VMware User Environment Manager #UEM: Predefined settings – Dynamic Placeholder

I created several blog posts about the Predefined settings so far that hopefully gave you some understanding about the basic and advanced concepts.

In the following I want to show you a little bit about a feature not all of us know:

The opportunity to create dynamic predefined settings with the help of Environment variables and placeholders.

Placeholders within UEM’s predefined settings.

Within the predefined settings you are able to define variables that will be dynamically set during the runtime.

How can we do that you ask? Just use the the following placeholder within your default/predefined settings (Case sensitive):

[Flex#%environment variables%]

The following example should show you how we can use this functionality to deliver a flexibel dynamic and context-based environment for the user (that almost sounds like marketing once again).

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Internet Explorer proxy settings based on a specific context

I want to make sure that a user working in a security-senstive network zone gets the appropriate proxy configured within the Internet Explorer.

First we need to create a condition set for that. The condition security zone will be configured based on the IP address of the Virtual Desktop.

screen-shot-2016-12-08-at-15-13-12

Based on this condition set we are now going to define an environment variable within the User environment on this specific user.

If a user comes from a Security Zone -> set the environment variable proxyname to secureproxy.

screen-shot-2016-12-08-at-15-15-41

screen-shot-2016-12-08-at-15-15-50

screen-shot-2016-12-08-at-15-16-01

For the other users I created an environment variable with the default proxyname.

Last step: Define the placeholder in the predefined settings of the Internet Explorer (If you have no clue what I am talking about. Check this)

Let’s create a predefined settings with a dynamic proxy-injection:

Edit the predefined setting and change the relevant registry field to

[Flex#%proxyname%].vlenzker.net (Remember: The value for proxyname has been created before in the User Environment). For sure it must be a hostname that is reachable from within the security-zone.

screen-shot-2016-12-08-at-15-19-31

Safe the settings and voila. Once you logon into your Desktop you see the proxy-settings in your browser depending on the characteristics.

  • Normal Users: proxy.lenzker.local
  • Secure Users: secureproxy.lenzker.local

IE_dynamic_proxy_env_variable

For sure that is just an example, but I hope you see how easy (and without scripting) we can create context based environments in a very flexible way.

You have other or better use-cases? Let me know in the comment section….

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