Introduction
This post describes how you can force manual bootstrapping in Horizon DaaS 8.
Bootstrapping in VMware Horizon DaaS 8 is an automatic process to convert your image to a Golden Pattern in Horizon DaaS.
There is a way to do this manually. Reasons for performing manual bootstrapping can be:
- The image is not on the same cluster as the desktop manager
- If you suffer strange problems during the automatic bootstrapping process (hint: always use English language settings for DaaS)
How to perform manual bootstrapping in Horizon DaaS?
In this post I will assume you already have a Windows VM ready with network connectivity, the Horizon View and the Horizon DaaS agent installed.
- Go to the Registry and browse to hive HKLM\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\VMware, Inc.\VMware DaaS Agent\EnableBootstrap
- Change the setting from 0 to 1
Or, using PowerShell:
Set-ItemProperty "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\VMware, Inc.\VMware DaaS Agent\" -name EnableBootstrap -Value '1'
Restart-service "DaaS Agent"Now, we need to download the bootstrap file from the Horizon DaaS Admin portal:
- Open the image you want to add via Console or RDP
- Browse to the Virtual IP of the Horizon DaaS Admin portal. In this scenario https://10.8.10.109
- Navigate to Inventory > Images
- Click the additional options button and choose Download Bootstrap
- Enter a secure password
- Save the file here: C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware DaaS Agent\service
- Open a Command Prompt with Admin privileges and run the following commands
cd C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware DaaS Agent\service
Keytool.exe -f image_bootstrap.7z- Enter the safe password you entered earlier
99 out of 100 times you won’t need this, but it’s good to understand the process happening behind the curtains.
Good luck!
Do you want to know more about Horizon DaaS?
Read our VMware Horizon DaaS explained series here!
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Hi there,
Do you know if this process has changed in DaaS 9? the keytool binary doesn’t seem to except the -f switch anymore?,
Thanks for you blog
This agent pairing process is much more streamlined than previous versions. Agent pairing in DaaS 9 is now initiated automatically on image import within the Tenant Admin GUI. It is also possible to initiate agent pairing from the “Imported VMs” interface in the Tenant Admin portal. With the Image selected, you click on “More->Reset Agent Pairing”.
You no longer have to manually set monitoragent.ini, download the boostrap file, or invoke the keytool. In DaaS 9, you only have to install the agent via a single integrated installer (HAI). This means you no longer see the DaaS Agent icon in the system tray, nor do you see a DaaS Agent service installed in the systems registered services (services.msc).
Elias,
That’s correct, we have some DaaS 9 tenants at the moment. The improvement on that part is huge, and saves us a lot of work.