Wednesday, September 2, 2015

#vmworld #EUC4825 Horizon for Linux Technical Deep Dive

Why Linux Virtual Desktops? They are generally less costly than Windows desktops as you do not require a VDA license for connectivity. When a Linux desktop is required you can protect and centralize them using Horizon. In addition Linux is often used for graphic rendering. Horizon for Linux supports Ubuntu, RedHat Enterprise, CentOS and Neokin (a Chinese distro).

You need Horizon 6.1.1 with vSphere 5.5 Update 2 and the Horizon Client 3.4 or higher and View Linux desktops running the latest Linux Horizon Agent. In addition the Linux desktops require:

  • Java Runtime version 7 Update 75 (76 for Ubuntu) for the Agent (Note: this is bundled with the latest install)
  • DNS resolution must work throughout the environment
  • The Linux desktop must be running VMware tools
  • The desktop must be joined to the Active Directory

Audio and HTML Access is supported as well as 3D (vDGA,vGPU) graphics. There is no concept of linked clones (View Composer) at this point in time. Deployment works with a vCenter template or clone. Automated provisioning is supported through the vCenter template deployment mechanism.

In addition you can use PowerCLI to create a Linux template, clone desktops, deploy the Agent and add the desktops to the pool. Linux Virtual desktops are natively supported in Horizon so no additional licensing is required.

Linux desktops do not use PCoIP but rather use Secure WebSockets to remotely display the desktop through the Blast Secure Gateway (used for HTML 5 access). Session Shadowing is supported however.

No comments:

Post a Comment