With the Session Collaboration feature, users can invite other users to join an existing Linux remote desktop session.

System Requirements for Session Collaboration

To support the Session Collaboration feature on Linux desktops, your VMware Horizon 8 deployment must meet certain requirements.

Table 1. System Requirements for Session Collaboration
Component Requirements
Linux remote desktops The Session Collaboration feature is supported on remote desktops running the following Linux distributions and desktop environments:
  • Ubuntu 18.04/20.04/22.04 with Gnome Ubuntu or MATE desktop environment
  • Debian 10.x/11.x with Gnome desktop environment
  • RHEL 7.9/8.x/9.x with Gnome Classic desktop environment
  • RHEL 7.9 with KDE desktop environment
Horizon Connection Server The Horizon Connection Server instance uses an Enterprise license.
Display protocol VMware Blast
Note: RHEL 9.x/8.x and Debian desktops require additional system configuration to enable Session Collaboration. For more information, see the following sections.

For information about how to use the Session Collaboration feature, see the Horizon Client documentation.

Enabling Session Collaboration on a RHEL 9.x Desktop

For RHEL 9.x desktops, you must install the libappindicator-gtk3 package and install the required GNOME Shell extension.

To enable the Session Collaboration feature and make the Session Collaboration icon available on a RHEL 9.x desktop, complete the following procedure.

  1. To install the libappindicator-gtk3 package, perform the installation procedure described in Install Dependency Packages for Horizon Agent.
  2. To enable AppIndicator support, download the required GNOME shell extension to the RHEL 9.x system.
    1. Download the GNOME shell extension from https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/615/appindicator-support/. Select 40 for the shell version and 42 for the extension version.
    2. Extract the contents of the downloaded package and rename the extension directory as [email protected] (the "uuid" value in the metadata.json file in the package).
    3. Use the mv command to move the [email protected] extension directory to this location: /usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions.

      By default, the [email protected] extension is only readable to the root user. To support Session Collaboration, you must make this extension readable to other users as well.

  3. Make the metadata.json file in the [email protected] directory readable to all users.
    chmod a+r metadata.json

    Proceed to the next step of this procedure, based on your desktop pool type.

    • If you are configuring an automated full-clone desktop pool, go to step 4.
    • If you are configuring any other type of desktop pool, go to step 5.
  4. (For automated full-clone desktop pools) Make the [email protected] extension readable to all users.
    1. Open the extension configuration file for editing.
      vi /etc/dconf/db/local.d/00-extensions
    2. Modify the configuration file to include [email protected] in the enabled-extensions list, as shown in the following example.
      # List all extensions that you want to have enabled for all users
enabled-extensions=['[email protected]' , '[email protected]']
    3. Run the following sequence of commands.
      chmod 755 /etc/dconf/db/local.d/00-extensions
dconf update

    The session collaboration feature is now enabled for the desktop. You can skip the remaining steps of this procedure.

  5. (For desktop pools besides automated full-clone) Make the [email protected] extension readable to the logged-in user.
    1. Install gnome-extensions-app.
    2. In the desktop environment, restart GNOME Shell by pressing the following sequence of keys on the keyboard.
      Alt+F2
r
Enter
    3. In the desktop environment, run gnome-extensions-app and then enable AppIndicator and KStatusNotifierItem Support.

    The session collaboration feature is now enabled for the desktop.

Enabling Session Collaboration on a RHEL 8.x Desktop

For RHEL 8.x desktops, you must install the required GNOME Shell extension to enable AppIndicator support.

  1. Download the required GNOME shell extension to the RHEL 8.x system from https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/615/appindicator-support/. Select 3.32 for the shell version and 29 for the extension version.
  2. Extract the contents of the downloaded package and rename the directory as [email protected] (the "uuid" value in the metadata.json file in the package).
  3. Use the mv command to move the [email protected] directory to this location: /usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions.

    By default, the metadata.json file in the [email protected] directory is only readable to the root user. To support Session Collaboration, you must make this file readable to other users as well.

  4. Run the command to make metadata.json readable to other users, as shown in the following example.
    chmod a+r metadata.json

    Proceed to the next step of this procedure, based on your desktop pool type.

    • If you are configuring an automated full-clone desktop pool, go to step 5.
    • If you are configuring any other type of desktop pool, go to step 6.
  5. (For automated full-clone desktop pools) Make the [email protected] extension readable to all users.
    1. Open the extension configuration file for editing.
      vi /etc/dconf/db/local.d/00-extensions
    2. Modify the configuration file to include [email protected] in the enabled-extensions list, as shown in the following example.
      # List all extensions that you want to have enabled for all users
enabled-extensions=['[email protected]']
    3. Run the following sequence of commands.
      chmod 755 /etc/dconf/db/local.d/00-extensions
dconf update

    The session collaboration feature is now enabled for the desktop. You can skip the remaining steps of this procedure.

  6. (For desktop pools besides automated full-clone) Make the [email protected] extension readable to the logged-in user.
    1. Install gnome-tweaks.
    2. In the desktop environment, restart GNOME Shell by pressing the following sequence of keys on the keyboard.
      Alt+F2
r
Enter
    3. In the desktop environment, run gnome-tweaks and then enable KStatusNotifierItem/AppIndicator Support.

    The session collaboration feature is now enabled for the desktop.

Enabling Session Collaboration on a Debian 11.x Desktop

To enable the Session Collaboration feature on a Debian 11.x desktop, complete the following procedure.

  1. Install gnome-shell-extension-appindicator.
    apt-get install -y gnome-shell-extension-appindicator
  2. Open the Extensions window. 
    gnome-extensions-app
  3. In the Extensions window, enable Ubuntu AppIndicators.

Enabling Session Collaboration on a Debian 10.x Desktop

To enable the Session Collaboration feature on a Debian 10.x desktop, complete the following procedure.

  1. Install gnome-shell-extension-appindicator.
    apt-get install -y gnome-shell-extension-appindicator
  2. Open the Extensions window. 
    gnome-tweaks
  3. In the Extensions window, enable Kstatusnotifieritem/appindicator support.

Setting Session Collaboration Options in Configuration Files

Set the following option in the /etc/vmware/viewagent-custom.conf file to enable or deactivate the Session Collaboration feature.
  • CollaborationEnable
Set the following options in the /etc/vmware/config file to configure the settings used during a collaboration session.
  • collaboration.logLevel
  • collaboration.maxCollabors
  • collaboration.enableEmail
  • collaboration.serverUrl
  • collaboration.enableControlPassing
See Setting Options in Configuration Files on a Linux Desktop for more information.

Session Collaboration Feature Limitations

The following general limitations apply to the Session Collaboration feature:
  • Users cannot use the following remote desktop features in a collaboration session.
    • USB redirection
    • Audio input redirection
    • Client drive redirection
    • Smart card redirection
    • Clipboard redirection
  • Users cannot change the remote desktop resolution in a collaboration session.
  • Users cannot have multiple collaboration sessions on the same client machine.
Note: Use the following remedies to troubleshoot issues related to Session Collaboration:
  • (RHEL 9.x) If the Session Collaboration icon fails to appear in the system tray, perform the additional configuration steps described in Enabling Session Collaboration on a RHEL 9.x Desktop.
  • If the Session Collaboration icon fails to appear in the system tray after a user logs in for the first time to the remote desktop, instruct the user to disconnect from and reconnect to the desktop. The Session Collaboration icon usually appears after reconnection to the desktop.
  • If the Session Collaboration icon in the system tray is unresponsive after a user logs in for the first time to the remote desktop, instruct the user to resize the remote desktop window. The Session Collaboration icon becomes responsive after the desktop window is resized.