How To: ThinApp Firefox 29 and Plugins for vCloud Director 5.1.x

Mon, 04 Aug 2014 00:00:00 +0000

In response to this article about Firefox 30 and vCloud 5.1.x and this article about Java updates breaking everything I decided to throw together a quick How-to on using ThinApp to create a sandboxed version of Firefox and Java that solves both of these problems pretty well.

This ThinApp setup includes a legacy version of Java (7u25) which is super old but it should help with accessing the following (not exhaustive list, just things I have run into, please help expand list):

UCS Manager 2.1.x
vCloud Director 5.1.x Uploads
HP iLO 2.x
Legacy DRAC
vCloud VPN
EMC Unisphere

Onward, but first an important caveat:

This process creates an insecure browser installation, DO NOT browse the internet with this configuration…ever.

You have been warned.

Note: I am not a ThinApp expert (and I usually avoid windows, hah!) so there may be a more elegant way to do this, if anyone has tips let me know!

First, collect the correct tools, I attached the versions that I used at the end of the post:

Firefox 29.0.1 Link
Java 7u25 (32 bit) Link
Flash Installer (for correct OS, I used Win8.1) Link
VMRC Installer for 5.1.x from your instance (or mine from 5.1.x below)
VMware ThinApp 5.x Trial
Clean Windows 7 or 8 Capture VM (Base install without security software is best)

After Windows is installed, the following are steps to take to create the package:

Take snapshot of base VM
Install ThinApp 5.x
Take snapshot (this is a theme, I have found a successful ThinApp capture is snapshot heavy)
Start “ThinApp Setup Capture” utility, Click Next

Click Prescan
Install Firefox
1. Choose Custom
2. De-select “Maintenance Service”
Install Flash (Latest version is fine)
Install Java
1. Choose “Change Destination Location”
2. Install to “c:\java”
Install VMRC Plugin
Launch Firefox, perform the following tasks
1. Navigate to about:config in Firefox, Click “I’ll be careful, I promise!”
2. Change the following settings
  1. app.update.auto – false
  2. app.update.enabled – false
  3. app.update.silent – false
  4. app.update.mode – 2
  5. extensions.update.autoUpdateDefault – false
  6. extensions.update.enabled – false
  7. (optional, disables login remembering) signon.rememberSignons – false
  8. (optional, enables pop-ups since vCD uses these) dom.disable_open_during_load – false
3. Verify plugin updating is disabled:
  1. Navigate to Menu -> Addons
  2. Click Plugins
  3. Click the gear icon and make sure this option is not selected
1. Perform the following tasks to verify that Java is installed
  1. Navigate to this Link
  2. Click “Activate”
```
3. **Click** to “Allow and Remember”






4. **Check** the “Don’t Ask Again…” Checkbox and **Click** Later






5. **Click** the Run button at the prompt to verify the Java applet loads
```
Take Snapshot (just in case)
Back to the ThinApp Capture Utility, click Postscan

Click OK

This will take some time, so grab some coffee.
De-select all entry points other than Firefox, click Next

Click Next

Click Next

Select “Restricted write access”, click Next.

Select “Same Directory…”, click Next.

Select No (unless you want to share), click next

Click next (I don’t use the ThinDirect feature because it only works with IE)

Update inventory name to “Firefox 29.0.1″ to differentiate it.

Select “Use one of the entry points” then pick “Mozilla Firefox.exe”, Check “Compress virtual package”, Click:

Click OK

Ignore warnings (like a boss) and click Next

Click “Edit Package.ini”

In Package.ini, Locate the block “[Mozilla Firefox.exe]” and perform the following changes to the block
1. Add “StatusbarDisplayName=BeyondVM Firefox 29.0.1 Build “
2. Add “CommandLine=%ProgramFilesDir%\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe -no-remote”
3. Rename block from [Mozilla Firefox.exe] to [Mozilla Firefox 29.0.1.exe]
Save Package.ini
Click Build

Wait, this will also take some time, more coffee!

Click Finish

At this point you will have a functioning ThinApp package file all bundled up in the single exe file in the bin directory. You might notice that this package is quite large, I performed the following additional steps to my package to get it down to about 350MB from over 800.

Edit Package.ini and perform the following modifications
1. Add the following section below the compression type
```
[FileList]
ExcludePattern=.bak,.msi,.mst,.cab,*.msp
```
2. Delete all entry points other than [Mozilla Firefox 29.0.1.exe]
3. Delete the following directories from the package (note: I have not exhaustively tested this, some of these may be required but it worked for me)
  - %drive_C%\Users\All Users\Microsoft\Windows Defender
  - %ProgramFilesDir(x64)%
  - %SystemRoot%\WinSxS
  - %SystemRoot%\assembly
  - %SystemRoot%\Installer
  - %SystemRoot%\Logs
4. Run build.bat as an Administrator

After that the package is pretty snappy and should be good to go. It will create a profile directory next to the EXE to save settings in, this will include popup allowing and certificate exceptions. The first time I logged into my vCloud instance I had to tell it to run the JRE again, I was unable to figure out how to get it to never ask during the build process but it wasn’t that bad to just do it the first time.

These are all of the files required to do this as well as the package I created following these directions. My pre-built package will expire in about 60d unless I can get VMware to give me a community license (hint hint).

Please leave a comment if there is anything I can improve!

Lastly, the caveat we started with:

This process creates an insecure browser installation, DO NOT browse the internet with this configuration…ever.

You have been warned.

Goodnight and Good Luck.

Tutorial: 802.3ad Port Configuration with ESX

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Just wanted to post a quick post about how to configure 802.3ad port consolidation with a Cisco switch and VMware ESX (vSphere was used for this example). I was using an HP DL380 with 2 onboard NIC and 2 24 port Cisco 3750G connected with stackwise cables.

Switch Configuration:


…
interface GigabitEthernet1/0/1
description ESX NIC 2
switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q
switchport mode trunk channel-group 1 mode on
end
…
interface GigabitEthernet2/0/14
description ESX NIC 2
switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q
switchport mode trunk channel-group 1 mode on
end
…
interface Port-channel1
description ESX PortChannel
switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q
switchport mode trunk
end
…

What I did was group two gigabit ports (1/0/14 and 2/0/14) into one port channel group (1). Then I applied the trunk settings to the port channel instead of the individual ports. As for the ESX side, I configured the virtual switch with more than one active adapter and set the “load balancing” to “Route based on IP hash.”

If this set up would not have been using a trunk, the following configuration would have been used:


…
interface Port-channel1
description ESX PortChannel
switchport mode access
switchport access vlan 
end
…

Tutorials on BeyondVM

How To: ThinApp Firefox 29 and Plugins for vCloud Director 5.1.x

This process creates an insecure browser installation, DO NOT browse the internet with this configuration…ever.

You have been warned.

This process creates an insecure browser installation, DO NOT browse the internet with this configuration…ever.

You have been warned.

Tutorial: 802.3ad Port Configuration with ESX