Horizon DaaS 9.0.x | 17 NOV 2022

See Revision History below for additions and updates to these release notes.

Links to release notes for other versions: 8.0.0 | 8.0.1 | 9.1.x

What's in the Release Notes

The release notes cover the following topics:

Product Documentation

All product documentation for Horizon DaaS is located on the VMware Horizon DaaS documentation landing page.

Note: As described in New Features below, Horizon DaaS 9.0.0 is the first release fully aligned with VMware Horizon Cloud Service, the VMware-hosted version of the DaaS product. As a result, the documentation linked from the Service Center and Administration Console interfaces is shared between the two products and is labeled with the Horizon Cloud Service product name. These documents, the Service Provider Administration and Tenant Administration guides respectively, are identical in content to the same documents that you access on the VMware Horizon DaaS documentation landing page.

Compatibility Information

For the most recent information about compatibility between this product and other VMware products, see the VMware Product Interoperability Matrices.

Note Regarding Supported Versions

General support for Horizon DaaS 9.0.x ended on May 7, 2022. Bugs and security issues will be addressed for Horizon DaaS 9.0.3 and 9.0.4 only. For information about VMware lifecycle support policies for Horizon DaaS, see the support policy page for Enterprise Desktop and Mobility Support.

NEW - Horizon DaaS 9.0.4 - Released November 2022 - LAST RELEASE FOR 9.0.x

Horizon DaaS 9.0.4 is now available on My VMware for download and manual installation. 

Note: Horizon DaaS 9.0.4 includes all updates in Horizon DaaS 9.0.1, Horizon DaaS 9.0.2, and Horizon DaaS 9.0.3 along with other updates as described below. You can upgrade from Horizon DaaS 9.0.0/20.2.0 to Horizon DaaS 9.0.4 directly. There is no need to upgrade to Horizon DaaS 9.0.1, Horizon DaaS 9.0.2, or Horizon DaaS 9.0.3 before upgrading to Horizon DaaS 9.0.4.

Important: The upgrade from Horizon DaaS 9.0.0/20.2.0 to Horizon DaaS 9.0.4 does not include a management appliance upgrade. The 9.0.4 upgrade is delivered by applying two platform update rollups:

  • dt-platform-20_2_0-update04_SP-RM.tgz, which is applicable to only the Service Provider and Resource Manager appliances.
  • dt-platform-20_2_0-update04_TA-DM.tgz, which is applicable to only the Tenant and Desktop Manager appliances.

After you have applied these update rollups, you must also perform the following steps to run the Instant Clone clean-up script:

  1. Connect to the SP appliance using PuTTY.
  2. Navigate to the scripts directory:

    >/usr/local/desktone/scripts

  3. Run the script:

    >sudo ./ngvcUtil.sh

For information about applying updates, see Hotfix Management in the Horizon DaaS 9.0.x Installation and Upgrade guide.

Horizon DaaS 9.0.4 includes fixes for the issues listed below.

Issue Resolution
Security fixes This update contains security fixes for issues found in earlier versions of Horizon DaaS 9.0.x.
"Technical Contact info" email address cannot be set to an address that contains two dots in the domain name. This issue has been resolved so that the system accepts email addresses containing two dots.
After upgrading to Horizon 20.2.0, users observed warning regarding PG auth on all three databases. This issue has been resolved so that the warnings no longer occur.
Users were able to create a Virtual Machine even though no capacity was available. This issue has been resolved so that this is no longer possible.
Users were unable to connect to the administration portal after TNA upgrade to Horizon DaaS 9.0.1 and Tenant reboot. This issue has been resolved so that users can connect to the portal as expected.
Virtual Machine Name on User Activity Event was disappearing after a VDI was rebuilt.  This issue has been resolved so that the Virtual Machine Name continues to appear as expected.

NEW - Security Hotfixes - Released December 2021

Hotfixes to address a critical vulnerability in Apache Log4j identified by CVE-2021-44228 and CVE-2021-45046 are now available My VMware for download and manual install. Review VMSA-2021-0028 for more details.

NEW - Horizon DaaS 9.0.3 - Released December 2021

Horizon DaaS 9.0.3 is now available on My VMware for download and manual install. 

Note: Horizon DaaS 9.0.3 includes all updates in Horizon DaaS 9.0.1 and Horizon DaaS 9.0.2 along with other updates as described below. You can upgrade from Horizon DaaS 9.0.0/20.2.0 to Horizon DaaS 9.0.3 directly. There is no need to upgrade to Horizon DaaS 9.0.1 or Horizon DaaS 9.0.2 before upgrading to Horizon DaaS 9.0.3.

Important: The upgrade from Horizon DaaS 9.0.0/20.2.0 to Horizon DaaS 9.0.3 does not include a management appliance upgrade. The 9.0.3 upgrade is delivered by applying two platform update rollups:

  • dt-platform-20_2_0-update03_SP-RM.tgz, which is applicable to only the Service Provider and Resource Manager appliances.
  • dt-platform-20_2_0-update03_TA-DM.tgz, which is applicable to only the Tenant and Desktop Manager appliances.

