Management

Wyse Management Suite (WMS) on Azure Installation

chrismessier Blog, Management, Microsoft, Wyse ThinOS , ,

One of the options with Wyse Management Suite (WMS) cloud or on-prem is the ability to install a remote repository to host OS images or packages. This isn’t often required, especially with ThinOS, as the images and packages can be hosted centrally in WMS cloud or the main repository as part of your on-prem install. We also can host packages in WMS cloud for Windows 10 IoT & Dell Hybrid client.

In this case, the customer wanted to convert their existing home users who are using Windows 10 IoT based thin clients to Dell ThinOS thin clients using WMS cloud. In order to do this we needed a cloud hosted repository to host this ThinOS conversation image for all the Windows 10 IoT thin clients to download the ThinOS image from. We installed the WMS repository on a Windows Server 2019 VM in Azure and synced it with our WMS cloud portal.

I wanted to outlined the WMS repository installation and Azure virtual machine configuration below.

  1. Review the WMS repository installation prerequisites here in the WMS admin guide in order to configure your Azure, or on-prem VM installation.

2. Download the latest WMS repository installation from the WMS downloads site here

3. Install the WMS repository following the below prompts;

4. NOTE: Once the installation finishes and you click ‘Launch’ it make take 1-2 minutes for the installation to finish, close and then launch the browser, so be patient while it finishes. The WMS repository service is starting and the web page will be unavailable until it starts. You can confirm the services started by looking here:

5. Once the web pages launches, you will be brought to the registration page. Once you are here you have a few options to configure:

  • The URL of your WMS server
    • Here we have the option to “Register to Public WMS Management Portal” or specify the FQDN of your on-prem WMS server. In my case, we are going to register to WMS cloud so we will select “Register to Public WMS Management Portal” & select “us1.wysemanagementsuite.com” (or eu1. if you’re using that tenant).
  • The second important item is the ‘WMS Repository URL“. This will be the URL the client that is downloading the image from will connect to. In my case, since we are using WMS cloud and doing this for remote home based users, we need to make sure that WMS Repository URL resolves externally to my server and is accessible over the Internet. By default, it lists the hostname of the server.

Here I selected “us1.wysemanagementsuite.com” & changed my WMS repository URL to an FQDN that maps to my Azure WMS repository VM: hostname.vditoolbox.com

6. Once you click ‘Register’, it will connect to your WMS management server and register successfully.

7. You can confirm it registered succussfully by looking on your WMS console under Portal Administration\File Repository:

8. At this point, your WMS repository is installed and successfully connected to your WMS portal!

9. From here, in my example I downloaded the Windows 10 IoT to ThinOS conversation image to my Azure repository and synced with my WMS portal. By default, ‘Automatic Replication’ is selected but you can also click ‘Sync Files’ or ‘Check-In’ to ensure the repository is synching & checking in successfully. If you’re doing a conversion as well, you can read more here.

10. The final step is to make sure your Azure VM is accessible externally. In my example, I used hostname.vditoolbox.com that has DNS record that resolves to the public IP address of my Azure VM. I’ve included an example of the lab setup I had during testing and yours will likely be different based on network, security groups, etc.. but wanted to give you an idea.

Hope this helps others down the road!

Enjoy!

Wyse Management Suite documentation here

Connect to the Dell Community here!

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New! Dell Wyse Training via Dell Education Services!

chrismessier Blog, Management, Wyse ThinOS , , ,

Hey all! I wanted to let you know Dell has just released several new Dell thin client and Wyse Management Suite training offerings!

Here is a list of the offerings:

You can check out the various options here!

Enjoy!

Connect to the Dell Community here!

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New Dell Wyse ThinOS Activation License & Wyse Management Suite Update

chrismessier Blog, Management, Security, VMware Horizon, Wyse ThinOS , ,

A new Dell Wyse ThinOS enhancement to be aware of is the introduction of a ThinOS Activation License that was introduced as part of ThinOS version 2205 (version 9.3.1129) & Wyse Management Suite 3.7.

This new license is required in certain scenarios as outlined here.

In some cases, you may encounter the following message below:

“Login is denied (ThinOS activation license is not available)”

You will get this for a few reasons as outlined in the release notes here and outlined below.

