License Usage Models

IMPORTANT: This page covers only the Omnissa Horizon licensing models. It does not account for any third-party software licenses required by the OS and applications running in your remote desktops. To activate third-party software for use in your Horizon environment, follow the guidelines provided by that software vendor.

Horizon 8 provides two licensing usage models, one for named users (NU) and one for concurrent connected users (CCU). Horizon 8 counts the named users (NU) and concurrent connected users (CCU) in your environment, regardless of your product license edition or usage model agreement.

• Per named user (NU) - For environments with staff that require constant and dedicated access to one or more desktops. For example, Organization A has 10 employees who will all be working simultaneously, needing access at the same time. In this scenario, Organization A will need 10 NU licenses.
• Per concurrent connection (CCU) - For environments with a high number of users who time share desktops, such as students and shift workers. A concurrent connection is defined as the total number of users accessing desktops or apps at any given time to maintain an active connection to their workspace or desktop through an endpoint device. For example, Organization B has 10 employees, but 5 employees work during the day and 5 employees work during the evening. As only 5 employees will need access at a time, Organization B will be better suited for 5 CCU licenses rather than 10 NU licenses.

For the NU model, Horizon 8 counts the number of unique users that have access to the Horizon 8 environment, and access is determined by entitlement. The specific count increase varies by individual AD user or AD groups.

• If an admin entitles 50 users to a pool of desktops, then the NU count goes up by 50 immediately, even if none of them have logged in yet.
• If an admin entitles an AD group of 100 unique users to a pool, then the NU count goes up by 1 immediately. When users log into their desktop, NU count goes up for every net new user who logs in. Over time, assuming all 100 unique users have logged into their desktops at least once, the total NU count as a result of this entitlement and pool would be 101. Note that Horizon 8 always counts AD group as 1 NU because Horizon 8 uses SID to track users and AD groups have their own unique SID that is indistinguishable from the SID of individual users.
• If a named user is entitled to multiple single-user desktops, published desktops, and published applications, the user is counted once. When a user logs in, Horizon 8 will only increment the NU count if that user has not been counted previously as part of any entitlement (whether individual or AD group).
• Horizon 8 always includes an extra named user count for the administrator, so even if you have no active users or desktops/apps in your environment, Horizon 8 will show 1 NU count.

Named Users Example

This example table displays how Horizon 8 counts NUs.

Scenario	Total Named Users (Current)
You install and deploy a Horizon 8 pod in your environment. You enter your license key in the pod but have not yet created any virtual desktop pools or application farms.	0
You create a pool of 10 desktops. You entitle User 1 to the pool. The user has not logged in yet.	1 Entitled users immediately consume a NU license.
User 1 has launched a virtual desktop.	1 Since the user is already considered in the above step
You entitle an AD group of 3 users to the same pool. User 2, 3 and 4 are part of the AD group	2 AD group when entitled shall consume one additional licenses. It does not matter whethere there is one user or thousand users in the AD group at the time of entitlement
User 2 logs in to their desktop.	3
User 3 logs in to their desktop.	4
User 3 logs off from their desktop.	4
User 1 logs off from their desktop.	4
User 4 logs in to their desktop.	5
You create a farm of RDS published desktops and entitle User 5 and User 6 to published desktops.	7
Only User 5 logs in to a published desktop.	7
Now User 2 logs in to a published desktop as well.	7
You create a new RDS app farm with some applications and entitle all users (User 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7) to the farm.	8 All users (User 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) entitled to the farm already have been counted. Only new user is User 7. Hence the count increases by 1
User 2 launches an application from his Horizon Client (in addition to his RDS published desktop session).	8
User 3 launched another application from a different client machine. Now User 3 has one RDSH desktop and two applications running.	8
User 4 has an existing RDSH desktop session and now he launches an application.	8
Both User 3 and User 4 log off of all their open sessions.	8
Administrator resets named users count by clicking on “Reset Named Users Count”.	0 Entitlements are left as-is. But license counts are reset to 0.
User 1 logs into a virtual desktop again.	1
The administrator creates a new pool and entitles User 1 to the pool. User 1 launches a virtual desktop in the new pool (while still logged into the previously launched virtual desktop). Both desktops are launched from the same Horizon Client running on the same Windows laptop.	1
The administrator entitles User 1 to the RDS published desktops and apps. User 1 launches a published desktop.	1
User 1 launches the application Paint from his Horizon Client.	1
User 1 launches application Snipping Tool from his virtual desktop.	1
The administrator creates a third pool of virtual desktops and entitles User 1 to that pool. User 1 logs into a new desktop in the 3rd pool from a Horizon Client running on the same Windows laptop (he’s still logged into the previous two virtual desktops).	1
>Admin creates a 4th pool of virtual desktops and entitles User 1 to that pool. User 1 logs into a new desktop in that 4th pool from a different device (separate machine that has Horizon Linux Client). Note that he’s still logged into the previous three virtual desktops.	1
User 2 logs in to their desktop.	2
Administrator resets named users count by clicking on "Reset Named Users Count".	0
User 1 logs into a virtual desktop 1.	1
From virtual desktop 1, the same User 1 logs into another virtual desktop 2 (Nested Hop).	1
From virtual desktop 2, the same User 1 opens an RDSH session to App 1 (Nested Hop).	1

Concurrent Connected Users (CCU)

Horizon 8 calculates CCU by counting unique active users connected to the environment at a given point in time. License consumption is based on the following rules:

• Multiple sessions opened by the same user from the same client device count as one concurrent user.
• Sessions from different client devices are counted separately.
• A user connected to both a single-user desktop and published desktop/application sessions is counted once.
• A user with only published desktop/application sessions is counted once regardless of the number of sessions, RDS hosts, or Horizon Clients used.