After you have applied these update rollups, you must also perform the following steps to run the Instant Clone clean-up script:

  1. Connect to the SP appliance using PuTTY.
  2. Navigate to the scripts directory:

    >/usr/local/desktone/scripts

  3. Run the script:

    >sudo ./ngvcUtil.sh

For information about applying updates, see Hotfix Management in the Horizon DaaS 9.0.x Installation and Upgrade guide.

Horizon DaaS 9.0.3 includes fixes for the issues listed below.

Issue Resolution
Task Status was stuck as SubmittedtoElement when publishing an image. Fixed job scheduling flow to handle the task status in case error scenario occurs.
New tenants fail to deploy. New tenant deployment failed due to the .pgpass file not being copied during tenant deployment. This issue is fixed in this update.
Instant clone not getting re-provisioned. It is possible that upon surrogate creation, the reconfigVM action results in an InvalidState error, which fails the resync operation. This happens only in vCenter Server 6.5 and earlier. While we suggest customer upgrade to vCenter Server 6.7 Update 3 or later, there is a fix in this update that mitigates the issue with a retry mechanism for ReconfigSurrogateCloneAction.
GPU profiles not available to select  when the GPU allocation model is mapped with the new tenant desktop manager. This issue was caused because the device name was incorrect. Fix has been added to update the device name from 'NVIDIATesla V100D' to 'NVIDIATesla V100-PCIE-32GB'.
Many threads are waiting because of resync failure. Fixed the issue where threads were waiting for a datastore call that was delayed or not responding.
Resource manager AppSvrStats wbemcli Heap usage rate is high. Added fix to correct wbemcli heap usage rate.
"Error while retrieving handler result for HAL" occurs when trying to deploy new tenant appliances. Fixed the issue in retrieving the Horizon Air Link (HAL) handler on both service provider appliances.

NEW - Horizon DaaS 9.0.2 - Released March 2021

Horizon DaaS 9.0.2 is now available on My VMware for download and manual install. 

Note: Horizon DaaS 9.0.2 includes all updates in Horizon DaaS 9.0.1 along with other updates as described below. You can upgrade from Horizon DaaS 9.0.0/20.2.0 to Horizon DaaS 9.0.2 directly. There is no need to upgrade to Horizon DaaS 9.0.1 before upgrading to Horizon DaaS 9.0.2.

Important: The upgrade from Horizon DaaS 9.0.0/20.2.0 to Horizon DaaS 9.0.2 does not include a management appliance upgrade. The 9.0.2 upgrade is delivered by applying two platform update rollups:

  • dt-platform-20_2_0-update02_SP-RM.tgz, which is applicable to only the Service Provider and Resource Manager appliances.
  • dt-platform-20_2_0-update02_TA-DM.tgz, which is applicable to only the Tenant and Desktop Manager appliances.

For information about applying updates, see Hotfix Management in the Horizon DaaS 9.0.x Installation and Upgrade guide.

Horizon DaaS 9.0.2 includes fixes for the issues listed below.

Issue Description
Security fixes This update contains security fixes for issues found in Horizon DaaS 9.0.0
Deleting a virtual machine with a cancelled pool expansion task fails Virtual machine cannot be deleted after canceling the pool expansion task due to a Null Pointer Exception
Power operations are not supported for utility VMs Power operations are not supported for utility VMs
Daylight Saving Time issue on Utilization Report Date displayed on Utilization Report overlaps when using Daylight Saving Time as different time intervals were not handled properly
Triple nesting in AD groups is not handled properly This issue has been resolved by retrieving writable DCs from the most suitable site to handle triple nesting in AD groups
Compute resource edit failure Unable to edit compute resource due to localization, an invalid JSON being returned
The API desktopmanagersbydatacenter is taking too long to respond This issue has been resolved by removing the call to fetch CapacityStats from the /desktopmanagersbydatacenter API. Fetching these fields is a costly operation, time consuming and not reflected in the Administration Console.
Tenant desktop capacity quota edit failure Unable to edit tenant desktop capacity quota as partitioned resource summary shows CPU Count as undefined and Memory as NaN GB
Resync task failure Resync task has been failed (NGVC requestID was not created)
Fixes for automatic recovery of quartz jobs stuck in Acquired/Error state on service provider failover Fixes for automatic recovery of quartz jobs stuck in Acquired/Error state on service provider failover
Users unable to log in after 9.0.0 upgrade After the upgrade to 9.0.0 users in read-only group and Admin Level 1 are unable to log in
Very slow tenant administration web interface after upgrade to DaaS 9.0.0 Very slow tenant administration web interface after upgrade to DaaS 9.0.0
Vulnerability reported for DaaS 9 appliance Vulnerability reported for DaaS 9 appliance | CVE-2020-1472 Ubuntu Security Notification for Samba Update
Option to reboot after hotfix There is now an option in Horizon Version Manager to reboot appliance after hotfix
Host manager could be added to multiple resource managers Horizon Version Manager pre-upgrade checks now include 1-1 mapping of resource manager to host manager
Expanding compute resource in Service Center taking too long After service provider upgrade to DaaS 9.0.0, when you expand a compute resource in Service Center the compute resource info is taking a longer time than usual to display.
Rebooting VM puts it into Not Paired state After you upgrade a tenant from DaaS 8.0.1 to DaaS 9.0.0 update 1, when the VM is rebooted, the VM goes into "Not Paired (8.0.4)" state
Tenant admin portal showing all datastores in cluster In DaaS 9.0.1, the tenant admin portal 9.0.1 inventory capacity lists all datastores in storage and not just the tenant's configured datastores. All datastores used in that cluster are shown.

