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VMware Horizon Cloud Service - next-gen | 30 NOV 2023

Check for additions and updates to these release notes.

Horizon Cloud Service - next-gen is a modern cloud-first, multi-cloud Desktop as a Service (DaaS) deployment with Thin Edge Infrastructure. The service provides you with a global view of your desktops and applications spanning on-premises and cloud environments. Regardless of the location of your desktop and application deployments, Horizon Cloud Service - next-gen enables you to consistently manage and monitor them.

These VMware Horizon Cloud Service - next-gen release notes detail the new features and enhancements in each release. The release notes provide other information about Horizon Cloud Service - next-gen, including limitations, known issues, and support contact information, among other details.

November 30, 2023 - service release 2311

New Features

Horizon Edge

  • Horizon Edge Gateway appliances, now available in supported cloud-native formats, can connect Horizon 8 pods deployed in public cloud providers using the federated architecture to the Horizon Control Plane.

Desktops and Applications

  • Pools

    • Dual-stack (IPv4/IPv6) subnets are now supported when deploying Pools. Activating this option causes VMs to deploy with both an IPv4 and IPv6 address on the NIC.

Image Management

  • The Trusted Launch security type is now available as an option when creating an image. When creating Pools from images with Trusted Launch selected, VMs use the Trusted Launch security type.

Monitoring

  • Administrators can now add Unified Access Gateways with self-signed certificates for Horizon 8 Edge monitoring.

Released Versions

No new binaries were delivered with this release.

Resolved Issues

No major bug fixes to report for this release.

Known Issues

No notable known issues to report for this release.

November 17, 2023 - update

  • A new Horizon Agents Installer build (23.3.0.22737019) was released.

October 31, 2023 - service release 2310

New Features

Horizon Control Plane

  • India has been added as a new region to the Horizon Cloud Service Control Plane that you can select while onboarding to the service. 

Horizon Edge

  • Additional Microsoft Azure VM SKUs have been configured for fallback use when deploying the Horizon Edge Gateway on Azure Kubernetes Service. This allows the deployment to succeed in regions where one or more of the SKUs is unavailable.

Provider Capacity

Desktops and Applications

  • The Pool and Pool Group detail pages now display real-time session data.

Horizon Client

  • Administrators can now configure privacy mode for end users in a VMware Horizon Cloud Service - next-gen environment. With privacy mode enabled, users must authenticate to log into Horizon Client and are redirected to the identity provider (IDP) logout page upon disconnecting from the Horizon Portal or exiting the client.

Released Versions

No new binaries were delivered with this release.

Resolved Issues

No major bug fixes to report for this release.

Known Issues

No notable known issues to report for this release.

September 28, 2023 - service release 2309

New Features

Horizon Edge

  • You can now configure fault tolerance for a Horizon Edge that uses a Horizon 8 pod as its resource provider

Monitoring

  • You can now configure SNMP receiver details for Horizon 8 Edges to enable monitoring of license push failures and life-cycle changes of the Horizon Edge Gateway.

  • You can now receive automated notifications for planned maintenance activities, such as scheduling, ongoing maintenance, maintenance success or failure, and cancellation.

Identity and Access Management (IAM)

  • Machine Identity

    • True SSO is now available in addition to the existing VMware SSO and allows the use of a Microsoft CA for single sign-on. Multi-forest support is not yet available when using True SSO.

Released Versions

No new binaries were delivered with this release.

Resolved Issues

No major bug fixes to report for this release.

Known Issues

No notable known issues to report for this release.

August 31, 2023 - service release 2308

New Features

Horizon Edge

  • Edge Gateways for Horizon Edges in Microsoft Azure can now have a proxy configured for outbound traffic. Existing Horizon Edge Gateways can be edited to add a proxy. Note that when a proxy configuration is changed, the Horizon Edge Gateway is redeployed.

  • Administrators no longer need to enter an FQDN or configure a DNS record for the FQDN when deploying new Horizon Edge Gateways. Existing Horizon Edge Gateways will continue to use the FQDN configured when they were deployed.

Horizon Universal Console

  • The Learning Center is now available from the Horizon Universal Console to provide access to announcements, walkthroughs, and other resources for help on demand. Access the Learning Center any time using the blue hexagon icon in the bottom right of the screen. In Updates, see what’s new in Horizon. Use Guides to view contextual tips and step-by-step guidance for onboarding and other key workflows. Useful Links brings all our customer resources together in a single place for easier access. New content is added regularly.

Horizon Gateway Appliances

  • Unified Access Gateways

    • The external Azure Load Balancer for Unified Access Gateways can now be deployed with a private IP address. This type of deployment allows a third-party Network Virtual Appliance (NVA) to be placed in front of the Unified Access Gateways. 

      Note:

      Source IP affinity is used on the Azure Load Balancer to persist sessions from the same client through the same Unified Access Gateway. NVAs that do not support passing through the client source IP cause all traffic to be routed to a single Unified Access Gateway.

Desktops and Applications

  • Pool Groups

    • Multi-session pool groups now support rolling maintenance. Maintenance can be scheduled to occur at a specific time or can be configured to occur after a specified number of total sessions have completed on a VM.

