VMware Horizon 7 Installation and configuration

Today we'll have a look at VMware Horizon 7 Installation and configuration. I'm sure you have read my detailed post VMware Horizon 7 Details – Instant Clones, Blast Extreme ++ which details all new features introduced in the product. Today we'll go simply through the steps of installing Horizon View connection server on a separate VM, in our case Windows Server 2012 R2. The latest 7.0.1 release brought small enhancements and Linux desktops enhancements too and also resolved issues. You might want to check it out.

It will be interesting to see the Instant clones (VM fork technology) in action, but on this later, as we need to first install and configure our Horizon 7 connection server. It is a server which has the broker capability allowing the creation of desktop pools, and this server has the main admin console, where the admin needs to connect and configure the system. Note that even the version 7 of the product still needs Adobe Flash.

Let's get back to our setup and let's start with VMware Horizon 7 Installation and configuration. Note that before you start you'll have to download all the bits and start trial (if you're not a customer with an entitled license). In my case, I'm using my vExpert license which is available to all current vExperts. The installation is pretty much the same as in previous product. But as the product evolves with every release, the screens changes a bit.

There is many ways to deploy Horizon. The least number of servers is 1, but you can deploy some replica servers, security servers, create PODs….  but for this lab we'll stick with the bare minimum – single connection server.

VMware Horizon 7 Installation and configuration – The steps:

Step 0: Get the trial here – Horizon 7 Connection Server and run VMware-viewconnectionserver-x86_64-7.0.1.exe.

Step 1: Setup the connection server VM with static IP, create DNS records on your DNS server and domain join the VM to your Microsoft AD organization. Production environment shall have a server with 10 Gb of RAM and 4vCPU. Then we'll connect as domain admin and launch the installation wizard. Note that this is only a lab deployment so I just use domain admin account as the simplest. It's not best practice as you should create an admin security group in AD, and also create a dedicated user which will administer the solution. I'm detailing the steps in the study guide which has the best practices.

Installation screens

Firewall config – let's leave default… (auto config)

Data recovery password…

Installation recap…

Once the installation is completed, you can log in to the admin console.

Note that there is start menu shortcuts and also an icon on the desktop of the VM with the link, but if you want to log in from the outside of the VM you must use that URL. You would certainly want to do that to avoid the hassle of installing a Flash player as I'm sure you already have Flash player installed on your management laptop/desktop.

You would certainly want to do that to avoid the hassle of installing a Flash player as I'm sure you already have Flash player installed on your management laptop/desktop.

Suprisingly VMware did not manage to slip in a HTML 5 based console for the management of the Horizon 7 just yet. Let's hope it will arive in one of the future releases. The admin console URL did not changed. You must go to the regular well-knownURL.  It is the same URL as in Horizon 6 (View 5).

https://IP_connection_server/admin

So you should look a screen like this…

After login (if you have Adobe flash installed) you should notice a new thing – the Instant Clone Domain Admins, where can select your domain, user name, and password. That's where the new instant clones will be deployed.

You may also have a look at the Remote display protocol settings where you'll notice the Microsoft RDP, which is new ….

In the next post we'll see how the new Instant clones (aka VM fork) is working. VMware also calls it Just-in-time desktops.  This feature was introduced as a Project Fargo (it’s a very lightweight VM which shares all memory and disk with the original VM).

You might be interested in VCP6-DTM study Page if you're studying for VMware VCP6-DTM Certification Exam.

You can find a follow-up post here:

• VMware Horizon 7 Installation and configuration – [This Post]
• VMware Horizon 7 Installation and configuration – Part 2
• VMware Horizon 7.0.3 Released adding compatibility with vSphere 6.5

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