Horizon DaaS 9.0.1 - Released October 2020

Horizon DaaS 9.0.1 is no longer available for download or manual install. 

Note: Horizon DaaS 9.0.2 includes all updates in Horizon DaaS 9.0.1 along with other updates. See NEW - Horizon DaaS 9.0.2 - Released March 2021 above for more information. 

Horizon DaaS 9.0.1 included:

  • Enhanced installation functionality, including new automation for domain bind and compute assignment. The Horizon DaaS 9.0.x Installation and Upgrade guide has been updated to reflect these enhancements.
  • Support for Horizon Agent Installer (HAI) 20.3. This version of HAI adds Horizon Agent 7.13 capabilities, including Microsoft Teams plug-in support. HAI 20.3 is available on My VMware for manual install and distribution, and through Auto Agent Update for tenant self-servicing.

New version of Horizon Version Manager (HVM) - Released July 2020

A new version of Horizon Version Manager (HVM) was released in mid-July 2020.

  • The new version addresses an issue that was preventing environments with more than one pair of Resource Manager (RM) appliances from upgrading to Horizon DaaS 9.0.0.
  • The new HVM version (Horizon-Version-Manager-1.0.0.0-16484474_OVF10.ova) is available for download at My VMware.

New for 9.0.0 - Streamlined Upgrade and Installation Processes

Upgrade and Installation processes have been streamlined and automated for this release. The new processes are described in the Horizon DaaS 9.0.0 Installation and Upgrade document on the VMware Horizon DaaS documentation landing page. 

Note: Check the Known Limitations and Known Issues sections of this document for upgrade and installation related issues.

New Features

Note Regarding Integration With VMware Horizon Cloud Service

Beginning with this release, Horizon DaaS is fully aligned with Horizon Cloud Service, which is the VMware-hosted version of the DaaS product. This provides Horizon DaaS customers with a wide array of new functionality, described in the New Features section below.

Horizon DaaS 9.0.0 functionality is identical to that of Horizon Cloud 20.2.0, and includes new features introduced in Horizon Cloud since Horizon DaaS 8.0.0, which was the last Horizon DaaS release. Horizon DaaS 8.0.0 was aligned with Horizon Cloud 17.1.1, which was followed by Horizon Cloud 17.2, 18.1, 18.3, 18.4, 19.1, and 19.3. 

The features below are divided into two categories:

  • Latest Features - Features being introduced in Horizon Cloud 20.2.0, which is being released along with Horizon DaaS 9.0.0. 
  • Additional Features - Features introduced in Horizon Cloud 17.2, 18.1, 18.3, 18.4, 19.1, and 19.3. 

Latest Features

These are the features being introduced in Horizon Cloud 20.2.0, which is being released along with Horizon DaaS 9.0.0. Following the new VMware release notes format, they are listed briefly as bullet points only.

Service Provider Administration

  • Introduction of Desktop Model Collections, allowing Service Providers to assign desktop model bundles to tenants. The Desktop Model Collections are decoupled from what previously was known as Standard Capacity Units.

  • Service Providers can now modify and delete Desktop Models when not in use.

  • Introduction of the Custom Desktop Model, allowing Service Providers to optionally provide tenants to determine their own desktop capacity models when creating desktop pools.

  • When importing new clusters, Service providers are now asked to determine HA and overhead for the imported infrastructure, allowing them to fine tune infrastructure parameters based on FT/DR requirements.

  • Service providers can now also scale down assigned capacity to tenants on partitioned (shared) infrastructure when their partition is not fully used.

  • Improved workflow for vGPU workloads: the SP has the ability to assign specific vGPU profiles (B and Q-type) to tenants, which the Tenant Administrator can select when creating a new desktop pool.

  • Usage Meter Service integration: VCPP customers can start reporting usage metrics automatically using Usage Meter (version 4.2 or later).

  • Introduction of Horizon Version Management to deploy the Horizon DaaS platform and manage the Blue/Green platform upgrade process.

  • Introduction of Horizon Version Management to upgrade Horizon DaaS platform from 8.0.1 to 9.0.0

Tenant Administration

  • RDSH Farms now support per VM maintenance by setting the User Login Mode which will route connections to other available VMs in the RDSH Farm.