Monitoring

  • Administrators now have the option to allow VMware Operators to directly request a Horizon Agent DCT log bundle from virtual machines in Microsoft Azure. This feature streamlines the process of gathering log files from VMs for troubleshooting purposes. Customers can opt-out of this feature anytime. A notice about this feature is presented the next time a customer logs in to the Horizon Universal Console.

  • Administrators now receive email and in-app notifications when Active Directory accounts or credentials are nearing expiration.

Universal Broker

  • A customized client access URL subdomain can now be configured for your tenant. The resulting URL is in the format of <custom_subdomain>.vmwhorizon.com.

Identity and Access Management (IAM)

  • Machine Identity

    • Active Directory domains can now be configured to use LDAPS. Existing domains can be changed to LDAPS.

Released Versions

No new binaries were delivered with this release.

Resolved Issues

No major bug fixes to report for this release.

Known Issues

  • (HV-72071) The agent update process on dedicated desktops fails with a timeout error when desktops are on Horizon Agent version 23.1.0.21792227 or 23.1.0.21478075

    The Horizon Universal Console allows you to execute agent updates from the Pool Groups page. See Update Horizon Agent Software on Dedicated Desktops VMs. When you perform the update on agent version 23.1.0.21792227 or 23.1.0.21478075, the activity logs report that the agent update failed.

    Workaround: To update Horizon Agent versions 23.1.0.21792227 or 23.1.0.21478075 to the latest version, use either of the following procedures instead of the agent update feature. 

August 21, 2023 - update

The following features were introduced in this release.

Desktops and Applications

  • Pools

    • Azure availability zones can be enabled when you create or edit pools. VMs are evenly distributed between all availability zones in the Azure region in which they are deployed. If Azure availability zones are enabled for an existing pool, only new VMs are distributed between availability zones. Existing VMs are not moved.

  • Entitlements

    • Multiple users can now be assigned to a single dedicated desktop VM. This allows all of the assigned users to access the desktop individually. Only a single user can be connected to a multi-assigned desktop at one time.

July 2023 - service release 2307

New Features

Horizon Control Plane

  • We have switched from using Azure Active Directory Authentication Library (ADAL) to Microsoft Authentication Library (MSAL) within the service. 

Horizon Edge

  • A certificate can now be used as the credential when connecting the Edge Gateway to a Horizon Connection Server. This certificate must be in .pfx format and we recommend password protection be used.

Horizon Agent Update

  • Administrators can now perform a reinstall of the Horizon Agent on dedicated desktop VMs when a Horizon Agent update fails.

User Card & Search

  • Help Desk is now available for cloud-connected Horizon 8 Edges. Administrators can search for active sessions and entitlements for specific users, view session details, and address VM-related issues.

Released Versions

The following binaries were delivered with this release:

  • Horizon Agents Installer 23.2.0.22143618 | 25 JUL 2023

Resolved Issues

  • (HV-74464) On Microsoft Azure deployments, image publishing might fail when Windows updates occur during Horizon Agent installation or Sysprep

     The image publish process sometimes fails when automatic Windows updates interrupt image publish operations running  on the image VM.

    This issue is resolved. With this release, when Horizon Cloud Service - next-gen creates an image VM, Windows update mode is set to manual. If needed, before publishing the image, perform Windows updates and ensure that no restarts are pending for the VM.

Known Issues

No notable known issues to report for this release.

June 29, 2023 - service release 2306

New Features

Desktops and Applications

  • Entitlements

    • Administrators can now enable Horizon Cloud Service next-gen entitlements to be displayed and launched in Workspace ONE Intelligent Hub.

Horizon Edge

  • A custom role named Horizon Cloud Service is now available in the Horizon Connection Server as of Horizon 8 2306. This new role provides minimal licensing management permissions to the account used to connect the Horizon Edge Gateway to the Horizon Connection Server.

  • During Horizon 8 Edge onboarding, administrators can now select the capacity type that the Horizon Connection Server is deployed into. 

  • Horizon Edge Gateways deployed in Microsoft Azure no longer require a Docker Bridge CIDR to be specified. This change has no effect on Microsoft Azure Edges previously deployed with a Docker Bridge CIDR.

Horizon Client

  • End users can now use the following additional Horizon Client versions:

    • Horizon Client for Chrome 2306 or later

    • Client users can now restart a Horizon Cloud Service - next-gen desktop from Horizon Client or Horizon HTML Access client.

Desktops and Applications

  • Pool Groups

    • In a dedicated desktop pool group, administrators can now control whether an end-user sees the pool group name or their assigned desktop VM name in Horizon Client. If an end-user is assigned multiple desktops in a single pool group, they always see the assigned desktop VM name.

Horizon Accelerator

  • The left-hand navigation menu has been updated to consolidate Horizon Accelerator pages into a single location. This update affects the following pages.

    • Operations insight

    • Provider (Azure) resources monitoring from console

    • Advanced assist feature

Monitoring

  • Administrators can now pause specific notifications in the Horizon Universal Console for up to 72 hours. This is initially available for the 'VM under stress for a Pool-template/Pool' notification.

Released Versions

The following binaries were delivered with this release:

  • Horizon Edge Gateway 2.3.2.0

Resolved Issues

No major bug fixes to report for this release.

