Horizon Cloud Pods in Microsoft Azure - Create a VDI Multi-Cloud Assignment in Your Horizon Cloud Tenant Environment

You use the Assignment configuration wizard to create VDI multi-cloud assignments of desktops provisioned by multiple Horizon Cloud pods in Microsoft Azure. These pods are the ones built on the Horizon Cloud pod-manager technology.

Maximum number of Horizon Cloud pods per VDI multi-cloud assignment

The supported maximum number of Horizon Cloud pods in a VDI multi-cloud assignment is five (5). Using more than five increases the concurrent load on Universal Broker, which is the brokering technology configured in your tenant environment for use with VDI multi-cloud assignments. Increasing that concurrent load can lead to the end users encountering failures when they click on the assignment's displayed tile in the client and the service attempts the operation to log in the user to the virtual desktop.

In addition to adhering to the five-pod maximum per VDI multi-cloud assignment, you can further reduce the likelihood of end users encountering failures at the point when they click on the assignment's displayed tile in the client by including an additional desktop capacity of three percent (3%) in the VDI multi-cloud assignment. As an example, when you are defining a VDI multi-cloud assignment for provisioning 1,000 virtual desktops to 1,000 users, size the assignment for 1,030 desktops.

About the URL that your end users should use in their clients to properly access desktops that are provisioned from one of these VDI multi-cloud assignments

Only when your environment is configured to use Universal Broker with your Horizon Cloud pods will you be able to create a VDI multi-cloud assignment using those Horizon Cloud pods. When your environment is configured to use Universal Broker with those pods, your end users are expected to use your environment's configured Universal Broker URL in their clients to access the entitled VDI desktops that are provisioned by those multi-cloud assignments. Avoid having your end users use the old-style method, the Unified Access Gateway FQDN in their clients, when your environment is configured to use Universal Broker. Otherwise, unexpected results might occur if you have your end users bypass the Universal Broker and go directly to a Unified Access Gateway FQDN.

About the labels depicted on the desktop tiles that your end users will see in their clients

Please note that when an end user uses the Universal Broker URL in their client, the label on the desktop tile in their client will display the name that is specified in Assignment Name in the multi-cloud assignment form, as described in the following assignment-creation steps.

However, if you instead tell your end users to use the previously used, single-pod brokering method of using the Unified Access Gateway FQDN, the desktop tile will display a variation of the name that is specified in Assignment Name, and not the precise name that is specified in Assignment Name. The tile will depict the assignment name that appears in the Assignment Name field, plus a unique 8-character suffix.

As an example, if Assignment Name is specified as Dedicated-Sales in the multi-cloud assignment's definition, then:

• Client using Universal Broker URL - the end user sees a desktop tile that is labeled Dedicated-Sales.
• Client instead using the Unified Access Gateway FQDN - the end user sees a desktop tile that is labeled Dedicated-Sales-nnnnnnnn, where nnnnnnnn is a unique, random alphanumeric string. If two end users both use the Unified Access Gateway FQDN instead of the Universal Broker URL for their desktops in this example, one end user's desktop tile could be labeled Dedicated-Sales-d1f466f1 while the other end user's tile would be labeled like Dedicated-Sales-6bdbb611.

Important: When these pods are configured to use Universal Broker, end users are expected to use the Universal Broker URL in their clients to access their VDI desktops provisioned from these assignments.