  • The Domain Join Account now supports a reduced set of Active Directory permissions when configuring "Write All Properties" on an Organizational Unit (OU).

  • Administrators can now configure the display name behavior for all assigned dedicated desktops by displaying the assignment name when end-users connect with the Horizon Client.

  • The tenant administrator can now use Instant-Clone technology to create and refresh Tenant Application Farms and deliver Session and Application Pools using rapid provisioning.

  • Added Horizon DaaS platform support for vCenter/vSphere 6.7 P02.

Additional Features

These are the features introduced in Horizon Cloud 17.2, 18.1, 18.3, 18.4, 19.1, and 19.3. They are listed along with links to the previous version of the Horizon Cloud release notes where they appeared. Following the older release notes format, there is a brief description of each feature that might be helpful to Horizon DaaS users as they bring themselves up to date with the large amount of new functionality.

Note: Links are available for Tenant Administration features only. For additional information on Service Provider Administration features, see the Service Provider Administration guide.

Service Provider Administration

  • Improved RDSH Licensing
  • Windows Server ESXi Affinity
  • Support for Multiple Appliance Configurations (Note: Consult your VMware representative before making changes)
  • Generic Plug-in Support
  • Improved Process for Assigning Resource Managers and Compute Resources

Tenant Administration

  • Farms for RDS Hosts [Link]
  • URL Redirection [Link]
  • Console Access to Desktops [Link]
  • Option to Deactivate HotPlug Capability in Desktop Assignments [Link]
  • Emergency Direct Desktop Connection When Broker is Unreachable [Link]
  • Access to Local Files with Remote Applications Using File Redirection [Link]
  • Automatic Agent Pairing [Link]
  • True SSO (Single Sign-On) [Link]
  • NVIDIA GPU Support [Link]
  • Single Installer for All Agents [Link]
  • Auxiliary Domain Join Account [Link]
  • Traditional Image Duplication [Link]
  • Task Cancellation [Link]
  • User Notifications [Link]
  • Desktop Health Alert [Link]
  • Reset Agent Pairing Option [Link]
  • New Help Desk Administrator Roles [Link]
  • VMware Horizon Performance Tracker in Horizon 7.5 Agent [Link]
  • Historical Data in Capacity and Utilization Charts [Link]
  • New Top Applications Report [Link]
  • Customizable Timeout Setting for Administration Console [Link]
  • Client Retry Option [Link]
  • Option to Migrate Dedicated Desktops Between Assignments [Link]
  • Historical Session Data In User Card [Link]
  • Import VMs in the Administration Console [Link]
  • Generate logs for VMs in assignments, as well as images and imported VMs [Link]
  • Bulk assign images to multiple assignments/farms [Link]
  • Outbound proxy configuration in the Administration Console [Link]
  • Enhanced desktop migration [Link]
  • Domain security enhancements [Link]

Other Changes in This Release

Changes New in Horizon DaaS 9.0.x

  • In Horizon DaaS 8.0.x, after setting an OU in the admin portal, if you move a computer account in the OU to another OU, nothing happens.
    In Horizon DaaS 9.0.x, the system returns the computer object to the OU specified in the admin portal for Active Directory at the time of login/logoff.
  • In Horizon DaaS 8.0.x, when deleting a VM you had to manually delete the computer object in Active Directory.
    In Horizon DaaS 9.0.x the computer object is deleted automatically.
  • In Horizon DaaS 8.0.x, a user can log in even after the password of the user account has expired.
    In Horizon DaaS 9.0.x, such a user can no longer log in.

Changes From Earlier Versions - Included in Horizon DaaS 9.0.x

These are the changes introduced in Horizon Cloud 17.2, 18.1, 18.3, 18.4, 19.1, and 19.3. They are listed along with links to the previous version of the Horizon Cloud release notes where they appeared. Following the older release notes format, there is a brief description of each item.

Note: Links are available for Tenant Administration items only. For additional information on Service Provider Administration functionality, see the Service Provider Administration guide.

  • Auxiliary Account Required for Active Directory Domain Registration [Link]
  • Maintenance Notice Option Removed from Edit Assignment Mode [Link]
  • REST API Changes for RDSH Workflows [Link]
  • Desktop Portal Deactivated by Default [Link]
  • New Method for Database Restore
  • Changes to Reports [Link]
  • DNS Server IP Edits for Domain Join Require Support Ticket [Link]
  • Default Limit of 2,000 Desktops Per Pod [Link]
  • Changes to Activity Page [Link]
  • Console Access Option No Longer Available in Helpdesk Console [Beta Feature] [Link]
  • Changes to Horizon Agent Installer (HAI) [Link]

Top of Page

Best Practices

Knowledge of the following facts is useful before using Horizon DaaS.

Replacing Platform Files Before Upgrade

The platform files on the Customer Connect site are sometimes updated for bug fixes and improvements. When this happens, you should replace the files on HVM with the new ones so you can avoid known issues during upgrade.

