Creating a Pool and Pool Group for Nutanix Provider

You create pools, add pools to pool groups, and entitle users to pools and pool groups after you create an image for the Nutanix Edge provider type. After entitling users, you can configure SSO for the Nutanix Edge.

Note: Horizon Cloud on Nutanix is currently available in Limited Availability (LA) mode only.

Note that the term base VM may also be referred to as Golden image in this and related documentation.

Prerequisites

To create a pool for a Nutanix provider type, you need a Horizon Cloud on Nutanix Edge and image and a configured Universal Access Gateway (UAG).

• Create a Horizon Cloud on Nutanix Edge and configure the UAG. See Add and Deploy a Horizon Edge for Nutanix and Create a UAG Deployment for a Nutanix Edge.

• Create or register an image for use with a Horizon Cloud on Nutanix Edge. See Managing Images for Nutanix Provider Deployments.

Create a Pool

Create a pool for use with a Horizon Cloud on Nutanix Edge by using the following procedure. For related information, see the on-screen help and the general information in the Creating or Editing a Pool section of this Horizon Cloud documentation.

1. Log in to Horizon Cloud.

2. In the left pane navigation, click Pools > Add > Horizon Cloud > Nutanix to open the Add Pool stepper UI for a Horizon Cloud on Nutanix pool creation.

3. Enter a unique name for the pool in the Pool name field, optionally add a Description, and select a Pool type.

   • Dedicated single-session - Use for the persistent VDI desktop experience where each desktop is mapped to a single user.
     
   • Floating single-session - Use for the non-persistent VDI desktop experience where multiple users can use the desktop at different times and the desktop resets after each user session.
     
   • Multi-session - Use for session-based published desktops and applications.

4. In the Destination section, complete the following entries:

   • Select a Site where the pool is to be deployed.
     
   • Select the Horizon Edge to use.
     
   • Select the Provider for this deployment.

5. In the Image section, select either Prism Central or Image Catalog as the image Source.

   If you select Prism Central as the image source, enter the following information:
   
   - Template: Specify a Prism VM template (image) from the list of available templates in Prism Central by selecting the name from the drop-down menu.
   - OS Type: Select the operating system for the chosen a Prism VM template (image) from the drop-down menu.
   - Confirm that you have a valid and eligible Windows OS license.

   If you select Image Catalog as the image source, enter the following information:
   
   - Image: Specify an image published in Horizon Cloud by selecting its name from the drop-down menu.
   - Version: Select the image version to use from the drop-down menu.
   - Confirm that you have a valid and eligible Windows OS license.

6. In the Provisioning section, complete the following entries:

   • Provision VMs - On Demand - Using this option, VMs are created as needed.
     

     • Minimum Spare VMs: Specify the number of VMs that should always be available.
       
     • Maximum Spare VMs: Specify the maximum number of available VMs.
       
     • Maximum VMs: Specify the maximum number of VMs that the pool can have. The pool will never have more than this number of provisioned VMs.
       

   • Provision VMs - All at once - Using this option, all VMs are created immediately. For Maximum VMs, specify the maximum number of VMs that the pool can have.

7. In the Nutanix Prism Central Settings section, complete the following entries:

   • Cluster: Select the cluster from the drop-down menu then click Save. You can also filter on the cluster name by using the search option.
     
   • Network: Select the network that the pool will use for virtual machine deployment.

8. In the VM Details section, complete the following entries:

   • CPU: Select the number of CPUs that you want to deploy the VDI desktops with.
     
   • Cores per Socket: Enter the number of cores per socket. This value must evenly divide the total CPU count. For example for 8 CPUs, valid values are 1, 2, 4, or 8.
     
   • RAM: Enter the amount of memory in GB to use.

9. In the Machine Identity (Domain) section, complete the following entries:

   Note: This section pertains to the Active Directory domain to which the pool VMs will be joined.

   • Machine Identity: Select the registered domain from the drop-down menu.
     
   • Computer OU: If you do not want to use the default OU specified in the domain, you can choose to specify the full OU path to a different OU here.
     

10. In the Properties section, complete the following entries:

    • VM name prefix: Enter the prefix to be used for VM names in this pool. The prefix name can be up to 11 characters.
      
    • Reuse VM Names: Enable this option if you want VM names to be reused after VMs are deleted.
      
    • Time Zone: Specify the time zone for new pool VMs.
      
    • Automatically adjust clock to daylight savings time: Enable this option to allow the VM clock to adjust automatically.
      
    • Desktop Admin Username: Specify the user name for an account on the image VM that has administrator privileges assigned to it. Ensure that the local account you provide is different from the administrator account.
      
    • Desktop Admin Password: Enter the password for the above account.
      
    • Confirm Desktop Admin Password: Repeat the password to confirm.

11. In the Dynamic Environment Manager section, select an existing DEM configuration from the drop-down menu and click Next.

12. On the Workspace ONE UEM page, enable the Enroll in UEM option if you want to enroll the desktops into your Workspace ONE UEM service or just click Save. If you enable the Enroll in UEM option, specify the following information and then click Save.

    • UEM device services server URL: Specify the UEM Device Services Server URL of your Workspace ONE UEM tenant.
      
    • Organization group ID: Specify the name of the Organization Group where the VMs in this pool should be enrolled.
      
    • Staging username: Specify the account name to use for staging VMs in this pool.
    • Staging password: Specify the password for the staging account.
      

Note that Intelligence Hub must be staged in the image or Workspace ONE UEM enrollment will fail.

Create a Pool Group and Entitle Users

After you create the pool, you can create the pool group and entitle users. See Creating or Editing a Pool Group.

For Direct Connect capabilities, see Configure a Pool Group Client as Direct Connect for Internal User Access.

Configure Single Sign-On for Entitled Users

For information about configuring single sign-on for entitled users, see Add an SSO Configuration for Horizon Cloud CA.

To use an existing SSO configuration for a Nutanix Edge, you can associate that SSO configuration with a specific Horizon Edge, as described below:

1. Select Capacity > Horizon Edges, select a Horizon Edge with which to associate your newly added SSO configuration, and click Edit.

2. On the Edit Horizon Edge page, click Next for each step of the wizard until you reach the Horizon Edge Gateway section and select the Use SSO toggle to activate it.

3. Select the name of your SSO configuration and click Next.