Objective 2.1 – Configure and Manage Horizon Pools

  • Describe and configure optional disk settings

Refresh OS disk after logoff

Select whether and when to refresh the OS disks for dedicated-assignment, linked-clone virtual machines.

  • Never. The OS disk is never refreshed.
  • Always. The OS disk is refreshed every time the user logs off.
  • Every. The OS disk is refreshed at regular intervals of a specified number of days. Type the number of days.
    The number of days is counted from the last refresh, or from the initial provisioning if no refresh has occurred yet. For example, if the specified value is 
    3 days, and three days have passed since the last refresh, the machine is refreshed after the user logs off.
  • At. The OS disk is refreshed when its current size reaches a specified percentage of its maximum allowable size. The maximum size of a linked clone’s OS disk is the size of the replica’s OS disk. Type the percentage at which refresh operations occur.
    With the 
    At option, the size of the linked clone’s OS disk in the datastore is compared to its maximum allowable size. This disk-utilization percentage does not reflect disk usage that you might see inside the machine’s guest operating system.

When you refresh the OS disks in a linked-clone pool with dedicated assignment, the View Composer persistent disks are not affected.

For instant-clone desktops, the machine is always deleted and recreated after logoff.

From <https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Horizon-7/7.5/horizon-virtual-desktops/GUID-0359DB4C-4517-4535-8EBC-BD4F27C764F3.html>

  • Describe and configure 3D renderer

The 3D Renderer setting for desktop pools provides options that let you configure graphics rendering in different ways.

The following table describes the differences between the various types of 3D rendering options available in Horizon Administrator but does not provide complete information for configuring virtual machines and ESXi hosts for Virtual Shared Graphics Acceleration (vSGA), Virtual Dedicated Graphics Acceleration (vDGA), AMD Multiuser GPU Using vDGA, and NVIDIA GRID vGPU. These tasks must be done with vSphere Web Client before you attempt to create desktop pools in Horizon Administrator. For instructions about these tasks for vSGA and vDGA, see the VMware white paper about graphics acceleration. For instructions about NVIDIA GRID vGPU, see the NVIDIA GRID vGPU Deployment Guide for VMware Horizon 6.1. For instructions about AMD Multiuser GPU Using vDGA, see the Preparing to Use the Capabilities of AMD Multiuser GPU Using vDGA.

Option

Description

Manage using vSphere Client

The 3D Renderer option that is set in vSphere Web Client (or vSphere Client in vSphere 5.1 or later) for a virtual machine determines the type of 3D graphics rendering that takes place. Horizon 7 does not control 3D rendering.

In the vSphere Web Client, you can configure the AutomaticSoftware, or Hardware options. These options have the same effect as they do when you set them in Horizon Administrator.

Use this setting when configuring vDGA and AMD Multiuser GPU Using vDGA. This setting is also an option for vSGA.

When you select the Manage using vSphere Client option, the Configure VRAM for 3D GuestsMax number of monitors, and Max resolution of any one monitor settings are inactive in Horizon Administrator. You can configure the amount of memory in vSphere Web Client.

Automatic

3D rendering is enabled. The ESXi host controls the type of 3D rendering that takes place.

For example, the ESXi host reserves GPU hardware resources on a first-come, first-served basis as virtual machines are powered on. If all GPU hardware resources are already reserved when a virtual machine is powered on, ESXi uses the software renderer for that machine.

This setting is an option when configuring vSGA.

The ESXi host allocates VRAM to a virtual machine based on the value that is set in the Configure VRAM for 3D Guests dialog box.

Software

3D rendering is enabled. The ESXi host uses software 3D graphics rendering. If a GPU graphics card is installed on the ESXi host, this pool will not use it.

Use this setting to configure Soft 3D.

The ESXi host allocates VRAM to a virtual machine based on the value that is set in the Configure VRAM for 3D Guests dialog box.

Hardware

3D rendering is enabled. The ESXi host reserves GPU hardware resources on a first-come, first-served basis as virtual machines are powered on.

This setting is an option when configuring vSGA.