  • Confirm that the files on HVM are the same as those on Customer Connect site by the comparing hash values on each file before upgrading Service Provider, Resource Manager, and Tenant.
  • If the hash value do not match download the new files from the Customer Connect site and put them into HVM.

Migrating Management Appliances to Another vCenter Server

For information on migrating management appliances, see the VMware Knowledge Base article How to migrate management Appliances to another vCenter Server for Horizon DaaS.

Deploying Horizon DaaS at Scale

The following are best practices for building and scaling a Horizon DaaS production deployment:

  • Each Tenant Resource Manager (RM) supports a maximum of 18 tenants (with 12 tenants as the recommended maximum).
  • Each Tenant RM manages only a single vCenter Server instance. 
    • The vCenter Server instance manages a maximum of 10,000 VMs, across multiple clusters
  • When a tenant requires multiple Desktop Managers (the Tenant Appliance being also a Desktop Manager), each DM must be assigned to a separate RM. So for large tenants with two DMs, there must be two Tenant RMs each managing its own vCenter Server instance.

Example: A Horizon DaaS production deployment with 60 tenants each needing only the Tenant Appliances, with a single capacity collection assigned to the Tenant, and each Tenant running fewer than 2,000 VMs.

For this environment the recommended setup would be:

  • Datacenter Service Provider appliances pair.
    • The Service Provider connects to a vCenter Server for the management appliances.
    • Although this vCenter is only for the platform management function, it doesn't need to be dedicated to that task and can be used for other management functions. 
    • The Service Provider does not connect directly to vCenter but uses the HAL appliance for the any operations towards vCenter. 
  • Five Tenant RMs, each managing 12 tenants.
  • To support the tenant desktop workloads, five (5) vCenter Servers with clusters, and the number of clusters depending on whether dedicated or partitioned clusters are used.
    • Recommended maximum of 10,000 VMs per vCenter Server.
    • Each Tenant Appliance or Desktop Manager manages a maximum of 2,000 desktops or sessions.
    • For large tenants, it is recommended to dedicate the vCenter Server cluster.
  • 60 Tenant Appliance pairs (and most likely 60 Unified Access Gateway pairs as well).
  • If some of those tenants need another DM, then those DMs can be assigned to an existing Tenant RM, but not to the Tenant RM that is assigned to the Tenant Appliance of the same tenant.
    • Keep in mind the recommended maximum of 12 tenants supported per Tenant RM.    

Compatibility with other VMware Products

For the most recent information about compatibility between this product and other VMware products, see the VMware Product Interoperability Matrices.

Browser Experience

The Administration Console is compatible with recent versions of Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Internet Explorer, and Microsoft Edge. Even though you can try using Apple Safari, use of the Administration Console in Apple Safari is not supported in this release.

Creating a Template Desktop VM

When you are creating a template VM, after you have finished configuring it run the following command in Windows PowerShell:

Get-AppxPackage|Remove-AppxPackage

This prevents a possible sysprep issue that leads to image publish failure.

Refreshing Desktop Capacity Information on Tenant Quotas Tab

When editing a tenant, if the Desktop Capacity information on the Quotas tab is not correct, then refresh the page to correct this. In particular, the In Use value for Std Capacity may sometimes display incorrectly and need to be refreshed.

Known Limitations

Customer Appliance Configuration Changes Do Not Persist After Upgrade

After you upgrade your environment, custom configuration settings that you made (for example, modifying disk timeout) do not persist and need to be re-applied manually when the upgrade is complete. 

User Activity License Report - Data Does Not Persist After Upgrade

After you upgrade your environment, data for User Activity License Reports (formerly known as Concurrent Users License Reports) run before the upgrade is no longer available. To avoid this issue, it is recommended that you save any data you want to keep before performing the upgrade.

Horizon Version Manager - Connection to vCenter Server Using FQDN

If your Active Directory and DNS Server are running on the same machine, you may find that Horizon Version Manager cannot reach the vCenter Server by its Fully-Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) while still being able to connect using its IP address. The workaround for this is to add host entries to the /etc/hosts file for the FQDN. For example: vc1dc1.newdaas.local xx.xxx.xx.xx

After Failed Deployment - Manual Clean-Up Required

For security reasons, after a failed Horizon DaaS deployment you are required to perform a manual clean-up of the primary service provider appliance (SP1). During deployment, Horizon Air Link establishes temporary SSH trust between the installing node and SP1 by copying the node's SSH public key to the SP authorized keys list. In a successful deployment these keys are removed automatically after the deployment is complete. But when there is an unexpected deployment failure, you need to remove these keys manually.

Migrating Between Clusters in Multi-DM Environment

In a multi-DM environment with two clusters assigned to different (but linked) vCenters, if you migrate a VM from one cluster to the other, the migrated VM is marked as deleted in the tenant FDB and is not available for use. The workaround for this is to wait for the system to perform a full inventory update. This can take up to 12 hours. [2187188]

Connecting to Administration Console Using Mozilla Firefox

  • Attempting to connect to the Administration Console via Mozilla Firefox can fail with a connection timeout due to a bug in Firefox. The workaround for this is to change the name of certificate file, which is located in the C:\Users\‹username›\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\‹filename›.default directory and has a name similar to cert1.db, and then restart the browser.

