"Project AppBlast will provide the universal delivery of any application, including Windows-based applications, to any off-the-shelf browser or device supporting HTML 5, enabling instant remote access to non-HTML based applications."

We discussed this at work the other day and we were excited at the possibilities with AppBlast, but since it's not here now we'll have to wait for a released product.  One of my co-workers Chad Wintzer said well why wait?  We dug around and came up with a working solution--and a damn good one after a few evenings grinding away at this.  Having a fair amount of RDS experience already this is what we came up with:

Backend

The backend infrastructure is provided by Microsoft's Remote Desktop Services: RemoteApp.  This feature was introduced in Windows Server 2008 and was improved upon even more in the R2 release.  What RemoteApp allows you to do is run applications on backend RDS (TS) servers, and establish an RDP session from a user to just that app.  The user is presented with a window over their local desktop and functions just about as if it was actually installed and running off the local desktop.  Users can run multiple applications in parallel and so long as the app behaves well in a RDS environment you can host 1 installation with multiple users.  The servers that run RemoteApps are called RD Session Hosts, to scale you can simply throw a bunch of RD Session Hosts together and strap a load balancer on top, however you will want to use RD Connection Broker(s) in place of a traditional load balancer to keep track of user sessions.  The Connection Broker(s) manage session information such as RD Session Host server, session state, session ID, and the user associated with the aforementioned bits.  For the security junkies it's worth noting that RemoteApp is AD integrated so you can restrict access to various apps via Security Groups.  This was something added in R2 I believe as many folks were complaining about this when RemoteApp first came out.

If you don't want to go that route you can look at Citrix's XenApp offering, but we found RDS: RemoteApp performed exactly as we needed it to.

Troubleshooting Broken Apps in RDS

Keep in mind if you are having trouble getting an application to play nice in your RDS environment you can take advantage of various application virtualization technologies to sandbox them.  Once sandboxed they almost always seem to work--your choices are:

•  VMware's ThinApp
• Cameyo - Free
• Evalaze - Free (for personal use)

Frontend

So now that you have your backend sorted out, lets talk frontend.  You have a few options:

• Ericom's AccessNow
• ThinVNC's ThinRDP
• RemoteSpark Spark View
  

You can't just click Start->Shutdown anymore, old schoolers might remember this one:

Alt+F4

Focus needs to be on the desktop (minimize all other windows, or click on the wallpaper so focus is on the desktop) then hit Alt+F4 to see a familiar window:

Windows Key+C

This is the "Charms" shortcut key.  Charms is a Microsoft term for these icons that appear when you hit Windows Key+C:

Then Click Settings:

Now you can click Power & select Restart or Shutdown.

1. Download the patch - you can download patches direct from VMware @ the Patch Portal
2. Open a datastore with enough freespace to store the patch via your vSphere Client (Right-Click->Browse on a datastore)
3. Upload the patch you downloaded (should be a .zip file)
4. SSH into the host
5. Execute the command "esxcli software vib install /vmfs/volumes/<DATASTORE-NAME>/<PATCH-NAME>.zip"  - replacing the <DATASTORE-NAME> and <PATCH-NAME> appropriately.

This command can take some time to execute for large patches.

When it's done you should get some text like below, remember to pay attention to this text so you know if you need to reboot your host or not.