Prerequisites

• VDI multi-cloud assignments are available in tenant environments that are configured to use Universal Broker with your pod-manager-type of pods. Such pods are those that are deployed into Microsoft Azure using the automated pod deployment wizard. Verify that your tenant is configured to use Universal Broker is configured as the brokering method to use with those pods. See Start the Universal Broker Enablement Using the Horizon Universal Console and Configure Universal Broker Settings.
• Configure sites and home site associations for your brokering environment, as described in Configuring Sites for Universal Broker and Configuring Home Sites for Universal Broker.
• Verify that you have at least one published image, with a Microsoft Windows client operating system, in each pod that you plan to select to participate in the assignment. You cannot create a VDI multi-cloud assignment without such an image in each of the participating pods. For example, when you intend to select a single pod for the assignment, that pod must have a published image. When you intend to select multiple pods for this assignment, each of those pods must have at least one published image. To verify, navigate to the Images page and make sure it lists the appropriate images. For steps on creating a published image, see Convert a Configured Image VM to an Assignable Image in Horizon Cloud on a Per-Pod Basis.
• Decide whether you want the desktops to have encrypted disks. You must specify disk encryption when creating the VDI multi-cloud assignment. You cannot later add disk encryption after the assignment is created. For a description of the disk capability, see Using Microsoft Azure Disk Encryption with Your Farms and VDI Desktops in Your Horizon Cloud Environment.
  Important: This release does not support having disk encryption for floating VDI assignments that use image VMs with attached data disks. Make sure the image that you plan to use in the assignment does not have data disks.
• Decide whether you want the ability to use NSX Cloud features with the desktop VMs. You must enable NSX Cloud management when creating the VDI multi-cloud assignment. You cannot later enable the assignment for NSX Cloud management after the assignment is created. The published image you select for this assignment must have the NSX agent installed in it. You must have installed the NSX agent before publishing the image. See VMware NSX Cloud and Horizon Cloud Pods in Microsoft Azure and its subtopics.
  Important: To use both NSX Cloud features and disk encryption, ensure the image's installed NSX agent is the latest agent version. Using disk encryption with previous versions of the NSX agent is not supported.
• When a pod is configured to have multiple VM subnets, you can decide whether you want those desktop VMs that are deployed in that pod's subscription to be connected to one of those VM subnets or to that pod's primary VM subnet (also known as the tenant subnet). When a pod that is running manifest 2298 or later has been edited to add additional VM subnets, you can specify use of those subnets for the assignment's desktop VMs that get instantiated for that specific pod. For this use case, you must verify that the VM subnet you want to use is listed on the pod's details page's Networking section in a Ready state so that the subnet will available for you to select in the workflow steps. For details, see Overview of Using Multiple Tenant Subnets with Your Horizon Cloud Pod for Your Farms and VDI Assignments.
  Important: When you specify use of a VM subnet for the assignment, the selected VM subnet remains in effect and cannot be changed after the assignment is created. Also, the total number of IP addresses provided by the selected subnets must be greater or equal to the specified Max VMs setting. For example, when selecting to have the assignment use the primary subnet or to use multiple VM subnets with a result of having 100 available IP addresses for the assignment, the Max VMs cannot exceed 100.

Procedure

1. In the left pane of the console, click Assignments and select the submenu option for VDI desktops.
2. On the Assignments page, click New and select the submenu option for desktops in Microsoft Azure.
   The New Desktop Assignment window opens to the first wizard step.
3. In the wizard, configure the required settings.
   Note: You might have to use the scroll bar to see all the settings.

   Setting	Description
   Desktop Type	Select one of the following: Floating: In a floating assignment, a user receives a different virtual machine with a different machine name with each login. With floating assignments, you can create desktops that shifts of users can use and that are sized based on the maximum number of concurrent users. For example, 300 users can use an assignment of 100 desktops if they work in shifts of 100 users at a time. With floating assignments, the user might see different host names for each desktop session. Dedicated: In a dedicated assignment, each virtual desktop gets mapped to a specific user. Each mapped user returns to the same desktop at every login. When a dedicated desktop is mapped to a specific user, that desktop is said to be assigned to that user. Note: A specific user can receive at most one assigned desktop from a dedicated assignment brokered by Universal Broker, even if the assignment includes desktops from multiple pods. This setting becomes read-only when you are editing an existing assignment.
   Assignment Name	Enter a user-friendly name for the assignment. As described earlier in this documentation topic, entitled end users will see a form of this assignment name on the desktop tile in the client they use to access their desktops. The name must contain only letters, hyphens, and numbers. Spaces are not allowed. The name cannot start with a non-alphabetic character.
   Description	Enter an optional description for the assignment.
   Select Pod(s)	Select the check box next to each pod that you want participating in this assignment. The assignment's desktop VMs get instantiated in the selected pods' subscriptions in Microsoft Azure. Note: As stated in the prerequisites section, each selected pod must have an image of at least one published image, with a Microsoft Windows client operating system. If a selected pod does not meet this requirement, the system will prevent completion of the wizard's next step, in which you specify the image from each participating pod.
   Scope	To specify where the broker can search for desktops in response to a user's desktop request, select one of the following options: Any Site allows the broker to search for available desktops located in any configured geographic site. Restrict to One Site instructs the broker to search only for available desktops located in the user's default site, as specified by the Connection Affinity setting. For an introduction to sites and desktop allocation, see Working with Sites in a Universal Broker Environment.
   Connection Affinity	This setting specifies a certain geographic site as the default site for the user. When the user requests a desktop, the broker begins searching in the default site for available desktops. If no available desktops are found in the default site and no site restrictions are in effect, the broker continues searching for desktops beyond the default site. Select one of the following options: Nearest Site specifies the nearest geographic site as the default site for the user. Home Site specifies the user's home site (or the home site of the group that includes the user) as the default site for that user. Note: If you select Home Site, the Assign Home Site setting becomes available on the Users page in a later step of the wizard. To allow the user to access desktops beyond their configured home site, do not enable Home Site Restriction. To restrict the user to their configured home site when accessing desktops, enable Home Site Restriction. Important: If you enable Home Site Restriction, the user (or the group that includes the user) must have a configured home site before they can access any desktops.

