You must configure Horizon 7 to connect to the vCenter Server instances in your Horizon 7 deployment. vCenter Server creates and manages the virtual machines that Horizon 7 uses in desktop pools.

If you run vCenter Server instances in a Linked Mode group, you must add each vCenter Server instance to Horizon 7 separately.

Horizon 7 connects to the vCenter Server instance using a secure channel (TLS).

Prerequisites

  • Install the Connection Server product license key.
  • Prepare a vCenter Server user with permission to perform the operations in vCenter Server that are necessary to support Horizon 7. To use Horizon Composer, you must give the user additional privileges.

    For details about configuring a vCenter Server user for Horizon 7, see the Horizon 7 Installation document.

  • Verify that a TLS server certificate is installed on the vCenter Server host. In a production environment, install a valid certificate that is signed by a trusted Certificate Authority (CA).

    In a testing environment, you can use the default certificate that is installed with vCenter Server, but you must accept the certificate thumbprint when you add vCenter Server to Horizon 7.

  • Verify that all Connection Server instances in the replicated group trust the root CA certificate for the server certificate that is installed on the vCenter Server host. Check if the root CA certificate is in the Trusted Root Certification Authorities > Certificates folder in the Windows local computer certificate stores on the Connection Server hosts. If it is not, import the root CA certificate into the Windows local computer certificate stores.

    See "Import a Root Certificate and Intermediate Certificates into a Windows Certificate Store," in the Horizon 7 Installation document.

  • Verify that the vCenter Server instance contains ESXi hosts. If no hosts are configured in the vCenter Server instance, you cannot add the instance to Horizon 7.
  • If you upgrade to vSphere 5.5 or a later release, verify that the domain administrator account that you use as the vCenter Server user was explicitly assigned permissions to log in to vCenter Server by a vCenter Server local user.
  • If you plan to use Horizon 7 in FIPS mode, verify that you have vCenter Server 6.0 or later and ESXi 6.0 or later hosts.

    For more information, see "Installing Horizon 7 in FIPS Mode," in the Horizon 7 Installation document.

  • Familiarize yourself with the settings that determine the maximum operations limits for vCenter Server and Horizon Composer.

Procedure

  1. In Horizon Console, navigate to Settings > Servers.
  2. On the vCenter Server tab, click Add.
  3. In the vCenter Server Settings Server address text box, type the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the vCenter Server instance.
    The FQDN includes the host name and domain name. For example, in the FQDN myserverhost.companydomain.com, myserverhost is the host name and companydomain.com is the domain.
    Note: If you enter a server by using a DNS name or URL, Horizon 7 does not perform a DNS lookup to verify whether an administrator previously added this server to Horizon 7 by using its IP address. A conflict arises if you add a vCenter Server with both its DNS name and its IP address.
  4. Type the name of the vCenter Server user.
    For example: domain\user or [email protected]
  5. Type the vCenter Server user password.
  6. (Optional) Type a description for this vCenter Server instance.
  7. Type the TCP port number.
    The default port is 443.
  8. (Optional) Select VMware Cloud on AWS, if the vCenter Server is deployed on VMware Cloud on AWS.
    For more information about integrating Horizon 7 with VMware Cloud on AWS, see the Horizon 7 Integration document.
  9. Under Advanced Settings, set the concurrent operations limits for vCenter Server and Horizon Composer operations.
  10. Click Next and follow the prompts to complete the wizard.

What to do next

Configure Horizon Composer settings.

  • If the vCenter Server instance is configured with a signed TLS certificate, and Connection Server trusts the root certificate, the Add vCenter Server wizard displays the Horizon Composer Settings page.
  • If the vCenter Server instance is configured with a default certificate, you must first determine whether to accept the thumbprint of the existing certificate. See, Accept the Thumbprint of a Default TLS Certificate.

If Horizon 7 uses multiple vCenter Server instances, repeat this procedure to add the other vCenter Server instances.