Configure Network Settings and Parent VM Setup for Nutanix Edge Deployments

Configure the required network and load balancer settings for your Horizon Cloud on Nutanix Edge deployments.

Note: Horizon Cloud on Nutanix is currently available in Limited Availability (LA) mode only.

Edge and Load Balancer Network Requirements

Only physical networks designated as external VLANs are currently supported. The required three physical networks and subnets are DMZ, Management, and Desktop.

• DMZ - The DMZ network interface on this subnet for UAG(s) must be reachable by end users. This requires at least two consecutive static or reserved IPs that can scale up to ten for larger UAG clusters. The subnet on which the DMZ network interface of the UAG will be attached must be reachable from the network from which the end users connect. The Static IP range (minimum requirement is 2 consecutive IPs) - for example, 10.202.155.30-10.202.155.39 (IP range in CIDR format 10.202.155.30/28) - must support UAG cluster growth to 10.

• Management - This subnet can be used to deploy the Edge VM, management interface for UAG in a multi-NIC model, and other infrastructure required for VDI. The Edge VM requires one static IP from the identified Management network for the Edge VM along with a resolvable FQDN, (a record in the DNS infrastructure) to allow the desktop VMs to reach. The subnet on which the Management network interface of the UAG is attached is also the subnet on which the Edge VM will be deployed. The Static IP range (minimum requirement is 2 consecutive IPs) - for example, 172.20.241.30-172.202.155.39 (IP range in CIDR format 172.20.241.30/28) - must support UAG cluster growth to 10.

• Desktop - This subnet is for desktop VMs, which must connect to the Edge VM and Active Directory (Management). The subnet on which the Desktop network interface of the UAG is attached is the subnet on which the desktop VMs are deployed. The VMs must be able to reach the Edge VM and the Active Directory infrastructure. The Static IP range (minimum requirement is 2 consecutive IPs) - for example, 192.168.240.30-192.168.240.39 (IP range in CIDR format 192.168.240.30/28) - must support UAG cluster growth to 10.

The Omnissa Edge URL Checker tool, also referred to as the PreReqCheck Connectivity Validation toolkit, is available for URL reachability and port verification. It includes scripts to validate connectivity for the Edge, UAG, and desktop networks against required Horizon Cloud service URLs and ports. These scripts test both HTTP/HTTPS endpoints and non-HTTP (TCP/UDP) ports to ensure that all required connections are reachable.

Edge VM-related Network Requirements

The Edge VM requires one static IP from the identified Management network for the Edge VM along with a resolvable FQDN, (a record in the DNS infrastructure) to allow the desktop VMs to reach.

Additionally, the Edge VM needs all required URLs and ports to be allowlisted and open in the network firewalls, as documented in Port and Protocol Requirements for Horizon Cloud on Nutanix Edge.

Load Balancing

One (1) static IP from the identified Management network for the Edge VM along with a resolvable FQDN, ("A" record in the DNS infrastructure) to allow the desktop VMs to reach. The DNS A record entry for the FQDN must resolve to the load balancer VIP for multi-UAG deployments.

You can add a customer-managed local load balancer of choice to configure in front of the UAG instances. For information about adding a load balancer, see Load Balancing Unified Access Gateway for Horizon in Omnissa Tech Zone.

Prerequisites for Nutanix AHV and Prism Central

Comply with the following prerequisites and considerations before creating the golden image in Nutanix Prism Central.

Nutanix AHV Hypervisor Installation and Cluster Setup Considerations

• Use Nutanix Foundation tool or manual Phoenix installer to install AHV on the physical hosts.
• For a cluster, minimum 3 AHV hosts are required.
• Re-image all nodes using Foundation for a clean, supported installation.
• After installation, join the nodes into a cluster via Prism Element.
• Ensure each host and CVM has unique IPs and proper DNS and NTP configurations.
• Do not select Create single node cluster during install if you intend to make a multi-node cluster later.
• Properly plan Management and CVM IP addresses.

Prism Central Installation and Configuration Considerations

• Prism Central should be deployed on-prem as a single node for smaller environments or as a scale-out 3-node cluster for high availability.
• The 3-node Prism Central deployment runs 3 VMs for fault tolerance.
• Admin account with full privileges is required for installation and cluster management.
• For improved security, custom roles with granular permissions can be created and assigned per Nutanix Prism Central User Guide.
• Prism Central manages multiple Nutanix clusters and provides analytics, lifecycle management, and reporting.
• Single Prism Central instance supports up to 12k VMs, scale-out supports up to 25k.
• Ensure network configuration allows communication between Prism Central and cluster nodes.