   After you configure the Definition settings, click Next to proceed to the next page of the wizard.
4. On the Desktops page of the wizard, configure the required settings.
   Note: You might have to use the scroll bar to see all the settings.

   Setting	Description
   Filter	Set one or more filters to control the models available in the Models drop-down menu. You can filter models by type, series, number of CPUs, memory, and tags. For more information about selecting models, see Managing VM Types and Sizes for Farms and Assignments in the Horizon Universal Console, which describes the options on the VM Types & Sizes page (Settings > VM Types & Sizes). To set a filter, you first select the criterion in the drop-down menu and then enter one or more desired values. By default, there is a single filter with the criterion 'Tag' the value 'VMware Recommended'. You can edit this first filter and add more filters connected by And and Or operators. The following are the criteria you can use for filters and descriptions of the values you can enter for each. Type When you select this option, there is only value available in the second drop-down menu: GPU and High Performance - Models with GPU. Note: If you select a GPU model, then the list of images shown will contain only images that were created with the Include GPU flag selected, so you need at least one such image to create a farm or pool using a GPU model. If you select a non-GPU model, then the list of images shown will contain only images that were created without the Include GPU flag. Series When you select this option, you can then select a series of models from a second drop-down menu. You can also filter this list by entering text in the Filter text box at the top of the list. CPUs When you select this option, you can then enter a CPU range. Important: For production environments, to avoid unexpected end-user connection issues, use VM models that have a minimum of two (2) CPUs. Memory When you select this option, you can then enter a range of memory in GBs. Tag When you select this option, you can then select a tag from a second drop-down menu. You can also filter this list by entering text in the Filter text box at the top of the list. Tags available in the drop-down menu are both hard-coded system tags and custom tags that you created on the VM Types & Sizes page (Settings > VM Types & Sizes). You can set additional filters by performing the following steps for each filter: Click the + link. Select either And or Or as the operator between the previous filter and the new one you are creating. Set the new filter by selecting a criterion and entering values.
   Model	Select the model to use for the desktop instances. The menu only displays model choices that are available in all the selected pods participating in the assignment. This selection defines the set of underlying resources that are used when the desktop instances are created, in terms of capacity (compute, storage, and so on). Important: For production environments, select a VM model that has a minimum of two (2) CPUs. VMware scale testing has shown that using 2 CPUs or more avoids unexpected end-user connection issues. Even though the system does not prevent you from choosing a VM model with a single CPU, you should use such models for tests or proof-of-concepts only.
   Disk Type	Select a supported disk type from the available options. The menu only displays disk type options that are available in all the selected pods participating in the assignment. Disk type options are based on the model selected, and your Azure subscription and region. The following are some commonly available disk types. Standard HDD - Default disk type. Standard SSD Premium SSD - Option only appears if you selected a model that supports premium IO. You can edit your selection after creating the assignment if necessary.
   Disk Size	Enter the OS disk size in GB for the VMs in this assignment. The default value is the base image OS disk size (typically 128 GB). If you edit the size, the value you enter must be greater than the base image OS disk size, and cannot exceed the largest size (typically 1024 GB) supported by the selected model. You can also edit this value later. Important: If you edit the disk size, there are additional actions you must take to ensure that the VMs are created as expected. For more information, see Required Administrator Actions When the Disk Size for a Farm or VDI Desktop Assignment is Increased.
   OS System	Specify the operating system of the VMs that you want to include in the assignment. Tip: This selection acts as a filter for the subsequent Image menu. Only images with the operating system selected here will be available for selection in the subsequent Image menu.
   Domain	Select the Active Directory domain registered with your environment.
   Encrypt Disks	Select Yes if you want the desktop instances to have encrypted disks. Important: If you want disk encryption, you must make this selection when creating the VDI multi-cloud assignment. You cannot later add disk encryption after the assignment is created. To use both NSX Cloud features and disk encryption, the image's installed NSX agent must be the latest agent version. Using disk encryption with previous versions of the NSX agent is not supported.
   NSX Cloud Managed	Select Yes if you want to use features of NSX Cloud with the assignment's desktop instances. For a description of using NSX Cloud features with your desktops in Microsoft Azure, see VMware NSX Cloud and Horizon Cloud Pods in Microsoft Azure and its subtopics. Important: If you want to use NSX Cloud with the desktop instances, you must make this selection when creating the VDI multi-cloud assignment. You cannot later enable NSX Cloud management after the assignment is created. For the NSX Cloud management features to work with the assignment's desktop instances, the image that you select for this assignment must have the NSX agent already installed on it. When you set this toggle to Yes, ensure that the image you select in Image has the NSX agent installed on it. The system does not verify if the selected image has the NSX agent when it creates the assignment. To use both NSX Cloud features and disk encryption, the image's installed NSX agent must be the latest agent version. Using disk encryption with previous versions of the NSX agent is not supported.
   Image	Select the image on each pod that you want to assign to end users. To view information about the selected image, click Details. Only those published images in each pod corresponding to the OS System selection are listed here. A published image, sometimes called a sealed image or an assignable image, is one that was published to the system by converting a golden image into a desktop. Note: If the error message "Please select a valid image to continue" appears when you attempt to select an image, there might be a problem with the image. Go to Inventory > Images to view the status of the problem image and perform the suggested remediation procedure. Since you can select a different image to use for each pod participating in the assignment, end users might receive different session experiences based on how Universal Broker brokers resources from the assignment. For example, one user might receive a desktop from Pod A which uses a specific image. However, another user who receives a desktop from Pod B might have a different session experience based on the desktop image used by Pod B. Important: If you set the Encrypt Disks to Yes, ensure that the image you select here does not have data disks attached to it. Use of disk encryption of VMs with data disks for floating VDI assignments is not supported in this release. If you set the NSX Cloud Managed toggle to Yes, ensure that the image you select here has the NSX agent installed on it. For the NSX Cloud management features to work with the assignment's desktop instances, the image that you select for this assignment must have the NSX agent already installed on it. The system does not verify if the selected image has the NSX agent when it creates the VDI desktop assignment.
   VM Names Prefix	Base name for the desktop VMs created in this assignment. The VM names have numbers appended to this base name, for example, win10-1, win10-2. The name must start with a letter and can contain only letters, dashes, and numbers. The end users see this name when they go to access a desktop from this assignment. For example, when an end user runs Horizon Client to use one of the desktops, this name is the one displayed in Horizon Client.
   Default Protocol	Select a default display protocol you want the end-user sessions to use. Circumstances might occur that cause another protocol to be used instead of the default protocol. For example, the client device does not support the default protocol or the end user overrides the default protocol selection. Note: For images with the Microsoft Windows 7 Enterprise operating system, RDP is the only supported choice.
   Preferred Client	Select the preferred client used when end users start their desktops from the Workspace™ ONE™ platform's portal, either a Horizon Client or a browser for HTML Access. Note: For images with the Microsoft Windows 7 Enterprise operating system, Horizon Client is the only supported choice.
   Do you have a Windows Client License	The wizard asks you to confirm you have an eligible license to use the Microsoft Windows operating system that is in the image and which will be in the desktop VMs. Follow the on-screen instructions. For a client operating system, Horizon Cloud sets the assignment's desktop VMs to use the Windows Client license type by default and you cannot change that setting.
   Power Off Protect Time	Specify the number of minutes that you want the system to wait before automatically powering off a powered-on desktop. You can enter a value from 1 to 60. The default is 30 minutes. This protect time is used primarily for the situations where the system will automatically power off a desktop VM. You can use this Power Off Protect Time setting to tell the system to wait the specified time before starting to power off the VM to meet the threshold setting in the Power Management field. The system waits the time specified for the Power Off Protect Time before powering off the VM to match the configured schedule. The default wait time is 30 minutes.

   Optionally configure the advanced properties.