Known Issues

  • (HV-72473) When a user is logged into Horizon Client and the Horizon HTML Access client at the same time and logs out of Horizon Client, the user is not directed to the logout page

    This situation occurs specifically when your Horizon Cloud Service - next-gen organization is configured with Workspace ONE Access Cloud as the identity provider while Workspace ONE Hub is not enabled. Horizon Client and Horizon HTML Access client share the same logout page. When the user is logged into both client types and logs out of Horizon Client, the user is logged out of Workspace ONE Access Cloud. However, instead of being directed to the logout page, the user is redirected to the launch items page by the Horizon HTML Access client since that session is still active.

    Workaround: When a user is logged into both the clients simultaneously and wants to logout, the user should logout of the Horizon HTML Access client first and then from Horizon Client.

  • (HV-74654) The user cannot log out of Horizon Cloud Service - next-gen

    This situation occurs specifically when your Horizon Cloud Service - next-gen organization is configured with Workspace ONE Access on-premises as the identity provider. The user logs in using a client (Horizon Client or the Horizon HTML Access client) and later attempts to log out, but the session is not cleared in Workspace ONE Access on-premises. The result is that the user remains logged in.

    Workaround: None

  • (HV-61455, HV-68684) RDS Session timeouts do not function on Windows 10 Multi-Session, Windows 11 Multi-Session, and Windows Server 2022 Horizon Agent desktops in Microsoft Azure

    Session timeout settings are applied on Horizon Agent machines through GPO and non-GPO methods, but the Microsoft Terminal Services on Horizon Agent do not honor the timeouts and the desired session outcome is not achieved. For example, if MaxDisconnectionTime is set to a value of 60000 milliseconds, the disconnected session is not logged off in 60 seconds. The result is the same regardless of how these timeouts are applied on the Windows machine. This issue requires a fix from Microsoft.

    Workaround:

    Either of the following approaches is effective as a workaround.

    • Use Windows Server 2019.

    • Use Microsoft Group Policy Objects (GPO) on Horizon Agent machine.

      Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/Windows Components/Remote Desktop Services/Remote Desktop Session Host/Session Time Limits/Set Time Limit for Disconnected Sessions -> set to enabled and set the required timeout for disconnected session to logoff.

      Note: Timeout values that you configure using the VMware Cloud Services Console do not take effect. Only values that you configure using GPO are applicable.

June 9, 2023 - update

  • A new Horizon Agents Installer build (23.1.0.21873439) was released to address an update issue.

May 2023 - service release 2305

New Features

Desktops and Applications

  • Pool Groups

    • You now have the option to use non-occupancy based power management.

      Non-occupancy based power management optimizes power consumption by powering on or powering off VMs based on a set "Unused VMs" threshold. An Unused VM is a virtual machine which is provisioned but does not have a user logged in. The system looks at the number of unused VMs in that pool group that are powered on relative to the total number of VMs provisioned in that pool group to determine whether some VMs should be powered ON or OFF.

Horizon Accelerator

  • For Horizon Cloud Service -next-gen customers with the VMware Horizon Accelerator add-on license, a new feature is available that provides operation insights related to the provider, such as Microsoft Azure, to optimize deployed resources for Horizon 8. 

Horizon Edge

  • Improved Horizon 8 Edge Gateway troubleshooting is now available through a diagnostic script.

Horizon Universal Subscription License

  • You can now generate and view perpetual keys within the Horizon Universal Console if your subscription includes a license to use VMware products such as vSphere, vSAN, vCenter, App Volumes Enterprise, ThinApp Client, ThinApp Virtual Packager and Workstation Pro.

Identity and Access Management (IAM)

  • Machine Identity

    • You can now use Azure Active Directory when you perform an App Capture with a capture machine.

User Card & Search

  • Identity Provider configuration has been added as an optional step to the Get Started page for Horizon 8 Edges to connect an identity provider to enable Horizon Cloud user cards and user search.

Released Versions

The following binaries were delivered with this release:

  • Horizon Agents Installer 23.1.0.21792227 | 19 MAY 2023

  • Horizon Edge Gateway 2.3.1.0

Resolved Issues

  • (HV-66473) All scheduled upgrades on the Maintenance page are listed as Unified Access Gateway upgrades

    On the Resources > Capacity > Maintenance page, all scheduled upgrades, including Horizon Edge upgrades, are listed as being of the Unified Access Gateway (UAG) type.

    This issue is resolved.

  • (HV-60691) When you delete a Horizon Edge, the Sites page might still list the Horizon Edge as mapped to the site

    In this situation, in the Horizon Universal Console, when you select Resources > Capacity > Sites, you might see the name of a Horizon Edge listed, even though that Horizon Edge no longer exists.

    This issue is resolved.

Known Issues

  • (HV-61415) When you select the On-demand delivery type for an App Volumes package, the App Volumes agent fails to virtualize the package

    App Volumes Manager UI allows you to select the On-demand delivery type for a package that does not support that delivery type. The App Volumes agent is unable to virtualize such packages.

    Workaround: Edit the package and change the delivery type from On-demand to Classic.

  • (HV-65339) Removing a pool from a pool group that has dedicated desktops with user entitlements does not remove the user entitlement

    After you entitle a pool group with a dedicated desktop to a user and the user launches the desktop, the desktop stays assigned to the user even after you unentitle the corresponding pool group.

    Workaround: In the Horizon Universal Console, unentitle the desktop from Pool Groups > VMs screen.

