Install Horizon Agent on a Remote Desktop Services Host

Horizon Agent communicates with Connection Server and supports the display protocols PCoIP and Blast Extreme. You must install Horizon Agent on an RDS Host.

Prerequisites

• Verify that you have prepared Active Directory. See the Horizon 8 Installation and Upgrade document.
• To use a Windows Server virtual machine as an RDS host, see Prepare Windows Server Operating Systems for Remote Desktop Services (RDS) Host Use.
• Install the Remote Desktop Services role described in Install Remote Desktop Services on Windows Server 2012 or 2012 R2 or 2016.
• Restrict users to a single desktop session. See Restrict Users to a Single Session.
• Familiarize yourself with the Horizon Agent custom setup options. See Horizon Agent Custom Setup Options for an RDS Host.
• 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. Log in as an administrator.
2. 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.
3. Select the Internet Protocol (IP) version, IPv4 or IPv6.
   You must install all Horizon 8 components with the same IP version.
4. Select your custom setup options.
5. In the Server text box, type the host name or IP address of a Connection Server host.
   Horizon Agent installer prompts this step only if you are installing Horizon Agent on an RDS host that will be in a manual farm. During installation, the installer registers the RDS host 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 RDS host.
6. Select an authentication method to register the RDS host with the Connection Server instance.

   Option	Description
   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.

   The user account must be a domain user with access to View LDAP on the Connection Server instance. A local user does not work.
7. Follow the prompts and finish the installation.

What to do next

Create a farm. See Creating Farms in Horizon Console.