The ESXi host allocates VRAM to a virtual machine based on the value that is set in the Configure VRAM for 3D Guests dialog box.

Important:

If you configure the Hardware option, consider these potential constraints:

  • If a user tries to connect to a machine when all GPU hardware resources are reserved, the virtual machine will not power on, and the user will receive an error message.
  • If you use vMotion to move the machine to an ESXi host that does not have GPU hardware configured, the virtual machine will not power on.

When you configure hardware-based 3D rendering, you can examine the GPU resources that are allocated to each virtual machine on an ESXi host. For details, see Examining GPU Resources on an ESXi Host.

NVIDIA GRID vGPU

3D rendering is enabled for NVIDIA GRID vGPU . The ESXi host reserves GPU hardware resources on a first-come, first-served basis as virtual machines are powered on. If a user tries to connect to a machine when all GPU hardware resources are being used by other virtual machines on the host, Connection Server will attempt to move the virtual machine to another ESXi host in the cluster before powering on.

Use this setting when configuring NVIDIA GRID vGPU.

When you select the NVIDIA GRID vGPU option, the Configure VRAM for 3D GuestsMax number of monitors, and Max resolution of any one monitor settings are inactive in Horizon Administrator. When you configure the parent virtual machine or virtual machine template with vSphere Web Client, you are prompted to reserve all memory.

Important:

If you configure the NVIDIA GRID vGPU option, consider these potential constraints:

  • The virtual machine cannot be suspended or resumed. Therefore the Remote Machine Power Policy option for suspending the virtual machine is not available.
  • If you use vMotion to move the machine to an ESXi host that does not have GPU hardware configured, the virtual machine will not power on. Live vMotion is not available.
  • All ESXi hosts in the cluster must be version 6.0 or later, and the virtual machines must be hardware version 11 or later.
  • If an ESXi cluster contains a host that is NVIDIA GRID vGPU enabled and a host that is not NVIDIA GRID vGPU enabled, the hosts display a yellow (warning) status in the Horizon Administrator Dashboard. If a user tries to connect to a machine when all GPU hardware resources are being used by other virtual machines on the host, Connection Server will attempt to move the virtual machine to another ESXi host in the cluster before powering on. In this case, hosts that are not NVIDIA GRID vGPU enabled cannot be used for this type of dynamic migration.

Disabled

3D rendering is inactive.

3D Renderer Options for Pools Running on vSphere 5.1 or Later

From <https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Horizon-7/7.5/horizon-virtual-desktops/GUID-E0F034D3-8D85-4E79-862D-DA78F44F71F9.html#GUID-E0F034D3-8D85-4E79-862D-DA78F44F71F9

  • Configure advanced storage settings

In View Administrator, display the Advanced Storage page.

Option

Description

New desktop pool

Start the Add Desktop Pool wizard to begin creating an automated desktop pool. Follow the wizard configuration prompts until you reach the Advanced Storage page.

Existing desktop pool

Select the existing pool, click Edit, and click the Advanced Storage tab. To upgrade a pool to support space reclamation, see “Upgrade Desktop Pools for Space Reclamation” in the View Upgradesdocument.

From <https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Horizon-7/7.1/com.vmware.horizon.virtual.desktops.doc/GUID-9FBFBA61-5151-4822-9927-AC91167ED974.html

  • Configure Guest customization settings

Edit Test 
General 
Domain: 
Desktop Pool Settings 
Provisioning Settings 
vCenter Settings 
Guest Customization 
AD container: 
corp. local(adm• 
CN—Computers 
Allow reuse of pre-existing computer accounts 
use Clone?rep 
Power-off script name: 
Power-off script parameters: 
Post synchronization script 
name: 
Post-synchronization script 
parameters: 
Example: pi p2 03 
Example: pl p2 03

Objective 2.2 – Build and Customize RDSH Server and Desktop Images

  • Build, configure and prepare virtual machines

Both Connection Server and View Composer require a parent virtual machine from which you generate a base image for creating instant clones or linked clones.