Installation Result
Message: The update completed successfully, but the system needs to be rebooted for the changes to be effective.
Reboot Required: true
VIBs Installed: VMware_bootbank_esx-base_5.0.0-0.7.515841, VMware_bootbank_mi sc-drivers_5.0.0-0.7.515841, VMware_bootbank_net-be2net_4.0.88.0-1vmw.500.0.7.51 5841, VMware_bootbank_net-e1000_8.0.3.1-2vmw.500.0.7.515841, VMware_bootbank_net -e1000e_1.1.2-3vmw.500.0.7.515841, VMware_locker_tools-light_5.0.0-0.7.515841
VIBs Removed: VMware_bootbank_esx-base_5.0.0-0.0.469512, VMware_bootbank_misc -drivers_5.0.0-0.0.469512, VMware_bootbank_net-be2net_4.0.88.0-1vmw.500.0.0.4695 12, VMware_bootbank_net-e1000_8.0.3.1-2vmw.500.0.0.469512, VMware_bootbank_net-e 1000e_1.1.2-3vmw.500.0.0.469512, VMware_locker_tools-light_5.0.0-0.0.469512
VIBs Skipped: VMware_bootbank_ata-pata-amd_0.3.10-3vmw.500.0.0.469512, VMware _bootbank_ata-pata-atiixp_0.4.6-3vmw.500.0.0.469512, VMware_bootbank_ata-pata-cm d64x_0.2.5-3vmw.500.0.0.469512, VMware_bootbank_ata-pata-hpt3x2n_0.3.4-3vmw.500. 0.0.469512, VMware_bootbank_ata-pata-pdc2027x_1.0-3vmw.500.0.0.469512, VMware_bo otbank_ata-pata-serverworks_0.4.3-3vmw.500.0.0.469512, VMware_bootbank_ata-pata- sil680_0.4.8-3vmw.500.0.0.469512, VMware_bootbank_ata-pata-via_0.3.3-2vmw.500.0. 0.469512, VMware_bootbank_block-cciss_3.6.14-10vmw.500.0.0.469512, VMware_bootba nk_ehci-ehci-hcd_1.0-3vmw.500.0.0.469512, VMware_bootbank_esx-tboot_5.0.0-0.0.46 9512, VMware_bootbank_ima-qla4xxx_2.01.07-1vmw.500.0.0.469512, VMware_bootbank_i pmi-ipmi-devintf_39.1-4vmw.500.0.0.469512, VMware_bootbank_ipmi-ipmi-msghandler_ 39.1-4vmw.500.0.0.469512, VMware_bootbank_ipmi-ipmi-si-drv_39.1-4vmw.500.0.0.469 512, VMware_bootbank_misc-cnic-register_1.1-1vmw.500.0.0.469512, VMware_bootbank _net-bnx2_2.0.15g.v50.11-5vmw.500.0.0.469512, VMware_bootbank_net-bnx2x_1.61.15. v50.1-1vmw.500.0.0.469512, VMware_bootbank_net-cnic_1.10.2j.v50.7-2vmw.500.0.0.4 69512, VMware_bootbank_net-enic_1.4.2.15a-1vmw.500.0.0.469512, VMware_bootbank_n et-forcedeth_0.61-2vmw.500.0.0.469512, VMware_bootbank_net-igb_2.1.11.1-3vmw.500 .0.0.469512, VMware_bootbank_net-ixgbe_2.0.84.8.2-10vmw.500.0.0.469512, VMware_b ootbank_net-nx-nic_4.0.557-3vmw.500.0.0.469512, VMware_bootbank_net-r8168_8.013. 00-3vmw.500.0.0.469512, VMware_bootbank_net-r8169_6.011.00-2vmw.500.0.0.469512, VMware_bootbank_net-s2io_2.1.4.13427-3vmw.500.0.0.469512, VMware_bootbank_net-sk y2_1.20-2vmw.500.0.0.469512, VMware_bootbank_net-tg3_3.110h.v50.4-4vmw.500.0.0.4 69512, VMware_bootbank_ohci-usb-ohci_1.0-3vmw.500.0.0.469512, VMware_bootbank_sa ta-ahci_3.0-6vmw.500.0.0.469512, VMware_bootbank_sata-ata-piix_2.12-4vmw.500.0.0 .469512, VMware_bootbank_sata-sata-nv_3.5-3vmw.500.0.0.469512, VMware_bootbank_s ata-sata-promise_2.12-3vmw.500.0.0.469512, VMware_bootbank_sata-sata-sil_2.3-3vm w.500.0.0.469512, VMware_bootbank_sata-sata-svw_2.3-3vmw.500.0.0.469512, VMware_ bootbank_scsi-aacraid_1.1.5.1-9vmw.500.0.0.469512, VMware_bootbank_scsi-adp94xx_ 1.0.8.12-6vmw.500.0.0.469512, VMware_bootbank_scsi-aic79xx_3.1-5vmw.500.0.0.4695 12, VMware_bootbank_scsi-bnx2i_1.9.1d.v50.1-3vmw.500.0.0.469512, VMware_bootbank _scsi-fnic_1.5.0.3-1vmw.500.0.0.469512, VMware_bootbank_scsi-hpsa_5.0.0-17vmw.50 0.0.0.469512, VMware_bootbank_scsi-ips_7.12.05-4vmw.500.0.0.469512, VMware_bootb ank_scsi-lpfc820_8.2.2.1-18vmw.500.0.0.469512, VMware_bootbank_scsi-megaraid-mbo x_2.20.5.1-6vmw.500.0.0.469512, VMware_bootbank_scsi-megaraid-sas_4.32-1vmw.500. 0.0.469512, VMware_bootbank_scsi-megaraid2_2.00.4-9vmw.500.0.0.469512, VMware_bo otbank_scsi-mpt2sas_06.00.00.00-5vmw.500.0.0.469512, VMware_bootbank_scsi-mptsas _4.23.01.00-5vmw.500.0.0.469512, VMware_bootbank_scsi-mptspi_4.23.01.00-5vmw.500 .0.0.469512, VMware_bootbank_scsi-qla2xxx_901.k1.1-14vmw.500.0.0.469512, VMware_ bootbank_scsi-qla4xxx_5.01.03.2-3vmw.500.0.0.469512, VMware_bootbank_uhci-usb-uh ci_1.0-3vmw.500.0.0.469512

