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VMware Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure 1.4

VMware Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure 1.4

About VMware Horizon Cloud Service on Microsoft Azure

With VMware Horizon Cloud Service on Microsoft Azure, your end users can securely access their Remote Desktop Service (RDS) desktops and remote applications from any device. The environment combines the management simplicity of the Horizon Cloud control plane with the economics of Microsoft Azure. The overall environment consists of the VMware-hosted cloud service, your provided capacity in the Microsoft Azure cloud, and VMware software deployed into that capacity. You connect your Microsoft Azure subscription to Horizon Cloud to manage and deliver virtual RDS-enabled Windows servers and remote applications. Setting up the environment involves deploying the required VMware software into your Microsoft Azure capacity. The deployed VMware software creates an appropriately configured entity, called a Horizon Cloud node, which pairs with the control plane. After the node is deployed, then you use the control plane to create RDSH farms and entitle remote desktops and applications to your end users.

What's New

This release is the first release of VMware Horizon Cloud Service on Microsoft Azure.

Before You Begin

Review this information as you prepare to deploy this release of VMware Horizon Cloud Service on Microsoft Azure.

Best Practices

Knowledge of the following facts is useful before using VMware Horizon Cloud Service on Microsoft Azure.
  • Compatibility with other VMware Products: For the most recent information about compatibility between this product and other VMware products, see the VMware Product Interoperability Matrices.
  • Browser Experience: The Administration Console is compatible with recent versions of Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Internet Explorer, and Microsoft Edge. Even though you can try using Apple Safari, use of the Administration Console in Apple Safari is not supported in this release.

Known Limitations

  • The Horizon Cloud Administration Console is not supported in the Apple Safari browser. Some user interface features might not work correctly. In a Mac OS, instead of Apple Safari, you can use Chrome or Firefox browsers.
  • In this release, GPU is not supported in Microsoft Windows Server 2016 due to a driver limitation in the Horizon Agent. If you want to get the benefits of GPU acceleration in your RDS desktops, use Windows Server 2012 R2 for the master NV6-sized server images. Note: Due to an NVIDIA driver limitation on Windows Server 2012 R2, the maximum number of sessions for each RDS desktop server is 20.
  • When you deploy a Horizon Cloud node in Microsoft Azure after you have already configured True SSO for previously deployed nodes, the system does not automatically pair the new node with the Enrollment servers. You must manually repeat the steps to export the pairing bundle and import it into the Enrollment servers. For the steps, see the VMware Horizon Cloud Service on Microsoft Azure Administration Guide.
  • Follow these rules when entering characters in the Administration Console:
    • Use only standard ASCII characters in user names and passwords, and for the password when downloading the DaaS SSL bootstrap file. If you use non-ASCII characters for these items, unexpected results might occur.
    • When entering names for imported images, farms, assignments, and other assets that result in creating a VM in Microsoft Azure, do not enter more than 12 characters for the name.
    • Do not use commas in user passwords.
    • When using the Import wizard to create a master VM from the Microsoft Azure Marketplace:
      • Enter a username and password that adheres to the Microsoft Azure requirements for VM admin usernames and passwords. See the Microsoft Azure FAQ page for details.
      • Do not enter a name for the image that ends with a hyphen (-).
      • Do not include an underscore character (_) in the image name.

