First thing is first – VMware currently only provides the update repo files mentioned in the documentation center if you call and speak to global support services.

1. Call VMware GSS and request update repo files for the offline upgrade from horizon workspace 1.5 to 1.8. Ensure that they provide you with the files “configureupdate.hzn”, and “updatelocal.hzn”.
2. Copy the “updatelocal.hzn” file to the configurator-va directory: /usr/local/horizon/lib/menu/
3. Copy the “configureupdate.hzn” file to every virtual appliance in the directory: /usr/local/horizon/scripts/
4. Set the permissions of each script to 700 (chmod 700 /usr/local/horizon/scripts/configureupdate.hzn)
5. Add the “configureupdate.hzn” script to the sudoers file on each va. A snippet of the end of the sudoers file will look like this:
   1. /usr/local/horizon/scripts/setupSshKeys.hzn, \
   2. /sbin/reboot, \
   3. /usr/local/horizon/scripts/configureupdate.hzn
6. Create the following directory structure on a web server that’s accessible by every horizon workspace app. Note, the published documentation says to create the service-va directory “srv”, but the script specifies the directory “svc”.
   1. vapp
      1. conn
      2. cfg
      3. gty
      4. svc
      5. dta
7. Extract each update repo zip file to their respective directories.
8. Run the following snippet on the configurator-va to make sure your setup is good to proceed, and configure each VA to use the local update source. If there are no errors appear, you’re good to keep going.
   1. /usr/local/horizon/lib/menu/updatelocal.hzn checkurl http://yourhost/vapp
   2. /usr/local/horizon/lib/menu/updatelocal.hzn seturl http://yourhost/vapp
9. At this point, you can proceed with your upgrade as normal. Here’s the steps I personally use to prep for the upgrade to ensure that there are no issues.
10. Backup your postgres database – On the command line of your vFabric postres server, run this command:
    1. /opt/vmware/vpostgres/current/bin/pg_dump -U postgres -W –clean -f ~/Before_HWS_1.8.data saas
    2. The default password is H0rizon!
11. Run the script below – requires vmware powercli. Ensure that your postgres server has the default name. If it doesn’t, change the script below.

#Connect to virtualcenter
Connect-viserver -Server [your virtualcenter server] -Credential (Get-Credential)

#Shut down horizon workspace and vmware vfabric postgres
Get-vapp -name "Horizon-Workspace" | stop-vapp
get-vm -Name "VMware vFabric Postgres" | shutdown-vmguest

#Create snapshot of all of the VMs in Horizon Workspace and vFabric Postgres
get-vapp -Name Horizon-Workspace | get-vm | New-Snapshot -Name "Pre_1.8" -Description "Taken before 1.8 Upgrade"
get-vm -Name "VMware vFabric Postgres" | New-Snapshot -Name "Pre_1.8" -Description "Taken before 1.8 Upgrade"

#Start horizon workspace and postgres VM
Get-vm -name "VMware vFabric Postgres" | start-vm
Get-vapp -name "Horizon-Workspace" | start-vapp

The post Horizon Workspace – Offline Upgrade – v1.5 to v1.8 appeared first on VirtJunkie.

Some assumptions and prerequisites:

1. You have horizon workspace 1.5.1 (at least) downloaded, deployed to your infrastructure successfully, and you’re ready to go through the web configuration.
2. You have VMware vFabric Postgres downloaded and deployed to your infrastructure successfully, with no configuration added.

1. Proceed through the web configuration until you get to step 2a, and select External Database. Stop here…
2. Prepare your new external database
   1. SSH to the postgres server (I’ll assume the server is named hzn-db.test.in)
   2. Make changes to the postgres config: /var/vmware/vpostgres/9.2/pgdata/postgresql.conf.auto
      1. Max_connections = 300 (default is 100)
      2. Search_path = ‘saas’ (no value by default)
   3. You’ll have to prepare the postgre sql schema. Run these commands to configure it. VMware graciously has not provided the default password for the postgres user in any of their documentation, even after I opened a SR requesting the password. For your reference, it is “H0rizon!”. “myPassword” below should be replaced with the password you want to use for your horizon workspace postgres user.
      1. /opt/vmware/vpostgres/current/bin/psql -U postgres -W
      2. DROP SCHEMA IF EXISTS saas CASCADE;
      3. CREATE SCHEMA saas;
      4. CREATE USER horizon WITH PASSWORD ‘myPassword‘;
      5. ALTER ROLE horizon SET search_path TO saas;
      6. CREATE EXTENSION citext WITH SCHEMA saas;
      7. CTRL+D
   4. SSH to your service-va, and run the following command
      1. /usr/local/horizon/bin/setupExternalDb.sh
      2. The wizard will ask you for a postgres admin user (postgres), and the horizon user (horizon). The password for the postgres user, unless you change it is “H0rizon!”, and the password for the horizon user is set in step 3.