Overview of Features

• Update BIOS/Firmware on Dell ESXi hosts from vCenter
• Checks for updates automatically and alerts you when there are updates available
• Can leverage an established Dell Repository to avoid data duplication--if you are a heavy Dell shop you should know what this is
• New vCenter Alarms for Dell Hardware
• These Alarms can even trigger hosts to go into maintence mode to evacuate VMs from that particular host if the hardware event is critical (in a DRS enabled cluster of course)
• Supports Dell's Proactive Systems Management
• Works without (the God-awful) SilverStreak to automatically create support cases with Dell when issues arise
• View Warranty information of your Dell hosts
• Allows you to configure a proxy, if your environment requires one
• Bare metal deployment of ESX/ESXi servers
• This leverages Dell Lifecycle Controllers and iDRACs to provision Dell servers somewhat auto-magically.
• First you create a Hardware Profile from a Reference Server--(configures boot order, BIOS settings, iDRAC settings, RAID config)
• Then you create a Hypervisor profile--You point at an ISO, and configure the vCenter, destination container (data center or cluster), and even a host profile for you enterprise plus users.
• Note you can "white-list" service tags so only those hosts you define can be used by the plugin to deploy against.
• OSMA Launcher
• So you can launch directly to your OSMA web console to connect to an OSMA agent on an ESXi host
• Appliance Upgradable
• Does not require replacement by deploying a new OVF when a new version comes out

Appliance Install Guide

Virtual Appliance Specs:

• 2 vCPU
• 3.5Gb RAM
• CentOS 5.5 based
• ~33Gb Disk Space

Installation Steps:

1. Deploy OVF
2. Power on (wait a bit)
3. Login via the console with the username admin
4. Choose new admin password
5. You'll get a menu to configure timezone, network, etc.
1. Use the network menu to configure a static address
6. At the top you will notice a URL for the Admin Portal, Navigate their from your browser -- Note you must type the full URL including the index.html--Dell has not heard of new fangled Web Server features such as DocumentRoot
7. Login with your previously set admin password
8. Now navigate to Appliance Management
9. You'll see 2 lines near the top, Current Virtual Appliance Version and Available Virtual Appliance Version, if the Available version is higher then the current, click Update Virtual Appliance to check for updates
1. I had to do this upgrade in order to get the appliance to register with my vCenter v5

1. If you did request an update, it takes about 5-10min to complete, the virtual appliance will reboot at some point, once you get a login screen at the console it should be ready to proceed
2. Go back to the appliance URL in your web browser and login
3. From here you'll see a link to register with vCenter near the top--click that
1. Enter the IP or Hostname for your vCenter server
2. Provide User Credentials with admin access in vCenter & hit register
4. Once registration is complete you will get a message to relaunch a vSphere Client and connect  to the vCenter to access the plugin, so do that.
5. Goto the home screen in your vCenter to click the new Dell Management Center icon
6. At this point you can follow the various wizards to configure whichever features you want to take advantage of--enjoy!

