Pool groups allow you to entitle desktops and applications to any users or groups at any time. Using Horizon Cloud, you can create a single-session pool group that includes pools from any provider and add policies to them.
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
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From the Horizon Universal Console, select Pools Groups in the left menu.
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Click Add > Single-Session.
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On the Add Single-Session Pool Group page, enter a unique pool Name.
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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.
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Select an Operating system for the pool group.
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Select a Pool Group type:
- Dedicated desktop for a persistent VDI desktop experience mapped to a single end user.
- Floating desktop for a non-persistent VDI desktop experience that multiple users can access at different times that resets after each session.
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In the Pools section, select one or more pools to add to the pool group and click Next.
Only pools that match the selected Operating system are displayed. For example, when Linux is selected, only Linux pools are available for selection. When Windows is selected, only Windows pools are listed.
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In the Policies section, there are three subsections (Client, Brokering, and SSO).
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 the Site connection affinity field, select the default site that end users will connect to, from Nearest Site and 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 selected, the nearest site is used.
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If available, specify Direct connect only or Internal access only as needed.
SSO Subsection:
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You have the option 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.
Once you have completed the Policies section, click Next.
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In the Auto Scaling section, there are three subsections (Capacity Management, Timeouts, and Auto Scaling Schedule).
Capacity Management Subsection:
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Choose between using Autonomous mode or Auto Scaling mode. Important: This step is only shown for Floating pool groups.
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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.
Timeouts Subsection:
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Your Timeout Handling options will vary based on whether your VM is enabled for hibernation. For more information refer to Timeout Handling of Pool Groups.
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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, Hibernate, or No Action.
Auto Scaling Schedule Subsection:
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Click Add to Add a Auto Scaling Schedule.
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To make changes, select the Name in the table and then click Enable, Disable, Edit, or Delete.
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For more detailed instructions, refer to Auto Scaling Schedule.
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Once you have completed the Auto Scaling section, click Next or click Save & Close.
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In the App Volumes Applications section, select any App Volumes applications that you want to make available on floating desktops. Click Next.
App Volumes Applications selected at pool group level will be delivered to floating VMs. This allocation is in addition to the allocation of App Volumes applications at entitlement (user/user group) level.
Note:
- To deliver an App Volumes application, the App Volumes agent must be installed on the pool image, and the application package must be available in the Horizon Edge. An application package must be available in a particular region for it to be delivered to VM in the same region. The applications without captured packages are not available for selection. The checkbox is deactivated and cannot be selected.
- App Volumes Applications are not supported by Linux pool groups. When you select Linux as the operating system for a single-session pool group, the App Volumes Applications and Application Details sections are not displayed.
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In the Application Details section, select a package for each application.
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If a user is entitled to different packages of the same application through the pool group and through user or user group entitlements, select between Pool group and User/user group entitlement for Conflict Precedence to choose which package should be delivered.
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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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