Don’t forget me! (vWorkspace)

This blog is about what I call one of my very favorite products that has been around for quite some time now and I have been working with. Though I do hear people and companies using it, it’s still not a high number of companies using it.

In 2007 the product called Provision Networks Virtual Access Suite was acquired by Quest Software. After a couple of years Quest Software was acquired by Dell, Wyse was acquired by Dell and the product has renamed to Wyse vWorkspace. Though the name has changed a couple of months during the 7.x period, they luckily kept the name vWorkspace.

I have done a couple of projects with vWorkspace version 6.x, 7.x, 8.x. Now version 8.5 of vWorkspace is the latest version. Version 8.6 is on its way with some great new features, but they will discussed later.

Why I personally really love this product, is because it is

 

• Easy to setup,
• Has lots of possibilities,
• Is very flexible
• Is easy scalable
• They do have great and skilled support team
• And last but not least: fits almost in every budget!

 

In this blog I will show how easy it is setting up Wyse vWorkspace 8.5, which was released December 2014.

First, ofcourse I had to register myself, but luckily I still was, so after logging in to me Dell Account, I was able to download the Wyse vWorkspace zip file of nearly 1,8 GB and the installation and release manuals. Though not hard to install, still useful to read. Especially the first time installing a new version.

I used two Microsoft Windows 2012 R2 Servers in my lab setup:

 

• 1 Domain Controller;
• 1 Brokering machine hat also functions as a SQL server as well.

 

After unzipping the file vWorkspace_X64_8.5.307.1955.zip there’s a file called start.exe in the root of the folder. Start it and the Wyse vWorkspace installation screen will appear.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After pressing Install all the requirements were being checked. On the machine I used, Microsoft .Net 4.5 was installed yet and I am able to install it.

 

 

 

 

 

Press Yes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the Welcome screen, press Next.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the License Agreement screen, press I accept the terms in the license agreement and then press Next.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fill out the User Name and Organization Name and press Next.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I selected Advanced to show some roles and features that can be installed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For this time I selected three roles, but more roles can be choosen for each server to be used.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Web Access portal website will not be created this time, so just press Next.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As this is a simple lab setup, a SQL Server Express Edition setup will be choosen and Next will be pressed.

 

 

 

 

 

As also some Microsoft .Net 3.5 features are being used, adding the .NET Framework 3.5 features of the native Windows Server 2012R2 have to be installed.

Press OK.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Select the.NET Framework Features and press Install.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After installing the features, press Close.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, in the Database Management Configuration screen, keep the proposed settings, but change the sa and pnadmin password and after that press Next. Besides SQL Express, als J2SE will be installed before vWorkspace is being installed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the installation finishes, the following message will appear.

 

 

 

 

 

It’s highly recommended to download any mandatory hotfixes!

When I pressed Yes, no fixes were able available.

 

 

 

 

 

Pres Yes to reboot the server.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After rebooting the server and logging in again, as you can see two shortcuts have been created on the user’s desktop:

• vWorkspace Management Console (for management of the vWorkspace SBC/VDI farm);
• Web Access Site Manager (for the very easy creation of vWorkspace Web Access portals wth apps and (virtual) desktops).

When pressing the vWorkspace Management Console shortcut, a messae will appear stating to insert the licensing information.

 

 

 

 

Press Ok.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Press Add License to add a license and the press Close.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course we only do not want to participate at this time. Select this and your country or region and press OK.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the Quick Start Wizard, a couple of guided processes of creating a vWorkspace environment can be used. Press Close as this will be done at a later time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The vWorkspace Management Console will be shown.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see: one magnificent Management Console. All components that can and need to be managed are shown in one console:

• The vWorkspace locations (the locations you have to manage);
• The VDI connection brokers (a list with servers able to offer brokering services);
• The SBC session brokers (a list with servers able to offer session brokering services);
• The virtualization hosts (Microsoft SCVMM, VMware vCenter, Microsoft Hyper-V, Parellels Virtuozzo);
• The targets (which can be users, groups of users, OU’s, devices, ip ranges or targets based on access rules);
• Connectors (the clients of vWorkspace that can be installed and managed to access vWorkspace resources);
• User Environment Management (for managing a user’s environment);
• User Profile Management (for managing a user’s profile);
• Packaged Applications (for adding, deplying and managing Microsoft MSI or App-V packages);
• Load Balancing rules based on several items like CPU usage, memory usage, sessions and so on;
• Web Access (for creating flexible and highly customizable Web Portals for delivering applications and (virtual) desktops from any device);
• Monitoring and Diagnostics (for monitoring the virtual environment);
• Reporting features (for anyone who wants to knows on papers what’s happening within the vWorkspace Environment).

 

Now everything can be set up to build a virtual environment of anyone’s needs. Happy building! I will build some environments in one of my upcoming blogs.