This should work – if you run into any issues, please comment!

The post VMware Horizon Workspace – Part 3 – Configure VMware vPostgres External Database appeared first on VirtJunkie.

Anyways, more to the point. In this post I will demonstrate how to do a base configuration of Horizon Workspace using an internal Microsoft Certificate Authority with Nginx as a frontend. This setup is only acceptable for setting up workspace in a lab environment, since in a production environment you’ll need a trusted third party cert. Doing this in a lab environment is important because it will allow you to set up and test every feature you’ll be using in a production environment.

Requirements:

• Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services
• Linux Machine running Nginx
• Horizon Workspace 1.5 Downloaded and installed with no configuration.
  • We’ll be using the workspace FQDN of hzn.test.in (This obviously assumes the domain of test.in)

1. On Linux machine, generate private key(1) and CSR(2)

   1. openssl genrsa -out hzn.test.in.key 1024

   2. openssl req -new -key hzn.test.in.key -out hzn.test.in.csr

2. Take CSR and get a certificate from your internal Domain CA. Download the certificate. Rename it as hzn.test.in.crt
3. Download your internal Domain CA root key
   1. On the machine running AD Cert Services, open the command line and type the following command:
   2. [text]certutil -ca.cert %userprofile%\Desktop\test.in-root.cer[/text]
4. Ensure that Nginx is forwarding traffic correctly to the gateway-va. Below is a snippet (Entries in square brackets need to be changed]:
   1. [text]
      server {
      listen [load balancer IP];
      server_name hzn.test.in;
      ssl on;
      ssl_certificate [path to]hzn.test.in.crt
      ssl_certificate_key [path to]hzn.test.in.key

      location / {
      proxy_pass https://gateway-va.test.in:443/;
      proxy_set_header Host $host;
      proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
      proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
      proxy_read_timeout 1800;
      proxy_connect_timeout 1800;
      }
      [/text]

5. Place your domain root ca key (gathered in step 3) into the configurator web interface
   1. Open the web interface and navigate to the FQDN & SSL section
   2. Select Yes under External Load Balancer
   3. Enter: hzn.test.in:443 in the Horizon Workspace FQDN section
   4. Paste the domain root ca key in the “Load Balancer Root CA Certificate” section.
6. You’re all set!  You can now log into the Horizon Workspace Admin page by navigating to https://hzn.test.in/admin

I’d be happy to answer any questions on this. Feel free to post a comment if you like. I’ll answer any questions I can.

The post VMware Horizon Workspace – Part 2 – Configure Nginx as Frontend with Microsoft CA appeared first on VirtJunkie.

This post is part of a series showing how to set up VMware Horizon Workspace in a production environment.

If copy and paste is disabled within the console (shame on you if it is…) enable it using VMware KB1026437

Paste the following line into the console of each virtual appliance:

sed -i.bak 's/PermitRootLogin no/PermitRootLogin yes/g' /etc/ssh/sshd_config;service sshd restart

Technically this is two commands, but you can paste the whole thing in. All it does is back up your current SSHD config file, replace the line that disallows root login with a line that does allow it, then restarts the service.

Bing bang boom, now you can use whatever ssh client you like to connect to your virtual appliances.

The post VMware Horizon Workspace – Part 1 – Enable SSH appeared first on VirtJunkie.

In this series, I will be covering how I configured each part of this suite. I would expect that this process will become exponentially easier as time goes on. One thing to note is that I will write these posts assuming that you are at least moderately familiar with linux and Workspace. I will not go into details on how to install packages, deploy the VA, use the web interface. Use Google if you’re looking for that boring stuff Here we go!

Due to the reliance that the business will put on the Workspace, my definition of Production is as follows:

1. Externally Accessible
   1. One URL to rule them all, both internal and external
2. Load Balanced from within DMZ
   1. Multiple Load Balancers – no single point of failure!
3. Multiple Virtual Appliances
   1. At LEAST 2 of every VA that comes with Workspace (Gateway, Connector, Service, Data)
4. External Postres SQL Database
5. Third Party SSL Certificate
   1. I used Godaddy, but if I had to do it again, I’d go with Verisign, or a more reputable CA. This should be fixed in Workspace 1.5, which should be released by the end of July.
6. Data is stored on NFS rather than on local vmdk

Throughout this (we’ll call it an adventure) I’ve learned a lot about the product.Most importantly, it’s become clear to me that this is not a product easily administered by a “VMware Admin”. Horizon Workspace is built on top of Suse Enterprise Linux 11, relies heavily on Zimbra for the data component, and uses nginx for everything else.

Sound like greek? Don’t panic, you can set up a good amount of Horizon Workspace without being a linux guru, however, imho, most of the things you’ll need to do in a production environment will require at least a moderate familiarity with the linux command line.

The post VMware Horizon Workspace – Part 0 – Intro appeared first on VirtJunkie.