Publish an Image with vSphere

After you add an image and verify its details, you can publish the image from Horizon Cloud. Before performing any of the following steps, also review key information at

Prerequisites

Confirm that the following tasks have been completed:

• Domain registration.
• The Microsoft Entra ID is connected to Cloud Services.
• The site was created successfully.
• The Unified Access Gateway (UAG) and Edge gateway are connected and ready.
• The image has been verified and is unpublished.
• The softwareupdate.omnissa.com URL is resolvable and reachable from the management and tenant (desktop) subnets using the 443 port over TCP protocol for downloading agent-related software used in the system image creation operations.
• Note: When you assign a policy, you can select exclusions, which are resources to exclude from the policy assignment. If you use this method, select image-related resources to exclude from the policy.
• For GPU VM Models, make sure that NVIDIA GPU drivers are installed on the VM.
• For information on Windows images, see Install NVIDIA GPU drivers on N-series VMs running Windows.
• At least one virtual network and tenant (desktop) subnet is selected for the provider.
• Horizon Cloud automatically installs the Horizon Agent (HAI) during the publishing workflow for supported Windows-based images. Agent installation during image publish is not supported for Linux images. For Linux images, you must install the Horizon Agent inside the VM before adding the image. However, if installing the agent before the publishing workflow is necessary for your specific Windows use case, refer to KB 91998. If you do manually install the Horizon Agent, deselect the Install Horizon Agent toggle when you perform the publishing workflow.
• All OS updates are completed with no pending reboots.
• For Windows 11 24H2 and above, make sure to login with the admin credentials that were provided when the image was added.

Procedure

1. From the Horizon Universal Console, select Images in the the left menu. Click an image that is in a Ready to Publish state.

2. On the Image Details page, select the image Version, and click the drop-down Unpublished > Publish.

3. Under the Destination section, the image version you selected above will be imported to the Source Horizon Edge. This option is pre-selected and cannot be changed. To publish the Image to more Horizon Edges, select the appropriate checkboxes in the table. Then click Next.

4. Under Properties > VM details, configure the required settings and click Next after completing all options.

   • Clone Type: Select the full clone or instant clone.

     • Full Clone: Creates a new VM in the vCenter Server for each desktop or application.
     • Instant Clone: Shares the virtual disk and memory of a parent VM and consumes less storage than a full clone.

   • Multi Session: Select the multi session for Server operating system.

   • Turn Off Automatic Windows Update: Enable this option to disable automatic Windows Updates and certain physical desktop features. This can improve virtual machine performance, optimize resource utilization, and help prevent issues related to Microsoft Windows Sysprep during image deployment.

   • Remove Windows Store Apps: Enable this option to remove AppX packages and disable automatic Microsoft Store application updates and downloads. This can improve virtual machine performance and help avoid Microsoft Windows Sysprep issues during image preparation and deployment.

   • Description: Add the description for the image properties. Click Next.

5. Install Horizon Agent: Toggle this OFF if the image already has your preferred agents installed in it.

   Note: The Install Horizon Agent toggle is ON by default because typically an image will not already have agents installed on it and you will have the publishing operation install the agents. When this toggle is ON and you click Publish, the system will run the agent installation process on the image as part of publishing the image. However, if the image already has your preferred agents installed, ensure that you toggle this OFF to avoid operation conflicts that could occur if the toggle is on because the system will again run the agent installation process on an image in which the agents are already installed.