Prerequisites

  • Verify that an RDS host virtual machine is set up. See Setting Up Remote Desktop Services Hosts. To set up the RDS host, be sure not to use a virtual machine that was previously registered to View Connection Server.
    A parent virtual machine that you use for View Composer must either belong to the same Active Directory domain as the domain that the linked-clone machines will join or be a member of the local WORKGROUP.
  • Verify that the virtual machine was not converted from a View Composer linked clone. A virtual machine that is converted from a linked clone has the clone’s internal disk and state information. A parent virtual machine cannot have state information.
    Important:
    Linked clones and virtual machines that were converted from linked clones are not supported as parent virtual machines.
  • To create an automated instant-clone farm, you must select the Instant Clone option when you install Horizon Agent on the parent virtual machine. See Install Horizon Agent on a Remote Desktop Services Host.
  • Verify that the virtual switch that the instant-clone VMs connect to has enough ports to support the expected number of VMs. Each network card on a VM requires one port.
  • Verify that you added an instant-clone domain administrator in Horizon Administrator.
  • To create an automated linked-clone farm, you must select the View Composer Agent option when you install Horizon Agent on the parent virtual machine.
    To update Horizon Agent in a large environment, you can use standard Windows update mechanisms such as Altiris, SMS, LanDesk, BMC, or other systems management software. You can also use the recompose operation to update Horizon Agent.
    Note:
    Do not change the log on account for the VMware View Composer Guest Agent Server service in a parent virtual machine. By default, this is the Local System account. If you change this account, the linked clones created from the parent do not start.
  • To deploy Windows machines, configure a volume license key and activate the parent virtual machine’s operating system with volume activation. See ” Activating Windows on Instant Clones and View Composer Linked Clones” in the Setting Up Virtual Desktops in Horizon 7 document.
  • Familiarize yourself with the procedure for disabling searching Windows Update for device drivers. See the Microsoft Technet article, “Disable Searching Windows Update for Device Drivers” at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc730606(v=ws.10).aspx.
  • To implement the RDS host load balancing feature, modify the RDS host parent virtual machine as described in “Configuring Load Balancing for RDS Hosts” in the Horizon 7 Administration document.

Procedure

  • Remove the DHCP lease on the parent virtual machine to avoid copying a leased IP address to the linked clones in the farm.
    1. On the parent virtual machine, open a command prompt.
    2. Type the ipconfig /release command.
  • Verify that the system disk contains a single volume.
    You cannot deploy linked clones from a parent virtual machine that contains more than one volume. The View Composer service does not support multiple disk partitions. Multiple virtual disks are supported.
  • Verify that the virtual machine does not contain an independent disk.
    An independent disk is excluded when you take a snapshot of the virtual machine. Linked clones that are created or recomposed from the virtual machine will not contain the independent disk.
  • Disable the hibernation option to reduce the size of linked-clone OS disks that are created from the parent virtual machine.
  • Before you take a snapshot of the parent virtual machine, disable searching Windows Update for device drivers.
    This Windows feature can interfere with the customization of linked-clone machines. As each linked clone is customized, Windows might search for the best drivers on the Internet for that clone, resulting in repeated searches and customization delays.
  • In vSphere Client, disable the vApp Options setting on the parent virtual machine.
  • On Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2012 R2 machines, disable the scheduled maintenance task that recovers disk space by removing unused features.
    For example: Schtasks.exe /change /disable /tn “\Microsoft\Windows\AppxDeploymentClient\Pre-staged app cleanup”
    If left enabled, this maintenance task can remove the Sysprep customization script after the linked clones are created, which would cause subsequent recompose operations to fail with customization operation timeout errors. For more information, see the Microsoft KB article available at 
    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2928948.
  • On Windows Server 2012 machines, apply the Microsoft hotfix available at https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3020396.
    This hotfix allows Sysprep to customize a Windows Server 2012 virtual machine that has the RDS role enabled. Without the hotfix, Sysprep customization will fail on the Windows Server 2012 linked-clone machines that are deployed in an automated farm.

