Using App Volumes applications functionality, you can manage the entire life cycle of applications, including packaging, updating, and retiring an application. You can also customize application assignments to deliver specific versions of an application to end users.

Overview of VMware App Volumes Functionality in Horizon Cloud

Overview of the App Volumes Application Process

Prerequisites for App Volumes Applications

Adding an App Volumes Application Using a Windows 10 Enterprise Multi-Session VM

Overview of VMware App Volumes Functionality in Horizon Cloud

The following table provides an overview of VMware App Volumes functionality in Horizon Cloud.

Functional Area Description
Deployment
  • Zero-touch deployment. Auto-provisioning of App Volumes infrastructure components, such as App Volumes Managers, App Volumes databases, and storage.
  • Leverages Microsoft Azure PostgreSQL managed service for database needs. No additional database management required.
  • Automatic provisioning of Microsoft Azure File Shares during pod setup to store and deliver apps.
Management Console
  • App Volumes console is seamlessly integrated into the Horizon Cloud administration console. Manage desktops and apps in the same console.
  • App Volumes Agent installation experience seamlessly integrated into the Horizon Cloud image creation workflows.
App Volumes 4 agent

Unified performance-optimized agent used both for on-premises and Microsoft Azure deployments.
Packaging
  • Supports VHD based packages that are delivered using Microsoft Azure fileshares.
  • App package creation performed natively within Horizon Cloud. No command-line tools necessary.
Application Lifecycle Management

Supports Simplified Application Management (SAM) capability that is already a part of App Volumes 4 on-prem. Administrators can now manage the entire life cycle of the application, including packaging, updating, and retiring.
Application Assignment
  • Administrators can customize their application assignments to deliver specific versions of an application to end users.
  • Supports multi-pod application delivery.
Hybrid Cloud Support

On-prem App Volumes customers can now import their application packages from their on-prem deployments into Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure. Reuse on-prem packages. No need to repackage for Microsoft Azure.
Preview features
  • (Preview Only) - Customers can import MSIX app attach VHDs and evaluate delivering this new package format using App Volumes.
  • (Preview Only) - Customers can evaluate App Volumes native format with Windows 10 Enterprise multi-session.
  • (Preview Only) - Customers can evaluate MSIX app attach format with Windows 10 Enterprise multi-session.

Overview of the App Volumes Application Process

Making App Volumes applications available to users is a two-step process:

  • Add an App Volumes application in the administration console. There are two ways of doing this:
    • Add an App Volumes application by creating and importing a new app package.

      If an app package has not yet been created, you can create it with the Create option, which uses App Volumes to create the app package and automatically import it. See Add an App Volumes Application by Creating a New App Package.

    • Add an App Volumes application by importing an existing app package.

      If you have an app package that was previously created with App Volumes, you can import it with the Import option. This means you can reuse app packages from on-premises deployments without having to repackage the applications. See Add an App Volumes Application by Importing an Existing App Package.

  • Create an App Volumes assignment to assign the App Volumes application to users. See Create an App Volumes Assignment.

Prerequisites for App Volumes Applications

Before you can add App Volumes applications into your inventory, confirm that your environment meets the following prerequisites.

Important: As described in Tour of the Cloud-Based Horizon Cloud Administration Console for Administrative Tasks in Horizon Cloud, the cloud-based console is dynamic and reflects the workflows and settings that are appropriate for the up-to-the-moment situation in your Horizon Cloud tenant environment. Access to features varies depending on factors such as the tenant's regional cloud plane, whether your cloud-connected pods are running the latest level of the pod's software, and whether features are based on specific licensing. The console dynamically reflects the elements related to such features only when your license or tenant account configuration includes use of such features. When you are expecting to see a feature in the console and do not see it, you have to contact your VMware account representative to verify whether your license and tenant account configuration entitles its usage.
  • New Customers:
    • Starting on July 9, 2020, all new customers that purchase the Horizon Universal License subscription will have their tenant accounts enabled by default to use App Volumes for Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure pods.
  • Existing Customers:
    • Customers with existing tenant accounts created after March 16, 2020 and before July 9, 2020 can use App Volumes for Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure pods after the version 3.1 (manifest version 2298.0) upgrade has been made available and those customers have upgraded all their pods to that version. To request App Volumes capability after successfully upgrading all pods, contact VMware Support as described in https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2006985.
    • Customers with existing tenant accounts created on or before March 16, 2020 are not able to have App Volumes enabled for their Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure pods at this time. Those accounts must first be migrated to one of the regional Horizon Cloud control plane instances in Microsoft Azure. The VMware Horizon Service Team will notify such customers by email when this migration is available.
  • You must have a pod deployed in Microsoft Azure that has manifest version 2298.0 or later, is configured with Unified Access Gateway instances, and you have completed the Active Directory domain registration workflow as described in Getting Started Using Your Horizon Cloud Environment.
  • If you have set the Domain Controller Policy Domain controller: LDAP server signing requirements to Require Signing after registering the domain using the Horizon Cloud Administration Console, you must do the following:
    1. On the Setings > Active Directory page, click the edit (pencil) icon next to Domain Bind.
    2. Enter the primary bind account password in the Bind Password text box. Do not make any other changes.
    3. Click Domain Bind.
  • In the Horizon Cloud Administration Console, verify that every pod’s details page shows that the pod has its mounted file shares.
  • In addition to meeting the Horizon Cloud DNS, ports, and protocol requirements, you must also open port 445 for TCP protocol traffic. Port 445 is the standard SMB port for accessing an SMB file share on Microsoft Windows. The AppStacks are stored in an SMB file share located in the pod’s resource group in your Microsoft Azure subscription.
  • You have completed the Unified Access Gateway’s FQDN-mapping steps, as is required for pods in Microsoft Azure that are configured with Unified Access Gateway instances.
  • You have confirmed that the following settings are shown on the pod detail page for your pod. You open the page by navigating to the Capacity page (Settings > Capacity) and clicking the pod:
    • The Fileshares field under Properties has a value of 2 and when you point to the number both fileshares are listed.
    • The Gateway settings at the bottom of the page are filled in, indicating that Unified Access Gateway is configured.
  • Your inventory in the console has a published image with App Volumes Agent installed. For the high-level steps of creating an image VM, see Creating Desktop Images for a Horizon Cloud Pod in Microsoft Azure and its subtopics.

Adding an App Volumes Application Using a Windows 10 Enterprise Multi-Session VM

Note: Support for Windows 10 Enterprise multi-session VMs is a Tech Preview feature in this release.

The following are the required steps to create an App Volumes application with an app package from a Windows 10 Enterprise multi-session VM.

  1. Manually build the VM in Microsoft Azure, including manually installing agents. See Tech Preview - How To Configure a Windows 10 Multi-Session VM for Use with App Volumes Features in this Horizon Cloud Release.
  2. Add the necessary metadata to MSIX app attach VHD file using the App Volumes Packaging Utility, which is available on the VMware Flings page.
  3. Add the App Volumes application using the New > Import process on the Applications page of the console. See Add an App Volumes Application by Importing an Existing App Package.
After you have added the application, you can create an App Volumes assignment as you normally do. See Create an App Volumes Assignment.
Important: If a service requiring administrative privileges is captured in a Windows 10 Enterprise multi-session app package, any user being assigned that app package must also have administrative privileges.