  • Attempting to connect to the Administration Console via Mozilla Firefox fails when you are using a self-signed certificate (normally in a development environment). You can avoid this issue by using another browser.

DNS Server IP Edits for Domain Join Require Support Ticket

When editing an existing Active Directory Domain, you can no longer directly edit DNS Server IPs in the Administration Console. To change DNS Server IPs, file a ticket with VMware support.

Default Limit of 2,000 Desktops Per Pod

There is now a default limit of 2,000 VMs per pod, both in desktop assignments and in farms. This includes VMs created in earlier versions of the product but does not include Utility or Imported desktops. When you are creating or editing an assignment or farm and the remaining capacity displayed appears to be too low, it may be because this limit has been reached. The default limit of 2,000 can be adjusted on request. For more information, contact your VMware representative.
Note to Service Providers: When registering or editing a tenant, you can change this setting by modifying the value in the new Max Desktop Count Per DM field on the General tab. 

Agent Upgrade to HAI 18.4 Requires Use of BAT File

When you upgrade from an older agent build to the HAI 18.4 using the HAI user interface, the installer creates the HAI-upgrade.bat file and then interrupts the upgrade, prompting you to close the user interface and complete the upgrade using the BAT file.

When the upgrade is complete, the VM will be rebooted automatically. You can prevent this reboot by doing either of the following:

  • Update the command-line options in the HAI user interface before the BAT file is generated, adding /norestart at the end of the command.
  • Manually update the generated HAI-upgrade.bat file, adding /norestart at the end of the command.

Note: The VM must be rebooted sometime after the upgrade in order for the Agent to be usable.

Updating Images Using Console Access

Performing updates to images (such as updating agents) using console access without taking the image offline and then accessing it via the Helpdesk Console (beta feature) is not supported and can cause issues with the image and subsequent pools spun up using this image. Do not attempt to perform image updates this way. Always duplicate the image from the Admin Console and then update it using the HACA Console.

Copying and Pasting Between Client System and VM With HTML Access

Copying and pasting text between a client system and a VM is supported by default when the user is connected via the Horizon Client. When the user is connected via HTML Access, however, you must configure this feature before the customer can use it. For more information, see the VMware Horizon HTML Access documentation.

Users Still Able to Log into Dedicated Desktops After Being removed From User Group

If a user is in an Active Directory group that is assigned to a dedicated desktop assignment, once the user has logged into a particular desktop they will be able to continue logging into that same desktop until the user is unassigned from that desktop in the Administration Console, unless either the user is removed entirely from the Active Directory or the desktop is deleted.

Wait Time for Generating Admin Activity Report

When you initiate an export on the Admins tab of the Activity page (Monitor > Activity > Admins), there is an interval of time as the system generates the report, during which you are not able to perform other tasks in the Administration Console. Depending on the number of records, this interval can be several minutes long. For the maximum report size (50,000 records), the wait time is approximately 10 minutes.

Data Sorting in Exported User Activity Report

When you export data from the Users tab of the Activity page (Monitor > Activity > Users), the data in the generated .csv file is not sorted by date. There are two options for correcting this:

  • Open the .csv file in Excel and set the date format for the cells containing dates to mm/dd/yy hh:mm AM/PM (e.g. 3/14/12 1:30 PM).
  • Create a new blank Excel workbook and then use the data import wizard to import the .csv file.

Converting a Desktop to an Image

If you initiate converting a desktop to an image but cancel before the task finishes, a second attempt to convert the desktop to an image may fail. To avoid this issue, you should power off the desktop and power it on again before attempting to convert it to an image a second time.

Time Interval Before Changes to Settings Take Effect

When you change one of the following settings, it can take up to 5 minutes for the change to take effect.

  • General Settings page (Settings > General):
    • Session Timeout - Client Heartbeat Interval, Client Broker Session, Client Idle User
    • HTML Access - Cleanup credentials when tab is closed
    • Pool/Farm Options - Enable Client Retry
  • Identity Management page (Settings > Identity Management):
    • Select item and click Configure - Force Remote Users to Identity Manager

Service Provider Information

When you change one of the following tenant policies, it can take up to 5 minutes for the change to take effect.

  • desktop.connection.corrective.action.required
  • desktop.connection.retry.count
  • client.retry.enabled
  • element.session.logontiming.enabled
  • jms.agent.allow.mmr
  • jms.agent.allow.usb

Known Issues

Service Provider Issues

Issues that are new in this release are in bold.

  • When using a vCenter instance supporting multiple tenants, the recommended maximum number of tenants is 12, and the maximum supported is 18. To support more tenants, you must add another Tenant Resource Manager and add another vCenter instance.  

    Workaround: None. This capacity will be expanded in future releases.

  • After upgrade, settings for Unified Access Gateway (UAG) can be lost, preventing users from accessing desktops.

