Create a Manual Desktop Pool in Horizon Console

You can create a manual desktop pool that provisions desktops from existing virtual machines or physical computers. You must select the machines that will be included in the desktop pool.

For manual pools with virtual machines that are managed by vCenter Server, Horizon 7 ensures that a spare machine is powered on so that users can connect to it. The spare machine is powered on no matter which power policy is in effect.

Prerequisites

Prepare the machines to deliver remote desktop access. In a manual pool, you must prepare each machine individually. Horizon Agent must be installed and running on each machine.
To prepare virtual machines managed by vCenter Server, see Creating and Preparing Virtual Machines for Cloning.

To prepare unmanaged virtual machines and physical computers, see Preparing Unmanaged Machines.
Gather the configuration information that you must provide to create the pool. See Worksheet for Creating a Manual Desktop Pool in Horizon Console.
Decide how to configure power settings, display protocol, Adobe Flash quality, and other settings. See Desktop Pool Settings for All Desktop Pool Types in Horizon Console.

Procedure

In Horizon Console, select Inventory > Desktops.
Click Add.
Select Manual Desktop Pool.

Choose virtual machines managed by vCenter Server or unmanaged virtual machines that are not managed by vCenter Server and click Next.

Option	Description
vCenter virtual machines	Virtual machines that are managed by vCenter Server. Select the vCenter Server on which the virtual machines reside.
Other Sources	Physical computers or virtual machines that are not managed by vCenter Server

Select the type of user assignment.

Option	Description
Dedicated	The machine is assigned to one user. Only that user can log in to the desktop. If you select dedicated user assignment, you can also choose to enable automatic user assignment or multi-user assignment. Select Enable automatic user assignment to automatically assign a machine to a user when the user first logs in to the pool. Select Enable Multi-User Assignment to assign multiple users to each machine in the pool. See, Worksheet for Creating a Manual Desktop Pool in Horizon Console.
Floating	The machine is shared by all users who are entitled to the pool. Any entitled user can log in to the desktop as long as another user is not logged in.

Option

Description

Dedicated

The machine is assigned to one user. Only that user can log in to the desktop.

If you select dedicated user assignment, you can also choose to enable automatic user assignment or multi-user assignment.

Select Enable automatic user assignment to automatically assign a machine to a user when the user first logs in to the pool.
Select Enable Multi-User Assignment to assign multiple users to each machine in the pool.

See, Worksheet for Creating a Manual Desktop Pool in Horizon Console.

Floating

The machine is shared by all users who are entitled to the pool. Any entitled user can log in to the desktop as long as another user is not logged in.

Follow the prompts in the wizard to create the pool.
Use the configuration information that you gathered in the worksheet. You can go directly back to any wizard page that you completed by clicking the page name in the navigation panel.

Results

In Horizon Console, you can view the machines as they are added to the pool by selecting Inventory > Desktops.

What to do next

Entitle users to access the pool. See Add Entitlements to a Desktop or Application Pool in Horizon Console.