Horizon Cloud allows you to create and configure three types of Multi-session Pool Groups:
- Published Desktop
- Published application
- Published desktop & application
While the steps to create these are similar, the requirements and configuration steps for Published application and Published desktop & application require a few additional steps. Below you will find the complete procedure to create a Multi-session Published Desktop pool first. Next, we have listed the additional steps for Published applications and Published desktop & application.
For information about how sessions are distributed in pool groups, refer to Understanding How Sessions are Distributed within a Pool Group and/or Managing Power Options for Pools and Pool Groups.
Procedure to Create a Multi-Session Published Desktop Pool Group
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From the Horizon Universal Console, select Pools Groups in the left menu.
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Click Add > Multi-Session.
- Enter a unique pool Name.
- Add a Display Name and Description. A display name cannot exceed 64 characters and will be displayed to end users on Horizon clients. If left blank, the pool group name will be used as the display name by default.
- For the Pool Group type: Select Published desktop.
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In the Pools section, select one or more pools from the Select pools list and click Next.
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In the Policies section, there are four subsections (Client, Brokering, SSO and Rolling Maintenance).
Client Subsection:
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Set the options for Default Protocol, or if you see a toggle, you can activate it to Allow users to select a protocol. Note: For Linux pool groups, Blast Extreme is the only supported display protocol. Other protocol options are not available.
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Select the Preferred client type to launch entitlements in Horizon Client or a Browser.
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Restrict web client access — When enabled, this toggle prevents users from accessing virtual desktops and applications in the pool group through a web browser. Users must connect using the Horizon Client instead. For more information refer to Configuring the Remote Experience for Users.
- Caution: If the Preferred client type was set to Browser above, the end user will get an error stating it is blocked. To use this feature, ensure that the Preferred client type is set to Horizon Client when you enable Restrict web client access.
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For Dedicated desktop pool group, select the toggle to Show assigned machine name. This toggle displays the hostname of the assigned machine instead of the pool group display name when you log in to Horizon Client. If a user is assigned multiple machines in a pool group, the assigned machine name will always be shown. This feature is not available for Floating desktop pool groups.
Brokering Subsection:
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Select Scope to search for available desktops on Any site or Restrict to One Site.
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For Site connection affinity - Select the default site that end users will connect to, either Nearest Site or Home Site.
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You can enable the Home site restriction toggle to restrict end users (or user groups) access to the entitlement only through the entitlement home site override, or through the user's home site if an override is not designated. If not enabled, the nearest site is used.
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If available, specify Direct connect only or Internal access only as needed.
SSO Subsection:
- Activate this toggle to enable SSO for the pool. You must have completed the prerequisites to configure one of the SSO types that Horizon Cloud supports on the Horizon Edge Gateway and fulfilled all the requirements for that SSO type. If the prerequisites required by the configured SSO type are not met, the end user will be prompted to enter their credentials. Note: For Linux pool groups, SSO using Microsoft Certificate Authority (CA) is not supported. Unsupported SSO options are disabled in the user interface.
Rolling Maintenance Subsection:
Enable rolling maintenance Toggle - Activate this toggle to enable an automated refresh for multi-session VMs to maintain availability. This will clear out cached resources or memory leaks which help avoid end-user sessions issues. If this toggle is not enabled, you will not see the following options:
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Maintenance type - Choose either Scheduled or Session. For Scheduled, the refresh is triggered daily or weekly according to the parameters you enter. For Session, the refresh is triggered when the number of sessions you can enter have been logged on. In both cases, the refresh won't happen until the end user is logged off.
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Recurrence - Choose either Daily or Weekly.
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Recurrence day - Choose a day.
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Time zone - Choose the time zone.
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Scheduled hour - Choose the time.
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Concurrent quiescing VMs per pool - Enter the number of virtual machines that can be concurrently down for maintenance. During this process, virtual machines will be providing service but will not be used for any new sessions.
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VM action - Select either Restart or Rebuild. With Restart, the affected virtual machines are rebooted. With Rebuild, the affected virtual machines are deleted then re-provisioned using the latest image.
Click Next to complete this section.
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In the Auto Scaling section, there are four subsections (Capacity Management, Timeouts, Auto Scaling Schedule, and Load Balancing).
Under the Capacity Management Subsection:
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Choose between using Autonomous mode or Auto Scaling mode.
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Horizon Cloud now manages spare VM capacity as a percentage at the Pool Group level, replacing per-pool minimum and maximum values. This simplified model is enabled by default for all new pools which have provisioning mode set to On-Demand. If your existing Pool(s) are On-Demand and do not have the Simplify Provisioning toggle Enabled you will see a warning in the Console. For more information refer to: Step 10 of the Edit a Pool procedure.
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Minimum Spare VMs available per pool - This percentage reflects the number of spare VMs (formerly called "Unused VMs") to be kept powered on relative to the total number of provisioned VMs. A spare VM is a VM which is provisioned and powered on but without a user logged in. This setting applies to each pool in the pool group unless you have specified a different schedule in the Auto Scaling Schedule subsection below.
- View Details: When clicked, this button will open a box to show the amount of Spare VMs you have available per pool. Important: This assumes that you have Simplify Provisioning turned on for all the pools in this pool group. To turn on Simplify Provisioning in each pool, see Step 10 of the Edit a Pool procedure.
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Power off protect time - This is set to a 30-minute default to protect a VM from powering off after powering on due to a headroom error. You can enter a number between 1 to 60 minutes, 30 is the default.