    Workaround: Run the apsetup script on each tenant appliance:

    sudo /usr/local/desktone/scripts/apsetup.sh

    [2551708/2550694]

  • If you change the name of a tenant in Service Center, the name is not changed in vCenter and upgrading that tenant fails.

    Workaround: Change the tenant name in vCenter and retry the upgrade.

    [2516006/2502672]

  • During upgrade, the tenant migration can fail with the following error:

    Failed to connect virtual device Ethernet0

    Workaround: Follow the instructions in Knowledge Base article 2093588.

    [2409011]

  • If you attempt a rollback to the previous version, you might see a HAL error saying "java.rmi.RemoteException: VI SDK invoke exception:javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException: Remote host closed connection during handshake". This can occur when the size of the /opt/vmware/horizon/link/conf/settings.json configuration file is too large.

    Workaround: Clean up any failed/completed jobs along with any unnecessary manifest versions.

  • If you attempt a rollback to the previous version, you might see a HAL error saying "Given final block not properly padded.javax.crypto.BadPaddingException: Given final block not properly padded". This can occur because of a bug in the Java encryption/decryption module.

    Workaround: Remove the jobs manually from the JSON file.

Tenant Administration Issues

Issues that are new in this release are in bold.

The known issues are grouped as follows:

Active Directory - Known Issues

  • If the Active Directory group assigned the Super Administrator role is moved to another OU within Active Directory, Admin users in that group are able to login to the Administration Console but are not able to make changes.

    Workaround:

    1. Log into the Administration Console with the Domain Bind account credentials.
    2. Edit the Super Administrator role, removing and then re-adding the impacted AD group.
    [2554690]

  • If you remove a configured admin group from Active Directory directly before removing the group in the Administration Console, this causes two issues on the Settings > Roles & Permissions page:

    • The deleted group is listed as \unknown\XXXX.
    • If you add a new admin group to the existing list, an error occurs and the group details are not saved.

    Workaround: Remove \unknown\XXXX group from the Settings > Roles & Permissions page before adding new admin groups. [2543068]

  • It takes up to 15 minutes for the Administration Console to reflect a lockout or unlocked state of the primary bind domain account.

    The system's connection object to Active Directory is cached for 15 minutes. As a result, it might take 15 minutes from the time point when the primary bind account goes to locked state and the system raises the notification to the administrator. Conversely, after the administrator clears the locked-out condition of the account, it might take up to 15 minutes for the system to stop notifying about the now-cleared account.

    Workaround: None.  [2009434]

  • Reusing the same farm name with a different domain in the same Active Directory forest can lead to domain join failures due to duplicate service provider names (SPNs). Due to a new feature for domain controllers in Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 and higher, a duplicate SPN check on the domain controller causes domain join failures. See the Microsoft KB article 3070083.

    Workarounds:

    • Avoid reusing farm names.
    • As described in that Microsoft KB article, deactivate duplicate SPN checks in the Active Directory domain.

    [1969172]

Images, Farms, Assignments - Known Issues

  • In large deployments, it is possible for a small number of VMs in a floating desktop assignment to go into an Unknown state because some Windows Services, like the Blast Service on the agent, do not start and the agent heartbeat reports AGENT_ERR_PROTOCOL. In this case, hovering over the Agent Status value for the VM displays a tool tip indicating an agent error.

    Workaround: Restart the VM from the Assignment page or log into the VM via RDP and restart the VMware Blast service from Windows Services. [2406279]

  • When you attempt to update the agent on an image, the convert-to-image task may fail on the cloned VM. 

    Workaround: Delete the clone VM (not the original image) and retry. The clone VM will appear in Utility VMs. If the retry is unsuccessful, save the clone VM, perform the steps below to get the DCT logs, and then contact your VMware representative.

    1. On the clone VM, browse to C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware View\Agent\DCT and open the file 'support.bat'.

      A cmd prompt window opens and prints several messages stating which logs are currently being gathered. This process may take a few minutes to complete.

    2. When prompted to collect dump files enter 'n' unless VMware has requested that you gather dump files.

      A zip file is placed on the desktop containing collected logs.

    For more information on obtaining logs, see the following KB: https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1017939.

    [2202387]

  • When you use the Update Agent feature from an agent version earlier than 18.2.2, the update process can hang on desktops that have a 'run once' pending.

    Workaround: Perform the agent update, adding the following command line argument on the Command Line tab of the Agent Update wizard:
    VDM_SUPPRESS_RUNONCE_CHECK=1

    [2191312]

  • When you have two dedicated desktop assignments associated with the same group of users, the following issue can occur. If a user opens a desktop from one of the assignments using the Horizon Client and then a user attempts to open a desktop from the other assignment with the Horizon Client, the second attempt fails with an error indicating the user is not entitled to the desktop.

    Workaround: Open the desktop in the second assignment using the browser instead of Horizon Client. [2201599/1813881]

  • When you push updates for a traditional clone assignment, a small number of VMs may enter a PXE boot error state. For example:

    • PXE-E53 : No boot filename received
    • PXE-MOF: Operating System not Found.