CCU are counted in the following way:

• Single-user desktops (or virtual desktop) - Each connected desktop session is counted as 1 CCU. If a concurrently connected user opens multiple single-user desktop sessions from the same client device, the sessions are counted together as 1 CCU (previously, each session was counted separately).
• Published desktop and application usage (such as RDSH desktops or applications) - Counts by concurrently connected users. If a concurrently connected user runs multiple published desktop sessions and applications, the user is counted only once, even if different published desktops or applications are hosted on different RDS hosts or if the user connects from different end point devices and Horizon Clients.
• Users running a single-user desktop and published desktops and applications - The user is counted only once.

Historical CCU Data Retention

• Peak CCU sampling every 5 minutes and daily peak persistence (default 90 days, configurable up to 365 days via the maxDailyCCUHistoryDays LDAP setting)

• The new GET CCU REST API for retrieving historical peak/daily consumption data

In both NU and CCU metrics, the components of a Horizon bundle cannot be split among users. This applies to both named and concurrent connection instances. Although a bundle has individual components, the components together should be thought of as a single product. In this manner, even if an end user in a concurrent connection scenario is only connected to Horizon, the other associated components of the bundle (e.g., Workspace ONE® Access™) are also considered to be attached to that user and not available to be entitled to other users.

For example, Organization A has 100 concurrent-connection licenses of Horizon Universal Subscription. User A connects to their virtual desktop and consumes one concurrent connection. However, User A is not using ThinApp®. Does this free up ThinApp for another user, given that User A is not active on ThinApp? The answer is no. Even if User A is not connected to all of the components in the bundle, once they connect to any one of the components in the bundle, the others by default become attached to that user for as long as they are connected to their session.

Concurrent Connected Users Example

This example table displays how Horizon 8 counts CCUs.

Scenario	Current	Highest
You install and deploy a Horizon 8 pod in your environment. You enter your license key in the pod but have not yet created any virtual desktop pools or application farms.	0	0
You create a pool of 10 desktops. You entitle User 1 to the pool. The user has not logged in yet.	0	0
User 1 has launched a virtual desktop.	1	1
You have entitled User 2 to the pool of desktops. User 2 logs in.	2	2
Both User 1 and User 2 log off of from their desktops.	0	2
You create a farm of RDS published desktops and entitle User 3 and User 4 to published desktops. Only User 3 logs in to a published desktop.	1	2
Now User 4 logs into a published desktop as well.	2	2
You create a new RDS app farm with some applications and entitle all users (User 1, 2, 3 and 4) to the farm. User 3 launches an application from his Horizon Client (in addition to his RDS published desktop session).	2	2
User 3 launched another application from a different client machine. Now User 3 has one RDSH desktop and two applications running.	2	2
User4 has an existing RDSH desktop session and now he launches an application.	2	2
Both User 3 and User 4 log off of all their open sessions.	0	2
User 1 logs into a virtual desktop again.	1	2
The administrator creates a new pool and entitles User 1 to the pool. User 1 launches a virtual desktop in the new pool (while still logged into the previously launched virtual desktop). Both desktops are launched from the same Horizon Client running on the same Windows laptop.	1	2
The administrator entitles User 1 to the RDS published desktops and apps. User 1 launches a published desktop.	1	2
User 1 launches the application Paint from his Horizon Client.	2	2
User 1 launches application Snipping Tool from his virtual desktop,	1	2
The administrator creates a third pool of virtual desktops and entitles User 1 to that pool. User 1 logs into a new desktop in the 3rd pool from a Horizon Client running on the same Windows laptop (he’s still logged into the previous two virtual desktops).	1	2
Admin creates a 4th pool of virtual desktops and entitles User 1 to that pool. User 1 logs into a new desktop in that 4th pool from a different device (separate machine that has Horizon Linux Client). Note that he’s still logged into the previous three virtual desktops.	2	2
Administrator resets CCU users count by clicking on "Reset Highest Count".	0	0
User 1 logs into a virtual desktop 1.	1	1
From virtual desktop 1, the same User 1 logs into another virtual desktop 2 (Nested Hop).	2	2
From virtual desktop 2, the same User 1 opens an RDSH session to App 1 (Nested Hop).	2	2
From virtual desktop 2, the same User 1 opens an RDSH session to App 2 (Nested Hop).	2	2

Daily Peak Usage History (90 Days)

Connection Server samples CCU usage every five minutes and records the highest concurrent usage observed during each day. Daily peak usage history is retained for 90 days by default and can be increased up to 365 days using the maxDailyCCUHistoryDays LDAP setting.

As of Horizon 8 2606, this information is currently available through the REST API only. No LEO UI visualization is available.