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Under the Timeouts Subsection:
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Your Timeout Handling options will vary based on whether your Virtual Machine (VM) is enabled for hibernation.
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Maximum session lifetime - Enter the maximum number of minutes for the session.
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Idle session timeout - Enter the amount of time the user can have an idle session before the system forces a disconnect. The disconnected session will be logged off as per the disconnected session timeout settings.
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Disconnected session - Select Log Off or No Action. Then choose either Immediate or After a number of minutes.
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Under the Auto Scaling Schedule Subsection:
- Click Add to Add a Auto Scaling Schedule.
- To make changes, select the Name in the table and then click Enable, Disable, Edit, or Delete.
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Under the Load Balancing Subsection:
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Enter the Time between consecutive session allocation in seconds. This setting causes new user sessions to be spread out to limit the number of sessions assigned to a VM within the configured time. For example, if this setting is 20 seconds and a user is assigned to VM1 within the last 20 seconds, the next user is assigned to VM2.
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Optionally, you can expand the Session Host Load Balancing Thresholds and use the table below to help you achieve a desired balance of power consumption and performance in your environment.
Option Description CPU usage Threshold value for the CPU usage in percentage. You can set a value from 0 to 100. The recommended value is 90, which is also the default value. Memory usage Threshold value for memory in percentage. You can set a value from 0 to 100. The recommended value is 90, which is also the default value. Disk queue length Threshold of the average number of both read and write requests that were re-queued for the selected disk during the sample interval. You can set the value to any positive integer. By default, this setting is not considered for load balancing. The default value is 0. Disk read latency Threshold of the average time of read of data from the disk in milliseconds. You can set the value to any positive integer. By default, this setting is not considered for load balancing. The default value is 0. Disk write latency Threshold of the average time of write of data to the disk in milliseconds. You can set the value to any positive integer. By default, this setting is not considered for load balancing. The default value is 0. Host load index Aggregate threshold value at which a VM is considered full and is not assigned any new sessions. You can enter a value between 0 and 100. The default value is 90. The value is calculated by comparing CPU, memory, and disk usage to the respective threshold values. The resource with the highest usage compared to its threshold is weighted the greatest.
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Click Save.
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Click Entitle Pool Group to entitle this pool group to users or user groups now or click FINISH to entitle it later.
Procedure to Create a Multi-Session Published Application or a Published Desktop & Application Pool Group
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From the Horizon Universal Console, select Pools Groups in the left menu.
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Click Add > Multi-Session.
- Enter a unique pool Name.
- Add a Display Name and Description. A display name cannot exceed 64 characters and will be displayed to end users on Horizon clients. If left blank, the pool group name will be used as the display name by default.
- For the Pool Group type: Select either Published application or Published desktop & application.
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In the Pools section, select one or more pools from the Select pools list and click Next.
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In the Installed Applications section, select the installed applications that you want to make available in the pool group.
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Each pool in a pool group must have the same application version installed.
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Installed applications must be in a pool, and the pool(s) must not be used in any of the existing pool groups. All installed applications from the pool(s) are displayed in the table.
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Click the Rescan option at the top right of the table to initiate a rescan of pools for applications if required.
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Installed Applications previously selected for a pool group that are subsequently found to be missing from all pools will be disabled. Installed applications missing from a subset of pools will remain enabled, but the console will indicate those applications along with the pools they are missing from. Take action to ensure the selected applications are installed on all VMs in all pools within the pool group.
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Click Next.
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In the App Volumes Applications section, select the App Volumes applications that you want to make available as published applications in the pool group. The package marked current is delivered on demand to entitled users. Only applications with a current package are displayed. The checkbox next to Hide duplicates is enabled by default. Unchecking the box will display the duplicates.
- Click Next.
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In the Manual Applications section, select the manual applications you want to make available in this pool group.
- To create a new manual application, click Add. Enter a unique Name, add an application Path, and Publisher, then click Save.
- Click Next.
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In the Application Attributes section, you can optionally specify application attributes for the selected applications.
- Click Next.
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In the Policies Section, there are four subsections (Client, Brokering, SSO and Rolling Maintenance).
- See Step 4 Above to complete all four of the Policies subsections.
- Click Next.
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In the Auto Scaling section, there are four subsections (Capacity Management, Timeouts, Auto Scaling Schedule, and Load Balancing).
- See Step 5 Above to complete the Capacity Management Subsection.
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In the Timeouts subsection:
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Your Timeout Handling options will vary based on whether your Virtual Machine (VM) is enabled for hibernation.
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Maximum session lifetime - Enter the maximum number of minutes for the session.
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Idle session timeout - Enter the amount of time the user can have an idle session before the system forces a disconnect. The disconnected session will be logged off as per the disconnected session timeout settings.
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Disconnected session - Select Log Off or No Action. Then choose either Immediate or After a number of minutes.
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Empty application session timeout - Select Never or Timeout After a number of minutes. The default timeout is Never. If a user is running an application session and there are no applications running in that session, then that session is considered empty. The default value for Timeout After is 1 minute.
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When timeout occurs - Select Log Off or Disconnect. The default is Log Off.
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See Step 7 Above to complete the Capacity Management Subsection.
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See Step 8 Above to complete the Load Balancing Subsection.
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Click Save.
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Click Entitle Pool Group to entitle this pool group to users or user groups now, or click FINISH to entitle it later.
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