First-Gen Omnissa Horizon Cloud - Image Management Service (IMS) Guide

This documentation set describes how to use Horizon Image Management Service (IMS) within a first-generation Horizon Cloud service environment, including how to set up the service and how to create, customize, and publish versions of images for use by desktop assignments across your cloud-connected Horizon pods.

Attention: This information applies solely when you have access to a first-gen tenant environment in the first-gen control plane. As described in KB-92424, the first-gen control plane has reached end of availability (EOA). See that article for details.

As of August 2022, Horizon Cloud is generally available and has its own guide, Using Horizon Control Plane.

An indication of which environment you have, Horizon Cloud or first-gen, is the pattern that appears in the browser's URL field after you log in to your environment and see the Horizon Universal Console label. For a Horizon Cloud environment, the console's URL address contains a portion like /hcsadmin/. The first-gen console's URL has a different section (/horizonadmin/).

Remember: As described in Tour of the Cloud-Based Horizon Universal Console, the first-gen console is dynamic and reflects features that are appropriate for the up-to-the-minute configuration of your first-gen tenant environment. Access to features described in this documentation can depend on factors including, and not limited to:

• Whether the feature depends on system code available only in the latest first-gen Horizon Cloud pod manifest, Horizon pod version, or Horizon Cloud Connector version.
• Whether access to the feature is in Limited Availability, as stated in the Release Notes at the feature's debut.
• Whether the feature requires specific licensing or SKUs.

When you see mention of a feature in this documentation and you do not see that feature in the first-gen console, first check the Release Notes to see if the feature's access is limited and the way you can request enablement in your tenant. Alternatively, when you believe you are entitled to use a feature that is described in this documentation and you do not see it in the console, you can ask your Horizon Cloud service representative or, if you do not have a representative, you can log in to your Customer Connect account at https://customerconnect.omnissa.com and file a support request (SR) .

Intended Audience

If you need to set up, customize, and publish system images for Horizon desktop assignments in a first-generation environment, this information is for you. The information is written for experienced Windows system administrators who are familiar with virtual machine technology and data center operations.

First-Gen Tenants - Introduction to Horizon Image Management Service (IMS)

This documentation page introduces the IMS features that are available for use within a first-generation Horizon Cloud service environment.

IMS - Cloud-Based Service

At an overarching level, IMS is a cloud-based service that simplifies and automates the management of system images used by desktop assignments, such as desktop pools and farms, across your cloud-connected Horizon pods.

Key Benefits

The Horizon workflow depends upon the timely and diligent administration of the system images underlying the virtual machines and desktop assignments provisioned to end users. The management of system images can be a tedious and time-consuming process, as every customization to an image requires the administrator to update the associated desktop assignments one by one.

First-generation IMS simplifies and streamlines this process by offering the following features and benefits.

• Centralized catalog for images managed across your sites and cloud-connected Horizon pods.
• Automated replication of system images across your cloud-connected Horizon pods. Desktop assignments on different pods and sites can easily reuse the same images managed by the service.
• Automated version control and tracking of images.
• Automated updates of desktop assignments with customized images, by using reference markers. You can easily and efficiently update desktop assignments in this way across your sites and cloud-connected Horizon pods.

As a result, IMS significantly reduces the time and effort required to maintain desktop assignments with the latest images, allowing administrators to devote more attention to customizing the business-critical operating system settings and applications on the images themselves.

First-Gen Tenants - Getting Started with IMS

This documentation page provides the high-level steps that you must complete to start using the Horizon Image Management Service (IMS) features that are available within a first-generation Horizon Cloud environment.

IMS in a First-Gen Tenant - High-Level Steps

Note: Some of these high-level steps refer to instructions in pages within the first-generation Horizon Cloud Horizon Cloud - Deployments and Onboarding Pods or Administration of Your Horizon Cloud Tenant Environment and Your Fleet of Onboarded Pods. Use the hypertext links provided in the high-level steps to open the HTML documentation pages containing detailed instructions.

1. Familiarize yourself with the First-Gen - Horizon Image Management Service System Requirements and with the current known limitations and issues.

   Those pages contain key information such as which Horizon pod deployment models are currently supported for use with IMS and which required versions of the key software components.

2. Add your pod to your first-gen tenant's pod fleet.

   • For Horizon pod deployments, which use Connection Server software, follow the steps to use Horizon Cloud Connector to connect the pod to your first-gen tenant, starting with the page First-Gen Tenants - Onboarding a Horizon 8 Pod to First-Gen Horizon Control Plane.
   • For first-generation Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure deployments, follow the steps starting with First-Gen Tenants - Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure Deployments - High-Level Sequence.

3. For Horizon 8 pods, set up the participating vCenter Server instances.

   1. Verify that the vCenter Server instances meet the prerequisites described in the system requirements.
   2. Configure the vCenter Server login credentials. See Configuring the vCenter Server Instances.

4. Import images into the image catalog.

   • For images sourced from vCenter Server, see Import an Image from vCenter into the Image Catalog.
   • For images sourced from Microsoft Azure Marketplace, see First-Gen Tenants - IMS and Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure Deployments - Import an Image into the Image Catalog.

5. Publish the image versions. See First-Gen IMS - Publishing the Image Version.

6. Create desktop assignments that use managed images from the image catalog.

   • For assignments involving managed images from Horizon 8 pods, see Create a New Desktop Pool for Multi-Cloud Assignments and Cloud-Connected Horizon Pods - Create an Automated Farm from a Managed Image.

     Note: Applicable for this pod type, in this guide, a desktop assignment refers to one of the following: automated full-clone desktop pool, automated instant-clone desktop pool, automated instant-clone farm.

   • For assignments involving managed images from Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure deployments, see Pods in Microsoft Azure - Creating VDI Multi-Cloud Assignments with Managed Images.

After performing the preceding steps, IMS is now set up for your first-gen environment.