Create an Automated Instant-Clone Farm in Horizon

You create an automated instant-clone farm as part of the process to give users access to published applications or published desktops.

Prerequisites

• Verify that Connection Server is installed. See the Horizon 8 Installation and Upgrade document.
• Verify that Connection Server settings for vCenter Server are configured in Horizon Console. See the Horizon 8 Administration document.
• Verify that you have a sufficient number of ports on the ESXi virtual switch that is used for the virtual machines that are used as remote desktops. The default value might not be sufficient if you create large desktop pools.
• Verify that you prepared a golden image virtual machine. Horizon Agent must be installed on the golden image virtual machine. See Preparing a Golden Image Virtual Machine for an Automated Farm.
• Take a snapshot of the golden image virtual machine in vCenter Server. You must shut down the golden image virtual machine before you take the snapshot. Connection Server uses the snapshot as the base image from which the clones are created.
• Gather the configuration information you must provide to create the farm. See Worksheet for Creating an Automated Instant-Clone Farm in Horizon.

Procedure

1. In Horizon Console, select Inventory > Farms.
2. Click Add.
3. Select Automated Farm.
4. Select Instant clone.
5. Follow the prompts in the wizard to create the farm.
   Use the configuration information that you gathered in the worksheet. You can go directly back to any wizard page that you completed by clicking the page name in the navigation panel.

   Note: If you are a VMware Carbon Black customer and select a golden image configured with Carbon Black for the new farm, then the screen displays information from the Carbon Black Scan for each snapshot listed.

   • If you select the Show All Images check box, the list might include snapshots that are not compatible and cannot be selected.
   • If no value appears in the Carbon Black Scan (% Complete) column, that indicates that the Carbon Black sensor was not enabled in the Instant Clone golden image when the snapshot was taken. For more information, see the VMware Carbon Black Cloud Documentation.

What to do next

For published applications or desktops, create a published application pool or a published desktop pool. See Create an Application Pool or Create a Published Desktop Pool.

For published applications on demand, associate the RDS farm with an App Volumes Manager. See Associate App Volumes Manager with a Farm.