The step is informational only, and no lab actions are required.

VMware Horizon Cloud Hosted Infrastructure is a service that allows you to deliver cloud-hosted virtual desktops and applications to users.  Desktops can be built with different configurations to suit the needs of your individual user groups.

A detailed description of the capacity model and the Standard Desktop Capacity (SDC) can be found in: http://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/support/vmware-horizon-cloud-hosted-service-description.pdf

There are a few methods available to you for populating your tenant with virtual machine templates.

You can:

• Receive a pre-packaged image from VMware.
• Create an image from a template you receive from VMware.
• Create an image from your own template.

Most customers leverage a template provided by VMware.  In this lab, we use a pre-packaged image supplied by VMware.

The step is informational only, and no lab actions are required.

If you choose to use your own template, there area few things you must do to prepare the image for use in Horizon Cloud.

The process of building your own template includes:

1. Install a supported Horizon Client
2. Install and configure the required agents (DaaS and optionally the App Volumes agent)
3. Optimize the image including the display properties and other configuration items. For template optimization, it is recommended that you use the VMware OS Optimization Tool https://labs.vmware.com/flings/vmware-os-optimization-tool

For details on creating a template, please see the Horizon Cloud with Hosted Infrastructure “Getting Started” guide. https://pubs.vmware.com/horizon-air-1611/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/Welcome/welcome.html

Once you are done preparing your custom template, you can work with VMware to upload it to your tenant.  

Once the template is available in the tenant, you will be able to create your image.   When creating an image, you have the option to choose a Traditional Clone or an Instant Clone.  When using a Traditional Clone, a full copy of the image will be used for each desktop deployed.  When selecting an Instant Clone, you gain the benefits of VMware's JMP technology which will allow for much faster provisioning while utilizing less space.  To find out more about instant clones, please refer to: https://blogs.vmware.com/euc/2016/02/horizon-7-view-instant-clone-technology-linked-clone-just-in-time-desktop.html .  

To create an image:

1. From the Horizon Cloud Administration Console click Inventory
2. Click Images
3. Click New
4. In the Convert Desktop Image Section, in the Desktop window enter HOL
5. Select HOL-W10-IC
6. Click on the scroll bar to the OS Properties section
7. Confirm Instant Clone is set to YES
8. Confirm Image Name is set to HOL-W10-IC
9. Confirm Domain is set to DF
10. Company Name enter VMware
11. Confirm the time zone is set to Central Time
12. Click Publish 

Once the Image creation process is complete, the image status will now report as Published

Now that we have our Image, we are ready to create and assign a user to a desktop.  

1. On the left-hand side of your Horizon Cloud Administration Console, click Assign
2. From the Assignments Page click New

You see two options listed.   Assign Applications and Assign a Desktop. For purposes of the lab we are going to assign Desktops.

3. Click Get Started underneath the Desktops menu item.

When configuring Desktop options, we must first define the desktop type. You may choose Dedicated, Floating or Session desktop types.

A Dedicated desktop assigns a user to a specific desktop. The user will receive that same desktop every time they log in.

If you are using Floating desktops, each time the user logs in they will receive any avaiable desktop.

The third option is a Session desktop. In this case, the user will receive an RDSH-published desktop.

For this lab, we will create a Floating desktop entitlement

1. Click Floating

In the Fixed Attributes section, the Desktop Model(s) are listed.  The Desktop Model is the capacity resource definition of your desktop.  This is defined for you, based on the selection(s) you choose when purchasing your tenant. For more information on the possible desktop configurations, see Service Description document.  http://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/support/vmware-horizon-cloud-hosted-service-description.pdf

For this example, the only Desktop Model available is Advanced.  

2. To determine the resource specifications of the advanced model, click on Details next to the Desktop Model selection box
3. Click on the outside scroll bar

The Advanced Desktop Model is comprised of 4096 MB of memory and 2 CPUs.

Flexible Attributes are settings that will define how and what a user will connect to a desktop.  These attributes can be changed at any time.

6. In the Flexible Attributes section confirm/enter the following information

•        Confirm Image [IC] HOL-W10-IC is selected
•        Click once in the Assignment Name to activate window
•        Enter Assignment Name:  CorpDesktop
•        Confirm Default Protocol is BLAST
•        Preferred Client Type: Browser

7. Click the scroll bar to scroll to the bottom of the page
8. Capacity: 4
9. Click Next

You can now assign the desktop(s) to a user or a group.  In this case, we will be assigning it to a user.

1. Click the Active Directory Search box
2. Enter hcu
3. Select hcuser
4. Confirm DF\hcuser is listed in the Selected Users/User Groups section
5. Click Next
6. Click the scroll bar to scroll to the bottom of the page to view all the settings.
7. Click Submit

Once the assignment process has been completed, the desktop will be listed in Assignments.  From this page you can create, edit, and delete assignment as well as update agent software for any existing assignments.

Now you are ready to test the user's desktop

1. From Google Chrome, click the tab to open an additional Window 

2.  Select the Horizon Client bookmark

3.  Log in with username: hcuser password: VMware1!

4.  Launch CorpDesktop

You should now see a fully functional Horizon (View) desktop.

Once a user is logged in, we will navigate back to the dashboard in the Horizon Cloud Administration Console to view the activity.

1. Click the Horizon Cloud Administration tab (https://hol.df.local/horizonadmin).
2. Notice the Capacity is now listed as 3/4 because a user is connected.
3. Click the Monitor Icon.
4. Notice the connection is now listed in the Connections
5. Click the scroll bar to scroll to the bottom of the page.
6. Connection Status lists the one connection that you just made by logging into the client interface as hcuser and now shows active.
7. Desktop Allocation now list 3 CorpDesktops are still available, but you also see another 12 Remaining.  This is because total Desktop Capacity Allocation is based on the amount of capacity you purchased in your Horizon Cloud environment.  In this scenerio there is room for another 12 desktops utilizing the Advanced Profile.