   Option	Description
   Computer OU	Active Directory Organizational Unit where the desktop VMs are to be located. Enter the Active Directory Organizational Unit using the distinguished name, for example, OU=RootOrgName,DC=DomainComponent,DC=eng, and so on. The OU and each path in a nested OU can contain any combination of letters, numbers, special characters, and spaces, and can have a maximum of 64 characters. If you must use nested Organization Units, see Considerations For Using Nested Active Directory Domain Organizational Units. Note: If the Computer OU is set to CN=Computers, the system uses the default Active Directory Computers container for VMs. Your Active Directory might have this default container redirected to an organizational unit class container.
   Run once script	(Optional) Location of a script that you want run in the assignment's desktop VMs after the VM creation process. Note: The script must end with a reboot step to reboot the VM. Otherwise, the end user will not be able to log in the desktop until doing a manual restart. A sample reboot line as a Windows command is: shutdown /r /t 0 The reason why the script must end with a reboot step is due to the sequence when the script is run after the sysprep process. When the system creates a desktop VM for the assignment, the VM boots up and completes the sysprep process in the Windows operating system. When the sysprep process completes, the agent in the desktop VM reaches out to do the domain join. At the same time, the agent gets the script path you specify here. The agent sets the Windows RunOnce path (System run once) and then restarts the desktop VM. On the next restart, the system logs in to the Windows operating system using the local administrator account and runs the script. It is only after another subsequent restart, specified in the script, that the desktop VM is ready for a user to log in.
   Log off Disconnected Sessions	Specify when you want the system to log the user out of a disconnected desktop session. Note: The sessions governed by the Log off Disconnected Sessions, Session Timeout Interval, and Max Session Lifetime settings are the user logins to the desktops' Windows operating system. These sessions are not the user logins in Horizon Client, Horizon HTML Access, or Workspace ONE. The user's session begins when the user authenticates to the desktop's Windows operating system.
   Session Timeout Interval	This time interval is the amount of time the end users' sessions can be idle before the system forces a log out from the desktops. This time-out applies to the logged-in session to the underlying Windows operating system. The time you specify here is different from the time-out settings that govern the end users' Horizon Client or HTML Access logged-in session. Caution: When the system forces the log-off in the underlying Windows operating system session, any unsaved data is lost. To prevent an unintended loss of data, set this interval high enough to accommodate the business needs of your end users. The default interval is one week (10080 minutes). Note: If no user activity occurs before the timeout interval is reached, a message appears in the desktop that indicates that the user will be logged off if they do not click OK in the next 30 seconds. If the logout occurs, any unsaved user data, such as documents or files, is lost.
   Max Session Lifetime	Specify the maximum number of minutes the system should allow for a single user session.
   Power Management Mode	Note: This setting is only available if you have set the desktop type to Floating. The power management settings are related to the thresholds at which the system automatically increases and shrinks the number of powered-on desktop instances in the floating VDI desktop assignment according to usage. When the usage increases above an upper bound, the system automatically powers up a new desktop instance. When the usage shrinks below a lower bound, the system shuts down deallocates desktop VMs as end users log out from the desktops. The power management selections balance capacity cost with faster availability: Select Optimize for Performance when you want the system to power on the next desktop instance sooner rather than later. Even though you are spending more by having the next desktop ready to go before the user demand requires it, this setting increases the chance that when users try to start a desktop from the assignment, the desktop is already powered up to meet that demand. Select Optimize for Power when you want the system to wait as long as possible before powering on the next desktop instance. The occupancy of the assignment's set of desktops is higher before the system powers up the next desktop instance. Even though this selection minimizes capacity costs by having more utilization of the existing desktops, this setting increases the chance that there might be a delay when new users try to log in because they might have to wait during the time system has to power on desktops. Select Balanced to strike a balance between capacity costs and time-to-availability for users. The low and high thresholds for each selection are: Optimize for Performance Low threshold: 23% High threshold: 50% Optimize for Power Low threshold: 38% High threshold: 80% Balanced Low threshold: 31% High threshold: 66%
   Azure Resource Tags	(Optional) Create custom tags to be applied to Azure resource groups. Azure resource tags are only applied to the resource groups, and are not inherited by the resources in the groups. To create the first tag, enter information in the Name and Value fields. To create an additional tag, click Add and then enter information in the Name and Value fields that appear below the existing ones. You can create a maximum of 10 tags. The tag name is limited to 512 characters, and the tag value is limited to 256 characters. For storage accounts, the tag name is limited to 128 characters, and the tag value is limited to 256 characters. Tag names cannot contain the following characters: < > % & \ ? / Tag names cannot contain these case-insensitive strings: ‘azure’, ‘windows’, ‘microsoft’ After an assignment has been created, you can add more Azure resource tags and edit or delete tags for that assignment.

