Happy new year and the very best wishes for 2020!

In december three new flings where published with SyncML Compare, vCenter Plugin for vRealize Network Insight and App Finder for Tunnel. Thee other received an update: Workspace One UEM Workload Migration Tool, Infrastructure Deployer for vCloud NFV and The VMware OS Optimization Tool.

New Releases

SyncML Compare

The SyncML Compare tool is usefull for troubleshooting profiles and applications that are pushed from the Workspace One Console.

SyncML-Compare is an extension to Fiddler application that lets you compare the syncmls pushed from server against the SyncMls received from the device management client on the device. Comparing SyncMLs is often required to troubleshoot or debug profiles, applications pushed from the WS1 console. Instead of copying the two syncmls and then manually comparing each syncml node in a separate xml viewer, SyncML compare lets you compare the SyncMLs on the fiddler application itself.

As shown in the below screenshot, you can see the locUris, commandIds and the results using SyncML compare. This simplifies the SyncML troubleshooting experience as well as speeds up debugging process.

vCenter Plugin for vRealize Network Insight

vRealize Network Insight is a great tool but wouldn’t it even be better when the information is accessible from inside vSphere? The vCenter Plugin for vRealize Network Insight fling takes care of that.

The vCenter Plugin for vRealize Network Insight brings relevant information from Network Insight, directly into vCenter. It allows the virtual infrastructure admins to view networking focused data and statistics in the same interface as where they manage their workloads, without having to have 2 interfaces open. Additionally, this plugin also helps add vCenter as a data source to Network Insight and set up incoming network flows. Features Summary view of vCenter activity: VMs, vMotions, and snapshots.

Bring in network information directly to vCenter, such as:Summary view of how network traffic behaves; how much east-west and how much internet traffic there is.

Health check violation for the vCenter and attached NSX environments

Network top talkers, grouped by VMs, Cluster, L2 Network, Subnet, Security Group, Source-Destination Pair, Source & Destination Subnet, Source & Destination IPs.

Most used networks

New Virtual Machines that are accessing the internet

o Top 5 Hosts or Networks that are experiencing the most packet loss

Links to the vRealize Network Insight interface shows the source data and allows you to look closer, apply filters, export information, and more.

Configure vCenter as a data source and configure NetFlow on the available vSphere Distributed Switches.

App Finder for Tunnel

The App Finder for Tunnel fling can be used to flag applications to use the Workspace One Tunnel on MacOS.

This application is a utility which can be used for conveniently flagging the applications to use WorkspaceONE Tunnel on macOS. On macOS, WorkapceONE Tunnel supports per-app VPN feature where only the whitelisted applications can be Tunneled rather than tunneling the entire device traffic. In order to whitelist the application to use Tunnel, admin needs to enter the following details on the Workspace UEM Console under “VMware Tunnel” device traffic rule: Friendly name

Package ID

Designated requirement

Path (this is used only for the pure non-bundle binaries like Curl and ssh)

This fling application supports the basic drag and drop interface which admin can launch and then drag and drop the application to be flagged to use per-app VPN (Firefox in the following case), once the applicatin is dropped, it’s attributes are listed and then admin can paste those in the UEM console as shown below:

Updated Flings

Workspace One UEM Workload Migration Tool

The Workspace One UEM Workload Migration Tool takes care of migrating applications and devices between different Workspace One environments.

Changelog

Version 2.1.0

Fixed app upload issues for Workspace One UEM 1910+

Fixed profile search issue for Workspace One UEM 1910+

Added profile update support

Added template folder structure creation

Updated Mac app to support notarization for Catalina

Infrastructure Deployer for vCloud NFV

Infrastructure Deployer for vCloud NFV is an automation-based deployment tool used for setting up the VMware vCloud NFV platform

Changelog

Version 3.2.0 Update

Removed internal link in User Guide. Added a link to the correct external location

Removed duplicate User Guide document in zip file

VMware OS Optimization Tool

While there is some competition OSOT has been THE tool for optimizing images for VDI or RDSH. The changelog on this on is huge!

