Use the console's user card feature as a dashboard to work with a specific user's assigned resources, such as that user's desktops. People also refer to this user card feature as the help desk.
As described in the KB article, VMware Workspace ONE Intelligence for Horizon is available for first-generation Horizon Cloud tenants that have subscription licenses VMware Horizon Universal, Horizon Apps Universal, and Horizon Apps Standard. With this availability, the KB article states:
- The historical dashboards and reports that the first-gen console provided will now be available through Workspace ONE Intelligence.
- As of June 30, 2023, those historical dashboards and reports are no longer available in the first-gen console.
- With these changes, the historical performance data that was previously displayed in the first-gen user card UI for sessions from Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure pods is now only available in Workspace ONE Intelligence.
For further information, see Horizon Cloud First-Gen Integration and Access Horizon Cloud Data in Intelligence Reports.
Introduction
You use the console's search feature to display the card for a specific user. See Using the Console's Search Feature for how to search for a user. When you click on a user in the search results, that user's card is displayed.
See informational data in context of this specific user, about that user's virtual desktop and applications, by navigating through the user card and following the on-screen prompts. You might have to click through from one information area to another to see different types of information and data.
- Sessions
-
Navigate the user card to obtain real-time information about the user's current sessions, aggregated from all of your cloud-connected pods. Provides actions you can perform on the listed sessions. For details about these actions, see
Actions You Can Take on Sessions.
Note: The Sessions tab will show a value of
0at the top when there is no current session.Click on a session to open its dashboard. From a session's dashboard, you can monitor the user session for troubleshooting. See Working with the Session Dashboard.
- Assignments
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Navigate the user card to obtain information about the assignments in which this user participates. In
Horizon Cloud, an assignment is the entity by which a user gets entitled to a virtual desktop or application.
Note: URL redirection customization assignments are not listed in the user card.
- Desktops
-
Navigate the user card to obtain information about the user's assigned virtual desktops, such as:
- Active sessions to VDI floating desktops
- Active sessions to RDSH session desktops
- VDI dedicated desktops that have been assigned to this user, even when the user does not have an active session to that desktop.
The system assigns a VDI dedicated desktop to a user in one of two ways:
- You explicitly assign that specific dedicated desktop to this particular user, using the Assign action in the VDI dedicated desktop assignment's page
- The user claims the desktop from the set that is defined by the VDI dedicated desktop assignment to which that user is entitled. You can entitle a user to a VDI dedicated desktop assignment without explicitly assigning a specific dedicated desktop to that user. You entitle users using the assignment's Users/Groups area. Then when an entitled user launches a desktop from the set of desktops in that assignment for the first time, that user has claimed that VDI dedicated desktop, and the system permanently assigns that VDI dedicated desktop to that user.
The user card also provides action buttons to perform actions on the desktops' underlying virtual machines (VMs). Whether you can use these buttons depends on the role assigned to you from the console's role-based action control (RBAC).
- Applications
- Navigate the user card to obtain information about the user's assigned remote applications.
- Activity
- Navigate the user card to obtain information about the user's activity for selected time periods.
Actions You Can Take on Sessions
The available actions you can take on a listed session vary based on the type of session, the pod type, and the permissions of the administrator. Navigate in the user card and follow the on-screen labels to locate these actions within the user card.
| Action | Description | Horizon | Horizon | Microsoft Azure | Microsoft Azure |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VDI Desktop | Session-based Desktop | VDI Desktop | Session-based Desktop | ||
| Send a notification message | Sending a notification message to a specific session's logged-in user for a specific is one of the actions provided in the user card. When sent, the message appears on the user's screen. | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Use VMware Workspace ONE Assist for Horizon | This action provides use of the features of the VMware Workspace ONE Assist for Horizon product with the selected end-user desktop session. With those features, your administrators can assist employees with their virtual desktops using remote view and control capabilities. Access to the action button is available only when your tenant environment is licensed to use the VMware Workspace ONE Assist for Horizon product and when the additional minimum requirements are met in the VM that underlies the selected desktop and on the pod that is provisioning that VM. For those requirements and the information about using this feature, see the guide VMware Workspace ONE Assist for Horizon and Horizon Cloud located in the VMware Workspace ONE Assist Documentation. | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| Use Microsoft Remote Assistance | In the Help Desk tool, this action is labeled Remote Assistance. This action is available for sessions from a Horizon pod. This action uses the Microsoft Remote Assistance feature in the published desktop. You initiate this action on a specific end-user session. | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Restart | This action restarts the VM that underlies the end-user session. | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| Disconnect | Disconnects the session. | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Logoff | Logs the user off the session. | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Reset | Resets the VM that underlies the end-user session. | Yes | No | Yes | No |
Working with the Session Dashboard
Clicking one of the active sessions opens a dashboard in which you can see data about that session. Navigate each area of this dashboard to view the data that the dashboard provides and perform actions that the dashboard makes available to you.
- Details
-
Use session-related details to monitor the end user's session for troubleshooting purposes, such as CPU usage, memory usage, network latency, disk performance, and so on. Scroll through the dashboard and use the on-screen controls to adjust for more or less details.
Note: Limited metrics are available for the RDP protocol. If the active session is using the RDP protocol, fewer metrics are available than for the other supported protocols.
The following screenshot shows an example of some of the types of data and actions that are available in the session dashboard.
The dashboard provides performance data metrics and actions that super administrators and help desk administrators can use to troubleshoot issues in the session.
- Processes
- The dashboard provides access to information about the processes and applications that are running in the session, and provides a way to end a troublesome process or application.
When the Help Desk Feature Is Not Installed in the Desktop or Farm VM
When a VDI desktop VM or farm's RDSH VM is based on an image that does not have the Help Desk feature installed, an information alert is displayed when you open the dashboard for a session connected to that VM.
In this case, the VM's data is not reported. Because the usual data is not available, some of the dashboard areas appear blank or empty for such sessions, such as:
- Most of the data about the client and VM is unavailable.
- The User Experience metrics and charts are empty.
- The Processes tab is empty.
- Refresh icons are not clickable.
- Some of the action buttons, such as the End task button, are not displayed.
