You must install View Agent on a Linux virtual machine before you can deploy the machine as a remote desktop.

To install View Agent you must supply the credential of a View administrator. The installer sends the credential to Connection Server for authentication. The following authentication mechanisms are supported:
  • DIGEST-MD5. This mechanism requires that the Active Directory policy Store password using reversible encryption is enabled. For details about enabling this policy, see Enable Reversible Password Encryption.
  • Kerberos. To use this mechanism, you must specify the Active Directory server's address using the -k command line option. Also, for the required parameter -b, you must provide Connection Server's fully qualified domain name (FQDN) using the real host name and domain name. You cannot use an IP address or a mapped FQDN.
Caution: If you intend to use NVIDIA GRID vGPU, vDGA, or vSGA, you must configure these 3D features on the Linux virtual machine before you install View Agent. If you install View Agent first, required parameters in the xorg.conf file are overwritten, and the 3D graphics features do not work.

See Configure RHEL 6.6 and RHEL 7.1 for vGPU, Configure RHEL 6.6 for vDGA, or Configure RHEL 7.1 for vSGA. Install View Agent after the 3D graphics configuration is completed.

For 2D graphics configuration, you can install View Agent after you complete the steps in Prepare a Linux Machine for Remote Desktop Deployment.

Prerequisites

  • Verify that the Linux guest operating system is prepared for desktop use. See Prepare a Linux Machine for Remote Desktop Deployment.
  • Familiarize yourself with the View Agent installer script for Linux. See install_viewagent.sh Command Line Options.
  • Verify that the View Connection Server administrator that you provide with the installation command has the Agent Registration Administrators or Administrators role in View Administrator. Specifically, the Register Agent privilege is required to register View Agent with View Connection Server. Agent Registration Administrators is a restricted role that provides this minimum privilege.
  • If your installation environment is using multiple domains, ensure that the View administrator user account is in the same domain as the View Connection Server.

  • Verify that port 389 is available for the Linux View Agent to be able to communicate with the View Connection Server during the View Agent installation.

Procedure

  1. Download the View Agent for Linux installer file from the VMware download site at https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/downloads.
    Under Desktop & End-User Computing, select the VMware Horizon 6 download, which includes the View Agent for Linux installer.

    The installer filename is VMware-viewagent-linux-x86_64-y.y.y-xxxxxxx.tar.gz for 64-bit Linux or VMware-viewagent-linux-y.y.y-xxxxxxx.tar.gz for 32-bit Linux, where y.y.y is the version number and xxxxxxx is the build number.

  2. Unpack the tarball for your Linux distribution on the guest operating system.
    For example: 
    tar -xzvf <View Agent tar ball>
  3. Navigate to the tar ball folder.
  4. Run the install_viewagent.sh script as superuser.
    See install_viewagent.sh Command Line Options for a list of the command line options.
    For example: 
    sudo ./install_viewagent.sh -b mybroker.mydomain.com -d mydomain.com -u administrator -p password

    The -b parameter specifies the View Connection Server instance to which the Linux machine is registered. You can use an FQDN or IP address with the -b parameter.

    The -d, -u, and -p parameters specify the domain, user name, and password of the View administrator. In the password, be sure to escape special characters such as $. For example: ab\$cdef

    If you do not type the -p parameter with the command, you are prompted to provide the password after you enter the command. When you type the password at the prompt, the text is hidden.

    By default, the hostname of the Linux machine is used to register the machine. You can specify a different machine name with the -n parameter.

  5. Type Yes to accept the EULA if you run install_viewagent.sh without specifying the -A option.
    The installer does not run unless you accept the EULA.
  6. Reboot Linux for the changes to take effect.

Results

After installation, the machine is registered with View Connection Server, and the viewagent service is started. You can verify that the service is started by running the #service viewagent status command.

If an Agent Registration Failed message appears, see Troubleshooting View Agent Registration Failure for a Linux Machine.

If another View Agent issue occurs, see Troubleshooting Linux Desktops.

Note: The install_viewagent.sh script installs JRE 8 in the View Agent installation directory, /usr/lib/vmware/viewagent/jre, on the Linux virtual machine. View Agent requires JRE 8.

What to do next

Deploy the virtual machine in a desktop pool. See Create a Desktop Pool That Contains Linux Virtual Machines.