VMware Horizon – Troubleshooting with VMware Logon Monitor

Release date: February 4th 2020

Welcome to my VMware Horizon series. From time to time, I run into issues with long login times for some customers. This is most often related to MS Windows 10 environments, although all the proper adjustments have been done according to VMware’s guide about creating a template for Horizon: “Creating an Optimized Windows Image for a VMware Horizon Virtual Desktop” In these cases, I find it very helpful to use VMware Logon Monitor to troubleshoot login issues. VMware Logon Monitor is a service that is automatically installed when installing the VMware Horizon Agent in the template. It is also extremely helpful to use VMware vRealize Operations Manager to troubleshoot Horizon issues. Below I will describe how to set up VMware Logon Monitor to send logs to a file-share, which is handy when troubleshooting multiple desktops with long logon time. I have divided this session into the following segments:

• Configure file-share for logs
• Configure VMware Logon Monitor to send logs to file-share
• Enable VMware Logon Monitor

Configure file-share for logs

The most important thing to remember when setting up the file-share, is to give “Domain Computers” write access. The rest is pretty straight forward as shown below

Configure VMware Logon Monitor to send logs to file-share

The are numerous ways to customize the VMware Logon Monitor, which is documented excellently here: Logon Monitor Configuration Settings In this session, I will configure VMware Logon Monitor to send logs to the file-share I created above. The registry keys are under: HKLM\Software\VMware, Inc.\VMware Logon Monitor:

• RemoteLogPath (REG_SZ)

Enable VMware Logon Monitor

To enable the VMware Logon Monitor, I set the service to start automatically from within my template.

After having rolled out my updated template, I can now verify that logs are generated in the file-share for my test-user. As my observant readers might notice, I have an awful long logon time in this session, this is because I use this Desktop-pool to beta-test App Volumes 4.

VMware Logon Monitor Configuration Settings

VMware Horizon planning, deployment etc.

Disclaimer: Every tips/tricks/posting I have published here, is tried and tested in different it-solutions. It is not guaranteed to work everywhere, but is meant as a tip for other users out there. Remember, Google is your friend and don’t be afraid to steal with pride! Feel free to comment below as needed.