April 2023 - service release 2304

New Features

Horizon Accelerator

  • Customers who have the Horizon Accelerator add-on SKU, can now get visibility into the provider resources that are used by their next-gen environment while at the same time avoiding the need to log into each provider's UI or portal and examine each individual resource.

Horizon Edge

  • Horizon 8 deployments in Azure VMware Solutions (AVS) using the All-In-SDDC architecture can be connected to Horizon Cloud Service next-gen for licensing and monitoring.

Horizon Universal Console

  • The activity log has been updated to provide additional information for system-initiated actions and events.

Horizon Gateway Appliances

  • Unified Access Gateways

    • For Microsoft Azure, the internal-only Unified Access Gateways are now deployed using a two-NIC configuration.

Desktops and Applications

  • Pools

    • When creating a pool, the disk size is automatically set to be the disk size of the image that has been selected.

    • Azure Active Directory for machine identity (Initial Availability) - Pools can be configured to use Azure Active Directory for machine identity. Support for this feature with App Volumes package capture is coming soon.

  • Pool Groups

    • Pool groups now support the ability to configure Logoff disconnected sessions, Maximum session lifetime, Session timeout interval for single-session and multi-session pool groups, and Empty application session timeout for multi-session pool groups with published applications.

Image Management

  • Best practice documentation for manual Horizon Agent Install is now available in KB 91998 with command-line best practice configuration as well as optional install features.

  • Additional Supported Windows Image Versions

    • Microsoft Windows 10 Enterprise, version 22H2

    • Microsoft Windows 10 Enterprise multi-session, version 22H2

    • Microsoft Windows 11 Enterprise, version 22H2

    • Microsoft Windows 11 Enterprise multi-session, version 22H2

User Card & Search

  • Horizon Universal Console now supports the ability to search for users based on user ID, last name, first name or display name. When you type three or more letters in the search box, you get a list of users whose last name or first name or display name starts with those letters. When you choose a user from the list, you are redirected to the user sessions page.

Released Versions

  • Horizon Agents Installer 23.1.0.21478075 | 10 APR 2023

  • Horizon Edge Gateway 2.3

Resolved Issues

No major bug fixes to report for this release.

Known Issues

  • (HV-59493) When deploying a Horizon 8 Edge with Horizon Edge Gateway 2.3.0.0-21136977 or earlier, the Horizon Edge deployment fails

    The deployment failure occurs when text is entered into the SSH Public Key field.

    Workaround: Redeploy the Edge Gateway with an empty value for SSH public key.

March 2023 - service release 2303

New Features

Desktops and Applications

  • App Volumes

    • Application admins can now select between classic and on-demand delivery for each package. Apps on Demand allows shortcuts, file type associations and their icons to be presented to the user after login. The package containing the application files is then delivered on demand only when the user launches the application. This reduces processing time to load applications and allows for a lean operating system containing only the applications the user actually needs.

Horizon Client

  • End users can now use the following additional Horizon Client versions:

    • Horizon Client for Android 2303 or later

    • Horizon Client for iOS 2303 or later

Monitoring

  • Horizon Availability Monitoring now allows an administrator to configure a cloud-hosted testing client.

  • Administrators can now initiate a manual health check of registered Active Directory domains.

  • Administrators can now access Horizon Cloud Notifications History by clicking the bell icon in the top navigation bar. The Notifications History page now displays the channel the notification was sent through and additional details.

Released Versions

  • Horizon Agents Installer 23.1.0.21478075 | 10 APR 2023

  • Horizon Edge Gateway 2.3

Resolved Issues

No major bug fixes to report for this release.

Known Issues

  • (3145065) In certain situations, Android devices might not be able to properly reconnect to remote applications

    This issue is specific to Horizon Cloud Service - next-gen and can occur when an Android device attempts to reconnect to a remote application through a Windows Horizon Agent. The application window opens, but with a white screen and no other content.

    Workaround: Reset the application and open it again.

February 2023 - service release 2302

New Features

Horizon Accelerator

  • Customers can now raise support requests from the Horizon Universal Console.

    New Features:

    • Customers can now choose from various technical and non-technical topics when they log in, giving them the ability to tailor the content they receive to their specific interests.

    • Customers can select their preferred contact medium, such as email or phone, and preferred hours for support.

Horizon Gateway Appliances

  • Administrators can now edit and retry a failed Unified Access Gateway deployment without the need to delete the deployment first.

Image Management

  • Additional detail and subtasks are displayed in the activity log for long running image service tasks, such as import, copy as new image, copy as new version, and publish.   

Released Versions

  • Horizon Agents Installer 22.3.0.20687680 | 28 OCT 2022

  • Horizon Edge Gateway 2.3

Resolved Issues

No major bug fixes to report for this release.

Known Issues

No notable known issues to report for this release.

January 2023 - service release 2301

New Features

Desktops and Applications

  • Pools and Pool Groups

    • Single-session dedicated pools now support mixed VM models. Powered-off VMs can be resized from the Horizon Universal Console.

    • An Activity Log tab is now available on the Pool Details page.

Horizon Client

  • You can now launch Horizon Client with the full range of features and functionality.

    This update introduces a change in the Horizon Client workflow, where you now launch Horizon Cloud Service - next-gen from the Horizon Client on the end point itself instead of from Horizon HTML Access.

