This five-day course gives you the hands-on skills to deliver virtual desktops and applications through a single virtual desktop infrastructure platform. You build on your skills in configuring and managing Horizon® 8 through a combination of lecture and hands-on labs. You learn how to configure and deploy pools of virtual machines and how to provide a customized desktop environment to end-users. Additionally, you learn how to install and configure a virtual desktop infrastructure platform. You learn how to install and configure Horizon® Connection Server™ Unified Access Gateway™ how to configure a load balancer for use with Horizon, and how to establish Cloud Pod Architecture.

Target Audience

• Tier 1 Operators, administrators, and architects, responsible for the creation, maintenance, and or delivery of remote and virtual desktop services
• Additional duties can include the implementation, support, and administration of an organization's end-user computing infrastructure.

Prerequisites

Before attending this course, you must have the following skills:

• Use vSphere Web Client
• Create snapshots of virtual machines
• Configure guest customization specifications
• Modify virtual machine properties
• Convert a virtual machine to a template
• Microsoft Windows system administration experience:
• Configure Active Directory services, including DNS, DHCP, and time synchronization
• Restrict user activities by implementing Group Policy Objects
• Configure Windows systems to enable Remote Desktop Connections

Course Objectives

By the end of this session, attendees should be able to:

• Recognize the features and benefits of Horizon
• Use vSphere to create VMs to be used as desktops for Horizon
• Create and optimize Windows VMs to create Horizon desktops
• Install and Configure Horizon Agent on a Horizon desktop
• Configure, manage, and entitle desktop pools of full VMs
• Configure and manage the Horizon Client systems and connect the client to a Horizon desktop
• Configure, manage, and entitle pools of instant-clone desktops
• Create and use Remote Desktop Services (RDS) desktops and application pools
• Monitor the Horizon environment using the Horizon Console Dashboard and Horizon Help Desk Tool
• Identify Horizon Connection Server installation, architecture, and requirements
• Describe the authentication and certificate options for the Horizon environment
• Recognize the integration process and benefits of Omnissa® Access™ and Horizon 8
• Compare the remote display protocols that are available in Horizon
• Describe the 3D rendering options available in Horizon 8
• Discuss scalability options available in Horizon 8
• Describe different security options for the Horizon environment.

Mapped Certification

• Omnissa Certified Professional Desktop (OCPD)

Course Modules

1 Course Introduction

• Introductions and course logistics
• Course objectives

2 Introduction to Horizon

• Recognize the features and benefits of Horizon
• Describe the conceptual and logical architecture of Horizon

3 vSphere for Horizon

• Explain basic virtualization concepts
• Use vSphere Client™ to access your vCenter Server system and ESXi hosts
• Create, provision, and remove a virtual machine

4 Create Windows Desktops

• Outline the steps to install Horizon Agent on Windows virtual machines
• Install Horizon Agent on a Windows virtual Machine
• Optimize and prepare Windows virtual machines to set up Horizon desktop VMs

5 Create Linux Desktops

• Create a Linux VM for Horizon
• Install Horizon Agent on a Linux virtual machine
• Optimize and prepare Linux virtual machines to set up Horizon desktop VMs

6 Creating and Managing Desktop Pools

• Identify the steps to set up a template for desktop pool deployment
• List the steps to add desktops to the Horizon® Connection Server™ inventory
• Compare dedicated-assignment and floating-assignment pools
• Outline the steps to create an automated pool
• Define user entitlement
• Explain the hierarchy of global, pool-level, and user-level policies

7 Horizon Client Options

• Describe the different clients and their benefits
• Access Horizon desktop using various Horizon clients and HTML
• Configure integrated printing, USB redirection, and the shared folders option
• Configure session collaboration and media optimization for Microsoft Teams

8 Creating and Managing Instant-Clone Desktops

• List the advantages of instant clones
• Explain the provisioning technology used for instant clone desktop pools
• Set up an automated pool of instant clones
• Push updated images to instant clone desktop pools

9 Creating RDS Desktop and Application Pools

• Explain the difference between an RDS desktop pool and an automated pool
• Compare and contrast an RDS session host pool, a farm, and an application pool
• Create an RDS desktop pool and an application pool
• Access RDS desktops and application from Horizon Client
• Use the instant clone technology to automate the buildout of RDSH farms
• Configure load-balancing for RDSHs on a farm

10 Monitoring Horizon

• Monitor the status of the Horizon components using the Horizon Administrator console dashboard
• Monitor desktop sessions using the HelpDesk tool
• Monitor the performance of the remote desktop using the Horizon Performance Tracker

11 Horizon Connection Server

• Recognize Horizon reference architecture
• Identify the Horizon Connection Server supported features
• Identify the recommended system requirements for Horizon Connection Server
• Configure Horizon event database
• Outline the steps for the initial configuration of Horizon Connection Server
• Discuss the AD LDS database as a critical component of Horizon Connection Server installation

12 Horizon Protocols

• Compare the remote display protocols that are available in Horizon
• Describe BLAST
• Summarize BLAST Codec options
• List ideal applications for each BLAST codec
• Describe BLAST and PCoIP ADMX GPO common configurations

13 Graphics in Horizon

• Describe the 3D rendering options available in Horizon 8
• Compare vSGA and vDGA
• List the steps to configure graphics cards for use in a Horizon environment

14 Securing Connections: Network

• Compare tunnels and direct connections for client access to desktops
• Discuss the benefits of using Unified Access Gateway
• List the Unified Access Gateway firewall rules
• Configure TLS certificates in Horizons

15 Securing Connections: Authentication

• Compare the authentication options that Horizon Connection Server supports
• Restrict access to the Horizon remote desktops using restricted entitlements
• Describe the smart card authentication methods that Horizon Connection Server supports
• Explain the purpose of permissions, roles, and privileges in Horizon
• Create custom roles

16 Horizon Scalability

• Describe the purpose of a replica connection server
• Explain how multiple Horizon Connection Server instances in a pod maintain synchronization
• List the steps to configure graphics cards for use in a Horizon environment
• Configure a load balancer for use in a Horizon environment
• Explain Horizon Cloud Pod Architecture LDAP replication and VIPA
• Explain Horizon Cloud Pod Architecture scalability options

17 Horizon Cloud and Universal Broker

• Recognize the features and benefits of Horizon Cloud Service
• Use Universal broker to connect to a Horizon Cloud instance
• Configure and pair the Horizon Cloud Connector appliance with Horizon Connection Server

18 Omnissa Access and Virtual Application Management

• Recognize the features and benefits of Workspace ONE Access
• Recognize the Workspace ONE Access console features
• Explain identity management in Workspace ONE Access
• Explain access management in Workspace ONE Access
• Describe the Workspace ONE Access directory integration
• Deploy virtual applications with Workspace services