VDI already has enough challenges to overcome before it can become as widely adopted as its more mature sibling, server virtualization. But last week, another log may have been thrown on the virtual fire, validating some of the fears being faced by many IT administrators who are currently on the fence as to whether to move forward with this type of desktop virtualization technology.
According to a VMware Knowledge Base article, VMware said there had been a conflict with two security bulletins issued for Windows 7, causing disruptions for VMware's View Client and creating connection failures for users attempting to access the View Client Server.
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VMware quickly traced the issue down to two specific Microsoft Patches: 2482017 (a cumulative security update for Internet Explorer) and 2467023 (an update to address an issue with the handling of system binaries in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 systems). Both updates were released as part of Microsoft's Patch Tuesday last week, and the problem affected both 32- and 64-bit versions of Microsoft's latest Windows 7 operating system running VMware View.
VMware responded to the issue, posting an advisory on its Knowledge Base, giving users two options to move past the problem:
- Users who have already installed the patches can either upgrade to VMware View Client build 353760, or they can uninstall the two Microsoft patches (probably not a good idea since the patches fix a security vulnerability).
- VMware also recommended that if the newest Microsoft security updates had not yet been installed, users should download and install the View Client patch before updating their Windows 7 machines with Microsoft's security fixes.
How did this happen?
"VMware and Microsoft have an ongoing collaboration to ensure interoperability and have been working closely for the past several months in preparation for the release of Windows 7 Service Pack 1," said Pat Lee, director of clients and end-user computing at VMware.
But Lee said the Patch Tuesday security updates included the early release of updates anticipated in Windows 7 SP1, which wasn't due for release until February 22.