    Downlaod and install the appropriate version of the Horizon Client as follows:

    • Horizon Client for Windows 2111 or later

    • Horizon Client for Mac 2111 or later

    • Horizon Client for Linux 2206 or later

    See the Download VMware Horizon Clients page.

Monitoring

  • You can add existing UAGs that are used with your Horizon 8 pods to enable monitoring of those UAGs.

  • Splunk integration for Horizon Plus now supports sending Horizon Agent monitoring data to Splunk instances.

  • You can now edit your Horizon Plus Splunk configurations.

  • You can now use the Horizon Universal Console to monitor Horizon 8 infrastructure and resources. You need to enable agent monitoring and upgrade the agent version to 2212 or later. 

Onboarding

  • Horizon Cloud has integrated Pendo, a third-party tool that collects website data to enable observing and enhancing customer experience. An opt-out preference is provided in the Workspace ONE Cloud Admin Hub console.

Released Versions

  • Horizon Agents Installer 22.3.0.20687680 | 28 OCT 2022

  • Horizon Edge Gateway 2.2

Resolved Issues

  • (HV-46887) Retrying Unified Access Gateway in the Horizon Universal Console fails with a "Edge Gateway Not Editable" error

    During the retry process, you are unable to reach the Retry UAG section due to an "Edge Gateway Not Editable" error.

    This issue is resolved.

Known Issues

No notable known issues to report for this release.

December 2022 - service release 2212

New Features

Desktops and Applications

  • Pools and Pool Groups

    • You are notified when any unusual provisioning issues are detected to help prevent runaway creation of resources

    • Pool templates and Pools have been renamed in the Horizon Universal Console. Pool templates have been renamed to Pools. Pools have been renamed to Pool Groups. 

    • Sessions from the same client will now properly reuse permanent RDSH Client Access Licenses when multiple license servers are used

    • Carbon Black Cloud Windows Sensors 3.8 is now supported for single-session and multi-session pools

  • App Volumes

    • A new confirmation dialog has been added so administrators can see the details of application entitlement changes before confirming the changes

Horizon Edge

  • Horizon 8 Pods can now be connected to Horizon Cloud Service - next-gen to consume licensing.

  • When deploying an AKS-based Horizon Edge Gateway, the egress type of user-defined route is now available. A Microsoft Azure user-defined routing (UDR) table must be created prior to selecting this deployment type or the deployment will fail.

  • A utility to check the reachability of URLs required for the successful deployment of a Horizon Edge Gateway is now available at https://flings.vmware.com/horizon-cloud-service-next-gen-edge-subnet-url-checker.

Horizon Universal Console

  • The Horizon Universal Console left-hand navigation menu has been updated for better discoverability and accessibility

Image Management

  • This release adds support for Microsoft Azure generation 2 VMs. Generation 1 and generation 2 VMs are now supported.

Monitoring

  • You will now be notified when anomalous network conditions are detected during end-user sessions

  • The Getting Started workflow has been adjusted to include Horizon 8. You can also now configure a Horizon Edge, Domain, and Identity Provider in any order by accessing the configuration pages using the left-hand menu.

Released Versions

  • Horizon Agents Installer 22.3.0.20687680 | 28 OCT 2022

Resolved Issues

No major bug fixes to report for this release.

Known Issues

Known issues reported for this release have since been fixed.

November 2022 - service release 2211

New Features

Horizon Agent Update

  • Pools now display a status showing if any agents are out-of-date or unsupported, allowing you to update those agents.

Onboarding

  • Horizon Universal Subscription License

    • Administrators can now track concurrent license usage details on the Subscriptions page. This page displays information such as the total number of concurrent licenses available and the peak usage statistics per 24 hours, 30 days and 90 days.

Monitoring

  • The Simulated Launch test type has been added to Availability Monitoring. This test allows an administrator to have a testing client perform a synthetic session launch on the Edge Gateway, avoiding the need to launch a specific desktop resource. 

Horizon Universal Console

  • Document links related to the current page that you are on in the Horizon Universal Console populate in a list when you click the help button.

Released Versions

  • Horizon Agents Installer 22.3.0.20687680 | 28 OCT 2022

Resolved Issues

No major bug fixes to report for this release.

Known Issues

No notable known issues to report for this release.

October 2022 - service release 2210

New Features

Horizon Agent Update

  • You can now manually check Horizon Agent versions to determine if updates are required.

Image Management

  • If an image fails to publish, you can now restart the publish task, which resumes from the last completed task stage before the failure.

  • You can now validate an image for errors or prerequisites during or after publishing to ensure that the image can be used to successfully provision the pool templates.

Released Versions

  • Horizon Agents Installer 22.2.0.20224385 | 11 AUG 2022

Resolved Issues

No major bug fixes to report for this release.

Known Issues

Known issues reported for this release have since been fixed.

September 2022 - service release 2209

New Features

Desktops and Applications

  • Pool Templates

    • The workflow for creating Pool templates, Pools and Entitlements has been improved.

Horizon Universal Console

  • You are now able to submit your feedback in the Horizon Universal Console using the In-Product Feedback feature.

  • If you try to navigate away from a page without completing the workflow, then you will be prompted to stay on the page or you might lose your work.

Identity and Access Management (IAM)

  • Single Sign-On is now supported when you have Multi-Forest Active Directory with trusts.

