Features & Enhancements

This section in release notes, provides the details of new features and enhancements in HyWorks v3.3-R2 release.

Enhancements in HyWorks Controller

Built-in Automatic Power Management of Dynamically Deployed Session Host Servers (Teams)

HyWorks v3.3-GA + Hotfixes was having capabilities to do power management of dynamically deployed session host servers on Microsoft Azure. The feature was requiring a lot of Azure based configurations and was not supporting any other providers. In HyWorks v3.3-R2, the automatic power management capabilities are brought to HyWorks Controllers by implementing following two services:

• Accops Scheduler
• Accops Action Processor

The modules will help in achieving following automation:

1. Automatic deployment or deletion of session host servers as per schedules
2. Automatic power management of sessions host servers as per schedules
3. The feature support for following providers:
   1. Microsoft Azure
   2. Nutanix AHV
   3. VMware vCenter Server

Please refer this section for detailed information on automatic power management.

Network Preserve Option for Course Reservations in HyLabs

HyLabs deployments, requiring network (MAC Addresses in case of Nutanix/ VMware and network object for Microsoft Azure) to be preserved will use this feature. Only course reservations with option Reuse VMs for each run of reservation enabled, will be able to use network preserve feature on re-deployments of reservations. The feature is not available for:

1. Self-study reservations
2. Course self-study reservations
3. Course reservations which deploys VMs for all schedules (Reuse VMs for each run of reservation option is disabled)

Session Monitoring Changes

In v3.3-R2 changes are being done in HyWorks session monitoring process to support higher heartbeat intervals of HyWorks endpoints, this will enable:

• Less dependencies on heartbeats for user sessions
• Reducing overhead of too many processing of heartbeats from different heartbeats

Following settings in HyWorks Controller Management Console will define session monitoring mechanism

System -> Advanced Configurations -> HyDesk User Session Idle Monitoring

• HyDesk User Session Idle Monitoring = 1: HyWorks will consider HyWorks client heartbeats for user session monitoring. The behavior will be like previous versions.

• HyDesk User Session Idle Monitoring = 2: HyWorks controller will start idle session monitoring, when user is not having any desktop or app sessions running. Endpoint heartbeats will not be needed and can be increased as much is needed.

  • This will help in reducing load due to too many heartbeats from endpoints.

UI Changes

Following changes are integrated in v3.3-R2 release:

Controller to display Release Tag

In v3.3-R2, HyWorks Controller release tag will be shown at following places:

• Management Console -> Server -> HyWorks Controller Page -> Version Column
• At the bottom strip, beside HyWorks Controller Date/Time

'Get details automatically' replaced with 'Browse Application Details' in Add Application Wizard

Earlier a button to navigate to application binary location was having label as 'Get details automatically', the button label in Add Application wizard is now changed to Browse Application Details.

Column Value of Pool Type, Assigned Client and Client Type in Desktop VMs Page

For provisioned session host server, visible in Desktop VMs page, following column values are changed for better understanding:

• Pool Type: Shared Hosted Desktop - Dynamic
• Assigned Client: NA
• Client Type: Multi-User

New Columns - Session Teams

Clicking on a managed session team to view details of configurations, following new columns will be visible:

VM Status: Suggesting the status of session host server VM:

SHD VM Status	Status on Desktop VM Page
Unknown	-
Provisioning_Failed	Sysprep failed / Encryption Failed
Not_Provisioned	Un-provisioned / Missing
Provisioning	VM creating / Recomposing / Sysprep not completed / Encryption Not complete
Powering On	(Sysprep completed OR not required) && (Encryption complete OR not required)
Powered On	Powered_On
Shutting Down	Shutting_Down
Powered Off	Powered_Off
Rebooting	Rebooting
Suspend	Suspend

Server Status:

SHD VM Status	Condition
Unknown	-
Ready	Provisioned + SHD Agent Responding + Powered On [Un-cordoned] + Active+ Connectivity
Draining	Provisioned + SHD Agent Responding + Powered On [Cordoned] + Active+ Connectivity
Not Ready	-

Remove dropdown for Log Type from Logs Page

Since dropdown Log Type was not having any usage, it has been removed from Logs page

Link from Desktop Pools page to Session Teams Page

Name of desktop pool (Dynamically provisioned shared hosted) in Desktop Pools page will function as a link and will navigate the user to Session Teams page directly.

Session Host Changes

Following integrations are there in Session Host server in v3.3-R2 release:

All latest supporting modules integrated

• Accops User Experience Manager (AUEM): Version 3.0.0.124
• Accops Session Server Extensions (HyPrint, Light Speed Printer, File Transfer): Version 3.3.1.12
• Accops Session Recording: Version 1.0.2.45

Error message and Session logout [optional] in case of Session Host to Controller communication gets failed while updating session details

In previous releases, if session host server used to keep the session running for which it fails to communicate with HyWorks Controller. The sessions were getting disconnected without any notifications, when controller was performing cleanup of such sessions and notifying client.

In v3.3-R2, following registry based control has been provided:

• Location: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Accops\Controller\EDC\SESSIONHOST
  • Registry Name: ForceLogoutUnmanagedSession
    • Registry Type: String
    • Registry Value:
      • True: Logout the user as per timeout set for registry ForceLogoutUnmanagedSessionInMin. Also prompt user for session logout
      • False: Keep the session and do not prompt any message
  • Registry Name: ForceLogoutUnmanagedSessionInMin
    • Registry Type: String
    • Registry Value: Valid positive number. User sessions to be logged-out as per provided value when ForceLogoutUnmanagedSession is set as true.

Important

• Keeping ForceLogoutUnmanagedSessionInMin value too high does not mean that sessions will be kept for longer duration. The sessions may still be cleaned-up as per HyWorks Controller configuration to clean-up failed sessions.

Option to suspend processes on session disconnections

New session host server is having feature integration to suspend user processes in disconnected sessions.

How will it work:

• On session disconnection, session host server will suspend processes
• On session reconnection, suspended processes will be resumed

How to enable:

To enable process suspending, following registry has to be enabled:

• Registry Location: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Accops\DVMAgent\SUSPEND PROCESS
• Registry Name/ Type: Enable (String)
• Registry Value: Set as True to enable process suspending/ Set as False to disable process suspending

HyshellServerPreScript and HyShellServerPostScript should run in User context instead of System context

Earlier HyShellServerPreScript and HyShellServerPostScrtipt were run in system context, in v3.3-R2, these scripts will run in user context.

DVM Tools Changes

Following integrations are there in DVM Tools being released as part of v3.3-R2:

All latest supporting modules integrated

• Accops User Experience Manager (AUEM): Version 3.0.0.124
• Accops Session Server Extensions (HyPrint, Light Speed Printer, File Transfer): Version 3.3.1.12
• Accops Session Recording: Version 1.0.2.45

Option to suspend processes on session disconnections

New desktop agent is having feature integration to suspend user processes in disconnected sessions.

How will it work:

• On session disconnection, session host server will suspend processes
• On session reconnection, suspended processes will be resumed

How to enable:

To enable process suspending, following registry has to be enabled:

• Registry Location: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Accops\DVMAgent\SUSPEND PROCESS
• Registry Name/ Type: Enable (String)
• Registry Value: Set as True to enable process suspending/ Set as False to disable process suspending