What to do next

Use vSphere Client or vSphere Web Client to take a snapshot of the parent virtual machine in its powered-down state. This snapshot is used as the baseline configuration for the first set of linked-clone machines that are anchored to the parent virtual machine.

From <https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Horizon-7/7.5/horizon-published-desktops-applications/GUID-F3B353E9-4C3E-46FD-9178-17A47D7B2924.html>

  • Determine and configure required roles and software

Remote Desktop Services is one of the roles that a Windows Server 2012 or 2012 R2 can have. You must install this role to set up an RDS host.

Prerequisites

  • Verify that the RDS host is running Windows Server 2012 or Windows Server 2012 R2.
  • Verify that the RDS host is part of the Active Directory domain for the Horizon 7 deployment.

Procedure

  1. Log in to the RDS host as an administrator.
  2. Start Server Manager.
  3. Select Add roles and features.
  4. On the Select Installation Type page, select Role-based or feature-based installation.
  5. On the Select Destination Server page, select a server.
  6. On the Select Server Roles page, select Remote Desktop Services.
  7. On the Select Features page, accept the defaults.
  8. On the Select Role Services page, select Remote Desktop Session Host.
  9. Follow the prompts and finish the installation.

What to do next

If you plan to use HTML Access or scanner redirection, install the Desktop Experience feature. The steps for installing Desktop Experience differ on Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2012 or 2012 R2.

From <https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Horizon-7/7.5/horizon-published-desktops-applications/GUID-8B389649-B034-43A6-96F7-95DF5CC80ADC.html>

For RDS desktops and applications, and for VDI desktops that are deployed on single-user virtual machines that run Windows Server, scanner redirection requires that you install the Desktop Experience feature on the RDS hosts and the single-user virtual machines.

About this task

Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, and Windows Server 2016 are supported on machines that are used as RDS hosts. Windows Server 2012 R2, and Windows Server 2016 is supported on single-user virtual machines.

Procedure

  1. Log in as an administrator.
  2. Start Server Manager.
  3. Select Add roles and features.
  4. On the Select Installation Type page, select Role-based or feature-based installation.
    Note:
    For Windows Server 2016 installation, select Windows Server 2016 or Windows Server (Server with Desktop Experience). If you do not make a choice in the Setup wizard, Windows Server 2016 is installed as the Server Core installation option. You cannot switch between the installation options. If you install Windows Server (Server with Desktop Experience), and later decide to use Windows Server 2016, you must perform a fresh installation of Windows Server 2016.
  5. On the Select Destination Server page, select a server.
  6. On the Select Server Roles page, accept the default selection and click Next.
  7. On the Select Features page, under User Interfaces and Infrastructure, select Desktop Experience.
  8. Follow the prompts and finish the installation.

From <https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Horizon-7/7.5/horizon-published-desktops-applications/GUID-13F25FDB-654C-467F-9BC9-F2F9C4E4EAD7.html>

Horizon Agent communicates with Connection Server and supports the display protocols PCoIP and Blast Extreme. You must install Horizon Agent on an RDS Host.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Log in as an administrator.
  2. To start the Horizon Agent installation program, double-click the installer file.
    The installer filename is VMware-viewagent-x86_64-y.y.y-xxxxxx.exe, where y.y.y is the version number and xxxxxx is the build number.
  3. Select the Internet Protocol (IP) version, IPv4 or IPv6.
    You must install all Horizon 7 components with the same IP version.
  4. Select your custom setup options.
    Do not select the View Composer Agent option if you are installing Horizon Agent on an RDS host that will be in a manual farm.
  5. In the Server text box, type the host name or IP address of a Connection Server host.
    During installation, the installer registers the RDS host with this Connection Server instance. After registration, the specified Connection Server instance, and any additional instances in the same Connection Server group, can communicate with the RDS host.
  6. Select an authentication method to register the RDS host with the Connection Server instance.

Option

Description

Authenticate as the currently logged in user

The Username and Password text boxes are disabled and you are logged in to the Connection Server instance with your current username and password.

Specify administrator credentials

You must provide the username and password of a Connection Server administrator in the Usernameand Password text boxes.

