VMware Horizon Suite: Building End-User Services

VMware® Horizon Suite

The authoritative guide to delivering end-user services with VMwarE  View and VMware Horizon Suite

Today, IT professionals must manage stateless, mobile, streamed workspaces delivered across devices ranging from traditional PCs to tablets and smartphones. Using VMware View and VMware Horizon Suite, they can do so–providing flexible end-user services that support any business requirement cost effectively.

Now there’s a complete guide to planning, configuring, implementing, and integrating VMware Horizon Suite technologies and using them to deliver high-value end-user services in enterprise, managed, and cloud provider environments.

This book’s deep up-to-date technical content addresses considerations ranging from architecture, deployment, and operations to user experience and support. It offers detailed guidance on integration with VMware View and key third-party technologies. Throughout, it fully reflects the newest VMware View releases, including VMware Horizon Mirage.

Relevant, clear, and usable, VMware Horizon Suite contains step-by-step configuration examples, sample scenarios helping you choose the right technologies for your users’ needs, and a complete end-user computing design checklist.

Coverage includes

•    Understanding the new end-user service model and how VMware View and VMware Horizon address it

•    Mastering VMware View 6 and VMware Workspace 1.8 architectures

•    Leveraging proven installation and implementation techniques

•    Efficiently operating Connection, Security, and Transfer servers

•    Managing agents, clients, portals, composers, and personas

•    Integrating VMware View and Workspace

•    Implementing operational best practices, such as desktop pools, user data management, and SaaS

•    Using VMware Mirage to manage desktop images more intelligently and provide a wider spectrum of end-user services

•    Delivering multimedia within a View desktop environment              

•    Integrating Microsoft Lync with VMware View

•    Monitoring VMware View and optimizing its performance

Today, IT professionals must manage stateless, mobile, streamed workspaces delivered across devices ranging from traditional PCs to tablets and smartphones. Using VMware View and VMware Horizon Suite, they can do so-providing flexible end-user services that support any business requirement cost effectively.

Now there's a complete guide to planning, configuring, implementing, and integrating VMware Horizon Suite technologies and using them to deliver high-value end-user services in enterprise, managed, and cloud provider environments.

This book's deep up-to-date technical content addresses considerations ranging from architecture, deployment, and operations to user experience and support. It offers detailed guidance on integration with VMware View and key third-party technologies. Throughout, it fully reflects the newest VMware View releases, including VMware Horizon Mirage.

Relevant, clear, and usable, VMware Horizon Suite contains step-by-step configuration examples, sample scenarios helping you choose the right technologies for your users' needs, and a complete end-user computing design checklist.

Coverage includes

- Mastering VMware View 6 and VMware Workspace 1.8 architectures

- Efficiently operating Connection, Security, and Transfer servers

- Integrating VMware View and Workspace

- Using VMware Mirage to manage desktop images more intelligently and provide a wider spectrum of end-user services

- Integrating Microsoft Lync with VMware View

This is today's only single-source guide to planning, configuring, and implementing VMware Horizon View and seamlessly integrating it into VMware Horizon Suite. Its deep, up-to-date technical content addresses everything you need to consider, from end-user experience changes to support considerations, helping you create a comprehensive solution for providing whatever services your end-users need.

Based on the authors' real-world experience deploying virtual desktop technology in many fast-paced, demanding environments, this edition has been fully updated to reflect the new VMware Horizon View release (including VMware Horizon Mirage). It has been designed to help you deal with both current end user challenges through a traditional virtual desktop model, and to deliver applications through the tablet devices that will increasingly dominate the market. Coverage includes:

• How View and Horizon address today's new end-user service model
• VMware Horizon View and Horizon Suite architecture and components
• Proven installation and implementation techniques: Connection, Security, and Transfer Servers; administration, agent, client, portal, composer, and persona management
• VMware Horizon Suite: Data, SaaS, and ThinApp modules
• Integrating View and VMware Horizon Suite, step by step
• Operational best practices: desktop pools, user data management, SaaS, authentication, and user access
• VMware Horizon Mirage design considerations
• Delivering multimedia in a View environment
• Integrating Lync and VMware Horizon View
• Performance baselining and monitoring

Equally valuable as a tutorial and a reference, this guide contains step-by-step configuration examples, as well as sample scenarios helping you choose the right technology based on your end users' specific service requirements.