   After you configure the Desktop settings, click Next to proceed to the next page of the wizard.
5. On the Capacity page of the wizard, make the following settings.
   1. If you are creating a dedicated VDI desktop assignment, you can click Global Configuration for all Pods and configure settings that apply to all pods participating in the assignment.
      Note:

      • Settings that you make here can be overridden for a particular pod when you specify the per-pod settings in the following step.
      • These settings do not apply to pods with manifest versions prior to 2474.0. If the assignment uses pods with manifests prior to 2474.0, a message will appear indicating that these settings will not be in effect for desktop VMs located in those pods.

      Option	Description
      Max Desktop Deletions	This sets the number of desktop VMs that can be deleted in the assignment before counting them against the rate you set for Deletion Protection on the Settings > General Settings page. Select one of the following options from the drop-down menu. Unlimited - Unlimited desktop VMs can be deleted from the assignment. In this case, the Deletion Protection setting is no longer relevant. None - No additional desktop VMs can be deleted before counting them against the rate you set for Deletion Protection. In this case, the system uses only the Deletion Protection to authorize or block deletions. None is the default value for Deletion Protection. Custom - Number of additional desktop VMs that can be deleted before counting them against the rate you set for Deletion Protection. If you select Custom, you must also enter a numerical value for Custom Delete Count. For example, you might set Max Desktop Deletions to 10 and Deletion Protection to 1. In this case, after the first 10 VMs are deleted (no matter how long it takes for the count to reach 10), the system only allows 1 additional VM to be deleted per hour from that time forward. Important: If you specify a new image for a dedicated desktop assignment, the system changes the Max Desktop Deletions setting if necessary so that all unassigned desktop VMs can be rebuilt with the new image. Note: If you select Unlimited for Deletion Protection, there is no need to use the Max Desktop Deletions setting. For more information about the Deletion Protection setting, see Customizable General Settings for Your Horizon Cloud Tenant Environment. To prevent all VM deletions in a dedicated desktop assignment, use the Prevent Deletions setting on the Assignments page. See Prevent Deletions or Allow Deletions for a Multi-Cloud Dedicated Desktop Assignment.
      Custom Delete Count	If you selected Custom for Max Desktop Deletions, enter the number of additional desktop VMs that can be deleted before counting them against the rate you set for Deletion Protection. The number you enter must between 1 and 2000.

   2. Configure the required settings for each participating pod by clicking the arrow icon next to the pod in the pod list.

