VMware Horizon View 6 Installation.

Vmware horizon as a product has evolved and come a long way through since its initial launch , For installation experts this has become a cake walk to design and implement since Vmware has made this product very simple and easy.

Amid few drawbacks it holds on comparison with Citrix Xendesktop,
View is in a lot way a tough competition in the market with simplicity in components and ease of management.

Here is the quick list of components we require for Vmware horizon view infra:

1. View connection server
2. Composer server (along \with Vcenter server)
3. Security server
4. Thinapp Workstation.

And that is all we need to start with the VIEW configuration. But before that, We assume that we have a Vsphere env ready with a Windows Active directory with required OU, Users , Groups and Vcenter server up and running.

Start the VMware Horizon View 6 connection server installer in Windows 2008 R2 server with all hygiene done

Accept the EULA license agreement.

Change the installation path or leave as default.

Choose installation server type from the options from " View standard server, Replica server, Security server"

Note: Transfer server is no more part of view and Local mode VDI is also not available from now on.

Provide the data recovery password and optional password

Provide option to Configure firewall by connection server or select Do not configure if it has already been done manually.

Provide domain administrator account credential

Proceed with installation and finish installation.

VMware Horizon View 6 Composer server installation ( With Vcenter server)

Start the VMware horizon view 6 composer setup.

Accept EULA agreement and provide path for installation,

Provide the ODBC connection link for composer database to proceed with installation,

In our case we have already created a database in SQL server edition installated in Vcenter server

Provide the SQL login user name and password,

Select port for SOAP authentication for Composer as per your infra Or leave rest to default.

Review summary and proceed with installation.

VMware Horizon View 6 Security server installation.

Start Vmware view connection server installer.

Accept the EULA and provide path for installation,

Select View Security server in server type in View connection server wizard

Provide VMware connection server IP address.

We will need to provide pairing password with connection server now, I shall provide information on generating pairing password in later post while configuring connection server wizard.

Provide the security server URL decided for the infra or leave things to default.

Click install to proceed.

And finish.

VMware Horizon View 6 Configuration.

VMware Horizon View agent installation .

Before proceeding to configuration of VMware view infra, We will need a desktop VM ready with View agent installed.

The follow steps will quickly guide you to install agent on a windows 7 machine.

Start View agent installer in the windows 7 VM and accept EULA license agreement

Select if any more components required during installation of leave it to default.

Select to option to enable RDP on the machine

Provide installation path for agent

Finish installation.

VMware view initial configuration.

Take a snapshot of the VM in which agent has been installed and power off the machine.

Open the connection server and use http://connectionserveraddress.com/admin to access the same.

Enter admin credentials to login and navigate to View configuration and Product licensing page to enter license of View.

If this is POC or test setup, Still we need to register to VMware site and get eval license.

Add Vcenter server to connection server.

Navigate to Server tab->Vcenter and provide information required as per below.

Enter composer details, Since we are going to integrate it later, For now we are skipping this stage.

Provide storage details provisioned for View

Review and finish configuration.

Open Vcenter configuration, Edit composer settings and provide composer details,

Creating desktop Pools.

Navigate to Desktop Pools and Create desktop pools,

Select pool configuration, In our case we have selected automated pool config (wherein VMs are deployed automatically by Vsphere)

Select user assignment on basis of dedicated or floating pools

Select the composer for the details.

Provide Pool details such as ID, Names and description

Provide desktop experience settings

Provide provisioning setting such as pool naming pattern, number of VMs to be deployed etc.

Provide non-persistent disk details , This disk will be used for temp and cookies data used by user which will be flushed out afrer user logs off

Select Datacenter, Folder , Cluster and resources pool details which will be used for VMs deployment.

Provide storage acceleration usage details

Provide AD details and quick prep or sysprep script details

Review configuration and finish to complete configuration.

Navigate to Vcenter to see VM deployment details

Once the Virtual machines are ready.

Click on the desktop pool and Add entitlement.

click on Add and search for user or groups to be given permissions to access this desktop

Now access this connection server from View Horizon client installed in end device. to install client please access below link , Its very straight and simple.

http://www.vmwarelearning.com/aLJ/installing-windows-vmware-view-client/

Enter the connection server IP address and the user name password

Hurray!! We have our desktop ready to access