Non-vSphere virtual machines run on a virtualization platform other than vCenter Server. Since these machines get registered with Connection Server as part of the Horizon Agent installation process, these machines are called registered non-vSphere virtual machines. To create a manual desktop pool that contains non-vSphere virtual machines in Horizon Console, you must select the Other sources option as part of the manual desktop pool creation workflow.

Complete the following steps in the workflow to create a manual desktop pool that contains registered non-vSphere virtual machines.

  • Prepare the non-vSphere virtual machine to deliver remote desktop access. Before you add this virtual machine to a manual desktop pool, you must prepare each machine individually. Horizon Agent must be installed and running on each machine. To prepare non-vSphere virtual machines, see Prepare a non-vSphere Machine For Horizon 8 Management.
  • Gather the configuration information that you must provide to create the pool. See Worksheet for Creating a Manual Desktop Pool.
    • Power policies are not supported for manual desktop pools that contain registered non-vSphere virtual machines because these machines are not directly managed by vSphere.
    • 3D rendering options are not applicable for manual desktop pools that contain registered non-vSphere virtual machines. However, these virtual machines can directly leverage GPU capability available to the Horizon Agent operating system. Verify the graphics support with the third-party virtualization platform vendor.
  • Create the manual desktop pool and select the Other sources option to select the registered non-vSphere virtual machine as the desktop pool source. See Create a Manual Desktop Pool.
  • Entitle users to access the manual desktop pool. See "Entitling Users and Groups" in the Horizon 8 Administration document.
  • Perform management tasks on non-vSphere registered machines. See Managing non-vSphere Registered Machines.