Nearly two months ago, the VMware View app was released by VMware for the iPad and I wrote about it here.  Since then, many in the community have been curious as to what the end user computing experience was like.  They have iPads and of course they have free access to the View app but they lacked a VMware View environment to connect to, particularly a remote over-the-internet scenario using View 4.6 5.0 GA and PCoIP.

Early on I worked with a few individuals on a 1 on 1 basis, providing access to a test VDI desktop intance in my lab.  They tested for up to a week and demoed for upper management in the company.  When testing was complete, they went on their way.  After a few iterations, I decided that there was some value in what I was doing, but the continuous setup and retirement of accounts isn’t something I wanted to continually track.  As a result, I’ve set up a persistent VDI instance in my View 4.6 5.0 GA lab which can be accessed any time using generic credentials from your iPad by following these steps:

How to connect:

Step 1) Grab yourself an iPad if you don’t already have one (1st or 2nd generation both work).

Step 2) Connect your iPad to the internet.  Be sure TCP/UPD 4172 ports are not blocked.

Step 3) Get yourself the VMware View for iPad app:

Step 4) Provide the following connection specifications in the VMware View for iPad app:

Step 5) If you’re prompted for credentials at Windows 7 logon, use the credentials shown above.

Step 6) Enjoy but do try to limit the duration of your connectivity.

Environment:

The Windows 7 test VM provides basic desktop application access.  Bandwidth from the VDI lab standpoint is 16Mpbs down, 2Mbps up.  On your end, that’s 2 down, 16 up.  It is the internet; performance and speeds will vary.  By design, one user session is allowed at a time.  There is only one desktop instance.  The idea is to use the session for a few minutes to get a feel for the client experience.  The session is not for long term or production use.  No warranties, use at your own risk, etc.  In reality, the longer you maintain connectivity, the more chance you have of being interrupted by another user requesting to use the desktop.  If you’re trying to log on and you receive a message stating “The View agent reports that this desktop is currently logging off a previous session.”, you are probably interrupting someone elses session.  Try again later.  If you are currently in a session and it abruptly ends, it is likely the result of someone else submitting a logon request – sorry – At this point I do not know how to prevent the session interruptions which is essentially a “following” feature which would commonly be used in a health clinic.  If you have any ideas, please share in the comments section below.

To maintain a safe environment, web browsing and access to some other areas of the OS has been disabled.  All activity is logged.  The VM will reset at regular intervals in an effort to restore back to its original clean starting point.

Updated 9/18/11:  The environment has been upgraded to View 5.0 GA

Updated 11/6/11:  Thanks to the notification of a few friendly folks, I found out the environment was no longer functional. In short, the computer password for the VDI workstation was out of sync.  I’ve fixed this an enhanced the environment for longer term use which should prevent future implosions.  The demo environment now supports two concurrent demo sessions using the same credentials. In addition, each demo session is deleted upon a disconnection and a new VDI workstation is built.  This is all done by the addition of VMware View Composer to the environment.