Released Versions

  • Horizon Agents Installer 22.2.0.20224385 | 11 AUG 2022

Resolved Issues

No major bug fixes to report for this release.

Known Issues

No notable known issues to report for this release.

August 2022 - service release 2208

New Features

Horizon Edge

  • Administrators can use the Horizon Universal Console to connect their Horizon 8 pods to the next-gen Horizon Control Plane by deploying the Horizon Edge gateway

  • During deployment of a Horizon Edge in Microsoft Azure an administrator can now select the VNets that should be available to use during Pool template creation

  • A single Horizon Edge now supports 20,000 user sessions when using multiple providers

Onboarding

  • Integration with Workspace ONE Cloud Admin Hub, which provides admins with a single portal that allows for single sign-on into all VMware EUC services

Horizon Universal Subscription License

  • Customers who have a Horizon Universal Subscription license can choose to onboard to the Next-Gen Horizon Control Plane, which currently supports Microsoft Azure as a capacity provider, or the Horizon Control Plane, which supports Horizon pods on VMware SDDC. 

  • Customers who have a Horizon Universal Subscription license are entitled to Workspace ONE Intelligence for dashboard and report features and are automatically onboarded to Workspace ONE Intelligence. Administrators can access the dashboard & report features by logging into their Workspace ONE console. 

Horizon Plus Subscription License

  • Customers who have a Horizon Standard Plus or Horizon Enterprise Plus Subscription license can choose the location in which they want to store their metadata while onboarding to the service.

Horizon Gateway Appliances

  • Horizon Edge Gateway

    • A Horizon Edge deployed in Microsoft Azure will now use the Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) to host the Horizon Edge Gateway which provides high availability

  • Unified Access Gateway

    • A Horizon Edge deployed in Microsoft Azure now supports an Internal-only Unified Access Gateway configuration type.

Desktops and Applications

  • App Volumes - Simplified App Management

    • New and improved app packaging service.

    • Same App Volumes package format; reuse existing app packages

    • Application Inventory to organize and catalog app packages

    • Stages and markers for application lifecycle management

    • Direct app entitlement for easy assignment to users and groups

    • Support for Windows 10 multi-session – Unique app delivery for each user session

    • Enhanced Edge File Share support for scalability and performance

Pools

  • A single user can now be assigned to multiple desktops in a dedicated pool

Pool Templates

  • Pool Template VMs that enters a stopped state due to a guest OS shutdown from within the VM will now be moved to a stopped (deallocated) state automatically

Monitoring

  • For customers with Horizon Plus subscription license, administrators can configure the Horizon Edge Gateway to capture and store Horizon health data in a Splunk database instance.

  • Horizon Availability Monitoring is now available and provides administrators with continuous automated client testing, which proactively monitors the ability of end users to access their resources

Role-Based Access Control

  • Support for additional predefined roles that can be assigned to administrator users and groups. 

    Roles

    Area of Permissions

    Administrator

    Access to entire UI and API.

    Read-Only Administrator

    Read-only access to UI and API

    Pool Template Administrator

    Pool Templates and VMs

    Deployment Administrator

    Horizon Edges, Unified Access Gateways, Providers

    Pool Administrator

    Pools

    Entitlement Administrator

    Entitlements

    Image Administrator

    Images

Help Desk

  • Administrators can now review a segmented breakdown of a given user session logon in the help desk

Released Versions

  • Horizon Agents Installer 22.2.0.20224385 | 11 AUG 2022

Resolved Issues

No major bug fixes to report for this release.

Known Issues

No notable known issues to report for this release.

July 28, 2022 - service release 2207

New Features

Horizon Universal Console

  • The Help button is now available at the top of the Horizon Universal Console, where you can explore VMware documentation to find the answers to your questions and access Customer Connect to get support, open tickets, and view your ticket history.

Horizon Portal

  • Support for automatic reconnection of end-user sessions in the event that the Unified Access Gateway instance goes into maintenance mode or enters an unhealthy state and becomes inaccessible.

Home Page - Dashboard

  • Session utilization information is available for the three-most utilized pools, pool templates, and Unified Access Gateways for sessions in use compared to the maximum sessions possible.

  • Error information regarding your Horizon Edges. The Errors section provides links to the following types of error information.

    • Horizon Edges with infrastructure errors

    • Pool templates with provisioning errors

    • Single-session VMs with agent errors

    • Multi-session VMs with agent errors

  • Real-time numbers for sessions and VM performance. The Sessions and VM Performance section provides links to the following types of information.

    • Connected sessions

    • Disconnected sessions

    • High CPU VMs

    • High Disk Latency VMs

    • High Memory VMs

Released Versions

  • Horizon Agents Installer 22.1.0.19600776 | 13 APR 2022

Resolved Issues

No major bug fixes to report for this release.

Known Issues

No notable known issues to report for this release.

July 14, 2022 - update

New Features

Horizon Client

  • Support for storing the per-user Horizon Client remote-experience settings in the Horizon Control Plane.

Desktops and Applications

  • Pool Templates

    • Administrators can now add a Display Name to a pool, which is the name displayed to end users on the Horizon Client

  • Pools

    • For existing provisioned pool templates, administrators can now edit the VM type.

  • Activity Log

    • Administrators can now export up to 90 days of admin audit and system-initiated events in the Horizon Universal Console.