ThinOS enhancements

  • Added ThinOS Activation devices licenses in Wyse Management Suite—The licenses must be used in the following two scenarios:
    • Devices that are converted from other operating systems must use the ThinOS activation licenses to enable VDI function. Without the ThinOS activation license, you cannot log in to any Broker agent on the devices. The ThinOS activation licenses are used automatically when registering to Wyse Management Suite.
      • For example, you bought Windows 10 IoT/Windows Embedded devices in the past and converted them to ThinOS at one point
      • If you bought a newer platform, i.e. Dell 3420 thin client laptop and ThinOS was NOT installed at the factory but instead onsite, then you will need the ThinOS Activation license
    • Non-PCoIP ThinOS clients that are upgraded from ThinOS 8.6 can use ThinOS Activation license to enable the PCoIP function. Go to Services > WDA Settings > Enable PCoIP Activation License to enable this option in ThinOS 9.x policy. Restart your device for the function to take effect
      • For example, you upgraded ThinOS 8.x without PCoIP and have upgraded to ThinOS 9.x and you use PCoIP with VMware Horizon
  • Support for Dell Wyse Latitude 3420 Thin Client
    • You must have ThinOS Activation devices license for Latitude 3420 to enable VDI function

This license takes effect starting with ThinOS 2205/9.3.1129 & Wyse Management Suite 3.7 as noted in the release notes here.

If you are running into this issue after upgrading to ThinOS 2205, you may need to reach out to your Dell account team to likely purchase the appropriate ThinOS Activation License if you fall into one of the categories.

Alternatively, you can roll back to prior versions of ThinOS until you identify the reason you are getting this license message & purchase the proper ThinOS activation license(s).

The new ThinOS Activation License is discussed in greater detail here, Dell ThinOS – Installation & Activation License User Guide. This document also covers installing ThinOS on newer hardware manually such as the Wyse 3420 thin client laptop IF it is not pre-loaded at the factory.

If you use WMS on prem you will need to export your ThinOS Activation License from WMS Cloud to WMS on prem server as noted here.

Hope you found this helpful!

Additional Resources:

  • Dell Wyse ThinOS 2205/9.3.1129 Release notes here
  • Dell Wyse ThinOS 2205/9.3.1129 Administrators Guide here
  • Dell Wyse Management Suite Release notes here
  • Dell Community forums for ThinOS here
  • Excellent Dell Wyse community located here
  • Dell Wyse ThinOS Technical Support here

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Dell Wyse Management Suite (WMS) 3.6 Install

chrismessier Blog, Management, Security ,

The latest release of Wyse Management Suite, 3.6, is out! I put together a brief summary of the installation process if installing locally on a Windows 2019/2016/2012 server. Alternatively, WMS can also be run as a hybrid cloud solution as noted here. Enjoy!

You can download Wyse Management Suite v3.6 from here along with documentation and release notes here.

  1. Launch the installer, WMS_3.6-xxx.exe and click ‘Next’ to begin

2. Accept EULA and click ‘Next’

3. Choose Typical or Custom and be sure to check off ‘Turn off IE Enhanced Security Configuration’ then click ‘Next’. I selected Typical for this standard install.

4. Provide credentials for both database access and administrator credentials. Note: The administrator credentials will be the login credentials you’ll use to log into the WMS console.

5. I clicked ‘Next’ past this section as it’s specific to using Teradici zero clients which I’m not using. If you are, see more info at page 15 here

6. Select an option to create the WMS service account from the below options.

7. Provide credentials for the Software Vault as noted below.

8. Click ‘Next’ to accept the default security configuration

9. Select the installation and repository location as noted below

10. Once you click ‘Next’, the installation will start!!

11. Once install finishes, click ‘Launch’ at the end and a wizard will finalize the install. You can see more of these final steps here starting at Step 14.

Additional Resources:

  • Wyse Management Suite download here
  • Wyse Management Suite documentation here
  • Excellent Dell Wyse community located here
  • Dell Community forums for Wyse Management Suite (WMS) here

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How To: Wyse Management Suite and Active Directory Integration

chrismessier Blog, Management, Microsoft, Security ,

One of the great features of Wyse Management Suite (WMS) Pro is the ability to integrate it with Active Directory so you can log into WMS using your existing Active Directory accounts.

The process is pretty straightforward as outlined in admin guides but recently working on this with a customer I wanted to document the process with some additional details that helped.

