A manual farm consists of multi-session virtual machine hosts that already exist. You manually add the hosts when you create the farm.

Note: All the host machines in a farm must be running the same Linux distribution. For example, you can create a farm consisting of all RHEL Workstation 9.0 hosts or all Ubuntu 22.04 hosts, but you cannot create a farm consisting of a mix of RHEL Workstation 9.0 and Ubuntu 22.04 hosts.

Prerequisites

  • Review the content in Considerations for Linux Farms, Published Desktops, and Published Applications, and ensure that you have prepared your system environment for the use cases that you want to support with the farm.
  • Prepare the multi-session host machines that you want to include in the farm. See the subtopics under Preparing a Linux Virtual Machine for Desktop Deployment.
  • Verify that each host machine is running one of the following Linux operating systems:
    • RHEL Workstation 7.9/8.x/9.x
    • Ubuntu 18.04/20.04/22.04
    • Debian 10.x/11.x
  • Verify that you have installed Horizon Agent on each host machine with the --multiple-session parameter included and the managed agent -M parameter set to no. For example:
    sudo ./install_viewagent.sh --multiple-session -M no
  • Verify that all the host machines have the Available status. In Horizon Console, select Settings > Registered Machines and check the status of each host machine on the RDS Hosts tab.

Procedure

  1. In Horizon Console, select Inventory > Farms. Then click Add.
    The farm configuration wizard appears. As you advance through the wizard, you can go directly back to any prior page by clicking the page name in the navigation pane.
  2. In the Type page of the wizard, select Manual Farm and then click Next.
  3. In the Identification and Settings page of the wizard, configure the required settings.
    Setting Description
    ID Unique name that identifies the farm.
    Description Description of this farm.
    Access Group Select an access group for the farm, or leave the farm in the default root access group.
    Default Display Protocol Select VMware Blast. VMware Blast is the only display protocol supported for Linux remote sessions.
    Allow Users to Choose Protocol Select Yes or No. This setting applies to published desktop pools only, not application pools. If you select Yes, users can choose the display protocol when they connect to a published desktop from Horizon Client. The default is Yes.
    Pre-launch Session Timeout (Applications Only)

    Determines the amount of time that an application configured for pre-launch is kept open. The default is After 10 minutes.

    If the end user does not start any application in Horizon Client, the application session is disconnected if the idle session times out or if pre-launch session times out.

    If you want to end the pre-launch session after timeout, you must set the Logoff Disconnected Sessions option to Immediate.

    Empty Session Timeout (Applications Only)

    Determines the amount of time that an empty application session is kept open. An application session is empty when all the applications that run in the session are closed. While the session is open, users can open applications faster. You can save system resources if you disconnect or log out from empty application sessions. Select Never, Immediate, or set the number of minutes as the timeout value. The default is After 1 minute. If you select Immediate, the session logs you out or disconnects within 30 seconds.

    When Timeout Occurs Determines whether an empty application session is disconnected or logged off after the Empty Session Timeout limit is reached. Select Disconnect or Log Off. A session that is logged off frees up resources, but opening an application takes longer. The default is Disconnect.
    Logoff Disconnected Sessions Determines when a disconnected session is logged off. This setting applies to both desktop and application sessions. Select Never, Immediate, or After ... minutes. Use caution when you select Immediate or After ... minutes. When a disconnected session is logged off, the session is lost. The default is Never.
    Allow Session Collaboration Select Enabled to allow users of desktop pools based on this farm to invite other users to join their remote desktop sessions. Session owners and collaborators must use the VMware Blast protocol.
    Click Next to proceed to the next page of the configuration wizard.
  4. In the Load Balancing Settings page of the wizard, configure the required settings.
    Setting Description
    Use Custom Script

    Select this setting to use a custom script for load balancing.
    Include Session Count Select this setting to include the session count on the Linux host for load balancing. If none of the settings are selected for load balancing and if the custom script setting is not selected, Horizon 8 uses the session count by default. Deselect this setting if you do not need to consider the session count for load balancing.
    CPU Usage Threshold Threshold value for the CPU usage in percentage. Horizon 8 uses the configured CPU threshold to calculate the CPU load index factor. You can set a value from 0 through 100. The recommended value is 90. By default, this setting is not considered for load balancing. The default value is 0.
    Memory Usage Threshold Threshold value for the memory in percentage. Horizon 8 uses the configured memory threshold to calculate the Memory Load Index factor. You can set a value from 0 through 100. The recommended value is 90. By default, this setting is not considered for load balancing. The default value is 0.
    Disk Queue Length Threshold Threshold of the average number of both read and write requests that were queued for the selected disk during the sample interval. Horizon 8 uses the configured threshold to calculate the Disk Load Index factor. You can set the value to any positive integer. By default, this setting is not considered for load balancing. The default value is 0.
    Disk Read Latency Threshold Threshold of the average time of write of data to the disk in milliseconds. Horizon 8 uses the configured threshold to calculate the Disk Load Index factor. You can set the value to any positive integer. By default, this setting is not considered for load balancing. The default value is 0.
    Click Next to proceed to the next page of the configuration wizard.
  5. In the Select RDS Hosts page of the wizard, select the Linux virtual machines that you want to add to the farm. Then click Next.
  6. In the Ready to Complete page of the wizard, review the settings and click Submit to create the manual farm.

What to do next

Create a published application pool or a published desktop pool. See one of the following topics: