Posted on by harlan

How to Shadow a VMware View (Horizon) PCoIP Desktop Session from vSphere

Unlike Citrix XenApp, VMware View has no central way to shadow a user’s desktop session, for example from the View Connection Server. It’s one of the most common questions from customers running View. You can, however, view a PCoIP session from the vSphere console by enabling one Group Policy setting.

Requirements

  • VMware vSphere 5 and VMware View 5 or later (vSphere 4 needs a registry hack instead).
  • Windows 7 desktops must use virtual hardware version 8. Windows XP and Vista can use any hardware version.

Steps to Enable PCoIP Session Shadowing

  1. Create a new Group Policy Object (GPO).
  2. Add the pcoip.adm template to Computer Configuration. You’ll find it on the View Connection Server in C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware View\Server\extras\GroupPolicyFiles.
  3. Enable Enable access to PCoIP session from a vSphere console under Computer Configuration.
  4. Link the GPO to the OU where the View desktops live.
  5. Let the domain controllers sync, then restart the View desktop.

You can now watch the PCoIP session from the vSphere console. Keyboard and mouse activity appears on both screens at the same time, with a slight delay.

Security note: the user isn’t asked to approve the shadow session, so consider the privacy implications before enabling this.