Pools allow you to entitle desktops and applications to any users or groups at any time. You can create a multi-session pool that includes pools from any provider, plus policies.

Procedure

  1. On the Home page, click the Pool Groups tile to navigate to the Pool Groups page.
  2. Click Add to select Multi-Session pool group.
  3. On the Add Multi-Session Pool Group page, add a unique pool group Name.
  4. Add a Display Name and Description.
    Display Name is the name you want displayed to end users on Horizon clients. It cannot exceed 64 characters. If left blank, the pool name will be used by default.
  5. Select a Pool Group type from Desktops, Applications, and Desktops and Applications.
  6. For Desktops, select a pool from the Pools and click Next. For Applications and Desktops and Applications, select a pool from the Pools and click Next, then select Applications to include in the pool group, and click Next.

    Applications must be in a pool, and the pools must not be used in any of the existing pool groups.

  7. In the Policies section for the default Client settings, select Default protocol for end-user sessions.
    You can slide the toggle to Allow users to select a protocol when they log in to a desktop.
  8. Select Preferred client type to launch entitlements in Horizon Client or a Browser.
  9. In the Brokering sub-section, select Scope to search for available desktops on Any site, or Restrict to One Site.
  10. In the Site connection affinity field, select the default site that end users will connect to, from Nearest Site and Home Site.
    You can slide the Home site restriction toggle to restrict end users or user groups to access the entitlement only through the entitlement home site override, or through the user's home site if an override is not designated. If not selected, the nearest site will be used.
  11. In the SSO sub-section, you can slide the toggle to enable SSO for the pool.
    You must have completed the prerequisites to configure one of the SSO types that Horizon Cloud supports on the Horizon Edge Gateway, and fulfilled all of the requirements for that SSO type. If the prerequisites required by the configured SSO type are not met, the end user will be prompted to enter their credentials.
  12. In the Power Management section, select between Occupancy based and Non-occupancy based for Power management type. Occupancy based optimizes the power consumption based on pool occupancy load. Non-occupancy based optimizes the power consumption based on the number of unused VMs powered on relative to the total number of provisioned VMs.
  13. For Occupancy based,select the threshold of virtual machine utilization for this entitlement at which a new virtual machine is spun up and drained respectively, from Optimized for performance, Balanced, and Optimized for cost in the Power management mode field.
    With an Optimized for performance selection, a new virtual machine is spun up more quickly, making capacity readily available for a possible enhanced user experience. With an Optimized for cost selection, the virtual machine will have a higher utilisation rate before spinning up a new virtual machine, which may help to minimise costs.
  14. Add Minimum VMs for the minimum percentage of VMs to keep powered on relative to the total VMs in a pool group at any point in time.
    This setting applies to each pool group in the entitlement unless a power management schedule is specified.
  15. For Power off protect time, add the number of minutes (from 1 to 60).
    A VM is protected from powering off after powering on due to a headroom error. The default is 30.
  16. For Non-occupancy based, specify a threshold for Unused VMs, which is the minimum number of VMs to be kept powered on relative to the total VMs in a pool group at any point in time.
    An unused VM is a VM which is provisioned and powered on but without a user logged in. This setting applies to each pool group in the entitlement unless a power management schedule is specified.
  17. For Power off protect time, add the number of minutes (from 1 to 60).
    A VM is protected from powering off after powering on due to a headroom error. The default is 30.
  18. You can also add a Power management schedule by clicking Add Schedule and adding information.
  19. Complete the Load Balancing section based on the option descriptions that follow.
    Note: The following settings can help you achieve a desired balance of power consumption and performance in your environment.
    Option Description
    Time between consecutive session allocation This setting causes new user sessions to be spread out to limit the number of sessions assigned to a VM within the configured time period. For example, if this setting is 20 seconds and a user is assigned to VM1 within the last 20 seconds, the next user is assigned to VM2.
    CPU usage Threshold value for the CPU usage in percentage. You can set a value from 0 to 100. The recommended value is 90, which is also the default value.
    Memory usage Threshold value for the memory in percentage. You can set a value from 0 to 100. The recommended value is 90, which is also the default value.
    Disk queue length Threshold of the average number of both read and write requests that were re-queued for the selected disk during the sample interval. You can set the value to any positive integer. By default, this setting is not considered for load balancing. The default value is 0.
    Disk read latency Threshold of the average time of read of data from the disk in milliseconds. You can set the value to any positive integer. By default, this setting is not considered for load balancing. The default value is 0.
    Disk write latency Threshold of the average time of write of data to the disk in milliseconds. You can set the value to any positive integer. By default, this setting is not considered for load balancing. The default value is 0.
    Host load index Aggregate threshold value at which a VM is considered full and is not assigned any new sessions. You can enter a value between 0 and 100. The default value is 90. The value is calculated by comparing CPU, memory, and disk usage to the respective threshold values. The resource with the highest usage compared to its threshold is weighted the greatest.
  20. Enable rolling maintenance in the Rolling Maintenance section to provide an automated refresh for multi-session VMs to maintain availability. This will clear out cached resources or memory leaks which helps avoid end-user sessions issues.
  21. Select Maintenance type between Scheduled and Session.
    Rolling maintenance triggers a virtual machine refresh. With scheduled, the refresh is triggered daily or weekly according to the parameters you enter. With session, the refresh is triggered when the number of sessions you can enter have been logged on. In both cases, the refresh won't happen until the end user is logged off.
  22. Select the Recurrence from the dropdown from Daily and Weekly for the frequency with which the virtual machine refresh should be scheduled.
  23. Select the appropriate Time zone for the scheduled hour setting.
  24. Add the Scheduled hour of the day for the virtual machine refresh to be scheduled.
  25. Add a number for Concurrent quiescing VMs per pool for the number of virtual machines that can be concurrently down for maintenance.
    During this process, virtual machines will be providing service, but will not be used for any new sessions.
  26. Select VM action from Restart and Rebuild for virtual machines needing maintenance.
    With Restart, the affected virtual machines are rebooted. With Rebuild, the affected virtual machines are deleted then re-provisioned using the latest image.
  27. In the Timeout Handling section, determine when a disconnected session is logged off in the Logoff disconnected sessions field. Select from Never, Immediate or Logoff After. The default for Logoff disconnected sessions is Never. If you select Logoff After, specify the timeout after which disconnected sessions gets logged off. The default value for Logoff After is 120 minutes. When a disconnected session is logged off, the session is lost. Enter the maximum number of minutes for the session in the Maximum session lifetime field. The default value for Maximum session lifetime is 10080 minutes. In the Idle session timeout, enter the amount of time the user can have an idle session before the system forces a disconnect. The default value for Idle session timeout is 10080 minutes.
    Select between Never and Timeout After for Empty application session timeout. The default for Empty application session timeout is Never. If a user is running an application session and there are no applications running in that session, then that session is considered empty. If you select Timeout After, add time in minutes after which the empty session is timed out. The default value for Timeout After is 1 minute. In the When timeout occurs field, select between Logoff and Disconnect. The default for When timeout occursis Logoff where the session will logoff without disconnecting. The Empty application session timeout setting is applicable if you select Published application or Published desktop and applicationsessions, and not for Published desktops.
  28. Click Save.
  29. Click ENTITLE POOL GROUP to entitle this pool group to users or user groups now, or click FINISH to entitle it later.