First-Gen Horizon Cloud Universal Broker and Multi-Cloud Assignments

This documentation page briefly describes the first-generation Universal Broker, its relationship to what are called multi-cloud assignments (MCAs), and the high-level steps for configuring those MCAs.

First-Gen Universal Broker

The first-gen Universal Broker is a cloud-based service that enables the brokering of resources that span multiple pod deployments regardless of the infrastructure they are running on.

The service also makes intelligent brokering decisions based on the geographic sites of users and pods.

Having your first-gen tenant configured with Universal Broker is a prerequisite to creating multi-cloud assignments. A multi-cloud assignment is a pool that spans multiple pods.

Horizon 8 Pods - High-Level Steps for Configuring Multi-Cloud Assignments

To set up multi-cloud assignments of resources from Horizon 8 pods (based on Horizon Connection Server technology), complete the following high-level procedures.

1. Verify that the system components in your Horizon pod environment meet the necessary System Requirements for Universal Broker.
2. Onboard the participating Horizon pods to Horizon Cloud using the most recent version of Horizon Cloud Connector. See Onboarding a Horizon Pod to First-Gen Horizon Control Plane.
3. For each participating pod, prepare the necessary system components for working with Universal Broker.
   1. Horizon Pods - Install the Universal Broker Plugin on the Connection Server. You must install the plugin on every Connection Server instance within the pod.
   2. Horizon Pods - Configure Unified Access Gateway for Use with Universal Broker. You must configure every Unified Access Gateway instance within the pod. If you want to use two-factor authentication for Universal Broker, you must configure the same authentication settings for every Unified Access Gateway instance across all participating pods.
4. Select Universal Broker as the connection broker for Horizon pods in your Horizon Cloud tenant. See Start the Universal Broker Enablement Using the Horizon Universal Console.
5. Configure the Universal Broker settings. See Configure Universal Broker Settings.
6. Enable each participating pod for multi-cloud assignments, as described in Use the Horizon Universal Console to Change a Cloud-Connected Horizon Pod to Managed State.
7. Define the site configuration and home site associations for your Horizon Cloud tenant. See Configuring Sites for Universal Broker and Configuring Home Sites for Universal Broker.
8. Within the participating pods, configure desktop pools with the mandatory settings required by Universal Broker. See Horizon Pods - Prepare an Existing Desktop Pool for Use in a Multi-Cloud Assignment and Horizon Pods - Create a Desktop Pool Suitable for Multi-Cloud Assignments.
9. Configure the multi-cloud assignments. See Horizon Pods - Create a Multi-Cloud Assignment of VDI Desktops.

Horizon Cloud Pods in Microsoft Azure - High-Level Steps for Configuring Multi-Cloud Assignments

To set up multi-cloud assignments of resources from Horizon Cloud pods, complete the following high-level procedures.

1. Verify that the Horizon Cloud pods are running pod manifest 2298.0 or later.

   Note: Universal Broker is only supported if all the tenant's Horizon Cloud pods are running pod manifest 2298.0 or later. The pod manifest 2298.0 debuted with the service's July 2020 release.

2. Verify that the system components in your pod meet the necessary System Requirements for Universal Broker.

3. Select Universal Broker as the tenant-wide connection broker for Horizon Cloud pods. See Start the Universal Broker Enablement Using the Horizon Universal Console.

4. Configure the Universal Broker settings. See Configure Universal Broker Settings.

5. Define the site configuration and home site associations for your Horizon Cloud tenant. See Configuring Sites for Universal Broker and Configuring Home Sites for Universal Broker.

6. Configure the multi-cloud assignments. See Horizon Cloud Pods in Microsoft Azure - Creating and Viewing VDI Multi-Cloud Assignments in Your First-Gen Environment.