Configuring User Accounts for vCenter Server, View Composer, and Instant Clones

To use vCenter Server with Horizon 7, you must configure a user account with appropriate vCenter Server privileges. You can create a vCenter Server role with the appropriate privileges and assign that role to the vCenter Server user account.

If you install View Composer on a different machine than vCenter Server, you also must create a user account in Active Directory that Horizon 7 can use to authenticate to the View Composer service on the standalone machine.

If you use View Composer, you must create a third user account in Active Directory that allows View Composer to perform certain operations in Active Directory. View Composer requires this account to join linked-clone virtual machines to your Active Directory domain. See Create a User Account for View Composer AD Operations.

If you use instant clones, you must create a user account in Active Directory that allows Connection Server to perform certain operations in Active Directory. Connection Server requires this account to join instant-clone virtual machines to your Active Directory domain. See Create a User Account for Instant-Clone Operations.

To summarize, when you configure Horizon 7 for the first time, you provide these user accounts in Horizon Administrator:

• The vCenter Server user allows Horizon 7 and View Composer to perform operations in vCenter Server.
• The standalone View Composer Server user allows Horizon 7 to authenticate to the View Composer service on a standalone machine.

  If you install View Composer on the same machine as vCenter Server, the vCenter Server user performs both of the preceding functions, and you do not use a standalone View Composer Server user.

• The View Composer user for AD operations allows View Composer to perform certain operations in Active Directory.
• The instant clone user for AD operations allows Connection Server to perform certain operations in Active Directory.