Carbon Black has improved how you view and manage Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) assets in the Carbon Black Cloud console.

It is important to understand how your environmental configuration impacts how VDI data is represented.

Note: To enable the VDI Clone functionality in your environment, you must contact Carbon Black support.

VDI clones are listed as a separate type of asset in the Carbon Black Cloud console. You can initiate and manage sensor registration on clones, and policy assignments from the Inventory page of the console.

You can create clones through Horizon, Citrix, or vCenter Server. With Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) enabled and Carbon Black Cloud Windows Sensor version 3.7 Maintenance Release 2 and above, the sensor identifies the Horizon and Citrix VDI clones.
  • To identify if a clone is a Horizon VDI clone, the sensor checks for specific fields set by the Horizon Agent service and sends that information to the Cloud.
  • To identify if a clone is a Citrix-based VDI clone, the sensor checks if a Citrix Agent service exists on the asset, and reports that asset as a Citrix VDI clone in the Cloud.
    Note: VDI assets that Citrix manages that are not part of a vSphere environment are not treated as Workloads. The following table explains where VDI clones and associated Golden Images display in the Carbon Black Cloud console, depending on your licensing and feature enablement.
    If the VDI Clones Feature is: If Endpoint Protection is: If Cloud Workload Protection is: Golden Images Display in Inventory > VDI Clones Display in Inventory >
    Enabled Enabled Enabled Workloads VDI Clones
    Enabled Enabled Not Enabled Endpoints VDI Clones
    Enabled Not Enabled Enabled Workloads VDI Clones
    Not Enabled Enabled Enabled Workloads Workloads
    Not Enabled Enabled Not Enabled Endpoints Endpoints
    Not Enabled Not Enabled Enabled Workloads Workloads

vCenter Server clones, which are not managed by Horizon or Citrix, are not detected as VDI clones. These assets are displayed under Inventory > VM Workloads if you have Cloud Workload Protection enabled.

If you have installed the Carbon Black Cloud Workload Appliance, you can view additional vSphere metadata such as ESXi host and vCenter Server for VDI Clones and Golden Images that are deployed to vSphere.

Workload Appliance also provides visibility into which VDI assets have a Carbon Black Sensor installed.

After you create your instant-clone desktop pools in the Horizon Console, the Carbon Black Sensor on the Golden Image auto-registers on the available clones. All clones that have registered sensors are available in the Inventory page.

The Carbon Black Cloud console represents a golden image and its clones as a parent-child relationship if you have the VDI Clones feature enabled. You can recognize a golden image that contains clones by its chart icon on the Inventory page. When you double-click the Golden Image row, you can view the number of clones with which this Golden Image identifies. Selecting the clones opens the Inventory > VDI Clones page, where you can view details on all the clones associated with the specified Golden Image.