vCenter vs VDI?

It sounds a bit strange, ‘vCenter vs VDI’, as both are VMware products but it’s true. As usual a twitter contact pointed me to a VMware KB article which states the following.

‘VirtualCenter tasks that conflict with VMware Virtual Desktop functionality’

My first thought was ‘Ah finally, an explanation why vSphere 4 has no support for VMware View 3’. But when I looked at the affected product versions it appeared that this was not the case.

The VMware KB article provides a list of VirtualCenter 2.5.x actions that conflict with VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure functionality (Virtual Desktop Manager 2.x and View 3.x) and cause VDI Desktops to become inaccessible. These action are:

• Moving an ESX from one cluster to another.
• Removing and re-adding an ESX host from VirtualCenter
• Un-registering and re-registering a virtual machine on VMware Infrastructure Client or VirtualCenter
• Re-signaturing a LUN which is hosting VDI desktops
• Moving virtual machines from one folder to another within VirtualCenter
• Changing the names of folders in VirtualCenter where virtual machines are stored
• Changing the names of folders in VirtualCenter where templates are stored
• Upgrading VirtualCenter while VDM/View services are running
• Re-installing VirtualCenter

It surprises me that basic actions mentioned above like ‘changing a folder name’ or ‘moving virtual machines from folder to folder’ may upset VDI desktops and even make them inaccessible.

What’s even more surprising is the solution, ‘To avoid losing access to VDI desktops, do not perform any of these actions.’ Come on!

VMware step up to the plate, show that you’re trustworthy partner and solve these issues so the two of your version 3 products work flawlessly together.