After you add an image and verify its details you can publish the image.

Before performing any of the following steps, also review key information at Requirements and Considerations Specific to Using Horizon Image Management Service with Deployments of Horizon Edge in Microsoft Azure.

Prerequisites

Verify that the following tasks are complete before you continue:
  • Domain registration is completed
  • The Microsoft Entra ID is connected to VMware Cloud.
  • The Site is created successfully.
  • The Unified Access Gateway and Edge gateway are ready.
  • The image information is verified and the image is in the unpublished state.
  • softwareupdate.vmware.com is resolvable and reachable from the management and tenant (desktop) subnets using the 443 port over TCP protocol for downloading agent-related software used in the system image-creation operations. For more information, see Port and Protocol Requirements for Your Horizon Cloud Deployment in Microsoft Azure.

  • If GPU type VM Model is selected, make sure that NVIDIA GPU drivers are installed on the VM. For more information, see Install NVIDIA GPU drivers on N-series VMs running Windows.

  • At least one virtual network and tenant (desktop) subnet is selected for the provider.
  • If applicable, manually install Horizon Agent in the image.

    Horizon Cloud Service - next-gen automatically installs Horizon Agent during the publish workflow. However, if installing the agent before the publish workflow is necessary for your specific use case, see KB 91998. If you do manually install Horizon Agent, when you perform the procedure that follows, deselect the Install Horizon Agent toggle.

  • Ensure that Microsoft Azure Custom Script Extensions (CSE) are not blocked.

    Horizon Cloud Service - next-gen requires CSE in order to install Horizon Agent. Therefore, if you use Azure Policy to restrict the installation of extensions on an "image VM," which is a VM used for image preparation, do one of the following during the assign-policy phase of the configuration to prevent the publishing process from failing.

    • Ensure that Microsoft Azure security policies related to CSE allow the installation and execution of CSE on the image VM.
      Note: When you assign a policy, you can select exclusions, which are resources to exclude from the policy assignment. If you take this approach, select image-related resources to exclude from the policy.
    • Allow a CSE named vmw-hcs-image-CustomScriptExtension to execute. During the publishing process, Horizon Cloud Service - next-gen uses the vmw-hcs-image-CustomScriptExtension name for the CSE attached to the image VM.

Procedure

  1. On the Horizon Universal Console Home page, click Images tile to navigate to the Images page. Click an image that is Ready to Publish.
  2. On the image details page, select the image Version, and click the dropdown Unpublished > Publish.
  3. On the Publish Image page, you can slide the toggle to Optimize Windows Image.
    This deactivates physical desktop features for more efficient VM performance and capacity utilization, and helps avoid Microsoft Windows Sysprep issues.
  4. You can slide the toggle to Remove Windows Store apps, also known as AppX packages, and deactivates automatic app and Windows Store updates and downloads. This improves performance and helps avoid Microsoft Windows Sysprep issues.
  5. You can slide the toggle to Enable Publish Error Recovery to create a backup VM for image recovery if an unrecoverable error occurs during the publishing process. Click Next.
  6. In the Destination section, select between Specific Horizon Edge to publish to specific Horizon Edges individually or a page at a time, and All Horizon Edges to publish the image to all Horizon Edges. Click Next.
  7. If the image already has your preferred agents installed in it, deselect the Install Horizon Agent toggle.
    Important: The Install Horizon Agent toggle is turned on by default because typically an image will not already have agents installed on it and you will have the publishing operation install the agents. However, if the image already has your preferred agents installed, ensure that you turn off this toggle. When this toggle is turned on and you click Publish, the system will run the agent installation process on the image as part of publishing the image. When the image already has agents installed in it and you have this toggle turned on and click Publish, operation conflicts can occur because the system will run the agent installation process on an image in which the agents are already installed.
  8. Make selections for Horizon Agent Features and click Next.
  9. In the Published Image Operations section, you can slide the toggle to Scan remote applications, only applicable to multi-session (Azure Virtual Desktop or RDSH) images. Also, you can slide the toggle to Validate published image, to validate the published image to ensure that errors do not occur when the image is used to provision the pools, where a system-generated pool is used to validate the image.
    If you slide the toggle to Validate published image, the duration of the publishing process might increase.
  10. If you enable Scan remote applications or Validate published image, then select a destination Virtual Network, which will be attached to the system-generated pool created from the image. Select the same tenant virtual network that you plan to use for creating pools in future.
  11. Select Network for the published image operations. Click Publish.