Hi
Sorry I’ve not been able to get on here, busy day!
That’s strange, disabling the vSGA should not impact the NVIDIA adapter, they’re completely separate. As said, I don’t even install the driver for it. I’ve taken a screen grab (attached) of my Display Adapter settings in Device Manager, this works without issue and I can run multiple screens (I regularly run up to 4) from it without issue.
On your questions …
Q1 - I seem to be able to access the VM’s now via Esxi console…
A1 - Strange, but Ok. Shouldn’t cause any issues. For reference, I have ESXi 6.5 in some of our deployments and can’t use the Console, "Remote Connections" from the vCenter Flash Client are fine though.
Q2 - I cant launch the nvidia control panel or display settings on each VM? This is quite important as i need to register the license on the VM’s with my license server.
A2 - Funny you should bring this up. I was chatting to one of the GRID Product Managers about this on Monday :-) Ideally you should have done this on your Master Image immediately after the GRID driver install so you don’t forget it, but definitely before you cloned it. That way, you only have to do it once. Also, when you’re ready to set this value, you need to log in with a different protocol to RDP (something like TightVNC) so that when you "Right Click" on the Desktop, the NVIDIA Control Panel is visible and opens when selected. You can then set the license server value.
However, a simpler way to do it, is just create a registry key and merge it with your Master Image before you create clones from it. Save it on a file-share so you can use it again with your next Master Image. Much much easier :-D
Advice -
If you have non-persistent VMs, don’t bother trying to do it with a GPO. The NVIDIA Display Driver Service starts before the GPO can be applied. So when you connect to your VM using Blast, HDX etc etc and open the NVIDIA Control Panel, there won’t be a value present and GRID won’t be licensed. If you check in the registry, the value will be there, but as said, the service starts before the GPO is applied so the value is not captured (and yes, that’s a Computer GPO, not User).
If you have persistent VMs, then you CAN use a GPO to set this value, however, note that the first time you start the VM, when you check this value in the NVIDIA Control Panel, for the reasons mentioned above, it will not be present. You will either have to reboot the VM so the service picks up the new value applied by the GPO, or manually restart the NVIDIA Display Driver Service. As the VMs are persistent, the change will be persistent. You’ll only have to do that once (for each VM).
It’s a bit of a faff and defeats the point in trying to apply it with a GPO, as most larger deployments are probably going to be non-persistent, so for this option, it’s easier to just manually add it to the Master Image before Cloning. Page 14 - 16 of this guide will help you create the registry key (it’s very simple). You can either enter the details manually into a .txt file then change it to a registry key and merge it, or just add the details directly into the registry of your master VM and then export the key, that way you know the settings are spot on.
The only 3 entries you really need are: "ServerAddress", "ServerPort" and "FeatureType". If you want to hide the licensing server name from the NVIDIA Control Panel, then set the "NvCplDisableManageLicensePage" value.
Actually, I’ll save you the hassle. Copy / paste the below bold text into a .txt file. Replace "YOUR_LIC_SERVER_FQDN" with your GRID license server FQDN and save it as a .reg, then just merge it on the Master VM. Licensing done :-)
[b]Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\NVIDIA Corporation\Global\GridLicensing]
"ServerAddress"="YOUR_LIC_SERVER_FQDN"
"ServerPort"="7070"
"FeatureType"=dword:00000001
"CurrentFeatureType"=dword:00000001[/b]
Q3 - Horizon Client stalls and goes into non responding mode on log off of the VM’s.
A3 - Not sure about this one.
Q4 - using blast extreme connecting to PC on 2 monitors gives a black screen.
A4 - Nearly all blackscreen issues that I can find in searches are related to the PCoIP connection protocol being used. Not sure why Blast does it.
I obviously have some troubleshooting knowledge gaps with Horizon as I’ve only ever tried Horizon once, and that was very briefly before deciding it wasn’t for me. Maybe someone who does use Horizon can offer some guidance …
Regards
