the end user, among other security issues.

My personal opinion, dump VMware view, unlike their server side hypervisor, view is NOT ready, mgmt sucks on it and other issues with desktop resolution are just wacky.

Go with Citrix or Parallels VDI

I have a free 50 seat license of View with my latest enterprise + license pack, so economics, ease of use, and existing experience make View the winner; plus I believe with 4.5 they have fixed a number of the shortcomings you may have run into.
 
Uh..yeah. View 4.5 is just fine and very much ready for deployment. A number of our customers would agree. ;) We do a lot of both XenDesktop and View..just depends on the customer requirements but both function very well.
 
There is a reason they tell you to install the security server. I had the same issues with View when I had it setup in my lab. My bet is when your trying to connect it's looking at yourlab.local and because that isn't resolvable outside of your lab it flops. Setup split brain dns (and you have to change something in the view management console too) or setup the security server.
 
I figured it out - DNS was not the issue we use FQDN both forward and reverse look up.
The issue was I was did not enable the 'tunneled' mode to the server, so the end client was trying to establish the PCoIP or RDP session directly with the virtual desktop, which for obvious reasons will not work outside the network.

I also understand why they suggest a security server in the DMZ, so that you can setup that server to use the tunneled RDP connection, and the internal connection uses the PCoIP protocol for users that VPN in or are on the LAN already.

I also found a guide indicating that SSL VPN will only support the tunneled RDP, so it looks like I will end up with two servers regardless, one for tunneled RDP via outside access, or SSL VPN, and one for PCoIP connections via VPN client or internal.
 
I had the same issues with View when I had it setup in my lab. My bet is when your trying to connect it's looking at yourlab.local

Could you explain how .local addresses are used? I run into them from time to time, but never really had to figure out what/where/why they are used.
 
I figured it out - DNS was not the issue we use FQDN both forward and reverse look up.
The issue was I was did not enable the 'tunneled' mode to the server, so the end client was trying to establish the PCoIP or RDP session directly with the virtual desktop, which for obvious reasons will not work outside the network.

I also understand why they suggest a security server in the DMZ, so that you can setup that server to use the tunneled RDP connection, and the internal connection uses the PCoIP protocol for users that VPN in or are on the LAN already.

I also found a guide indicating that SSL VPN will only support the tunneled RDP, so it looks like I will end up with two servers regardless, one for tunneled RDP via outside access, or SSL VPN, and one for PCoIP connections via VPN client or internal.

Yep. You'll get tunneled PCoIP before too long but right now that's the only way.
 
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