Further Reading

• Dell Management Plugin for vCenter on Dell.com - Overview/Licensing/Order
• Demo Version - Upgrade to licensed version simply by uploading a license file

First you need to configure SNMP on your DRAC, this screenshot shows the steps:

Once you have SNMP configured on your DRAC you can setup the SNMP Active monitor in WhatsUp as follows:

In the system log all you see is Error: The VMware vCenter Orchestrator Server service terminated with service-specific error Incorrect function..

Poking around we come across a log file @ C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\Orchestrator\app-server\bin\wrapper.log which sheds some light on the problem:

Your first thought might be disk space, did a log run away? No that isn't the case--Java Heap refers to memory, looking inside the wrapper.conf from the command above we find more information.

Java has to allocate 2Gb of RAM on startup. My VM only had 1.5Gb, that looks like the issue--this is what you get for ignoring the Minimum System Requirements (assuming your running Orchestrator on same server as your vCenter).  Increase the RAM on your VM and this error should be gone. vCenter Server should have a minimum of 3Gb of RAM.

vCenter Navigation Shortcuts

These shortcuts are for when you are in the a VM's Console

VM Console Shortcuts

These shortcuts are for when you are in the a VM's Console

New Item Shortcuts

Use these shortcuts to create new things in vCenter

VM Shortcuts

These shortcuts are for when you select a VM or are in the a VM's Console

Simple little workflow, thought I'd post it up to save anyone the trouble of recreating...

• Licensed vCenter Server - This can be an evaluation license
• Service Account to perform LDAP Lookups (vco-service is used below)
• Active Directory Security Group for vCenter Orchestrator Admins (vCOAdmins is used below)
• Microsoft SQL Database (vco is used below)
• Credentials for an account with access to above Microsoft SQL Database
• Service Account that is a member of the vCenter Orchestrator Admins Group (vCOAdmins group, vco-service is used below) - yes this can be the same account as your LDAP lookup account

Installation Guide:

