Mastering VMware Horizon 7.8

Master desktop virtualization to optimize your end user experience, 3rd Edition

Peter von Oven, Barry Coombs

• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781789806724
• Edition: 3
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Virtualisation
• Index: Computer Science

Discover advanced virtualization techniques and strategies to deliver centralized desktop and application services

Key Features

• Leverage advanced desktop virtualization techniques and strategies to transform your organization
• Build better virtualized services for your users with VMware Horizon 7.8
• Develop and deploy end-to-end virtualized solutions

Book Description

Desktop virtualization can be tough, but VMware Horizon 7.8 changes all that. With a rich and adaptive UX, improved security, and a range of useful features for storage and networking optimization, there's plenty to love.

But to properly fall in love with it, you need to know how to use it, and that means venturing deeper into the software and taking advantage of its extensive range of features, many of which are underused and underpromoted. This guide will take you through everything you need to know to not only successfully virtualize your desktop infrastructure, but also to maintain and optimize it to keep all your users happy.

We'll show you how to assess and analyze your infrastructure, and how to use that analysis to design a solution that meets your organizational and user needs. Once you've done that, you'll find out how to build your virtualized environment, before deploying your virtualized solution. But more than that, we'll also make sure you know everything you need to know about the full range of features on offer, including the mobile cloud, so that you can use them to take full control of your virtualized infrastructure.

What you will learn

• Successfully configure Horizon 7.8 for the needs of your users
• Deliver virtual desktops, session-based desktops, and hosted applications
• Become familiar with how to develop, and deploy, a complete, end-to-end solution
• Discover how to optimize desktop OS images for virtual desktops
• Build, optimize, and tune desktop operating systems to deliver a superior end user experience
• Explore the Horizon 7.8 infrastructure so that you can take full advantage of it

Who this book is for

This book is ideal for system admins, and solution architects interested in gaining hands-on experience with virtualization. It will take you to an advanced level, but at a pace that ensures you are always solving real-world problems. Some experience in desktop management using Windows and Microsoft Office (and familiarity with Active Directory, SQL, Windows Remote Desktop Session Hosting, and VMware vSphere technology) is necessary.

Section 1: Installation and Configuration

The chapters in this section describe the architecture components, how to design and deploy an environment, and the installation of a Horizon environment.

The following chapters are included in this section:

Chapter 1, Introducing VDI and VMware Horizon 7
Chapter 2, Understanding Horizon 7 Architecture and Components
Chapter 3, Design and Deployment Considerations
Chapter 4, Installing and Configuring Horizon 7 - Part 1
Chapter 5, Installing and Configuring Horizon 7 - Part 2

Introducing VDI and VMware Horizon 7

n the first chapter of this book, we are going to start by discussing what we mean when we talk about Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and define exactly what this means. Once we have defined this, we will go on to discuss the specifics of it in the context of the VMware Horizon solution.

Throughout this book we have used a number of screenshots to demonstrate installation and configuration of Horizon, using the example lab environment. These screenshots are taken from Horizon 7 version 7.6, however, the latest 7.8 version is exactly the same with the exception of the version number shown on the screenshot, and in some cases the Horizon logo. The process and steps shown remain exactly the same.

Horizon provides the foundation to VMware's End User Computing (EUC) solution for delivering desktops and applications. VMware first entered the VDI market about 16 years ago, when they demonstrated the concept of virtualizing a desktop operating system by using their success in the server virtualization market that is now becoming a more mature and prevalent technology. Taking some of the very same principles that are used in server virtualization, and instead applying them to a desktop operating system, VMware was able to create a centrally-managed, virtualized desktop solution that would lower the overall cost of desktop computing and increase security.

In this chapter, we are going to cover the following topics:

• What is VDI, and how does it work?
• A history of VMware and VDI
• VMware Horizon editions and licensing options

Before we get into discussing specific product features and functionality, let's define what we mean when we talk about VDI. We'll then take a brief stroll down memory lane and look at where and how it all started for VMware.

What is VDI?

When we talk about VDI, we are typically describing a solution whereby a desktop PC's operating system is hosted as a virtual machine that is running on a hypervisor, with the hypervisor hosted on a server that is part of the data center infrastructure, either on-premises or cloud-based.

This VDI model is also sometimes referred to as a hosted virtual desktop (HVD), given that the virtual desktop is hosted as a virtual machine, with an end user that has access to their own instance of a full desktop. This is not to be confused with server-based computing, which only delivers a desktop session to the end user. We will discuss this in the VDI versus server-based computing (SBC) – what are the differences? section later in this chapter.