    Workaround: This is a NetApp issue, so there is no workaround in Horizon DaaS.  [1969642]

  • When a user is entitled to a dedicated desktop assignment, that assignment appears under Assignments in the user detail information shown when you click on the user's name in the Administration console. However, after the user launches a desktop from the assignment, it no longer appears in the user detail information.

    Workaround: None.  [1958046]

  • Shrinking an Instant Clone assignment can sometimes fail to delete one of the VMs, which then goes to a powered off state.

    Workaround: Power on the VM. When it is powered on and visible in the assignment, shrink the assignment again. [2027097]

  • If you attempt to create a farm using a Windows Server 2016 image, the VMs may hang at the customization stage.

    Workaround: Deactivate the tiledatamodelsvc service on the Windows Server 2016 image and then create the farm. [2010914]

Reports - Known Issues

  • When CPU usage on a desktop is very high--for example, when an application is using 100%--the Desktop Health alert notification does not display on the Desktop Health tab of the Reports page.

    Workaround: None.  [2015486]

  • When IPv6 is enabled on an image, the abnormal IP notification may not display on the Desktop Health tab of the Reports page.

    Workaround: Deactivate IPv6 for the image.  [2017500]

User Interface - Known Issues

  • New created or cloned VM is not listed in Imported VMs due to duplicate key value violating the unique constraint "t_general_machine_mac_address_key".

    Workaround : None. This issue will be resolved in future releases.

    [2887657]

  • If multiple domains are configured on the Tenant Appliance, logging in to the Administration Console takes a long time when the primary domain is down.

    Workaround : Power up the primary domain, or set the nameserver settings in /etc/resolv.conf to the secondary domain server IP on the first line and the primary domain server IP on second line, as shown below.

    nameserver ‹secondary domain ip address›

    nameserver ‹primary domain ip address›

    [2886995]

  • The memory usage percentages reported for desktop health reports and used for the desktop health alerts are based on percentage of committed memory, which equals physical memory plus pagefile size, and not on percentage of only physical memory.

    Committed memory for a desktop VM is calculated as physical memory plus pagefile size. When calculating the percentage of memory usage in a desktop, the system takes the percentage used of that total (physical memory plus pagefile size). Both the desktop health alerts and the memory usage report in the desktop health reports use that percentage calculation. However, when you log into a desktop VM and open the Windows Task Manager to view the memory usage in the desktop's Windows operating system, the Windows Task Manager displays percentage based on physical memory only. As a result, the memory usage percentage that the desktop's Windows Task Manager displays does not match the memory usage percentage displayed in the Desktop Health reports or in the desktop health alert.

    Workaround: Keep in mind this difference if you decide to make a comparison between the memory usage percentage reported by a desktop's Windows Task Manager and the memory usage percentage reported in the Administration Console's Desktop Health report and desktop health alerts for that desktop. [2015772]

  • Some pages in the Administration Console do not display correctly in the Safari browser.

    Workaround: Use a different browser to access the Administration Console. [1956356/1956348 ]

App Volumes - Known Issues [these are in SP Release Notes only]

  • After the App Volumes agent is installed on an image VM, the App Volumes agent is not able to communicate with the App Volumes Manager until the DaaS agent pairing process is completed. The following error message is displayed: "Connection Error, Unable to contact App Volumes Manager. Virtualization is disabled".

    Workaround:

    1. Prior to installing App Volumes agent, ensure that the DaaS agent pairing process is completed.
    2. If DaaS Agent pairing occurs after the App Volumes agent is installed, ignore the connection error and click OK. If the DaaS agent is paired later, the connection is set up automatically.

    [2036603]

Localization - Known Issues

  • When non-ASCII or high-ASCII characters are used in the True SSO template name, retrieving the template fails and True SSO cannot be configured successfully.

    Workaround: Use only ASCII characters in the names of your True SSO templates.  [1957829]

  • Some text on the Desktop Health tab of the Reports page is not being localized.  

    Workaround: None   [2019363]

Revision History

Date Description
07 MAY 2020
  • Initial release
19 JUN 2020
  • Added 2 Known Issues for rollback
01 JUL 2020
  • Edited Additional Features section - removed New Active Directory Option... (bug 2586276)
13 JUL 2020
  • Added new HVM version (bug 2603174)
08 OCT 2020
  • Added Cumulative Update section - 2640913
  • Added 9.0.1
  • Added Best Practice and Known Issue for 9.0.1
22 OCT 2020
  • Added content to Deploying Horizon DaaS at Scale
22 MAR 2021
  • Added 9.0.2 - 2733718
16 NOV 2021
  • Added 9.0.3
08 DEC 2021
  • Added best practice - Replacing Platform Files Before Upgrade - 2886062
29 JUN 2022
  • Added Known Issue 2887657; added items in Other Changes for bug 2816985
24 SEP 2022
  • Added 9.0.4
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