This topic describes some of the common VMware Horizon Cloud Service on Microsoft Azure limits, which are also called supported maximums. This topic currently describes the supported maximums on both the number of desktop and farm RDSH VMs you can deploy in a single subscription and on the total number of concurrent connected sessions you can have per Horizon Cloud pod. Over time, this topic will be updated to list more of the known limits.

These supported maximums are the result of testing the service up to these maximums.

Maximum of 2,000 desktop VMs and farm RDSH VMs per subscription
This limit is based on Microsoft Azure API limits that are given on a single subscription. To work well within these API limits during standard operations, Horizon Cloud supports up to a maximum of 2,000 desktop VMs and farm RDSH VMs per subscription.

The 2,000 number per subscription includes VDI desktop VMs and farm RDSH VMs, and applies across all pods in the single subscription. For example, if you have one pod in your subscription, you might have up to 2,000 VDI desktops on that pod, or 1,950 VDI desktops plus 50 farm RDSH VMs. If you have more than one pod in your subscription, the number of VDI desktops and farms RDSH VMs across all of the pods must not total more than 2,000.

Maximum number of concurrent connected sessions per Horizon Cloud pod
A Horizon Cloud pod can support up to 2,000 active concurrent sessions. This number includes the individual connections to VDI single-session desktops using Windows client-type operating systems, to multi-session desktops using Windows 10 or 11 Enterprise multi-session or Windows 11 Enterprise multi-session, to multi-session desktops based on Windows Server operating systems, and RDS-based applications served by the pod.

As an example, when your pod has 400 active user sessions to 400 VDI single-session desktops, 1500 active user sessions to a Windows 10 or 11 multi-session machine, and 100 active user sessions to a Windows Server 2016 multi-session machine, that reaches the 2,000 maximum for the pod (400 + 1500 + 100 = 2,000).

Exceeding more than 2,000 active sessions per pod is not supported.

Also, when the pod is configured to use an Unified Access Gateway configuration, that 2,000 number is supported only when the F8s_v2 VM model is used for the Unified Access Gateway appliances.

  • When the F8s_v2 VM model is used for the Unified Access Gateway appliances, the pod can support up to that 2,000 maximum. When you expect usage in your environment to exceed more than 1,000 active sessions on the pod, you should specify the F8s_v2 VM model in the gateway deployment wizard.
  • When the A4_v2 VM model is used for the Unified Access Gateway appliances, the pod can support up to 1,000 active sessions only. This choice is sufficient only for proofs-of-concept (PoCs), pilots, or smaller environments where you know that you will not exceed 1,000 active sessions on the pod.

Note that resource utilization on the Unified Access Gateway appliances is dependent on the user activity within their session and could vary based on your user profiles and types of users.

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.