Horizon View 7.0 – Part 1 – Horizon View Components

VMware gives its own Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) in the name of Horizon View which enables IT management to control over the desktop Services. VMware Horizon is to be installed over your existing VMware vSphere environment to automate the environment and helps in decreasing the cost of Desktop and increasing the security of the environment. In this post I have discussed about the components and the architecture of VMware Horizon View.

Horizon View Components

Connection Server

It is the core component which acts as the broker between the Clients and the Virtual Desktops. All the incoming user requests are authenticated with Active Directory and then redirect them to the appropriate Physical or Virtual Desktops. The entire VDI can be managed via Web Portal of the connection server.

Security Server

The Security Server allows the users to connect to their environment which is an internal network from the internet.

Replica Server

View Replica Servers are used to provide High Availability and Load Balancing for the Connection Servers. After the installation of the Replica Server, it replicates all the data from the Connection Servers. VMware View by default does not include an load balancer. You need to use external load balancer to load balance among the Connection Server and Replica Servers.

View Agent

The View Agent is to be installed on the Terminal Servers, Physical Servers and all the Virtual Servers in order for them to be managed by View and will be delivered as Desktops. Features like connection monitoring, Virtual Printing, USB support, and single sign-on will be available only after installing the View Agent.

View Client

The VMware View Client is an client-side software which communicates with Connection Server or Security Server to connect to the Desktops.

View Persona Management

View Persona Management is used to synchronize user profiles dynamically. This feature is similar to the Roaming Profile feature in Windows but with advanced features.

View Composer

The View Composer Server is required if you need to use the Linked Clone Feature.

VMware ThinApp

ThinApp is an application packaging solution which packages the application and can be dynamically attached to the Desktops rather than the traditional method of installing them on the machines. It is similar to portable applications.

Official Website:

http://www.vmware.com/in/products/horizon.html

https://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/view_pubs.html

HOL:

http://www.vmware.com/products/horizon/horizon-hol.html

VMware Horizon comes with 3 editions namely Standard, Advanced and Enterprise. The features comparison are available at http://www.vmware.com/products/horizon.html#compare

A detailed introduction to the History is available at Wikipedia.

See Next:

Part 2 – Pre-requisites for Horizon View 7

See Also:

Part 1 – Horizon View Components
Part 2 – Pre-requisites for Horizon View 7
Part 3 – Installation of Connection Server
Part 4 – Installation of Security Server
Part 5 – Adding License to Horizon View
Part 6 – Adding vCenter Server
Part 7 – Configure Events Database
Part 8 – RDS Farm
Part 9 – Horizon View Client
Part 10 – Create Master Template
Part 11 – Desktop Pools
Part 12 – Installation of View Composer