Omnissa Linux VDI Build

Due to a few other issues and constraints I have had the lab off for some time but I have managed to get things back online and started to rearchitect my environment

It has been something I wanted to explore for sometime especially with the end of life of Windows 10 and also trying to license things in the home lab is also becoming more costly. I also wanted to offer some alternatives.

There are some great guides out there for Windows VDIs such as Stephen Wagner’s here that I can highly recommend

I decided to document my journey to a Linux VDI as I found a few nuances with my domain join and I thought maybe it would also help someone out there.

There are still a few things I need to fix such as the default profile for all users as that did not appear to be in the scope of the KBs along with my original idea of a Linux Gaming VDI but again that needs its own post once I get it working well.

I have written this guide using vSphere/VCF but I believe anything with the VM should be the same if you are using something alternative

One thing I did prior to all this is upload the supported version of Ubuntu at the time of writing this to my content library I used 22.04

I also performed all this with Omnissa 2506 and will do an amendment for new versions if find any changes

VM Creation

Head to your VC and create a new VM within your selected cluster and name this appropriately

On this screen this is where you may want to deviate if you are using another supported Linux OS but I will continue with Ubuntu in this document so thing may vary

I am using VDIs that are not shared so do tweak your CPU and RAM as required. Ensure you add the correct ISO and for it to connect at power on. You can also tweak the video card here too as I found some more ram does appear to help in some instances. Do also ensure you have the right network and I used VMXNET3

Ubuntu OS

Select Install Ubuntu once the VM starts to boot

One this screen select install Ubuntu

Select your required Keyboard Layout

I find in this window I select download updates and also the third party drivers as it helps with things later

Select Erase disk and install Ubuntu

Select your relevant timezone

Set up a secure login and store this safely so you can make changes to the image later in the future, do try the Use Active Directory if you wish here but sometime I have found this to fail and document joining later on

Enter your credentials and hit test prior to proceeding

Now go grab a drink and wait for the install to complete

Also do not worry if you get this as I stated I have found some domain levels have caused me to have this issue and I go through adding this later

Now to restart after a successful install! Remember to detach the virtual drive before the system restarts and deselect the connect at power on

Hopefully if all has gone to plan you will now see a login screen

Proceed with the following screen and select the items your require

Ignore the upgrade so you stay on a supported version

From here perform all your updates along with installing any application you want for your golden image, you may require a few reboots

Once you are happy with how your image is configured make sure you have the agent ready and extracted on your machine

Prior to the install though we will join the machine to the domain, again the agent scripts will try this but I have found this method to be more consistent. Below is my example

sudo realm -v join --membership-software=samba --user=joinaduser your.domain.tld

Once you have used your sudo password hopefully everything should connect as shown above any pre-reqs should install

I found I had to use my full AD FQDN with my 2025 domain so your mileage here may vary but I found this way it would connect everytime

I have found sometimes I get this error though with the DNS but the machine seems fine

From here navigate to the agent folder and then run the easyinstall_viewagent.sh

Some checks will occur and then input the requested information prior to confirming this

From here you will see all the other dependencies for the agent install and configure

Accept the terms to confirm the agent install

Hopefully everything goes to plan and you should see this success message

From here its time to prepare the image for the template

VM Template and Customisation

This is more down to your process but I usually just convert to a template as I can always swap it back from updates. Of course manage your snapshots 🙂

Below are the settings I have been using to customise my image during the bring up of the VDIs

Of course substitute your time zone and DNS settings and we are ready to get into a Desktop Pool

Omnissa Desktop Pool Configuration

Login to one of your connection servers admin panels and head over to the desktop pools

From here select add and select Automated Desktop Pool

Select the vCenter you wish to deploy this to and Full Virtual Machines

From my purpose I am going to select Dedicated and Enable Automatic Assignment

For my use case again I am using vSAN

Provide the pool an appropriate set of names

Below are the setting I used but please change this where required for your deployment

From the next screen select your template you have just created

Once again select the appropriate resources for your deployment

Below again this is subjective but I usually have the show assigned name as this helps me with end user troubleshooting.

Below is an example of what I have used but if you are using GPUs you will need to change some of the below

Set the next screen to what works for your users

From here select the customisation spec your created earlier

From here hit submit and the machines should now start to deploy!

I normally add entitlements at this stage but some people wait until the build process is complete

The final product!

If all has gone to plan you should see the VMs start to come online

You will also see the same within the pool

And once fully booted you should now seem register to available

Now its time to launch a desktop

And as you can see it has now assigned once to my user and I am ready to go

I am now running most my tasks with a full Linux VDI

This is only the basics for the VDI to get up and running with some light testing but there are a few items I want to cover and maybe also follow up with the non easy installer if you do not need all the features

• Create a standard profile for all users and shortcuts, if possible also customise the desktop a little
• Have a standard background for my deployments that is not the out of the box default
• Optimise for certain media and real time applications
• Auto mount shared volumes and redirect this so images can easily be updated

The above is what we are used to with GPOs but this is part of the learning journey so stay tuned!