In this post, I will show you step by step how to grant additional users or groups access to the Omnissa Horizon admin console.
In this post, I will show you step by step how to schedule a VMware exam.
The entire process is split into a few stages.
If you want, you can skip those clicks and go directly to the following URL https://cp.certmetrics.com/vmware/en/home/dashboard
If you are taking a VMware exam at a conference, you will likely have a private access code to access the on-site exam center.
In this post, I will show you step by step how to deploy Claude Desktop on Non-Persistent VDI.
The entire setup is split into a few stages.
To deploy Claude Desktop for Non-Persistent VDI, you need to use the Claude Desktop MSIX.
Add-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online -PackagePath "Claude.msix" -SkipLicense -Regions "all"Code language: PowerShell (powershell)
Now, when a user uses the updated non-persistent VDI desktop, Claude Desktop will be installed.
Claude Desktop gets updates very frequently, but you do not need to install them right away. Fortunately, Anthropic provides a way to disable updates on Claude Desktop. It’s also recommended to disable application auto-updates when used on non-persistent VDI.
HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\ClaudedisableAutoUpdates with the value of 1
When you launch Claude Desktop, it will no longer automatically check for updates, and the option to check for updates will be disabled.
When you want to update Claude Desktop on your non-persistent VDI gold image, you need to remove it first.
Get-AppxProvisionedPackage -online | where DisplayName -like *Claude* | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -OnlineCode language: PowerShell (powershell)
Get-AppxPackage *Claude* -allusers | Remove-AppxPackage -allusersCode language: PowerShell (powershell)
When a user launches Claude Desktop for the first time, their settings are stored in the MSIX redirected location %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Claude_pzs8sxrjxfjjc\LocalCache\Roaming\Claude and %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Claude_pzs8sxrjxfjjc\LocalCache\Roaming\Claude-3p
Depending on how you capture the user’s AppData, the default MSIX redirected location can cause issues. Solutions such as FSLogix ignore the %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\*\LocalCache folders regardless of your configuration.
The Omnissa DEM (Dynamic Environment Manager) application profiler is a tool you can use to determine what you need to capture to make sure the user’s application settings and data are saved and roam with the user.
In this post, I will show you step by step how to install the Omnissa DEM Application Profiler.
If you plan to capture an application that will run on a terminal server, you should install Windows Server 2016 or newer to capture everything correctly.
It’s common for the Omnissa DEM Application Profiler installer version to not match the DEM version you are using. Just make sure you use the one included with the DEM version you are using.
Microsoft recently announced that External Authentication Methods has been renamed to External MFA and is Generally Available.
Microsoft also announced that Custom Controls is being deprecated, with its deprecation currently planned for September 30th, 2026. Microsoft Entra ID External MFA (formerly External Authentication Methods) replaces Custom Controls.
Here is a brief timeline of Custom Controls and External MFA:
Here’s how to check if you have Custom Controls configured.
In my example, the Custom Control RequireDuoMfa is currently configured.
If you have Custom Controls configured, you also need to check if the configured Custom Controls are being used by Conditional Access policies.
In my example, I will click on the Conditional Access policy named Duo MFA Custom Controls.
When a Palo Alto Networks firewall is configured with a unique master key, you need to change the master key before it expires, as when the master key expires, the firewall will reboot into maintenance mode, and you’ll need to factory reset it.
In this post, I will show you step by step how to change the Palo Alto Networks firewall master key before it expires.
If you haven’t configured a master key yet, my post, Palo Alto Configure Master Key with HA (Active/Passive), goes into detail on the process.
For more information on backing up your firewall config, my post, Palo Alto Config Backup, goes into detail.
We need to disable the HA configuration synchronization on both firewalls in the HA setup before changing the master key.
configure
show deviceconfig high-availability group configuration-synchronizationIf enabled is set to yes, we need to disable it.
set deviceconfig high-availability group configuration-synchronization enabled no
With HA config sync disabled, we can safely change the master key on both firewalls. The new master key must be exactly 16 characters.
A virtual SFOS (Sophos Firewall Operating System) can run on many hypervisors, including VMware.
In this post, I will show you step by step how to deploy a virtual SFOS on VMware vCenter.
There are two locations where you can download the Sophos firewall files. The first is the Sophos Firewall Installers page, and the second is the Sophos Knowledge Base Article KBA-000007972.
Inside the ZIP, there are a few files. The files we care about are sf_virtual_vm8_paravirtual.ovf, sf_virtual-disk1.vmdk, and sf_virtual-disk2.vmdk.
The sf_virtual_vm8_paravirtual.ovf is the most important because it supports VMXNET 3.
The Sophos documentation instructs you to select the manifest file sf_virtual.mf, the OVF file you want to use, and the VMDKs. This process only work if you are using the sf_virtual.ovf OVF file.
If you use the manifest file sf_virtual.mf with any OVF other than sf_virtual.ovf, the vCenter checksum verification will fail, and you can not proceed.
If you open the manifest file sf_virtual.mf with notepad, you see that it only contains the checksums for sf_virtual.ovf, sf_virtual-disk1.vmdk, and sf_virtual-disk2.vmdk.
This explains why the vCenter checksum verification fails when you select any OVF other than sf_virtual.ovf.
We don’t want to use the OVF sf_virtual.ovf because it uses the Vlance network adapter, which is an emulated version of the AMD 79C970 PCnet32 LANCE NIC, a 10 Mbps NIC.
Before you can start using a Sophos firewall, you must complete the initial setup.
In this post, I will show you step by step, how to complete the initial setup of a virtual SFOS (Sophos Firewall Operating System). The process will be similar on a physical Sophos firewall.
The default admin password is admin.
When you deploy a Sophos firewall on VMware vSphere, you start with 3 network interfaces PortA for LAN, PortB for WAN, and PortC is unassigned.
In VMware vCenter, PortA is Network adapter 1, PortB is Network adapter 2, and PortC is Network adapter 3.
However, when you add more network adapters in VMware vSphere, the mappings between SFOS (Sophos Firewall Operating System) and VMware vSphere no longer align.
In this post, I will show you, step by step, how to add more network interfaces to SFOS (Sophos Firewall Operating System) running on VMware vSphere and how to map the interfaces between SFOS and VMware vCenter.
VMware vCenter VMs can have up to 10 network adapters.
In my example, I will add 7 more network adapters, bringing the total to 10.
When adding network adapters, it defaults to the E1000 adapter type, which you can use, but it’s recommended to use the VMXNET 3 adapter type.
Once the SFOS VM has booted after adding the additional network adapters, the interface mapping between vCenter and SFOS won’t match, except that the SFOS network interface PortA always maps to network adapter 1 in vCenter.
Since PortA in SFOS is always vCenter network adapter 1, we will update its name in SFOS to reflect this mapping in vCenter.
By default, Sophos firewalls have a wireless network interface called GuestAP. Normally, this isn’t much of an issue, but if you don’t plan to use Sophos Wireless, it doesn’t make sense to keep the GuestAP network interface.
In this post, I will show you step by step how to remove the GuestAP network interface on SFOS (Sophos Firewall Operating System).
