At times, users might experience problems with their desktop operations. The first issue to consider would be changes to the files and registry settings. These changes can occur when users, or some applications, install software on their desktops. To resolve these changes, use the Enforce Layers process in Web Manager to enforce, or reassign, the base layer or app layer that was originally provisioned by Horizon Mirage.
This example shows how to enforce a layer to recover a desktop with this type of problem.
Note: To complete this task, you must be a Web Manager Help Desk or Protection Manager. In this example, Protection Manager is used.
1. Open the Horizon Web Manager as the Protection Manager. Figure 1 displays what you see when you log in to the Web Manager as a Protection Manager.
Figure 1: Mirage Web Manager for the Protection Manager
2. Find the problematic desktop in the Web Manager. After you log in to the Web Manager, search by name of the desktop, or Centralized Virtual Desktop (CVD). In the Protection Manager role, you can search by name of the CVD or by name of the Collection that contains the CVD. Figure 2 shows the result of searching by the name of the CVD.
Figure 2: Searching by the Name of the CVD
If you search by CVD name, a new information tab is created and displayed in the left pane. Figure 3 shows this.
Figure 3: Result of Searching by CVD
If you search by name of the Collection, the focus in the Web Manager is switched to the Collections tab, and the resulting Collections are displayed as shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4: Result of Searching by Name of the Collection
3. Double-click the collection that contains your target CVD. Figure 5 shows an example.
Figure 5: Double-Click to Show Collection
The CVDs in the collection are displayed in the right pane of Figure 5.
4. Double-click the CVD that you want to recover. A new information tab for that CVD is created and displayed in the left pane, as shown in Figure 6. Figure 6 also shows the Grid View of the Device Action History in the right pane.
Figure 6: Double-Click to Show CVD
5. Next, click the Enforce Layers button on the menu bar at the top of the window, as displayed in Figure 7.
Figure 7: Enforce Layers Button
Note: The Enforce Layers button is dimmed (unavailable) if no layer is assigned to the device, or the endpoint centralization has not finished.
A warning indicates that all assigned layers will be enforced to the device, and that user applications will be preserved. Figure 8 shows the warning.
Figure 8: Enforce Layers Warning
6. After you click OK in the Enforce Layers warning dialog box, tasks are created and displayed in the Grid View of the Web Manager. See Figure 9.
Figure 9: Grid View of Tasks for Enforcing Layers
The task Audit Event: Enforce All Layers finishes in a few seconds, and a check mark in the Status column confirms it is complete. The Assign base layer and Assign application layer tasks also run.
At the same time, the endpoint device initializes the layer update, as shown in Figure 10.
Figure 10: Initializing Layer Update Message Box
Usually, all the tasks can be finished in 20 minutes. But this depends on the bandwidth of the network. The endpoint device restarts after these tasks are complete.
These steps should help you recover an endpoint device from most of the conflicts caused by changes to files or registry settings that were originally set by a provisioned base layer or app layer. For more information about using Enforce Layers to recover a device, see the VMware Horizon Mirage documentation.
I’ll write again in the future when we have further improvements and enhancements to report. You can provide feedback or send questions about this blog post using the Leave a Reply feature at the bottom of this blog.
