VMware View iPad Client and PCoIP Gateway

One word…..AWESOME.  I have to say being a free app and having my wife’s iPad to test this with is just great.  The only tricky part for me was setting up the external interfaces for the PCoIP URL.  for some reason it only allows IP address instead of FQDN so for my setup in the Home Lab it becomes tricky if the IP address updates.  I do of course use DynDNS, but without the ability to set the external address by FQDN I risk my connection getting broken.  So here are a few quick requirements I found:

  • Setup the External PCoIP addresses in the View Security Server
  • Add both a TCP and UDP firewall rule for PORT 4172 to the security server
  • Make sure you have 443 and 4172 allowed from the security server to the desktops as well
  • Let it rip!

Here is the administrator screen for the External URL’s that must be configured note the example is IP only.

Below is a couple screen shots showing that the connection is in fact made over PCoIP:

And here is the View Desktop running on the iPad:

If you have not yet installed or upgraded to View 4.6 in your lab or environment I highly suggest you do.  You will be very impressed with the setup and I for one use the Composed pools because I am constantly updating my remote access desktop image as well.  Hopefully soon the iPad client will support Multi-Tasking between other apps, but for now this seems to be much better than the Wyse Pocket Cloud client thanks to PCoIP support.  I even went so far as to play a video located on a NAS share the view desktop had access to.  The audio was near perfect on the local wireless connection.  The video was a little choppy but was fully easy to follow.  Overall I am impressed with what the View team here at VMware has produced.  I will have to try some of these tests over a decent remote connection like a Mi-Fi at some point just for giggles.

About Chris Colotti

Chris is active on the VMUG and event speaking circuit and is available for many events if you want to reach out and ask. Previously to this he spent close to a decade working for VMware as a Principal Architect. Previous to his nine plus years at VMware, Chris was a System Administrator that evolved his career into a data center architect. Chris spends a lot of time mentoring co-workers and friends on the benefits of personal growth and professional development. Chris is also amongst the first VMware Certified Design Experts (VCDX#37), and author of multiple white papers. In his spare time he helps his wife Julie run her promotional products as the accountant, book keeper, and IT Support. Chris also believes in both a healthy body and healthy mind, and has become heavily involved with fitness as a Diamond Team Beachbody Coach using P90X and other Beachbody Programs. Although Technology is his day job, Chris is passionate about fitness after losing 60 pounds himself in the last few years.

5 comments

  1. Hi
    Many homelabs still get dynamic IP’s from their ISP which makes it difficult to use the new PCoIP over HTTPS feature. I wrote this blogpost on how you can do it with a dynamic IP: http://www.gabesvirtualworld.com/enabling-vmware-view-4-6-pcoip-with-dynamic-ip-address/

    Gabe

    • Awesome find!! Thanks for the update. Luckily for some reason my ISP always gives me the same IP even with DHCP so I must be a lucky one….(Knock on wood). Great ideas on the powershell script though!

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