      Option	Description
      Add Power Management Schedule	To help optimize savings and performance of the desktop VMs in Microsoft Azure, you can optionally configure schedules to adjust the minimum number of powered-on desktop instances on a recurring weekly basis. Note: In a Floating assignment, you can manage any of the desktop instances using the power management schedule. In a Dedicated assignment, you can only manage unassigned desktop instances with the schedule. For example: For weekends or night hours when you know that your end users will not be using their desktops, you can have a schedule for zero or a low number of powered-on desktops (for a Floating assignment) or powered-on unassigned desktops (for a Dedicated assignment). For specific days or specific hourly stretches that you can predict will have increased end user demand, you can have a schedule that increases the minimum number of powered-on desktops to be available to meet that demand. You can specify up to 10 schedules for the assignment. If any schedules have overlapping time periods but specify different minimum desktop numbers, the system uses the largest value of minimum desktops for the overlapping time period. Click the calender icon under the Min Desktops column to open the Add Power Management Schedule screen for that pod. Select the days for the first schedule. Specify the applicable hours in the specified days. Either: Select the All Day check box to have this schedule in effect for all hours of the specified days. Specify start and end times for the time period in each day. Note: Encrypted VMs take longer to power on than non-encrypted VMs. If you have set Encrypt Disks to Yes, and you want 100% of the encrypted VMs to be ready for end-user connections at a particular time of day, you might have to set an earlier start time here. See When Scheduling Power Management for Farms and VDI Desktop Assignments That Have Large Numbers of Encrypted VMs. Select the time zone. The time zone closest to your end users' location is recommended. As appropriate for the selected time zone, Daylight Savings Time is automatically applied. Note: If two schedules have the same time zone setting and have overlapping times, a warning is displayed. However, if two schedules have different time zone settings and overlap, the warning is not displayed. As an example, if you have two all-day Saturday schedules and one has Europe/London time zone selected and the other has America/Toronto selected, the overlap warning does not display. In the Min Desktops field, type the minimum number of desktops you want powered on during the specified time period. During the specified time period, that number of desktops at a minimum will be powered on to be available to take end user requests during that time. In a Floating assignment, this number can range from zero (0) up to the number specified for Max Desktops for the pod. In a Dedicated assignment, this number can range from zero (0) up to the total number of unassigned desktop instances for the pod. When this number is zero (0) and there are no active end user sessions at the schedule's starting time point, the pod's desktops are powered off. In that scenario, if an end user later attempts to connect to a desktop from this assignment during the scheduled time period, there will be a delay before the desktop is in a usable state because the underlying desktop VM has to power on. To create additional power management schedules, click Add Schedule. Note: By default, when a user logs out from a desktop at a time that lies outside of a schedule's time period, the system protects the desktop VM from powering off for the time specified in the Power Off Protect Time field. The default is 30 minutes.
      When creating a floating VDI assignment Min VMs Max VMs	Specify the minimum number and maximum number of desktops you want in the selected pod for this assignment. When the assignment is first created, the system deploys the number of desktop VMs in the pod as specified in the Max VMs setting, and then powers off the desktop VMs except the number specified for Min VMs. Only the minimum number of desktop instances is initially powered on. As end-user demand increases, the system powers on additional desktops, up to the Max VMs number. Then as end-user demand shrinks, the system powers off the desktops, until it reaches the Min VMs number. A desktop must be free of a logged-in user session before the system will power it off. When you specify zero (0) for Min VMs, it indicates that you want the system to power off all the assignment's desktops until there is end-user demand for a desktop. Important: The subnets you specify in Specify VM Subnet(s) must accommodate the number of IP addresses required to match your Max VMs value.
      When creating a dedicated VDI assignment Min VMs Max VMs	Tip: This Min VMs setting for a dedicated VDI desktop assignment works slightly different from how the setting works for a floating VDI desktop assignment. For a dedicated VDI desktop assignment, the Min VMs setting refers to the unassigned desktops. When a desktop becomes assigned to a user, that desktop VM is no longer an unassigned desktop, and as a result, is not considered part of the set of desktops governed by the Min VMs setting. If the number of unassigned desktop VMs in the assignment are less than the value for Min VMs, you will observe that the number of powered-on VMs is less than the Min VMs value Min VMs — Sets the number of powered-on unassigned desktop VMs to have in the pool that this assignment creates in the selected pod. When the assignment is first created, zero desktop VMs are assigned out of the total of maximum possible from the selected pod (set by the Max VMs number). Therefore, at that