The user account must be a domain user with access to View LDAP on the View Connection Server instance. A local user does not work.

  1. Follow the prompts and finish the installation.

From <https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Horizon-7/7.5/horizon-published-desktops-applications/GUID-06794FA2-9A71-4B5D-A9EA-A8AC03168928.html>

  • Configure 3D graphic settings

With 3D graphics configured for RDS hosts, both applications in application pools and applications running on RDS desktops can display 3D graphics.

The following 3D graphics options are available:

NVIDIA GRID vGPU (shared GPU hardware acceleration)

A physical GPU on an ESXi host is shared among multiple virtual machines. Requires ESXi 6.0 or later.

AMD Multiuser GPU using vDGA

A physical GPU on an ESXi host is shared among multiple virtual machines. Requires ESXi 6.0 or later.

Virtual Dedicated Graphics Acceleration (vDGA)

A physical GPU on an ESXi host is dedicated to a single virtual machine. Requires ESXi 5.5 or later.

Note:

Some Intel vDGA cards require a certain vSphere 6 version. See the VMware Hardware Compatibility List at http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php. Also, for Intel vDGA, the Intel integrated GPU is used rather than discrete GPUs, as is the case with other vendors.

With vDGA, you allocate an entire GPU to a single machine for maximum performance. The RDS host must be in a manual farm.

With AMD Multiuser GPU using vDGA, you can share an AMD GPU between multiple RDS hosts by making it appear as multiple PCI passthrough devices. The RDS host must be in a manual farm.

With NVIDIA GRID vGPU, each graphics card can support multiple RDS hosts and the RDS hosts must be in a manual farm. If an ESXi host has multiple physical GPUs, you can also configure the way the ESXi host assigns virtual machines to the GPUs. By default, the ESXi host assigns virtual machines to the physical GPU with the fewest virtual machines already assigned. This is called performance mode. You can also choose consolidation mode, where the ESXi host assign virtual machines to the same physical GPU until the maximum number of virtual machines is reached before placing virtual machines on the next physical GPU. To configure consolidation mode, edit the /etc/vmware/config file on the ESXi host and add the following entry:

vGPU.consolidation = “true”

3D graphics is only supported when you use the PCoIP or VMware Blast protocol. Therefore, the farm must use PCoIP or VMware Blast as the default protocol and users must not be allowed to choose the protocol.

Overview of Steps for Configuring 3D Graphics

This overview describes tasks that you must perform in vSphere and Horizon 7 to configure 3D graphics. For more information about setting up NVIDIA GRID vGPU, see the document NVIDIA GRID vGPU Deployment Guide for VMware Horizon 6.1. For more information about setting up vDGA, see the document Graphics Acceleration in View Virtual Desktops. For more information about setting up AMD Multiuser GPU using vDGA, see the Setting Up Virtual Machine Desktops in Horizon 7 guide.

  1. Set up an RDS host virtual machine. For more information, see Setting Up Remote Desktop Services Hosts.
  2. Add the graphics PCI device to the virtual machine. See “Other Virtual Machine Device Configuration” in the chapter “Configuring Virtual machine Hardware” in the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration document. Be sure to click Reserve all memory when adding the device.
  3. On the virtual machine, install the device driver for the graphics card.
  4. Add the RDS host to a manual farm, create an RDS desktop pool, connect to the desktop using PCoIP, and activate the display adapter.

You do not need to configure 3D graphics for RDS hosts in View Administrator. Selecting the option 3D RDSH when you install Horizon Agent is sufficient. By default, this option is not selected and 3D graphics is disabled.

From <https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Horizon-7/7.5/horizon-published-desktops-applications/GUID-87B0EF3F-DE82-45B8-AD8C-E247084BD2CC.html>

  • Perform installation of View Agent and VMware Tools

Agent is above, and VMTools …is VMtools

  • Prepare a parent virtual machine for an RDSH farm

I am pretty sure this is also handled above

  • Create and manage snapshots

  • Prepare a Linux machine for VDI deployment

You must perform certain tasks to prepare a Linux machine for use as a desktop in a Horizon 7 deployment.