  • Go to ‘Portal Administration’, ‘Active Directory (AD)’
  • Enter your Active Directory information as outlined below:
    • Name: FQDN of domain controller
    • Domain: domain name
    • Server URL: ldap://ip_fqdn of domain controller
    • Port: 389


  • Once you click ‘Save’ and it’s successful, you will see the following screen:

  • Click on the ‘icon’ to add by either Groups, Users, and also search by OU to enumerate from AD.


  • You will then see your existing Groups appear below:


    You could also search just for a specific Group, i.e. WMS Administrators:


    You could also search just for a specific User, i.e. wyseuser: (NOTE: User account must have email associated with account in order to show up, otherwise you will get an error message while trying to import users.


    You could also search by Organizational Unit (OU), i.e. Management


  • Once you have imported what you choose, the users will show up under the Users tab in WMS under, ‘Unassigned Admins’. Note: This may take a few minutes to show up after importing from AD.

  • Select the account and select ‘Edit User’:

  • Select ‘Roles’ and assign the appropriate role for the user:

  • Once complete, the user will show up under the ‘Administrator(s)’ tab:

  • On the WMS Portal logon screen, choose ‘Sign in with your domain credentials’ to log in with your newly imported and assigned AD user.

  • Enter your AD user account and login!

Just Released! What’s new with Wyse Management Suite 1.3?

chrismessier Blog, Management, Microsoft , ,

Dell Releases Wyse Management Suite 1.3

The Dell Wyse team has recently released Wyse Management Suite (WMS) 1.3 and also updated the cloud hosted version at www.wysemanagementsuite.com!

You can see a quick summary of the new features below.

You can download this new WMS 1.3 and documentation from here.

New features

Wyse Management Suite – Error pulling Windows 10 IoT Image

chrismessier Blog, Management, Microsoft, Security , , ,

In some recent lab testing I ran into the following error: “CCM on-prem Server authentication token is not available in configuration file.”

I got this error when attempting to pull a Windows 10 IoT Image off a Wyse 5060 client.

The fix was to push the updated Merlin package, aka boot agent, to the device prior to capturing image.

This package is already pre-loaded in the Wyse Management Suite software and listed under “Apps & Data\App Inventory\Thin Client” – MerlinPackage_Common.exe.

You will need to create and App Policy containing this package and push to the client.

  1. To create App Policy go to, Apps & Data\App Policies\Thin Client\Add Policy
  2. Complete the policy using the details below:
  3. Once policy is created, go to, “Jobs\Schedule App Policy” and create your policy similar to below:
  4. Once the policy is pushed successfully you should now be able to pull the image!

Error details:

(Status: Failed – [ERROR: CCM on-prem Server authentication token is not available in configuration file. (error code : 107).]
[ERROR STAGE: Repository validation.]
[REASON: Configuration file is missing authentication token of on prem Server.]
[SOLUTION: Make sure config file is updated with proper CCM on prem Server authentication token.]
| (107))

Hope this helps someone else down the road!

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Additional support resources as noted below:

Dell TechCenter Wyse Product Support Forums – these are a great resource for getting up and running with the solutions as well as tips and tricks for troubleshooting common issues. Once you join the Dell TechCenter community you will have a variety of resources to get started!

Dell Wyse Support Site – Wyse documentation, log support incident, etc…

Available categories with forum and topic lists:

  • Wyse general forum: for discussions that, for example, span multiple categories, involve end-to-end methods, heterogeneous environments, new use cases or topics not found under the support documentation or existing discussions.
  • Wyse thin clients: includes Cloud Connect, Linux, Windows Embedded Standard, ThinOS and zero clients for Citrix, MultiPoint Server and VMware.
  • Wyse software: includes Wyse Management Suite, Wyse Device Manager, Wyse WSM and Wyse Virtualization Software

Wyse Converter for PCs Installation Steps

chrismessier Blog, Management, Microsoft ,

The following steps outline the typical installation of Wyse Converter for PCs

  1. Download a copy of Wyse Converter for PCs here
  2. Ensure the PC you wish to convert meets the minimum requirements and pre-requisites noted here
  3. You will also want to get access to the Wyse Management Suite software to have a centralized way to configure and manage your converted PC’s. You can get access to Wyse Management Suite by going here. Alternatively, you can manually configure the device using local GUI during testing.
  4. Run ‘WyseConverterforPCs.exe’ on your Windows 7 or Windows 10 PC you wish to convert. Note: By default, you will get a 45 day trial license as part of the installation.
  5. Follow the steps below for a typical installation:
    7. After installation completes and PC reboots you will be brought to the following screen:

WyseUser2

8. By default, Converter for PC will auto-logon as the locked down Standard User, ‘WyseUser’ as noted in step 4. In order to login as ‘WyseAdmin’ hold down ‘shift’ key and log off and you will be brought to Windows logon screen where you can select the user account you want to log in as.