Known Issues

Active Directory Related Known Issues

  • After your first node is in Ready state on the Getting Started page, if you wait 30 minutes or longer to perform the Register Active Directory Domain task and do not explicitly log off before starting to register the domain, an error appears.
    During the node onboarding process, progress is displayed on the Getting Started page. If 30 minutes or more has passed between the time the page shows the node is ready and you begin to register the domain, an error might appear that states 'No service_session of type "identity_node" were provided.'
    Workaround: If you encounter this error, log out of the Horizon Cloud Administration Console, log back in using your My VMware login credentials, and then start the Register Active Directory Domain task. To avoid encountering this issue when deploying your first node, explicitly log out of the Administration Console when you see the Getting Started page shows the node is in Ready state.
  • In the Register Active Directory window, if the specified domain is unreachable or the specified credentials are incorrect, after you try twice to submit the information, the system logs you off, displays the Horizon Cloud Administration Console's login screen and you have to log in again.
    When using the Active Directory page to register an additional Active Directory domain, after the first time you click Domain Bind in the Register Active Directory window, if Horizon Cloud cannot reach the specified domain or if the specified domain-bind account credentials are incorrect, an error message displays and you can return to the Register Active Directory window and try again. If the same thing happens a second time, instead of returning to the Register Active Directory window, the system logs you off.
    Workaround: Verify the domain is reachable and that you have the correct domain-bind account credentials. Then log back in to Horizon Cloud, navigate to Settings > Active Directory, and click Register to go through the process again.
  • If you add the same Active Directory user group to both the Super Administrator role and Demo Administrator role, those users experience unexpected restricted behavior in the Administration Console.
    The Super Administrator role is intended to grant all the permissions to perform all management actions in the Administration Console, and the Demo Administrator role is a read-only role. However, due to this known issue, if you add the same user group to both roles, those users do not receive the permissions of the Super Administrator role. Their actions are restricted in the Administration Console, which might prevent availability of full management of your environment.
    Workaround: Do not assign the same user group to both roles.
  • Editing the default value in the domain join's Default OU field in the Active Directory page does not persist in the system.
    Even though you can edit the domain join's default OU value on the Administration Console's Active Directory page, the change does not persist in the system. The default OU for the AD domain registered with the node continues to be CN=Computers. However, even though the node's default OU is CN=Computers, you can change the default OU for a farm and assignments are created using the farm's OU.
    Workaround: Use the farm's OU field to set the default OU for assignments based on that farm.
  • Reusing the same farm name with a different domain in the same Active Directory forest can lead to domain join failures due to duplicate service provider names (SPNs).
    Due to a new feature for domain controllers in Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 and higher, a duplicate SPN check on the domain controller causes domain join failures. See the Microsoft KB article 3070083.
    Workarounds:
    - Avoid reusing farm names.
    - As described in that Microsoft KB article, disable duplicate SPN checks in the Active Directory domain.
  • When you expand the Advanced Properties in the Edit Active Directory window, a copy of the existing auxiliary domain bind account automatically appears in the window, and the only way to remove it is to cancel out of the window.
    In the Administration Console, you open the Edit Active Directory window to edit the domain bind information by clicking Settings > Active Directory and clicking Edit next to the Domain Bind section on the page. In that Edit Active Directory window, when you click Advanced Properties, a copy of the existing auxiliary account automatically appears in the window as the next auxiliary account. You must cancel out of the window to remove this automatically added copy.
    Workaround: To edit the values under Advanced Properties and work around this issue:
    1. Ensure you have the existing primary auxiliary domain-bind account credentials (name and password), so that you can successfully complete these steps.
    2. When you click Advanced Properties and see the copy of the existing account, click Remove next to that account, and then click Next and Next.
    3. Re-open the window. Now it shows that both the copy of the account and the primary auxiliary domain-bind account are deleted.
    4. Add back the primary auxiliary domain-bind account information by clicking on Add Auxiliary Bind Account.
    5. Click on Advanced Properties to edit the values you want to change, and then click Next and Next to save the changes to the system.

Images, Farms, Assignments

  • When names that the system uses when creating virtual machines (VMs) are longer than 12 characters, unexpected results might occur.
    In workflows that result in the system creating VMs, such as creating farms, images, and assignments, if you have entered a name that is longer than 12 characters, the name in the system is truncated. As a result, unexpected results might occur from the truncated name.
    Workaround: Limit entered names to 12 characters or less.
  • In the Import Desktop - Marketplace window, the 3D Support in RDSH option is selected by default, even though it is not supported for use in Windows Server 2016.
    The Horizon agent's 3D support in RDSH feature works on N-series VMs. When using the workflow for importing a master image VM from the Microsoft Azure Marketplace, the 3D Support in RDSH option under Advanced Options is selected by default. However, due to a known issue in the Horizon agent, if the 3D Support in RDSH option is installed on a Windows Server 2016 RDS host, the published desktop will launch with a black screen.
    Workaround: In this release, GPU is not supported in Windows Server 2016. If you want to create a master VM using the NV6 server model, use the Windows Server 2012 operating system, or you will not benefit from the GPU acceleration. Note: Due to an NVIDIA driver limitation on Windows Server 2012 R2, the maximum number of sessions for each RDS desktop server is 20.
  • You cannot edit the number of sessions per RDSH server once a farm is created.
    Due to this known issue, a farm's number of sessions per server cannot be changed after the farm is created.
    Workaround: None.
  • During a farm's rolling maintenance, reduced availability for end user RDS session desktops and remote applications might occur. 
    Due to this known issue, if there are no end user sessions on all of the farm's servers just before the maintenance window, all servers are shut down at the same time for maintenance. Then, if high demand occurs for user sessions to the RDS desktops and remote applications that are served by that farm right after the maintenance process begins, the farm will not be able to accept even a single user session for a span of three to five minutes.
    Workaround: None.
  • While a farm's servers are undergoing power operations, if you click on the Servers tab from the farm's details page, the page might not display any information.
    Workaround: Click the Refresh button to refresh the page.
  • The Administration Console reports a farm's servers' DaaS agents are active and their VMs are in success state several minutes before the VMs are actually ready to use for assigning RDS session desktops and applications using that farm.
    Due to this known issue, after you create a farm and the Administration Console indicates the farm's servers are ready for you to start assigning RDS session desktops or remote applications using that farm, when you navigate to Assignments screens, you see on-screen messages about needing RDSH servers or farms out of capacity. These symptoms result from the Administration Console reporting the farm's servers are ready several minutes before the connection broker to the Horizon agent on the server VMs is completely ready.
    Workaround: To avoid this issue, delay creating assignments using a farm for at least 15 minutes after the user interface indicates the farm is ready.
  • For an application that was originally manually added to the inventory, when you subsequently edit the application from the Applications page and change the icon, the previous original icon continues to be displayed to end users and also re-appears in the Horizon Cloud Administration Console's Applications page eventually.
    Due to this issue, if you edit the application to upload a new icon, you see the new icon on the Applications page. However, the end users assigned to that application continue to see the original icon. Eventually, the original icon reappears in the Administration Console's Applications page also.
    Workaround: From the Administration Console's Applications page, delete the application and re-add it as a manual application using the new icon. If the application is assigned to end users, you must remove the application from its assignments before you can delete it.