1. Start Service
2. Navigate to IP:8282
3. Login with user vmware password vmware
4. Select Network on the left
1. Select IP address to bind to
2. Confirm rest of settings on page (adjust ports if any conflict with other software on the orchestrator host)
3. Click Apply changes at the bottom right
4. Network should now have a green bubble next to it, proceed
5. Select LDAP on the left
1. Select Active Directory from the dropdown if it's not already selected
2. Enter your primary & secondary LDAP hosts (domain controllers) note: secondary is optional
3. Enter your LDAP root path, if your domain is requeny.lan enter: dc=requeny,dc=lan
4. For username enter user@domain ex: vco-service@requeny.lan
5. Password- this should be obvious
6. Enter your User lookup base path: (where all your users are located, ex: cn=Users,dc=requeny,dc=lan (this would point to the Users OU in active directory)
7. Enter your Group lookup base path: (where all your groups are located, ex: cn=Users,dc=requeny,dc=lan (this would point to the Users OU in active directory)
8. Enter the path to your vCO Admins Group, ex: cn=vCOAdmins,cn=Users,dc=requeny,dc=lan
9. Hit apply changes, if all your settings are correct LDAP should now have a green bubble next to it, but before continuing click the Test Login tab at the top and attempt to login with a user in the vCOAdmins group
10. If that test login worked, proceed on
6. Select Database on the left
1. Select SQLServer from the dropdown
2. Enter the username for SQL database (note, don't prefix with domain, or use use@domain format here, just the username)
3. Password - this should be obvious
4. Database host IP address or DNS name - hostname of SQL server ex: sql01
5. Port: 1433 - MSSQL default, change it if your SQL server isn't listening on the default port
6. Database name: this is the name of the database that has been created on your SQL server ex: vco
7. Instance name: whatever your instance name is, ex: sqlexpress
8. Domain: your AD domain here, use the NetBIOS name here, ex: requeny
9. Hit apply changes, if all your settings are correct you will get an error under Validation results that says: Database connection successful.  No schema found.  Please initialize database.  What this means is your connection worked, however there are no tables in the database.
10. At the top you should see a new link Install the database, click that (this should only take a couple of seconds)
11. You should now have a green bubble next to Database, proceed on
7. Select Server Certificate
1. If you don't have a certificate CA, select Create certificate database and self-signed server certificate
1. Enter what your info in the next few boxes, examples below:
2. Common name: orchestrator
3. Organization: requeny
4. Organizational Unit: basement
5. Country: US
6. Click Create at the bottom right
7. Server Certificate on the left should now have a green bubble next to it, proceed onto step 8 below
2. If you do have a certificate CA, you can follow my other post on what to do if you use Microsoft Active Directory: Certificate Services
1. Once server certificate has a green bubble next to it, proceed onto step 8 below
8. Select Licenses
1. You can either enter a vCenter Server license manually, or Orchestrator can connect to your vCenter Server and read the license on it's own.
2. To connect to a vCenter Server and read the license:
1. Check the use vCenter Server license radio button
2. Enter the hostname of your vCenter Server
3. Enter the port of your vCenter Server Web Services (443 by default)
4. Path: leave default
5. Enter username & password of an account that can read license data from vcenter
6. Click submit
7. If you receive an error about 'SSL certificate is missing for this host read my other post on fixing this SSL error
8. Licenses should now have a green bubble next to it, proceed
3. To manually enter a vCenter Server license
1. Check the Add vCenter Server license manually radio button
2. Enter your vCenter Server serial number (remember you must enter a standard edition serial, foundation doesn't include Orchestrator)
3. Enter the name of your License owner
4. Click apply changes on the bottom right
5. Licenses should now have a green bubble next to it, proceed
9. Select Plug-ins (yes we skip Startup Options for now)
1. Enter credentials for a user in the vCO Admin group
2. Username ex: vco-service
3. Password - this should be obvious
4. Click Apply changes at the bottom right
5. Plug-ins should have a green bubble next to it, as well as Startup Options at this point
6. Check the plugins you want to enable/install.  Leave the defaults and ensure vCO WebOperator & vCenter Server are checked, then hit apply changes again
7. You'll notice the status next to many of the plugins is: Will perform installation at next server startup.
10. Select Startup Options
1. Click Install vCO server as service (This will install the Windows Service for vCenter Orchestrator)
2. Now click on Start Service to startup vCenter Orchestrator (vCenter Orchestrator typically takes upwards of 30 seconds to start, you can use the refresh link to check the status)
3. If you have any problems starting the service, click on Log on the left, and set the logging drop down to All then click Apply changes on the bottom right, go back and start the service again and then check the log for any errors
11. Open the vCenter Orchestrator Client from the Start-Menu and login!
1. Don't forget to use your domain login DOMAIN\username
2. Don't forget to be a member of the VCOAdmins group so you can login.
3. If you want to install the client elsewhere use the installer in the vCenter Server ISO @ vCenter-Server\vCO\vCenterOrchestrator.exe

What vCenter Orchestrator is saying is that it doesn't have the certificate installed for that host, unlike other apps/programs, Orchestrator doesn't offer an option automatically install these certificates upon inital connection.  You have to first add the certs then connect to the host, to do this: (refer the screenshot at the bottom if your stuck)

1. Login to your vCenter Orchestrator Configuration Webpage: (http://vCenter-Orchestrator-Hostname:8282) - default user/pass is vmware/vmware
2. Select Network from the left column
3. At the top you'll see a tab for SSL Certificate, click that
4. You can either import the SSL certificate from a file, or from a URL--URL is the easiest as you just enter the hostname and Orchestrator installs the certificate
5. In the URL box, just enter your vCenter hostname, then click Import to the right of that text box
6. You'll see the certificate details displayed if everything looks alright click Import at the bottom
7. Repeat this process for each vCenter you plan to use Orchestrator with
8. Go back to whatever step you were trying to do when you got the error: SSL exception, 'SSL certificate is missing for this host' and try it again, this time it should work successfully