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
Advantages of Using Multiple vCenter Servers in a Pod
When you create a design for a Horizon View production environment that accommodates more than 500
desktops, several considerations affect whether to use one vCenter Server instance rather than multiple
instances.
Starting with Horizon View 5.2, VMware supports managing up to 10,000 desktop virtual machines within a
single Horizon View pod with a single vCenter 5.1 server. Before you attempt to manage 10,000 virtual
machines with a single vCenter Server instance, take the following considerations into account:
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Duration of your company's maintenance windows
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Capacity for tolerating Horizon View component failures
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Frequency of power, provisioning, and refit operations
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Simplicity of infrastructure
Duration of Maintenance Windows
Concurrency settings for virtual machine power, provisioning, and maintenance operations are determined
per vCenter Server instance.
Pod designs with one
vCenter Server
instance
Concurrency settings determine how many operations can be queued up for an entire
Horizon View pod at one time.
For example, if you set concurrent provisioning operations to 20 and you have only one
vCenter Server instance in a pod, a desktop pool larger than 20 will cause provisioning operations
to be serialized. After queuing 20 concurrent operations simultaneously, one operation must
complete before the next begins. In large-scale Horizon View deployments, this provisioning
operation can take a long time.
Pod designs with
multiple
vCenter Server
instances
Each instance can provision 20 virtual machines concurrently.
To ensure more operations are completed simultaneously within one maintenance window, you can add
multiple vCenter Server instances (up to five) to your pod, and deploy multiple desktop pools in vSphere
clusters managed by separate vCenter Server instances. A vSphere cluster can be managed by only one
vCenter Server instance at one time. To achieve concurrency across vCenter Server instances, you must deploy
your desktop pools accordingly.
Capacity for Tolerating Component Failures
The role of vCenter Server in Horizon View pods is to provide power, provisioning, and refit (refresh,
recompose, and rebalance) operations. After a View desktop virtual machine is deployed and powered on,
Horizon View does not rely on vCenter Server for the normal course of operations.
Because each vSphere cluster must be managed by a single vCenter Server instance, this server represents a
single point of failure in every Horizon View design. This risk is also true for each View Composer instance.
(There is a one-to-one mapping between each View Composer instance and vCenter Server instance.) Using
one of the following products can mitigate the impact of a vCenter Server or View Composer outage:
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VMware vSphere High Availability (HA)
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VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat™
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Compatible third-party failover products
IMPORTANT To use one of these failover strategies, the vCenter Server instance must not be installed in a virtual
machine that is part of the cluster that the vCenter Server instance manages.
Chapter 4 Architecture Design Elements and Planning Guidelines
VMware, Inc. 59