About this task

Before a Linux machine can be managed by Horizon 7, the machine must be able to communicate with Connection Server. You must configure networking on the Linux machine so that the Linux machine can ping the Connection Server instance using its FQDN (fully qualified domain name).

Open VMware Tools (OVT) are pre-installed on RHEL 7, CentOS 7, SLED 12, and SLES 12 machines. If you are preparing either of these machines for use as a remote desktop, you can skip steps 1 through 5 in the following procedure, which describe how to install VMware Tools by manually running the installer.

If you are using an Ubuntu16.04 machine, install OVT on it. If you are preparing this machine for use as a remote desktop, you can skip steps 1 through 5 in the following procedure and manually install OVT on your Ubuntu 16.04 machine using the following command:

apt-get install open-vm-tools-desktop

Prerequisites

  • Verify that a new virtual machine (VM) was created in vCenter Server and your Linux distribution was installed on the machine
  • Familiarize yourself with the steps for mounting and installing VMware Tools on a Linux VM. See “Manually Install or Upgrade VMware Tools in a Linux Virtual Machine” in the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration document.
  • Familiarize yourself with the steps for configuring your Linux machine to be resolvable through DNS. These steps vary for the different Linux distributions and releases. For instructions, consult the documentation for your Linux distribution and release.

Procedure

  1. In vSphere Web Client or vSphere Client, mount the VMware Tools virtual disk on the VM.
  2. Right-click the VMware Tools installer file, VMwareTools.x.x.x-xxxx.tar.gz, click Extract to, and select the desktop for your Linux distribution.
    The vmware-tools-distrib folder is extracted to the desktop.
  3. On the VM, log in as root and open a terminal window.
  4. Uncompress the VMware Tools tar installer file.
    For example:

    tar zxpf /mnt/cdrom/VMwareTools-x.x.x-yyyy.tar.gz
  5. Run the installer and configure VMware Tools.
    The command might vary slightly in different Linux distributions. For example:

    cd vmware-tools-distrib
    sudo ./vmware-install.pl -d
    Usually, the vmware-config-tools.pl configuration file runs after the installer file finishes running.
  6. Map the Linux machine’s host name to 127.0.0.1 in the /etc/hosts file.
    For RHEL, CentOS, SLES, and SLED, you must manually map the host name to 127.0.0.1 because it is not automatically mapped. For Ubuntu, this step is not necessary because the mapping is there by default. This step is also not necessary when you bulk deploy desktops because the cloning process adds this mapping.
    Note:
    If you change the Linux machine’s host name after installing Horizon Agent, you must map the new host name to 127.0.0.1 in the /etc/hosts file. Otherwise, the old host name will continue to be used.
  7. For RHEL 7 and CentOS 7, verify that virbr0 is disabled.

    virsh net-destroy default
    virsh net-undefine default
    service libvirtd restart
  8. Ensure that the View Connection Server instances in the pod can be resolved through DNS.
  9. Configure the Linux machine so that the default runlevel is 5.
    The runlevel must be 5 for the Linux desktop to work.
  10. On an Ubuntu machine that was configured to authenticate with an OpenLDAP server, set the fully qualified domain name on the machine.
    This step ensures that the information can be displayed correctly in the User field on the Sessions page in View Administrator. Edit the /etc/hosts file as follows:
  1. # nano /etc/hosts
  1. Add the fully qualified domain name. For example: 127.0.0.1 hostname.domainname hostname.
  2. Exit and save the file.
  • For SUSE, disable Change Hostname via DHCP. Set the hostname or domain name.
  1. In Yast, click Network Settings.
  2. Click the Hostname/DNS tab.
  3. Deselect Change Hostname via DHCP.
  4. Enter the hostname and the domain name.
  5. Click OK.

Results

After installing VMware Tools, if you upgrade the Linux kernel, VMware Tools might stop running. To resolve the problem, see http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2050592.

From <https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Horizon-7/7.5/linux-desktops-setup/GUID-92110540-8170-49C3-A150-F9C64D5075DB.html>


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