Changelog

December, 2019, b1130

Command LineAdded command line parameters to allow the control of the common options settings. This allows for the control of visual effect, notification, windows update, store applications, background and system clean up tasks, from the command line.

Added list of available templates to the output when run with -h (help).

Fixed issues with command line options.

The VMware Operating System Optimization Tool Guide has been updated to include instruction and examples on using the command line.

Visual Effects

Changed balanced setting (default) to leave Show shadows under windows enabled. This was making the white on white explorer windows blend in together which did not give the best user experience.

WebCache

Added optimization settings to disable WebCache processes from Windows 10. The default is that these optimizations are selected. This removes approximately 40 Mb from each users’ profile on creation and improves logon times.

Horizon Cloud Templates

Changed the two Horizon Cloud specific templates (Windows 10 and Windows 7) by removing the item “VMware DaaS Agent Service”. This is no longer required in Horizon Cloud Service.

December, 2019, b1120

Templates

Changed the two existing Windows 10 templates to also cover the associated Server OS and to introduce support for Windows Server 2019.

Windows 10 1507-1803 / Server 2016

Windows 10 1809-1909 / Server 2019

The old Windows Server 2016 templates have been removed.

System Clean Up

Added System Clean Up options to Common Options dialog. This removed the need for these to be typed and run manually.

Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM)

Reduces the size of the WinSxS folder by uninstalling and deleting packages with components that have been replaced by other components with newer versions. Should be run after a Windows update.

Reduces the size of the WinSxS folder by uninstalling and deleting packages with components that have been replaced by other components with newer versions. Should be run after a Windows update. Native Image Generator (NGEN).

Optimizes the .NET Framework. Should be run after an update of .NET Framework.

Optimizes the .NET Framework. Should be run after an update of .NET Framework. Compact

Compact (Windows 10/ Server 2016/2019). Enables CompactOS to compress specific Windows system files to free up space. Can take several minutes to execute.

Compact (Windows 10/ Server 2016/2019). Enables CompactOS to compress specific Windows system files to free up space. Can take several minutes to execute. Disk Cleanup.

Deletes temporary and unnecessary files.

Background/Wallpaper

New Common Options page for Background which allows the choice of color using a picker. This also allows the option to allow the user to be able to change their wallpaper.

Visual Effects options

Added a third option where all visual effects are turned off apart from smooth edges and use drop shadows. This is now the default selection.

Windows Store Apps

New page in Common Options that allows more control over removing Windows Store Apps while allowing the user to select common ones to keep. The Windows Store App and the StorePurchaseApp are retained by default.

Applications that will be able to be selected to be kept are:

Alarms & Clock

Camera

Calculator

Paint3D

Screen Sketch

Sound Recorder

Sticky Notes

Web Extensions

Defaults

The small taskbar option is now no longer selected by default.

In both Windows 10/ Server templates the following services are now no longer selected by default.

Application Layering Gateway Service

Block Level Backup Engine Service

BranchCache

Function Discovery Provider Host

Function Discovery Resource Publication

Internet Connection Sharing

IP Helper

Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Service

Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider

Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol Service

SNMP Trap

SSDP Discovery

Store Storage Service

Volume Shadow Copy Service

Windows Biometric Service

Numerous New Optimizations

Fully disable Smartscreen.

Disable Content Delivery Manager.

Disable User Activity History completely.

Disable Cloud Content.

Disable Shared Experiences.

Disable Server Manager when Windows Server OS.

Disable Internet Explorer Enhanced Security when Windows Server OS (not selected by default).

Disable Storage Sense service.

Disable Distributed Link Tracking Client Service.

Disable Payments and NFC/SE Manager Service.

Bug and error fixes

Fixed condition when Export Analysis Results would fail to create file.