Configuring and Using Windows 365 Integration

Integrated Windows 365 brings added remote access capabilties to Windows 365 users working in the Horizon Cloud environment.

Desktop and application virtualization is in high demand as organizations increasingly embrace hybrid and remote work for their employees. Leveraging the cloud is driving IT organizations to rethink desktop and app virtualization. Using the cloud can help IT simplify desktop management while enabling new use cases, such as high availability, disaster recovery, and cloud bursting.

To help customers on their digital transformation journey, we have partnered with Microsoft to deliver desktop deployment solutions such as Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure. We are excited to include an integrated Windows 365 option to our collaboration with Microsoft.

Windows 365 delivers Cloud PCs a complete and secure Windows experience hosted in the Microsoft Cloud and is accessible on any device. From temporary workers to software developers and remote employees, integrated Windows 365 enables a variety of scenarios for Horizon Cloud users.

Process Overview

There are two primary methods for getting started with integrated Windows 365. If you do not yet have a tenant, you will access the Get Started with Windows 365 landing page from the Horizon Universal Console Home page. If you already have a tenant, you will access the Windows 365 integration workflow by clicking Integrations > Windows 365 from the Horizon Universal Console.

The Get Started with Windows 365 landing page is designed to simplify your integration and onboarding experience. As shown in the first tile, the first step is to connect your existing Microsoft Azure Active Domain to your Omnissa Horizon Cloud. Subsequently, as shown in the second tile, you'll establish connectivity between your Windows 365 account and Horizon Cloud. Once connected, you configure required resources and begin using the Windows 365 integration within your Horizon Cloud environment. The 3rd tile then lists the step sequence (also shown below) to onboard and entitle your users and assets. The Get Started with Windows 365 landing page is not available if a Horizon Edge for Windows 365 is already onboarded. If there is no Horizon Edge in your environment that has been configured for use with Windows 365, the page is available.

Depending on how you access the integration procedure (from the Horizon Universal Console Home page or its Integrations page), you may be guided by the UI to the next step in the workflow. For situations where the guidance is not included in the UI, the topics in this section of the documentation provide the required and sequential steps.

The overall step sequence is as follows:

1. Configure identity and access provider settings. See Configure identity and access provider information for integrated Windows 365.

2. Establish a connection between Horizon Cloud and your Windows 365 account. See Connect to Windows 365.

   Note: You can optionally set default agent features immediately after establishing a connection between Horizon Cloud and your Windows 365 account. See Customize default agent features for new provisioning policies for integrated Windows 365.

   After you have configured your identity and access provider settings and connected to Windows 365, the overall workflow is as follows:

3. Add a Horizon Edge. See Add a Horizon Edge for integrated Windows 365.

4. Add a resource provider. See Add a resource provider for integrated Windows 365.

5. Create a pool. See Create a pool for use with integrated Windows 365.

6. Specify default agent features. See Customize default agent features for new provisioning policies for integrated Windows 365.

   Note: This can also be done immediately after establishing a connection between Horizon Cloud and your Windows 365 account.

7. Map pools to provisioning policy. See Map pools to provisioning policies for integrated Windows 365.

8. Entitle users and onboard VMs. See Entitle users to work with integrated Windows 365.

Considerations and Prerequisites

• If you create Windows 365 cloud PCs using Microsoft’s Custom Image feature for Windows 365, you should not install the Horizon agent onto the image. Instead, The agent will be automatically installed by Horizon after you have been entitled to the Windows 365 pool group in Horizon Cloud.

• Windows 365 Frontline is not currently supported for Windows 365 integration in Horizon Cloud. Only Windows 365 Enterprise dedicated desktops are supported.

• The Horizon Edge that you use when working with integrated Windows 365 must be deployed in the same Microsoft Azure region as your Azure Cloud PCs. Omnissa recommends that you deploy the Edge to the same region as your Windows 365 Cloud PC VMs.

• Microsoft Azure subscription subnets require line of sight to your Windows 365 Cloud PCs. Windows 365 must be able to access the Horizon Edge subnets. The Windows 365 provisioning policy must have a properly configured Azure Network Connection to provide the required direct line of site. This is not a default option for the Windows 365 provisioning policy. For related innformation see Create Azure network connection in Microsoft documentation. For additional information, see Make Appropriate Destination URLs Reachable to Deploy a Horizon Edge Gateway in a Microsoft Azure Environment.

• During the Windows 365 integration process, the Horizon agent is installed on the applicable Microsoft Azure VMs. To support this action, the Horizon Control Plane URLs must be whitelisted. For related information, see Port and Protocol Requirements for Your Horizon Cloud Deployment in Microsoft Azure.

Procedure

1. To begin the integration if you have not yet configured a tenant, you'll see the Welcome to Horizon Universal Console integration landing page from the Home page of the Horizon Universal Console. Click Select on the Windows 365 tile to open the Get Started with Windows 365 page.

   Note: If a tenant is already configured, you can click Integrations from the Horizon Universal Console and then click Manage on the Windows 365 tile.

2. Begin the integration step sequence by configuring identity and access. See Configure identity and access provider information for integrated Windows 365.

   Note: The next step in the integration process sequence appears at the end of each documentation topic in the workflow.

Omnissa Operations and Questions about Windows 365 integration in Horizon Cloud

Please reach out to Omnissa Operations at Omnissa Customer Connect as your first call for any questions you may have or issues you may experience in accessing Windows 365 PCs by way of this Windows 365 integration workflow.

Moving resources from Windows 365 Tech Preview to integrated Windows 365 Horizon Cloud

If you configured Windows 365 Cloud PC resources while working in the Horizon Cloud for Windows 365 Tech Preview, you cannot automatically use those resources in the general availability implementation of integrated Windows 365 in Horizon Cloud.

To re-enable onboarding of those resources, you must uninstall all onboarded VMs, offboard from Windows 365 entirely, and then reach out to the Omnissa Ops team to enable onboarding again for them. You can reach Omnissa Ops at Omnissa Customer Connect.

For related information, see Disconnecting integrated Windows 365 from Horizon Cloud.