creating a test lab for remote desktops

[tamtam40]

Hello everyone

Complete newbie to Horizon, so thought I'd ask a very high-level question.

We dont currently use it, but I have been asked about the possibility of having a small  batch of  30 virtual desktops which users could access remotely over our VPN link.

We currently have multiple Linked VSphere sites each with many ESX hosts, but these are used purely for windows servers, and we don't do anything in the cloud yet.

Is it necessary for remote desktops to be on their own ESX hosts away from the server farm.

At a very high level - what software and licenses would I need for a batch of 30 remote windows desktops that would be available for use remotely, and would be non-persistent?

This is just to get me started and looking in the right direction as I'm getting lost in the amount of documentation available.

Very much appreciated

[vJoeG]

Hi Tam,

Best practice for Horizon View is to have a separate vCenter for your VDI workloads (your 30 desktops) but it's not mandatory. You mention remote access over VPN. If your users are on the VPN they would be able to operate just like a local machine on the network so you could just publish the URL for the connection server(s) or a Load balanced VIP.

To access the environment remotely (no VPN) you would want/need at least one UAG (unified access gateway) to broker connections to the internal connection servers or VIP.

If you don't currently have licensing for Horizon take a look here at the VMware store for a rough idea of what 30 licenses would cost for the different models, Standard/Advanced/Enterprise.

I hope that helps.

[tamtam40]

Thank you so much Joe for getting back.

I'll start going though the labs and then setup a test.

A separate VCenter license for such a small number of VMs seems a waste though,

All the best

[Mickeybyte2]

Tam,

Check the Horizon editions and what is included. Most editions include a license for vSphere/vCenter/vSAN, so you don't need to buy them extra.

Horizon is very tightly integrated into vCenter and puts also additional load on the vCenter, so it's better to have a dedicated one, even for 30 desktops I guess.

Regards.

[Mickeybyte2]

tamtam40​

Also take a look here for some planning considerations: https://www.carlstalhood.com/vmware-horizon-7-composer/

Regards.