While (re)installing the VMware Horizon View Agent you can choose from many features. (De)Selecting a feature can have a big impact on the user experience (Once a customer was very upset when he found out that Client Drive Redirection was activated…).
After finishing the installation of the View Agent, there is no easy way to review the features installed (as far as I know). Luckily, the log files created during the installation provide a lot of information.
Location of the log files: C:\ProgramData\VMware\logs.
Search for the latest vmmsi.log, these come in the format: vmmsi.log_yyyymmdd_hhmmss.
Note, there are also log files starting with vminst.
Open the log file with your favorite editor.
View Agent log files can be recognized as the first line reflects the product and version/buildnumber.
=== Verbose logging started: 30/04/2016 19:40:53 Build type: SHIP UNICODE 5.00.10011.00 Calling process: C:\Install\VMware-viewagent-x86_64-6.2.2-3508800.exe ===
To quickly scroll to the right section, search for “USB”.
For better readability, the first part of the lines has been cut:
Feature: Core; Installed: Absent; Request: Local; Action: Local Feature: UnityTouch; Installed: Absent; Request: Local; Action: Local Feature: PCoIP; Installed: Absent; Request: Local; Action: Local Feature: ClientDriveRedirection; Installed: Absent; Request: Local; Action: Local Feature: RDP; Installed: Absent; Request: Local; Action: Local Feature: VmwVaudio; Installed: Absent; Request: Local; Action: Local Feature: VmVideo; Installed: Absent; Request: Local; Action: Local Feature: VPA; Installed: Absent; Request: Local; Action: Local Feature: V4V; Installed: Absent; Request: Local; Action: Local Feature: USB; Installed: Absent; Request: Null; Action: Null Feature: ThinPrint; Installed: Absent; Request: Local; Action: Local Feature: TSMMR; Installed: Absent; Request: Local; Action: Local Feature: SmartCard; Installed: Absent; Request: Null; Action: Null Feature: SerialPortRedirection; Installed: Absent; Request: Null; Action: Null Feature: ScannerRedirection; Installed: Absent; Request: Null; Action: Null Feature: SVIAgent; Installed: Absent; Request: Null; Action: Null Feature: RTAV; Installed: Absent; Request: Local; Action: Local Feature: PSG; Installed: Absent; Request: Null; Action: Null Feature: HtmlAccess; Installed: Absent; Request: Local; Action: Local Feature: FlashURLRedirection; Installed: Absent; Request: Null; Action: Null Feature: 3DRDSH; Installed: Absent; Request: Null; Action: Null
Each line of this section has four fields:
- Feature
- Installed (Absent, Local)
- Request (Null, Local, Reinstall)
- Action (Null, Local, Reinstall)
Feature is the View Agent Feature, some features are default and will always be installed, like; Core, UnityTouch and PCoIP.
Installed is the current status of this feature. Possible values Absent (meaning not installed) or Local (Installed). During the initial installation this value is always Absent. After a repair installation, this value is Local if the feature was installed during a previous installation
Request reflects changes in the status of a feature. Possible values Null (Feature already installed or was not selected), Local (Feature is selected for installation) or Reinstall (Feature is selected for Reinstallation).
Action reflects the action to perform during this installation. The possible values are equal to filed Request; Null, Local or Reinstall.
So in the example above, all features will be installed, except; USB, SmartCard, SerialPortREdirection, ScannerRedirection, SVIAgent, PSG, FlashURLRedirection and 3RDSH.
If multiple installations of the View Agent were performed, then you must combine the values of the Fields Installed (value Local) and Request or Action (value Local).
As you may know, there are two methods to install the VMware Horizon View Agent; an interactive and a silent installation. The Interactive Installation walks you through the process and let you select the features. To perform a silent installation, you use the MSI command line options. The whole process is detailed in VMware Documentation “Setting up Desktop and Application Pools in View” , Chapter 3 (individual desktops) and Chapter 7 (RDSH).
To match the Features as presented in the log files, the interactive installation and the silent installation see this table.
Table 1
| Log file | Interactive installation | Silent Installation | Description | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SerialPort Redirection | Serial Port Redirection | SerialPort Redirection | Redirects Serial Ports | |
| Scanner Redirection | Scanner Redirection | Scanner Redirection | Redirects Scanning devices | |
| USB | USB Redirection | USB | Redirects USB devices | |
| HtmlAccess | HTML Access | HtmlAccess | Connect to desktop using HTML | |
| RTAV | Real-Time Audio-Video | RTAV | Redirects Webcam and audio devices | |
| ClientDrive Redirection | Client Drive Redirection | ClientDrive Redirection | Redirects local drives to desktop | |
| ThinPrint | Virtual Printing | Print to client printers | Not optional during silent installation | |
| V4V | vRealize Operations Desktop Agent | V4V | Agent for vRealize Operations Desktop | |
| VPA | VMware Horizon View Persona Management | VPA | Sync user profile with remote repository | |
| SmartCard | PCoIP Smartcard | SmartCard | Authenticate wth Smart cards | |
| FlashURL Redirection | N/A | FlashURL Redirection | Only silent install | |
| VmwVaudio | VMware Audio | N/A | Virtual Audio driver | Will always be installed during during silent installation |
| Core | N/A | N/A | Core component | Will always be installed |
| UnityTouch | N/A | N/A | Unity Touch | Will always be installed |
| PCoIP | N/A | N/A | PCoIP Protocol Agent | Will always be installed |
| VmVideo | N/A | N/A | Virtual Video driver | Will always be installed |
| TSMMR | N/A | N/A | Windows Media Multimedia Redirection | Will always be installed |
| SVIAgent | View Composer Agent | SVIAgent | View Composer Agent | |
| PSG | PCoIP Secure Gateway | PSG | PCoIP Secure Gateway | RDSH feature |
| 3DRDSH | 3D Graphics | 3RDSH | 3D Graphics support | RDSH feature |
For a description and more information, see the VMware Documentation mentioned above.
As always, I thank you for reading.
Adventures in a Virtual World 
Awesome! This was perfect for validating the recent installations of the view agent.
Registry: HKLM\Software\VMware, Inc.\Installer\Features_HorizonAgent lists all options and their state (installed / absent)
Aloha! What doy ou think about an update of this article? 🙂
If I could, I would. However, I switched from desktops (Horizon) to other areas. Currently, I do not have Horizon running in my lab. But all input is welcome.
Sincerly, Paul