Stephane Asselin, with his 22 years of experience in IT, is an architect in the End-User Computing business unit at VMware. In his recent role, he had national responsibility for Canada for EUC planning, designing, and implementing virtual infrastructure solutions and all processes involved. At VMware, Stephane has worked on EUC presales activities, internal IP, and he has worked as a technical specialist lead on beta programs. He has also done work as a subject matter expert for Horizon Workspace, View, Mirage, vCenter Operations Manager, and ThinApp projects. Previously, he was with Computer Associates as a senior systems engineer, where he worked on enterprise monitoring presales activities and as a technical specialist. As a senior consultant at Microsoft, he was responsible for the plan, design, and implementation of Microsoft solutions within major provincial and federal government, financial, education, and telcos.

In his current role in the EUC business unit at VMware, he’s one of the resources developing enablement materials for all products of the Horizon Suite and technical documentation for training. Knowledge transfer to customers is a key element of his current role. Stephane has co-produced whitepapers such as “VMware Horizon Mirage Branch Office Reference Architecture” and “Horizon Workspace Reference Architecture.” In addition, he runs the popular website myeuc.net.

Paul O’Doherty works for the CTO office of OnX enterprise solutions as a cloud solutions and EUC specialist, specializing in the architecture and delivery of cloud-based infrastructure and end-user services. Paul has written several books, including VMware View 5: Building a Successful Virtual Desktop, released by VMware Press. Prior to that, Paul spent 10 years as the managing principal consultant at Gibraltar Solutions architecting and delivering end-user computer and virtualization environments in Fortune 500 companies involving VMware, VMware View, Citrix XenApp, and XenDesktop technologies. Paul has a broad range of infrastructure experience and has achieved numerous industry certifications, such as VCP, CCEA, MCITP, and RCSP, and is recognized as a VMware vExpert. In addition, Paul maintains a popular blog at http://virtualguru.org and has contributed to sites such as http://virtualization.info and is reoccurring speaker at VMUG sessions and other technical conferences.

Introduction ix

Chapter 1 The New End-User Model 1

The Evolution of the End User 1

    An End-User Service Catalog 2

    How Do View, Mirage, and Horizon Workspace Deliver a Service Catalog? 3

    Considerations for Deploying View, Mirage, and Workspace 4

An Introduction to VMware View, Mirage, and Workspace 18

    VMware View 18

    VMware Mirage 21

    VMware Workspace 24

Summary 25

Chapter 2 VMware View Architecture 27

Introduction 27

Approaching the Design and Architecture 27

    Phase I: Requirements Gathering and Assessment 28

    Phase II: Analysis 29

    Phase III: Calculate 30

    Phase IV: Design 32

VMware View Server Architecture 33

    VMware View Connection Server 34

    VMware View Replica Server 34

    VMware View Security Server 35

    Local Mode VMs 38

    VMware View Transfer Server 39

Summary 51

Chapter 3 VMware Workspace Architecture 53

Introduction 53

Approaching the Design and Architecture 53

    Planning Considerations 54

    IP Pools 55

    Network Services 55

    NTP 57

    Authentication 58

    Certificates 60

    SMTP 62

    External Storage 62

    PostgreSQL 65

    Postgres Availability 67

    Postgres Clusters 71

Summary 74

Chapter 4 VMware View Implementation 75

VMware View Deployment and Design Considerations 76

Installing VMware View 80

Configuring the View Connection Server 85

    Adding vCenter Server 89

    Configuring View Replica Server 92

    The Event Database 93

    Security Servers 95

    Firewall Rules 96

    Adding the Security Servers 97

Installing the View Agent 99

    View Agent Custom Setup Options 100

    Installing the View Client 101

    Working with Certificates in View 103

    Creating Certificate Templates 105

Summary 111

Chapter 5 VMware Workspace Implementation 113

VMware Workspace Deployment and Design Considerations 113

Workspace Implementation: Initial Setup 115

    Workspace vApp Appliances 115

    Workspace Configurator VA 116

    Workspace Service VA 116

    Workspace Connector 116

    Workspace Data VA 116

    Workspace Gateway VA 116

Deploying the Workspace vApp 118

    Workspace Initial Configuration 120

    Workspace Setup Wizard 122

    Security Exception 123

Navigating the Administrative Console 135

    Enable Workspace Data Module 135

    User Entitlement 138

    Configuring CoS in Data 140

    Enable Integration with View 142

    Launch a View Pool 144

Web Applications: SaaS 145

Modifying Workspace Data Module Storage 148

    Add Additional VMDKs for Storage 149

Upgrading a Workspace Environment 152

Enabling Workspace with NFS 152

Installing the Workspace Agent on Client Endpoints 153

    Workspace Windows/OS X/iPad/Android Client Deployment 153

Using SSL Certificates in Workspace 156

    Applying an SSL Certificate from a Trusted Third-Party CA 157

    Applying an SSL Certificate from an Internal or Nontrusted External Certificate Authority 158

