You must install Horizon Agent on an all non-vSphere machines. VMware Horizon cannot manage a non-vSphere machine unless Horizon Agent is installed.

To install Horizon Agent on multiple Windows physical computers without having to respond to wizard prompts, you can install Horizon Agent silently.

Prerequisites

  • Verify that you have prepared Active Directory. See the Horizon 8 Installation and Upgrade document.
  • Verify that you have administrative rights on the non-vSphere machine.
  • To use a non-vSphere Windows Server machine as a remote desktop rather than as an RDS host, perform the steps described in Prepare Windows Server Operating Systems for Desktop Use.
  • Familiarize yourself with the Horizon Agent custom setup options for non-vSphere machines.
  • Familiarize yourself with the TCP ports that the Horizon Agent installation program opens on the firewall. See the Horizon Overview and Deployment Planning document for more information.
  • If the machine has the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable package installed, verify that the version of the package is 2005 SP1 or later. If the package version is 2005 or earlier, you can either upgrade or uninstall the package.
  • Download the Horizon Agent installer file from the VMware product page at http://www.vmware.com/go/downloadview.

Procedure

  1. To start the Horizon Agent installation program, double-click the installer file.
    The installer filename is VMware-Horizon-Agent-x86-YYMM-y.y.y-xxxxxx.exe, where YYMM is the marketing version number, y.y.y is the internal version number, and xxxxxx is the build number.
  2. Accept the VMware license terms.
  3. Select the Internet Protocol (IP) version, IPv4 or IPv6.
    You must install all VMware Horizon components with the same IP version.
  4. Select whether to enable or disable FIPS mode.
    This option is available only if FIPS mode is enabled in Windows.
  5. Select your custom setup options.
  6. Accept or change the destination folder.
  7. In the Server text box, type the host name or IP address of a Connection Server host.
    During installation, the installer registers the non-vSphere machine with this Connection Server instance. After registration, the specified Connection Server instance, and any additional instances in the same Connection Server group, can communicate with the non-vSphere machine.
  8. Select an authentication method to register the non-vSphere machine with the Connection Server instance.
    Option Action
    Authenticate as the currently logged in user The Username and Password text boxes are disabled and you are logged in to the Connection Server instance with your current username and password.
    Specify administrator credentials You must provide the username and password of a Connection Server administrator in the Username and Password text boxes.
    Provide the username in the following format: Domain\User.

    The user account must be a domain user with access to Horizon Directory on the Connection Server instance. A local user does not work.

  9. Follow the prompts in the Horizon Agent installation program and finish the installation.
  10. If you selected the USB redirection option, restart the non-vSphere machine to enable USB support.
    In addition, the Found New Hardware wizard might start. Follow the prompts in the wizard to configure the hardware before you restart the non-vSphere machine.

Results

The Horizon Agent service is started on the non-vSphere machine and the machine is registered with Horizon 8.

What to do next

Use the registered non-vSphere machine to create a manual desktop pool. See Create a Manual Desktop Pool.

After the pool is created, you can edit the pool.

Note: When you reconfigure a pool setting that affects a registered machine, it can take up to 10 minutes for the new setting to take effect. For example, if you change the Automatically logoff after disconnect setting for a pool, Horizon 8 might take up to 10 minutes to reconfigure the affected machines.