5.2
Table Of Contents
- VMware Horizon View Architecture Planning
- Contents
- VMware Horizon View Architecture Planning
- Introduction to Horizon View
- Planning a Rich User Experience
- Feature Support Matrix
- Choosing a Display Protocol
- Using View Persona Management to Retain User Data and Settings
- Benefits of Using View Desktops in Local Mode
- Accessing USB Devices Connected to a Local Computer
- Printing from a View Desktop
- Streaming Multimedia to a View Desktop
- Using Single Sign-On for Logging In to a View Desktop
- Using Multiple Monitors with a View Desktop
- Managing Desktop Pools from a Central Location
- Architecture Design Elements and Planning Guidelines
- Virtual Machine Requirements
- Horizon View ESX/ESXi Node
- Desktop Pools for Specific Types of Workers
- Desktop Virtual Machine Configuration
- vCenter Server and View Composer Virtual Machine Configuration
- View Connection Server Maximums and Virtual Machine Configuration
- View Transfer Server Virtual Machine Configuration and Storage
- vSphere Clusters
- Storage and Bandwidth Requirements
- Horizon View Building Blocks
- Horizon View Pods
- Advantages of Using Multiple vCenter Servers in a Pod
- Planning for Security Features
- Understanding Client Connections
- Choosing a User Authentication Method
- Restricting View Desktop Access
- Using Group Policy Settings to Secure View Desktops
- Implementing Best Practices to Secure Client Systems
- Assigning Administrator Roles
- Preparing to Use a Security Server
- Understanding Horizon View Communications Protocols
- Overview of Steps to Setting Up a Horizon View Environment
- Index
In cases where availability requirements are high, proper configuration of VMware HA is essential. If you use
VMware HA and are planning for a fixed number of desktops per server, run each server at a reduced capacity.
If a server fails, the capacity of desktops per server is not exceeded when the desktops are restarted on a different
host.
For example, in an 8-host cluster, where each host is capable of running 128 desktops, and the goal is to tolerate
a single server failure, make sure that no more than 128 * (8 - 1) = 896 desktops are running on that cluster. You
can also use VMware DRS (Distributed Resource Scheduler) to help balance the desktops among all 8 hosts.
You get full use of the extra server capacity without letting any hot-spare resources sit idle. Additionally, DRS
can help rebalance the cluster after a failed server is restored to service.
You must also make sure that storage is properly configured to support the I/O load that results from many
virtual machines restarting at once in response to a server failure. Storage IOPS has the most effect on how
quickly desktops recover from a server failure.
Example: Cluster Configuration Examples
The settings listed in the following tables are Horizon View-specific. For information about limits of HA clusters
in vSphere, see the VMware vSphere Configuration Maximums document.
Table 4-10. Horizon View Infrastructure Cluster Example
Item Example
Virtual machines vCenter Server instances, Active Directory, SQL database server, View Composer, View
Connection Server instances, View security servers, parent virtual machines to use as desktop
pool sources
Nodes (ESXi hosts) 6 Dell PowerEdge R720 servers (16 cores * 2 GHz; and 192GB RAM on each host)
SSD storage Virtual machines for vCenter Server, View Composer, SQL database server, and the parent
virtual machines
Non-SSD storage Virtual machines for Active Directory, View Connection Server, and security server
Cluster type DRS (Distributed Resource Scheduler)/HA
Table 4-11. View Desktop Cluster Example
Item Example
Number of clusters 5
Number of desktops and
pools per cluster
1 pool of 2,000 desktops (virtual machines) per cluster
Nodes (ESXi hosts) Following are examples of various servers that could be used for each cluster:
n
12 Dell PowerEdge R720 (16 cores * 2 GHz; and 192GB RAM on each host)
n
16 Dell PowerEdge R710 (12 cores * 2.526 GHz; and 144GB RAM on each host)
n
8 Dell PowerEdge R810 (24 cores * 2 GHz; and 256GB RAM on each host)
n
6 Dell PowerEdge R810 + 3 PowerEdge R720
SSD storage Replica virtual machines
Non-SSD storage 32 Non-SSD datastores for clones (450 GB per datastore)
Cluster type DRS (Distributed Resource Scheduler)/HA
NOTE With Horizon View 5.2 and later and vSphere 5.1 and later, if you use View Composer and store replica
disks on NFS or VMFS5 datastores, the cluster can contain up to 32 ESXi hosts. For more information, see the
chapter about creating desktop pools, in the VMware Horizon View Administration document.
Networking requirements depend on the type of server, the number of network adapters, and the way in which
VMotion is configured.
Chapter 4 Architecture Design Elements and Planning Guidelines
VMware, Inc. 49