When you plan to deploy a Horizon Cloud environment using Horizon 8 as your capacity provider, the process begins with deploying a Horizon Edge. A Horizon Edge defines the connection point between the cloud-managed Horizon Cloud Control Plane and your on-premises or co-located Horizon 8 environment. This environment includes your underlying virtualization platform, networking, gateways, and desktop or RDSH workloads.
The preparatory information that follows outlines the overall purpose, key concepts, and preparation required before you proceed with the requirements checklist and configuration tasks.
What a Horizon Cloud on Horizon 8 Edge Deployment Provides
Flexibility and Scalability - You can use an existing Horizon 8 environment and scale as your needs evolve. Each Horizon Edge can consume resources from one or more supported virtualization platforms, and you can add additional Horizon Edges or capacity providers over time to support growth.
Unified Cloud Management - Although your virtual desktops and applications run within your Horizon 8 environment, management and orchestration remain centralized in the Horizon Cloud Control Plane. This approach simplifies operations and provides consistent visibility across your deployments.
Key Concepts
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Capacity Provider - For Horizon 8 deployments, your supported virtualization platform serves as the capacity provider that supplies compute, storage, and network resources to the Horizon Edge.
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Virtualization Platform and Network Resources - A Horizon 8 Edge requires a correctly prepared virtualization platform, including clusters or resource pools, storage, networks, and connectivity that support desktop and RDSH workloads.
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Gateways and Networking - A Horizon Edge includes gateway appliances that support user access and management traffic. Proper networking must be configured, including routing, firewall rules, load balancing, and other required networking constructs, to ensure secure and reliable communication.
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Identity and Permissions - You must configure appropriate platform-level and Horizon 8 credentials and permissions to allow the Horizon Cloud Control Plane to discover, orchestrate, and manage resources in your Horizon 8 environment.
What to Expect
Be prepared to complete the following before deployment:
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A Horizon 8 Environment - A deployed, licensed, and functional Horizon 8 environment running on a supported virtualization platform, including the Horizon components that support your desktop or RDSH workloads.
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Platform Identity and Permissions Configured - Ensure that Horizon Cloud can authenticate to your virtualization platform with an account that has sufficient permissions to access, provision, and manage the required resources.
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Plan your networking topology
- Identify the networks used for management, gateway, and desktop workloads.
- Confirm routing and firewall rules that allow communication between Horizon Cloud and the Horizon 8 components.
- Validate load balancing and DMZ configurations if your deployment requires external user access.
- Ensure that gateway, connection, and platform management endpoints are reachable from the Horizon Cloud Control Plane.
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Prepare DNS, Domain, and Identity Integration - To support domain-joined desktops or single sign-on, verify that your Active Directory and DNS infrastructure are accessible from the Horizon 8 environment. This infrastructure might be located on-premises, in a data center, or in a hybrid configuration.
How This Getting Started Section Is Structured
The topics that follow this introduction guide you through each step required to prepare for deployment, including:
- A requirements checklist
- Preparing virtualization platform and Horizon 8 roles, permissions, and connectivity
- Networking requirements, including routing, firewall rules, and load balancing
- DNS, domain, and identity prerequisites such as Active Directory and single sign-on
- Horizon 8–specific configuration and provider registration in Horizon Cloud
- (Optional) Guidance for scaling, multiple capacity providers, and multi-Edge deployments
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