Summary 158

Chapter 6 Integrating VMware View and Workspace 161

VMware View and Workspace Integration Considerations 163

VMware Workspace and View Integration 165

Troubleshooting Certificate Errors 174

    Add a SAML 2.0 Authenticator 176

    Manage Authenticators 177

    Scaling View and Workspace Deployment 179

Summary 183

Chapter 7 View Operations and Management 185

VMware View Operations 185

Using View Access Groups 185

Types of Desktop Pools 187

    Automated Desktop Pools 188

    Manual Desktop Pools 188

    Microsoft RDS Desktop Pool 189

Creating Desktop Pools 189

Power Settings 197

    Pool Settings 200

View Composer 206

    vCenter Settings 209

    Provisioning Settings 211

    Sysprep or QuickPrep? 212

Entitlement 213

    Replicas 214

    Refresh 214

    Recompose 215

    Rebalance 216

Managing Persistent Disks 216

Backing Up View 218

Replacing Certificates 221

Composer and Certificates 225

Summary 226

Chapter 8 VMware Workspace Operations 227

Operation of VMware Workspace 227

    Dashboard 230

    Users & Groups 230

    Entitlement 232

    Remove Users 233

    Catalog & Modules 233

    ThinApp Integration 234

    Policies 236

    SAML Overview 237

    Auditing and Tracking 239

    Workspace Clients 240

    Horizon Files 242

    Enable Horizon Files 242

    Add Additional Data VAs 245

    System Diagnostics 246

Summary 247

Chapter 9 VMware Horizon Mirage 249

VMware Horizon Mirage Deployment and Design Considerations 249

    Horizon Mirage Planning 251

    Horizon Mirage Components 251

    Prerequisites 253

    Storage Considerations 256

    External Dependencies 256

    Mirage Architecture 256

    Deploying Horizon Mirage Management Server 257

    Horizon Mirage Server 264

Mirage Day-to-Day Administration 265

    Horizon Mirage Endpoint Restoration 268

    Horizon Mirage Base Layer 269

    Deploying Mirage Base Layer 272

    Horizon Mirage Layer Updates 273

    Horizon Mirage Endpoint Migration 274

    Horizon Mirage File Portal 277

    Horizon Mirage Web Management 279

    Horizon Mirage Driver Library 280

    Horizon Mirage Collections 283

    Horizon Mirage Application Layers 285

    Horizon Mirage Reports 287

    Horizon Mirage Logs 288

Summary 289

Chapter 10 Multimedia 291

How Do You Deliver a Rich End-User Experience? 292

vSGA, Virtual Shared Graphics Acceleration 295

Configuring ESXi for sVGA 296

VMware View with vSGA 298

vDGA, Virtual Direct Graphics Acceleration 300

Enhancements in PCoIP 300

Building a Performance Test Environment 302

Installing and Configuring WANem 305

Installing and Configuring Wireshark 309

Tuning PCoIP 312

    Tuning Parameters 313

    Further Analysis 318

    PCoIP Bandwidth Utilization 320

    PCoIP Connection Quality 320

    PCoIP Packet Counts 320

    PCoIP Connection Latency 321

    Encoding Graphs 321

    The Impact of Load 323

Setting Up VMware ViewPlanner 325

Setting Up the Client Desktop 327

Summary 328

Chapter 11 Integrating Lync and VMware View 329

Microsoft Lync and VMware View 329

Microsoft Lync 2013 331

Creating a Lync Environment 332

    Preparing for Lync 2013 332

    Lync 2013 335

    Windows 2012 and .NET Framework 3.5 335

    Installing Lync Server 339

Build and Publish a Lync Topology 343

Set Up Users and Test Lync 352

View Desktops 355

View Clients 357

Verifying the Plug-In 358

Summary 360

Chapter 12 Performance and Monitoring of VMware Horizon 361

Performance Monitoring Solutions 362

    Establishing a Performance Baseline 363

    Xangati VDI Dashboard 364

    Liquidware Labs Stratusphere UX 369

    VMware vCenter Operations Manager 377

vApp Overview 380

    vCOps for View Adapter 380

Summary 394

Appendix A A Design Questionnaire Worksheet 397

Appendix B VMware View Network Ports 403

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