Released Versions

  • Horizon Agents Installer 22.1.0.19600776 | 13 APR 2022

Resolved Issues

No major bug fixes to report for this release.

Known Issues

No notable known issues to report for this release.

June 2022 - service release 2206

New Features

Horizon Gateway Appliances

  • Previously deployed Horizon Edge Gateway and Unified Access Gateway instances with proxy settings configured, now support updating of the proxy settings.

Desktops and Applications

  • Pool Templates

    • Pool Template Summary page provides administrators with information about capacity, sessions, general settings, provisioning, and the individual VMs in the pool template.

  • Pools

    • Pools Summary Page provides administrators with information about capacity, sessions, delivery policies, provisioning, power management, the pool templates associated with the pool, and the individual VMs in the pool templates.

Horizon Agent Update

  • Horizon Agent Update now supports automated updates of the agent for dedicated single-session pools.

Released Versions

  • Horizon Agents Installer 22.1.0.19600776 | 13 APR 2022

Resolved Issues

No major bug fixes to report for this release.

Known Issues

No notable known issues to report for this release.

May 2022 - service release 2205

New Features

Desktops and Applications

  • Pool Templates

    • Support for activating and deactivating Microsoft Azure disk encryption on existing pool templates

    • Disk encryption can be toggled on or off for an existing pool template, causing new VMs to be created using the updated setting

    • Support for customized OS disk sizes for pool templates is now available

Image Management

  • Image Management Service now supports the ability to use markers, which provides simplified workflows for administrators to easily update a group of pool templates

  • When importing an image from a customer-managed instance of Microsoft Azure Compute Gallery, the administrator now has the option to import the image as a new version into the Horizon Cloud image catalog

Released Versions

  • Horizon Agents Installer 22.1.0.19600776 | 13 APR 2022

Resolved Issues

No major bug fixes to report for this release.

Known Issues

No notable known issues to report for this release.

April 2022 - service release 2204

New Features

Desktops and Applications

  • Pool Templates

    • Administrators can generate and download Agent DCT logs from within the console for pool template VMs

    • Administrators can now initiate a retry operation when provisioning fails on a Pool template

Horizon Edge

  • When performing a Horizon Edge deployment, the system now validates that the required Microsoft Azure resource providers have been registered and that the Microsoft Azure service principal(s) are assigned the appropriate permissions before starting the deployment process

  • A single Horizon Edge now supports multiple Active Directory Forests with each forest supporting multiple Active Directory Domains

Image Management

  • Additional Supported Windows Image Versions

    • Support for Microsoft Windows 10 Enterprise, version 21H2

    • Support for Microsoft Windows 10 Enterprise multi-session, version 21H2

Released Versions

  • Horizon Agents Installer 22.1.0.19600776 | 13 APR 2022

Resolved Issues

No major bug fixes to report for this release.

Known Issues

No notable known issues to report for this release.

February 2022 - limited availability release 2202

New Features

Horizon Edge "Thin Edge" Infrastructure with Pod-less Deployments

  • Elimination of the Horizon Infrastructure Components such as the Pod Managers (Smartnode) and Microsoft Azure PostgreSQL Database

Global Horizon Control Plane

  • Available in the US and Ireland (EU), and Japan with country-specific locations for storing customer metadata

Onboarding

  • The ability for customers to choose the location in which they want to store their metadata

Microsoft Azure Provider Capacity

  • Support for deploying Desktops and Applications into Microsoft Azure

  • Support for Microsoft Azure Private Link Service, which allows for secure connectivity over the Microsoft Azure backbone network to the Horizon Control Plane

Horizon Gateway Appliances

  • Automated deployment of the Horizon Edge Gateway and Unified Access Gateway along with Day 2 Management

  • Support for customer configured proxy

  • Support for deployment into a dedicated VNet and or dedicated provider

Desktops and Applications

  • Pool Templates

    • Windows 10 Dedicated and Floating Single-session VDI Desktops

    • Windows 10 Enterprise Multi-session and Windows Server RDSH Published Desktops and Apps

    • Support for the NV Azure VM Sizes with Nvidia GPU

    • Support for multiple VNets and or Subnets

    • Support for Dynamic Machine Provisioning or All Machines up-front

  • Pools

    • Allows for grouping of pool templates that span across multiple Horizon Edges and is presented as a single icon that can be entitled to users and groups

    • Load-Based Power Management for Floating Single-session VDI Desktop Pools and Published Desktop & Application Multi-session Pools

  • Entitlements

    • Support for user and group entitlements which provide the link between users and their desktops and applications, regardless of where those desktops and applications reside.

Image Management

  • Import VM Images from the Microsoft Azure Marketplace

  • Import VM Images from an existing Image located in a customer-created Shared Compute Gallery

  • Support for installation of the Horizon Agent on Image Publish

  • Support for enabling/disabling Horizon Agent features on Image Publish

  • Support for retrying Image Publish in the event of a failure

  • Publish to multiple providers / Horizon Edges / Sites

Universal Broker

  • Support for connecting end-users based on Nearest Site-based Brokering Rules and Policies

Identity and Access Management (IAM)

  • User Directory/IdP

    • Azure AD - Native built-in support for Azure AD for end-user authentication & entitlements

    • Active Directory - Requires Workspace ONE Access Cloud or On-premises

  • Machine Identity

    • Active Directory

    • Azure AD Domain Services

Workspace ONE Access

  • Integration with Workspace ONE Access Cloud or On-premises for end-user multi-factor authentication as well as an IdP for customers utilizing Active Directory

Authentication

  • Support for Two-Factor / Multi-Factor Authentication provided via a configured IdP

Workspace ONE intelligence

  • Support for linking to a Workspace ONE Intelligence tenant

User Card & Search

  • Ability to search for users and review their assigned desktops and applications, active sessions, and entitlements.