time, the number you set here is the subset of the number of unassigned VMs that you want powered on initially out of that possible maximum. When you specify zero (0) for Min VMs, it indicates that you want none of the unassigned desktop VMs to be powered-on when the assignment is initially created. The benefit of setting some unassigned VMs to be powered on is primarily to have some unassigned VMs ready for users to quickly log in to. Over time, as these powered-on unassigned desktops get assigned to users — either from users doing their initial logins which claim desktops for them or from an administrator using the Assign action to explicitly assign a desktop to a user — the system powers on additional unassigned desktops in this pod, along with in the other pods participating in this assignment. When the system reaches the Max VMs number specified for a pod, the system stops powering on unassigned desktops in the pod's pool for this assignment. Finally, when all of the desktop VMs in the specified pod are assigned to users, the Min VMs value is not much use until a time when you explicitly start unassigning desktops from users. Max VMs — Sets the total number of desktop VMs you want in the pod's pool of VMs as defined by this assignment. Important: The subnets you specify in Specify VM Subnet(s) must accommodate the number of IP addresses required to match your Max VMs value.
      Quiescing VMs	This setting comes into play for the use case where you edit the assignment to change the image that is specified for selected pod. The resulting behavior on the desktop VMs is slightly different for a floating VDI desktop assignment than for a dedicated VDI desktop assignment. For a floating VDI desktop assignment This setting controls the number of the assignment's powered-on desktop VMs located in the selected pod that can be concurrently quiesced during the time the pod's selected image is being updated. For example, when you later edit this assignment to use a different image from the selected pod, the system will power off this number of powered-on desktop VMs simultaneously for those VMs that do not have any sessions. (When a powered-on desktop has a session, the system holds off powering off that desktop until the session ends.) Then to the set of powered-off desktop VMs, the system performs the required actions to provision the new image to that set. For typical use cases, this number would be set to a subset of the full maximum number of desktop VMs defined for the selected pod. However, if you want, you can specify a number here equal to the Max VMs setting. In that scenario, you would be allowing the system to power off simultaneously all of the assignment's powered-on desktop VMs in the selected pod when you edit the assignment to use a new image for the desktop VMs in that pod. For a dedicated VDI desktop assignment This setting controls the number of the assignment's unassigned desktops located in the selected pod that can be concurrently quiesced during the time the pod's selected image is being updated. For example, when you later edit this assignment to use a different image from the selected pod, the system will power off this number of unassigned desktop VMs simultaneously. Then to the set of powered-off unassigned desktop VMs, the system performs the required actions to provision the new image to that set. For typical use cases, this number would be set to a subset of the full maximum number of desktop VMs defined for the selected pod. However, if you want, you can specify a number here equal to the Max VMs setting. In that scenario, you would be allowing the system to power off simultaneously all of the assignment's powered-on unassigned desktop VMs in the selected pod when you edit the assignment to use a new image for the desktop VMs in that pod. Note: In a floating VDI desktop assignment, this setting does not pertain to desktop VMs that are powered off. When an image is changed for a pod in a floating VDI multi-cloud assignment, the system immediately deletes those powered-off desktop VMs and updates them to the new image. In a dedicated VDI multi-cloud assignment, desktops that are mapped to users are said to be assigned to those users. Unassigned desktops in a dedicated VDI desktop assignment are desktops which have not yet been mapped to specific users.
      Max Desktop Deletions Custom Delete Count	These options appear for dedicated VDI desktop assignments only. See the descriptions in the table in the preceding step. Changes you make to these settings for a selected pod override the corresponding settings that you made in the previous step, in the global configuration settings.
      Specify VM Subnet(s)	Enable this toggle to select one or more specific subnets that are configured for the selected participating pod. These subnets are the ones defined in that pod's configuration, as described in Overview of Using Multiple Tenant Subnets with Your Horizon Cloud Pod for Your Farms and VDI Desktop Assignments. The assignment's desktop VMs will be connected to these subnets. After enabling the toggle, you can select the specific subnets from the displayed list. When this toggle is switched off, the assignment's desktop VMs will be connected to the pod's primary VM subnet by default. Important: When you specify use of a VM subnet for the assignment, the selected VM subnet remains in effect and cannot be changed after the assignment is created. The total number of IP addresses provided by the selected subnets must be greater or equal to the specified Max VMs setting. For example, when selecting to have the assignment use the primary subnet or to use multiple VM subnets with a result of having 100 available IP addresses for the assignment, the Max VMs cannot exceed 100.