Reports Related Known Issues

  • In the User Activity report, the displayed weekly average (hrs) is not intuitive 
    Due to this issue, the weekly statistics fluctuate along the time because the calculation logic is dividing the current week's duration by seven (7) and not rounding up to a whole week. For example, when you select the last 30 days, the data for completed weeks is unchanged but the data for the current week is divided by seven (7). The current logic is weekly average (hrs) = daily average (hrs) * 7 days, resulting in the last 30 days weekly average = (total duration / 30 days) * 7 days.
    Workaround: None.
  • The Desktop Health report does not reflect a newly updated farm name until an hour after the name change.
    If you change a farm's name, it takes an hour for the Desktop Health report's Assignment drop-down menu and Assignment column to reflect the new name.
    Workaround: Wait an hour before expecting the new name to appear in the report.
  • The formatting in some of the CSV files that you can export from the Reports user-interface screens do not match the on-screen tables.
    Some of the Reports page's subscreens provide an export feature to export the displayed data in CSV format. Due to this issue, the formatting in the CSV files exported from the Desktop Health, Concurrency, and Session History reports do not precisely match the ones you see displayed on the screen. For example, the column headings might be different, the CSV files have more columns of data than in the on-screen tables, and the Session History CSV file gives the last login time as the UNIX time in milliseconds.
    Workaround: None.

True SSO Related Known Issues

  • When you test the pairing of the Enrollment Server after importing the pairing tokens, the system reports pairing failed even though the pairing is fine.
    Due to some temporarily cached information, when you are configuring True SSO in the Administration Console and you click Test Pairing, sometimes the system reports failure even though the pairing is fine. The cached information is updated every minute, so if you wait a minute and re-try, the system reports the actual successful pairing.
    Workaround: If you get a failure response when testing the pairing, wait a minute and try again.
  • When non-ASCII or high-ASCII characters are used in the True SSO template name, retrieving the template fails.
    Due to this known issue, if your True SSO template name contains non-ASCII or high-ASCII characters, you cannot successfully configure True SSO with your Horizon Cloud environment.
    Workaround: To avoid this issue, use only ASCII characters in the names of your True SSO templates.

User Interface Related Known Issues

  • Even after the Getting Started wizard's tasks are completed and you see the completion bar at 100%, when you log out and then log in again to the Administration Console, you see the wizard's progress bar displaying 33% completion.
    When you have the setting to show the Getting Started wizard at startup, the system displays the wizard as the first screen every time you log in. Due to this issue, as long as that setting is on, the progress bar displays at 33% completion each subsequent time you log in.
    Workaround: When you have fully deployed your environment, use the Getting Started wizard's Show at Startup slider to turn off displaying it as the first screen at login.
  • Application names are displayed in lowercase characters when end users access them using Workspace ONE
    When your Horizon Cloud environment is integrated with VMware Identity Manager, your end users access their assigned desktops and applications using Workspace ONE. Due to this know issue, the users see the application names displayed with lowercase characters, regardless of the actual case used in the application names.
    Workaround: None.
  • When the end user clicks the Reset menu action on their browser-based RDS desktop session, the Logoff action is temporarily disabled for up to 5 minutes.
    When an end user uses a browser to access an RDS desktop session, the action menu on the desktop includes a Reset choice. To reset a desktop means to reboot the desktop's underlying VM. For RDS desktops where there are multiple users with sessions using the same server, the system appropriately prevents a single user from performing the reset action. However, due to a known issue, when the end user clicks the Logoff action after clicking Reset, a message says the desktop cannot be logged off.
    Workaround: Wait five minutes and then re-click Logoff to log off the session.
  • When using the Administration Console in Microsoft Internet Explorer 11, you might see placeholders instead of the actual text strings.
    This issue is due to static content being cached in the browser. It is a temporary issue that will clear when the browser cache is cleared.
    Workaround: Try logging out of the Administration Console, clearing the browser cache, restarting the browser, and then logging back into the Administration Console.

Localization Related Known Issues

  • When non-ASCII or high-ASCII characters are used in the True SSO template name, retrieving the template fails.
    Due to this known issue, if your True SSO template name contains non-ASCII or high-ASCII characters, you cannot successfully configure True SSO with your Horizon Cloud environment.
    Workaround: To avoid this issue, use only ASCII characters in the names of your True SSO templates.
  • When using the localized product version, some messages might display the English text.
    Workaround: None.

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