After logging in to View Connection Server, you can connect to the remote desktops and applications that you are authorized to use.
Before you have end users access their remote desktops and applications, test that you can connect to a remote desktop or application from a client device. You must specify a server and supply credentials for your user account.
To use remote applications, you must connect to View Connection Server 6.0 or later.
Prerequisites
- Obtain the credentials you need to log in, such as a user name and password, RSA SecurID user name and passcode, RADIUS authentication user name and passcode, or smart card personal identification number (PIN).
- Obtain the NETBIOS domain name for logging in. For example, you would use mycompany rather than mycompany.com.
- Perform the administrative tasks described in Preparing Connection Server for Horizon Client.
- If you are outside the corporate network and are not using a security server to access the remote desktop, verify that your client device is set up to use a VPN connection and turn that connection on.
Important: VMware recommends using a security server rather than a VPN.
- Verify that you have the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the server that provides access to the remote desktop or application. Note that underscores (_) are not supported in server names. You also need the port number if the port is not 443.
- If you plan to use the RDP display protocol to connect to a remote desktop, verify that the AllowDirectRDP agent group policy setting is enabled.
- If your administrator has allowed it, you can configure the certificate checking mode for the SSL certificate presented by View Connection Server. To determine which mode to use, see Certificate Checking Modes for Horizon Client.
Procedure
Results
After you are connected, the remote desktop or application window appears. If you are entitled to more than one desktop or application, the desktop and application selector window also remains open, so that you can connect to multiple items at the same time.
If you have Horizon Client 3.4 or later, the Sharing dialog box might appear. From the Sharing dialog box, you can allow or deny access to files on your local system. For more information, see Share Access to Local Folders and Drives.
If authentication to View Connection Server fails or if the client cannot connect to the remote desktop or application, perform the following tasks:
- Determine whether View Connection Server is configured not to use SSL. The client software requires SSL connections. Check whether the global setting in View Administrator for the Use SSL for client connections check box is deselected. If so, you must either select the check box, so that SSL is used, or set up your environment so that clients can connect to an HTTPS enabled load balancer or other intermediate device that is configured to make an HTTP connection to View Connection Server.
- Verify that the security certificate for View Connection Server is working properly. If it is not, in View Administrator, you might also see that the agent on desktops is unreachable. These are symptoms of additional connection problems caused by certificate problems.
- Verify that the tags set on the View Connection Server instance allow connections from this user. See the View Administration document.
- Verify that the user is entitled to access this desktop or application. See the Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View document.
- If you are using the RDP display protocol to connect to a remote desktop, verify that the remote operating system allows remote desktop connections.
What to do next
Configure startup options. If you do not want to require end users to provide the host name of View Connection Server, or if you want to configure other startup options, use a command-line option to create a desktop shortcut. See Running Horizon Client from the Command Line.