   After you configure the Capacity settings, click Next to proceed to the next page of the wizard.
6. On the Users page, specify the users and user groups that you want to entitle to the assignment.

   Option	Description
   Domain	Specify the Active Directory domain in which the users and groups reside. Note: Only cloud-configured domains are available for selection.
   Find Users	Type the first few characters of the user or group name, and select the users or group of users from the list that appears. Your selection is added to the Selected Users / User Groups list. You can use the Remove button to delete a selected user or group from the list.
   Assign Home Site	Note: This setting is available only if you selected Home Site for Connection Affinity on the Definition page of the wizard. Use this optional setting to configure a home site override for the selected user or group accessing this assignment. In this case, Universal Broker begins searching for available desktops in the override site instead of the user or group's configured home site. For example, suppose that a user has a home site in San Francisco but you specify New York as the override site. When the user accesses the assignment, Universal Broker first searches for available desktops in New York instead of in San Francisco. To specify a home site override, select the user or group and click Assign Home Site. The Assign Home Site menu displays all the available sites for pods participating in this assignment. To specify an override site as the default instead of the user or group's configured home site, select the override site in the menu. To remove the override site and use the user or group's configured home site instead, select Clear Home Site.

   After you configure the Users settings, click Next to proceed to the next page of the wizard.

7. On the Summary page, review the configuration and then click Finish.

Results

The system begins the process of configuring the desktop instances in the specified pods to provide VDI desktops to the selected users.

Note: Creation of an encrypted desktop VM takes approximately twice as long as creating a non-encrypted VM. As a result, the end-to-end time to complete creating a VDI desktop assignment that has disk encryption enabled is approximately twice as long as creating that VDI desktop assignment without disk encryption enabled.

What to do next

If the image for this floating VDI desktop assignment has applications that require opening special ports, you might need to modify this assignment's associated Network Security Group (NSG) in Microsoft Azure. For details about the NSG, see About Network Security Groups and VDI Desktops in a Horizon Cloud Pod.

If you specified NSX Cloud management for this assignment, you can use your NSX Cloud environment's Service Manager (CSM) to see that the desktop VMs are managed in NSX Cloud. Log in to your environment's CSM and navigate to Clouds > Azure > Instances. When that Instances page shows a status of Managed for the desktop instances, you can start implementing NSX policies on them.