  • default credentials
    • username: wyseadmin | password: DellCCCvdi
    • username: wyseuser | password: DellCCCvdi

9. At this point, you can begin your configuration of the Citrix client, VMware client, etc… using one of 2 methods:

10. You can access documentation Wyse Converter for PC documentation here and Wyse Management Suite documentation here.

Additional support resources as noted below:

Dell TechCenter Wyse Product Support Forums – these are a great resource for getting up and running with the solutions as well as tips and tricks for troubleshooting common issues. Once you join the Dell TechCenter community you will have a variety of resources to get started!

Dell Wyse Support Site – Wyse documentation, log support incident, etc…

Available categories with forum and topic lists:

  • Wyse general forum: for discussions that, for example, span multiple categories, involve end-to-end methods, heterogeneous environments, new use cases or topics not found under the support documentation or existing discussions.
  • Wyse thin clients: includes Cloud Connect, Linux, Windows Embedded Standard, ThinOS and zero clients for Citrix, MultiPoint Server and VMware.
  • Wyse software: includes Wyse Management Suite, Wyse Device Manager, Wyse WSM and Wyse Virtualization Software

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Wyse Management Suite (WMS) DNS Discovery

chrismessier Blog, Management, Microsoft, Wyse ThinOS , ,

Once you have Wyse Management Suite (WMS) installed the next step is to automatically have your devices ‘find’ and check-in into your WMS server. This is accomplished by setting up a few DNS records that include the key WMS server information. I’ve outlined the DNS records that need to be setup and steps to setup on Microsoft Server 2012.

  • Service Location (SRV) Record
    • _WMS_MGMT
    • _WMS_MQTT
  • Text (TXT) Record
    • _WMS_GROUPTOKEN
    • _WMS_CAValidation

Steps to setup Service Location (SRV) Record on Microsoft Server 2012

  1. On your DNS server navigate to the domain you want, then right click on “_tcp”, and select “Other New Records”.

  2. To setup the 2 SRV records, select “Service Location (SRV) from the options.

  3. Setup your record for, “_WMS_MGMT”. This is the FQDN of your WMS server. Use the following options below:
    1. Domain: Your domain name
    2. Service: _WMS_MGMT
    3. Protocol: _tcp
    4. Priority: 0
    5. Weight: 100
    6. Port Number: 443
    7. Host offering this service: your_wms_server, i.e. wms1.dellse.local

  4. Setup your record for, “_WMS_MQTT”. This is a service port WMS uses. This is the FQDN of your WMS server. Use the following options below:
    1. Domain: Your domain name
    2. Service: _WMS_MQTT
    3. Protocol: _tcp
    4. Priority: 0
    5. Weight: 100
    6. Port Number: 1883
    7. Host offering this service: your_wms_server, i.e. wms1.dellse.local

  5. To setup the next 2 records, navigate to the domain you want, select that node, then right click and select “Other New Records”. *Note* do not select a sub node such as _tcp for these records.

  6. Select the “Text (TXT)” Record type:

  7. Setup your record for, “_WMS_GROUPTOKEN”. This is the specific Group Token/Profile that you setup and want to use. Use the following options below:
    1. Record Name: _WMS_GROUPTOKEN
    2. Fully qualified domain name (FQDN): _WMS_GROUPTOKEN.your_domain
    3. Text: defa-labdemo1
      1. This “Text:” field is the key that you want to use. You will get this from your WMS console where you setup your group profile under the key icon.

  8. Setup your record for, “_WMS_CAValidation”. If you are not using an SSL cert (default), then this value needs to be set to ‘False’. If you are using a cert, then this would be set to “True”. Use the following options below:
    1. Record Name: _WMS_CAValidation
    2. Fully qualified domain name (FQDN): _WMS_CAValidation.your_domain
    3. Text: False (or True, if using a cert)

9. Once you have these 4 options setup, you should see the following in DNS;

The following records should be listed under your_domain:

The other 2 records should be listed under, your_domain\_tcp

10. This completes the setup. Once your device boots up and does it’s DNS lookup it will populate the proper fields on the device, in this example, Wyse ThinOS: