running pdq deploy in virtual server

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itdept

• May 24, 2011 14:32

I haven't seen this talked about anywhere so I thought I would bring it up. Has pdq deploy or any of the other tools been tested in a virtual environment? I know it works but with a bit of delay. Granted that it may be I don't have enough resources but I would like to get your thoughts. For example, when I select a package to deploy & have picked the computers to deploy it to, it sometimes takes like 5 seconds for the DEPLOY button to go from "grayed out / disabled" to actually "clickable / enabled". I also just updated to the new release of pdq free & the setup window has black for the first & third screens. Ran fine on my own pc. But I also just installed pdq inventory on my vm & the setup screen looked fine too. See attached picture.

black.JPG

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  Adam Ruth

  • May 24, 2011 20:05

  Thanks for the question.  Most of our testing is in a virtual environment and we do occasionally run into problems with how the screen updates. It is most likely a problem with the graphics acceleration used by the virtual machine as the most recent GUI tools from Microsoft make use of any 3D acceleration.  Though we've never seen it in the installer windows, which are all handled by Microsoft Installer and should be normal Windows and not the new 3D kind.  It may also explain the delay in updating the buttons.

  One solution we've used is to disable 3D acceleration in the virtual machine which, with VMWare at least, is recommended for most display drawing problems.

  Which VM software do you use?

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  itdept

  • May 26, 2011 12:52

  I use vmware. It's an ESX host, administered by VCENTER. I briefly looked for an option to disable 3d acceleration but didn't find one.

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  Adam Ruth

  • May 27, 2011 00:24

  We also have a number of ESX servers, but we haven't seen this particular problem (though we have occasionally seen drawing problems which sound somewhat similar).

  if you are using vSphere you thing you can try is to Edit Setting -> Options -> Advanced -> Disable Acceleration.  Let us know if this helps, if not, please give us some details about the version of Windows you're running and how you have it set up in ESX.

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  itdept

  • May 27, 2011 19:39

  I was going to try that then I read the following:

   

  Disable Acceleration in a Virtual Machine

  In rare instances, when you install or run software inside a virtual machine, it stops responding. If the problem occurs early in the execution of the program, you might be able to solve the problem by temporarily disabling acceleration in the virtual machine.

  Disabling acceleration slows down virtual machine performance. Use it only to resolve the problem of running the program. After you pass the point at which the program was encountering problems, return to the Virtual Machine Properties dialog box Options tab Advanced item and deselect Disable acceleration. You can then run the program with acceleration.

  I guess I'll just have to live with it.

   

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  Adam Ruth

  • May 30, 2011 00:03

  We're going to do some research on this in our lab.  What version of Windows are you running? 

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  itdept

  • May 31, 2011 14:56

  What version of windows is the vm that has pdq installed running? If so, it's server 2003.

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  Adam Ruth

  • May 31, 2011 21:50

  Yes, thank you. We'll see if we can duplicate the problem.

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