Create and Manage Manual Desktop Pools

For Manual Pools, register your existing manual virtual machines (VMs) with Horizon Cloud by manually installing and pairing the Horizon Agent on each VM.

As an administrator managing these manual VMs, you are responsible for their entire lifecycle. This includes the initial Horizon Agent installation and its ongoing configuration. These manual pool VMs can be from any cloud/on-prem capacities including unsupported capacities provided that there is a line of sight among the VMs, Edge, UAG and the AD server.

To create a manual pool, an existing Edge and UAG deployment from supported capacities such as Microsoft Azure or Amazon WorkSpaces Core is required. Note: The Windows 365 provider type Edge and Horizon 8 Edge are not supported for creating manual pools. Once the Manual pool is created, you will then add the desired manual VMs to the Manual pool by executing the registration script in each VM.

Important: When selecting a manual pool for Multi-Session Published Application or Published Desktop & Application Pool Group, ensure all VMs in that pool contain the same set of applications to avoid launch failures. It is also recommended to use identical application versions across all VMs to ensure a consistent user experience.

Before you begin, please review and confirm that you have followed the Requirements Checklist for Deploying a Manual Virtual Machine.

Prerequisites

It is important that you first confirm you have completed everything listed on the Requirements Checklist for Deploying a Manual Virtual Machine before you attempt to proceed with the following procedure.

Provision your Edge type: Depending on your Edge and UAG type the steps to provision your Edge will differ. For more information, refer to the following Edge provisioning provider links.

• Microsoft Azure Edge: Microsoft Azure Edge Deployments
• Amazon WorkSpace Core Edge: Amazon WorkSpaces Core Edge Deployments
• vSphere Edge Deployments: vSphere Edge Deployments

Procedure

1. From the Horizon Cloud Console, select Pools.

2. Click Add and from the dropdown select Manual.

3. Name the pool and add a description if you like.

4. Choose a Pool type.

   a. Dedicated Single-session: Select this option if you need to permanently assign a VM to a specific single user.

   b. Multi-session: Select this option if a dedicated VM is not required for each user.

5. Step 1: Requirements: Confirm you have met all the prerequisites and requirements before proceeding. Click Next.

6. Step 2: General Information:

   a. Select your Site.

   b. Select your Horizon Edge.

   c. Select the Machine identity.

   d. The Computer OU is optional, but you can Edit what is displayed if needed.

   e. There is a toggle to Use outbound proxy if the selected edge supports it, activate the toggle if needed. Once activated, provide the Proxy Host and Proxy port information.

   f. Click Next. It will then create an empty Manual Pool wih no VMs.

7. Step 3. Horizon agent:

   a. For each target VM you will need to download and install the Horizon Agent on that VM.

   b. Download the Registration Script— DO NOT rename it. Leave the name of the script as it is when downloading it.

   c. Open PowerShell as an Administrator and run the registration script using the command shown in the Console. Note: You might have to make the operating system trust the registration script by executing the following command: Unblock-File -Path ./Agent-Pairing-Script.ps1

   d. Click Save.

8. If you navigate to the Pools page, your newly created pool will be shown there.

Install the Horizon Agent

1. On the newly created Manual VM, copy or download the current version of the Horizon Agent Installer.
2. Double click to launch the installer and accept the default selections. Click Next.
3. Select the check box to Automatically restart the VM after the Agent is installed.

Execute the Agent Paring Script

1. On each newly created Manual VM, Copy or download the Agent pairing script.

2. Open PowerShell using Run as Administrator.

3. Execute the downloaded Pairing Script using the command shown in Console so that the new Manual VM will be registered to the Manual pool you created.

   Note: You might have to make the operating system trust the registration script by executing the following command: Unblock-File -Path ./Agent-Pairing-Script.ps1

4. The script will ask you to enter the API token you generated and securely saved previously.

5. The agent will domain join the VM automatically to the on-prem AD domain if the VM is not already domain joined and then restart the VM.

After completing these steps, your pool with a Manual Virtual Machine will be created and is ready to be assigned to users depending on your selection of single-session or multi-session pool type.

From the Horizon Cloud console, navigate to the Manual pool you created and view the pool details (Pools > Select the pool name > and scroll down to see the pool details). From the pool details page, you will be able to view the download links for the Horizon Agent and the Registration script again. The page will also have the Copy Command option to copy the Registration script execution command in case if you want to add more Manual VMs to the pool later on. You will also be able to see the individual VMs you added under the VM tab of that pool.