Network Configuration with VLANs Considerations

• Create three VLANs/networks for DMZ, Management, and Desktop traffic.
• Configure the VLAN tagging on the physical switches and map them appropriately in Prism Element networking.
• Create networks in Prism with VLAN tagging to keep traffic segregated by function.
• Ensure ACLs are configured to control traffic flow, especially between DMZ and internal networks.
• Create separate bridges in AHV for each VLAN or tag VLANs on a shared bridge such as br0.

Storage Configuration Considerations

• Use Nutanix recommended storage pool configuration: one storage pool per cluster is typical.
• Ensure the replication factor defaults to 2; change to 3 for 5+ node clusters.
• Create storage containers within the pool for VMs.
• Enable compression/deduplication as needed to optimize usage.
• Follow best practices for raid and disk configuration on nodes before imaging.
• Use Nutanix distributed storage to provide high availability and local I/O performance.

Licensing for VDI Workloads Considerations

• Nutanix VDI licenses are based on a term license, typically yearly, and based on Maximum Concurrent Users.
• Licensing must be applied to a dedicated cluster supporting only VDI workloads.
• Starter, Pro, and Ultimate editions provide increasing features, with Ultimate including advanced replication and security.
• VDI licenses are independent of core-based licensing.
• Consult Nutanix VDI product page for ordering part numbers and detailed license features.

Download and Install the Horizon Agent and Cloudbase-Init

To create the golden image, also referred to as the Nutanix Parent VM, you must first download and install the Horizon Agent and a stable cloudbase-init into your environment.

1. Download the latest Horizon Agent Installer. To ensure that you are downloading the latest version of the Horizon Agent Insllaer (HAI), click Select Version for a list of version values and download the latest version. You will install and configure this shortly.

2. Download the latest version of Cloudbase-Init. You will install and configure this shortly.

Create the Golden Image/Parent VM

1. To create the parent VM/golden image, perform steps 1-5 as documented in the Nutanix AHV specific guidance Tech Zone article.

   Note that you must use a SCSI disk bus type and Windows 11 must have Secure Boot enabled.

   

2. Install your Nutanix Guest Tools (NGT) software on the parent VM/golden image that you just created.

3. Download and run the OS Optimization Tool, as described in the following steps.

4. Enter Audit mode into your Desktop OS VM.

5. Download the Omnissa Horizon OS Optimization Tool from Omnissa Customer Connect.

6. Disable BitLocker.

7. Run the Omnissa Horizon OS Optimization Tool. Click Analyze and when analysis is complete, click Optimize.

8. Download and install {Cloudbase-Init](https://cloudbase.it/cloudbase-init/).

9. Set up the CloudBase-Init (minimally Cloudbase-Init version 1.1.6) that you downloaded and installed earlier. Be sure to enable the Run Cloudbase-init service as LocalSystem option on the Configuration options page. Navigate to the install location C:\Program Files\Cloudbase Solutions\Cloudbase-Init\conf and replace the existing content in the cloudbase-init.conf file with the following.

   [DEFAULT]
   config_drive_cdrom=true
   verbose=true
   debug=true
   log_dir=C:\Program Files\Cloudbase Solutions\Cloudbase-Init\log\
   log_file=cloudbase-init.log
   default_log_levels=comtypes=INFO,suds=INFO,iso8601=WARN,requests=WARN
   mtu_use_dhcp_config=true
   ntp_use_dhcp_config=true
   local_scripts_path=C:\Program Files\Cloudbase Solutions\Cloudbase-Init\LocalScripts\
   check_latest_version=false
   metadata_services=cloudbaseinit.metadata.services.configdrive.ConfigDriveService
   plugins=cloudbaseinit.plugins.common.sethostname.SetHostNamePlugin,cloudbaseinit.plugins.common.userdata.UserDataPlugin
   

Run the Horizon Agent Installer

1. Install the downloaded HAI agent, select appropriate option during the install.
2. Run the OS Optimization Tool again.
3. Enter Audit mode.
4. Remove Copilot by running Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers -name Microsoft.Copilot | Remove-AppxPackage.
5. Finalize and exit Audit mode to complete the optimization.
6. Create a local admin account. This is different than the built-in admin account.
7. Take a snapshot (recovery point) of the VM in case rollback is needed.
8. Shut down the VM.

Create the Nutanix Template from a Golden Image

1. In your Nutanix Prism console, click VMs in the left pane navigation, select the powered-off golden image VM, and then click the Actions tab.
2. Under Actions, select Create VM Template.
3. Complete the template information as needed. Include Gold Image in the name for easy identification.
4. Click Next and Save.