Hi, I'd like to evaluate the Horizon Suite in a nested ESXi and vCenter Appliance configuration that will run on VMware Workstation 9. I've seen references to an evaluation kit for Horizon, with the various components available as an OVA.
I understand that I'll need an ESXi host (nested VM in this case) and vCenter running before trying to import and deploy the OVAs.
Is the above configuration and approach something that will work, or is there a better way to deploy the Horizon Suite for evaluation purposes? Thanks.
Only Horizon Workspace comes as a OVF-package, it should work fine on nested ESX.
// Linjo
Great, this helps. Any constraints by using a vCenter Appliance? Or does the Horizon Suite require a full blown vCenter Server?
I have done something like this with VMware Workstation. I suggest that you keep all the support VMs you can off the nested ESXi servers. In my case, I have the SQL server, AD DC, connection brokers and View composer as "workstation" VMs and had the OVA/OVF components and View desktop VMs on the nested ESXi hosts. Since 5.1 View has been able to use the vCenter appliance.
Dennis
Dennis, thanks for the follow-up. I've implemented a similar approach as you have. AD DS, DNS, DHCP all reside on one "workstation" VM, while the SQL server is the express type that is bundled with vCenter installation. Those two elements live on a separate VM, and the third is an "infra" VM for NTP, file services, etc. I'll probably deploy only one desktop VM to the two node nested ESXi cluster. After enabling DRS, HA, and FT, IO on the single disk in my workstation is enough to bring the system to a crawl during cluster and VM activity. I have probably pushed my 4yr old workstation to the limits here.
