Profile Management

Profile Management and VMware

September 28, 2020

Contributed by:

B C

This article applies to Citrix user profiles on virtual machines created with VMware software such as VMware ESX. It addresses an issue where local profile caches become locked.

If you have set up Profile Management to delete cached local profiles when users log off from their virtual machines created with VMware (in your Citrix Virtual Desktops or Citrix Virtual Apps deployment) but the profiles are not deleted, you can use this workaround to overcome the issue.

This issue has been shown to occur when roaming profiles are used on virtual machines created with VMware ESX 3.5, and the Profile Management setting Delete locally cached profiles on logoff is enabled.

The issue occurs because the Shared Folders option in VMware Tools adds a file to the profiles. And the file is locked by a running process thus preventing profiles being deleted at logoff. The file is C:\Documents and Settings\userid\Application Data\VMware\hgfs.dat.

If you have verbose logging enabled in Profile Management, the log file might detect this problem with an entry such as:

2009-06-03;11:44:31.456;ERROR;PCNAME;JohnSmith4;3;3640;DeleteDirectory: Deleting the directory <C:\Documents and Settings\<user name>\Local Settings\Application Data\VMware> failed with: The directory is not empty.

To work around this issue in a Citrix Virtual Apps deployment on Windows Server 2008:

Log on as Administrator to the Citrix Virtual Apps server.
In Citrix Virtual Apps deployments, log off all users from the server.
In the Control Panel, go to Add/Remove Programs.
Locate VMware Tools and choose the Change option.
Change Shared Folders to This feature will not be available.
Click Next > Modify > Finish.
Restart the server.
Clean up the half-deleted profiles. Under My Computer > Properties > Advanced > User Profiles, select the profiles and delete them. Windows informs you of any errors trying to delete the profiles.

Note: A separate issue in environments running Profile Management on VMware can result in the creation of multiple sequential profiles. For information about this issue and how to resolve it, see Knowledge Center article CTX122501.

The official version of this content is in English. Some of the Cloud Software Group documentation content is machine translated for your convenience only. Cloud Software Group has no control over machine-translated content, which may contain errors, inaccuracies or unsuitable language. No warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, is made as to the accuracy, reliability, suitability, or correctness of any translations made from the English original into any other language, or that your Cloud Software Group product or service conforms to any machine translated content, and any warranty provided under the applicable end user license agreement or terms of service, or any other agreement with Cloud Software Group, that the product or service conforms with any documentation shall not apply to the extent that such documentation has been machine translated. Cloud Software Group will not be held responsible for any damage or issues that may arise from using machine-translated content.

Was this helpful

Profile Management and VMware

September 28, 2020

Contributed by:

B C

September 28, 2020

Contributed by:

B C

Profile Management and VMware

In this article