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Table Of Contents
Client Devices
A major advantage of using View is that remote desktops and applications follow the end user regardless of
device or location. Users can access their personalized virtual desktop or remote application from a
company laptop, their home PC, a thin client device, a Mac, or a tablet or phone.
End users open Horizon Client to display their remote desktops and applications. Thin client devices use
View thin client software and can be configured so that the only application that users can launch directly
on the device is View Thin Client. Repurposing a legacy PC into a thin client desktop can extend the life of
the hardware by three to five years. For example, by using View on a thin desktop, you can use a newer
operating system such as Windows 7 on older desktop hardware.
If you use the HTML Access feature, end users can open a remote desktop inside a browser, without having
to install any client application on the client system or device.
View Connection Server
This software service acts as a broker for client connections. View Connection Server authenticates users
through Windows Active Directory and directs the request to the appropriate virtual machine, physical PC,
or Microsoft RDS host.
View Connection Server provides the following management capabilities:
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Authenticating users
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Entitling users to specific desktops and pools
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Assigning applications packaged with VMware ThinApp to specific desktops and pools
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Managing remote desktop and application sessions
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Establishing secure connections between users and remote desktops and applications
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Enabling single sign-on
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Setting and applying policies
Inside the corporate firewall, you install and configure a group of two or more View Connection Server
instances. Their configuration data is stored in an embedded LDAP directory and is replicated among
members of the group.
Outside the corporate firewall, in the DMZ, you can install and configure View Connection Server as a
security server. Security servers in the DMZ communicate with View Connection Servers inside the
corporate firewall. Security servers ensure that the only remote desktop and application traffic that can enter
the corporate data center is traffic on behalf of a strongly authenticated user. Users can access only the
resources that they are authorized to access.
Security servers offer a subset of functionality and are not required to be in an Active Directory domain. You
install View Connection Server in a Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2012, or Windows Server 2012
R2 server, preferably on a VMware virtual machine.
IMPORTANT It is possible to create a View setup that does not use View Connection Server. If you install the
View Agent Direct Connect Plugin in a remote virtual machine desktop, the client can connect directly to the
virtual machine. All the remote desktop features, including PCoIP, HTML Access, RDP, USB redirection,
and session management work in the same way, as if the user had connected through View Connection
Server. For more information, see View Agent Direct-Connection Plugin Administration.
View Architecture Planning
12 VMware, Inc.