VDI high-level architecture – how does it work?

How does VDI work? Let's start with the end user and how they access a virtual desktop machine. From their endpoint device (a PC, thin client, or mobile device), the end user launches the client software, which is the Horizon client in the case of VMware, or they simply open a browser. Either way, this connects them to a connection broker using its hostname or URL. The job of the connection broker in the first instance is to authenticate the end user and then to manage the available resources and connect the end user to the appropriate virtual desktop. The desktop that's delivered to them could be based on their physical location or on a departmental basis where there are different desktop configurations depending on the context of that user.

The following diagram describes, at a high level, how VDI works:

In the first VDI solutions that came to market, there was no concept of a connection broker and instead, an end user would connect directly to a virtual desktop machine on a 1:1 basis. It was like picking up their desktop and moving it to the data center.

Once an end user is connected to a virtual desktop machine, the screenshots, or the display of the virtual desktop machine, are sent over the network to the client software or browser on the endpoint device using an optimized delivery protocol. To enable the end user to interact with the virtual desktop, the mouse movements and keystrokes are then sent back to the virtual desktop machine over the network via the same protocol.

Therefore, VDI desktops are more secure as no data leaves the data center, but instead, just the screenshot updates or pixel changes are sent over the network. As per the previous analogy, it's like picking up your PC and putting it in a data center that's miles away from your home and then having your keyboard, mouse, and screen at home with very long cables back to the data center.

That's VDI from a connectivity perspective, but let's focus on the virtual desktop itself for a moment and look at how the architecture differs from a desktop in the physical world. VDI desktops are typically built on demand, that is, when a user logs in and requests a desktop resource. To help manage costs, you would typically deploy a non-persistent desktop model (as discussed in Chapter 2, Understanding Horizon 7 Architecture and Components) whereby users don't own their desktop and would have a new desktop built for them each time they log in. Therein lies one of the key differences between virtual and physical desktops.

As we just discussed, a virtual desktop typically gets built on demand, bringing together the different components that make up a full desktop environment. The operating system, user profile, desktop policies, and applications are all treated as separate, individual components, abstracted from the underlying machine, and then delivered back together to create the end user's desktop experience.

This is referred to as the composite desktop model, which is shown in the following diagram:

The key take away here is that virtual desktop machines need to be treated differently from physical desktops, and to reap all the benefits that virtual desktop machines offer, they should be built from the ground up and managed as virtual machines from day one, using some of the components that have been specifically designed for the management of VDI. We will discuss this in the next chapter.

VDI versus server-based computing (SBC) – what are the differences?

So, what are the differences between these technologies and VDI, if any at all?

SBC is a technology that has been around for some time. In fact, you could probably trace its roots back as far as the 1950s, to the mainframe technology that was designed to deliver centralized compute power to run a set of applications, with users connecting to the applications using a green-screen terminal, which was pretty much just a screen with a keyboard.

Fundamentally, SBC has not changed that much and still runs applications centrally, albeit today, it runs on servers rather than a mainframe, and end users connect using some form of end point terminal. So, in that case, it's not that different to VDI in that you are connecting remotely to applications that are running on server infrastructure hosted in the data center. Or is it?

Let's look at delivering applications first. The difference between VDI and SBC is that with SBC, the applications are installed and run on the actual servers themselves, using a multi-user version of the application to create individual application sessions for each unique end user. The end user would connect to their own individual, separate, and protected session of that application, instead of connecting to an instance of an operating system containing the applications, as they would with VDI. Since everything is running in the data center, users would connect to the session via a terminal or thin client. In fact, SBC is sometimes referred to as thin-client computing.

The following diagram provides an overview of how applications are delivered using SBC/ Remote Desktop Services (RDS):

Using the SBC model, you can also deliver hosted desktop sessions in the same way. This time, instead of connecting to a separated, protected individual application session, the user now connects to a separated, protected individual session of the server's operating system. One thing to note here is that the end user is essentially running a server-based operating system session such as Windows Server 2016, rather than a Windows 10 desktop session.

At the end of the day, which technology you choose to deploy comes down to your use case, and which technology makes the most sense from both a feature and cost perspective. You may well end up with a hybrid, with the different methods delivering desktops and applications based on different departments within your organization, all of which have distinct requirements.

The benefits of deploying Horizon

By vi...