Horizon Client

  • Windows and macOS

Horizon Agent

  • Support for customer configured proxy

Dynamic Environment Manager

  • Support for Dynamic Environment Manager and configuration of the config file from within the Horizon Universal Console

Released Versions

  • Horizon Agents Installer 21.3.0.19327039 | 15 FEB 2022

Resolved Issues

No major bug fixes to report for this release.

Known Issues

  • (HV-22226) A VM-based Horizon Edge that has the Enable SSL option for proxy selected fails to deploy or update

    The deployment or update of a Horizon Edge fails when you select the Enable SSL option as part of configuring proxy, which results in the Horizon Edge going into a CREATE_FAILED state.

    Workaround: As you use the Horizon Universal Console to deploy a Horizon Edge, perform the following steps, depending on the certificate type.

    • If the proxy is configured with a private certificate, use a non-SSL proxy and do not select the Enable SSL option.

    • If the proxy is configured with a well-known CA to be trusted by the Horizon Edge Gateway VM, perform the following steps.

      1. Deploy the Horizon Edge with the Enable SSL option disabled.

      2. After successful deployment, edit the Horizon Edge, configuring it with proxy details and with the Enable SSL option enabled.

  • Image application scans may fail with time-outs

    Workaround: Perform a retry of the operation by clicking the scan button.

  • Warning message related to permissions is not cleared on the image version details page after successfully performing an image publish across providers

  • (HV-8750) Pool templates that are already associated with a pool can be selected when creating a new pool

Before You Begin

Client Support

To enable client connections to a VMware Horizon Cloud Service - next-gen deployment, use the latest release version of one of the following clients:

  • Horizon Client for Windows

  • Horizon Client for Mac

  • Horizon Client for Linux

  • Horizon Client for Android

  • Horizon Client for iOS

  • Horizon HTML Access

For more information, see the client documentation, which is part of the broader VMware Horizon Documentation - Horizon 8, Horizon Cloud Service, and Horizon Clients documentation set.

Limitations

The following limitations are known to exist in VMware Horizon Cloud Service - next-gen.

  • Horizon 8 Pods With Federated Architecture

    • For Horizon 8 edges that are configured with federated architecture, you cannot configure the CIDR ranges for Kubernetes clusters in the Horizon 8 edge appliance by default. To reconfigure and restart the Kubernetes cluster for your desired CIDR configurations, contact VMware Customer Support.

  • Horizon Gateway Appliances

    • Updating the Unified Access Gateway FQDN results in end-users being disconnected from their active sessions and needing to reconnect.

  • Dynamic Environment Manager

    • The configuration file path for Dynamic Environment Manager is not validated for system connectivity to the file path when saved within the Horizon Universal Console.

  • Pool Templates & Pools

    • A Pool Templates Virtual Machine Power State is not accurately reflected within the Horizon Universal Console when power operations are performed outside the service.

    • Ability to configure the Launch Folder or Parameters is not available for Published Applications.

  • Activity

    • Specific admin initiated actions, such as creating, editing, and deleting images, are not logged under Admin Activity.

    • System-initiated events, such as pool template expansion, power management actions, etc., are not logged under Admin Activity

  • Images

    • Validation of prerequisites, such as having sufficient Microsoft Azure quota for public IPs, VM-family vCPU, etc., is not performed when importing an Image.

    • Existing published images must be manually published when adding additional providers.

    • Bringing an existing Horizon Cloud Service first-gen image into Horizon Cloud Service - next-gen as a custom image is not supported.

    • Use of the App Volumes App Capture and App Volumes pool creation workflows is unsupported when using custom VMs in which you skipped the agent install during the Publish an Image workflow. 

    • Using a custom image in which you skipped the agent install during publish does not work with App Volumes App Capture and App Volumes pool creation.

    • Customer encrypted disks are not supported when creating an image.

    • Operating systems with BitLocker installed are not supported when publishing an image.

Documentation

VMware Horizon Cloud Service - next-gen documentation is presented as part of the broader VMware Horizon Documentation - Horizon 8, Horizon Cloud Service, and Horizon Clients documentation set.

Internationalization

VMware Horizon Cloud Service - next-gen documentation is available in the following languages.

  • English

  • French

  • German

  • Spanish

  • Japanese

  • Simplified Chinese

  • Korean

  • Traditional Chinese

  • Portuguese (Brazil)

To switch the documentation to a different language, click the language icon (
) and click your preferred language.

Support Contact Information

Contact VMware Support when you need help with your Horizon Cloud environment.

  • You can submit a support request to VMware Support online using your VMware CustomerConnect account or by phone.

  • KB 2144012Customer Support Guidelines provides details for getting support depending on the issue encountered.

  • In the Horizon Universal Console, clicking
    provides a method for requesting support.

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