Force Horzion View Persona to "Sync" from end-user linked-clone VM

[cyberjohnny]

We are deploying a VMware Horizon View 5.3 system with Windows 7 x64 linked-clone desktops to a medical centre.

Their medical management software stores each users printer settings under HKCU in the registry on the linked-clone desktops. It stores the "Workstation Name" and Printer Settings for "A4 Letters", "A5 Receipts", "Scripts" etc.

This format of storing printer settings is not really compatible with a linked-clone deployment. We have written scripts that exports this information "at will" - i.e. click on an icon on the desktop, and then reapplies the saved information when a user logs on.

The doctor then sets all of his desired printer settings in the medical application, clicks "Lock Printer Settings" icon on the desktop (saves registry settings and user details to central store). These settings are then imported into the registry based on the username when a user logs back on - no doubt getting a different linked-clone desktop.

This works fine, however - here lies the problem:

ViewPersona only "syncs" the registry every 10 minutes (as set by GP). If a doctors changes his printer settings and then immediately uses the "Lock Printer Settings" script, it exports the previous printer settings and the ViewPersona has not yet had time to "Sync". I know we could change the GP to SYNC every 1 minute, but it is still is not foolproof.

So, question: is there a way to force the ViewPersona to "SYNC" by running a script - initiated by the user, from their linked-clone Windows 7 desktop?

I would envision that we would incorporate this into the current "Lock Printer Settings" script. i.e. Sync the ViewPersona, and then export registry items.

Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers,

JD.

[mittim12]

I wonder if you restarted the View Persona service on the clone if it would force a sync? 

[cyberjohnny]

I actually didn't think of that. I'll give it a go today and see what happens. Thanks.

[ErikTatum10]

Hi JD,

There is currently no way to manually trigger a replication.  Restarting the Persona service will only reset the wait time back to 10 minutes.  This will not trigger a replication.

There is something I am not fully understanding about the "Lock Printer Settings" script.  Why is it writing directly to the central profile store?  This seems to be the root cause of your problem.  Your script should not be changing data in the central profile directly.  You should write your changes in the local profile and let Persona replicate them to the CPS.

Thanks,

Erik

[cyberjohnny]

Hi Erik,

Thanks for your input. The script is not writing to the central profile store - it simply exports a registry file to a shared folder on a file server. This registry file is then re-applied when a particular user logs on.

The current setup works, it is just not perfect. Would be handy if there was someway to replicate a persona sync.

Cheers.

[ErikTatum10]

Will you please explain more about why you need to request Persona to sync?  Why can't you wait for the normal replication to happen?

Thanks,

Erik

[cyberjohnny]

I'm not sure if I can add too much from my original post. Basically the third-party medical application stores printer settings per "computer name" under HKCU on the linked clone desktops. If a doctor changes the settings and clicks the "lock printer" script to export the settings BEFORE a potential 10 minutes has expired, it exports the previous printer settings and not the updated ones.

The goal is to allow the doctors to change the printer settings in the medical application and then NOT have to wait 10 minutes before running the "lock printer" script (registry export to share on file server).

Not sure if that makes more sense or not?

Cheers,

JD.

[ErikTatum10]

Above you said the script is not accessing the roaming profile directly.  So, if this is the case I don't see how this can be broken.  If the script is reading and writing the settings to the local copy of the profile only, and letting Persona replicate the settings on the 10 minute interval to the roaming profile, then I can't see how your script would ever get the old values.

Can you please clarify this?

Thanks,

Erik