VMware Horizon 7 FAQ
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
VMWARE HORIZON
FAQ | 1
Q. What is VMware Horizon?
A. VMware Horizon® is a family of desktop and application
virtualization solutions designed to deliver Windows and
online services from any cloud. With Horizon, VMware
extends the power of virtualization—from data centers to
devices—to deliver desktops and applications with great
user experience, closed-loop manageability, and hybrid-
cloud flexibility.
VMware Horizon is available for purchase through VMware.
Horizon 7 for virtual desktops and applications runs from
your data center, Horizon 7 Published Applications
delivery and management, VMware Horizon Cloud
Service™ for virtual desktops and applications is served
up as a cloud-hosted service on-premises or from
outside of your data center, and VMware Horizon FLEX™
for containerized virtual desktops runs locally.
VMware Horizon 7
Q. What is Horizon 7?
A. Horizon 7 allows IT to deliver virtual or RDSH published
desktops and applications through a single platform to
end users. These desktop and application services—
including RDS hosted apps, packaged apps with VMware
ThinApp®, SaaS apps, and even virtualized apps from
Citrix—can all be accessed from one unified workspace
to provide end users with all of the resources they want,
at the speed they expect, with the eciency business
demands. Horizon 7 is available in four editions:
• Horizon Standard Edition – Simple, powerful VDI
with great user experience
• Horizon Advanced Edition – Cost-eective delivery of
desktops and applications through a unified workspace
• Horizon Enterprise Edition – Desktops and applications
delivered with cloud automation and management
• Horizon Air with On-Premises Infrastructure – Pair
Horizon Air service with Horizon 7 cloud-managed
infrastructure and desktops
Q. What is Horizon Apps?
A. Horizon Apps is a new packaging oering that focuses on
delivering and managing published (RDS) apps, including
session-based desktops. Based on Horizon 7, it oers two
editions—Standard and Advanced. Both oer reliable and
secure published application delivery with tools and
features that simplify management and provide a great
user experience. Horizon Apps Advanced additionally
streamlines app management with just-in-time app
delivery powered by VMware Instant Clones™
technology and slashes the numbers of required
images to be managed with VMware App Volumes™.
Q. When should I choose Horizon 7 and when should
I choose Horizon Apps?
A. Both Horizon 7 and Horizon Apps oer reliable and
secure published RDS application delivery and
management that include session-based desktops.
Horizon 7 additionally provides virtual desktops, which
provide a desktop experience and a highly reliable,
high-performance, personalized desktop. Session-based
desktops are useful in certain use cases when high
performance, reliability, and personalization are not
critical. Horizon 7 editions also oer additional
compelling features and products—such as VMware
vRealize® Operations™ for Horizon and VMware vSAN™
—with lower bundle pricing incentives.
Q. What are the key features of Horizon 7?
A. Horizon 7 allows organizations to extend the power
of desktop and application virtualization to support
workplace mobility while driving greater levels of
operational eciency at lower costs.
Key feature highlights include:
Desktops and Applications Delivered Through
a Single Platform
• Deliver virtual or published desktops and applications
through a single platform to streamline management,
easily entitle end users, and quickly deliver Windows
or Linux desktops and applications to end users across
devices and locations.
• Horizon 7 supports a single platform for delivering
hosted Windows applications and shared desktop
sessions from Windows Server instances using Microsoft
Remote Desktop Services (RDS), virtual desktops, and
ThinApp packaged applications.
• Horizon 7 additionally supports both Windows and
Linux-based desktops—including RHEL, Ubuntu,
CentOS, and NeoKylin operating systems.
VMWARE HORIZON
FAQ | 2
• ThinApp 5.0 and later
• DaaS desktops and applications
Applications with Modernized Lifecycle Management
Horizon 7 ensures that IT can consolidate, control, deliver,
monitor, and protect user compute resources.
Horizon 7 now includes support for:
Real Time Application Delivery and Management
• Scale published applications eortlessly at the push
of a button while deploying them 5–10x faster and
eliminating image sprawl.
• Simplify deployments with a tightly integrated stack
and fewer components, along with half the required
steps when deploying or scaling as compared to
competitive solutions.
• Easily package applications to avoid compatibility issues.
• Instantly provision applications at scale.
• Uniquely capture and isolate applications and also add
and remove individual applications from a single
AppStack to a user or pool of users on demand.
• Dynamically attach applications to users, groups, or
devices, even when users are logged in to their desktop.
• Provision, deliver, update, and retire applications in
real time.
User Environment Management
VMware User Environment Manager™ oers personalization
and dynamic policy configuration across any virtual,
physical, or cloud-based environment.
• Simplify end-user profile management by providing
organizations with a single and scalable solution that
leverages existing infrastructure.
• Provide end users with quick access to a Windows
workspace and applications, with a personalized and
consistent experience across devices and locations.
Image Management
• Support for desktop and application provisioning
and entitlement.
• Support for VMware Mirage™ unified image management
for streamlined management across virtual data centers
of physical and full clone virtual machines.
Analytics and Automation
• Cloud analytics with VMware vRealize Operations for
Horizon provides comprehensive visibility across a
Horizon desktop and application environment as well
as Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop 7.6 environments,
allowing IT to optimize the health and performance of
desktop and application services.
Smart Policies with Streamlined Access
With Horizon 7, end users can simply and securely access
desktops and applications (including RDS hosted apps,
packaged ThinApp apps, SaaS apps, and even
virtualized apps from Citrix) through a unified digital
workspace. IT organizations can similarly secure
desktops and apps based on even the most stringent
regulations and streamline the management of multiple
identity sources like Active Directory and LDAP to
eciently manage end-user access. End users can also
use single sign-on (SSO) from VMware Identity Manager™
to sign in to VMware Content Locker™ and to enroll their
devices if they are also using VMware AirWatch® Mobile
Device Management™.
Horizon 7 supports the ability to:
• Deliver seamless and secure access that allows only
authenticated trac access to all computing services.
• Streamline identity management across identity sources
and provide end users with contextual and customizable
access to resources through a single unified workspace.
• Support contextual, role-based security for end users
that maps policies based on user, device, or location
with ease.
• Simplify user access with True SSO for a single-click,
password-free login to Windows desktop services.
• Provide fast end-user access and real-time validation
with two-factor, smart-card, and biometric fingerprint
authentication.
• Take advantage of FIPS 140-2 compliance to ensure
that all cryptography meets common criteria standards.
Transformational User Experience
With Horizon 7, IT can deliver desktops and applications
to end users through a digital workspace with Blast
Performance to enable consistently great experiences
across devices, locations, media, and connections.
Horizon products now support customers with the
flexibility to choose between PCoIP or the brand new
Blast Extreme protocol to ensure that end users have the
best possible user experience at all times across a wide
variety of network types, from corporate LAN to public
Wi-Fi and mobile networks with Blast Extreme Adaptive
Transport (BEAT).
Applications that can be delivered and accessed through
the unified workspace include:
• XenApp 5.0 and later
• Microsoft RDS-hosted apps and desktops for
Windows Server 2008 and later
• SaaS applications
VMWARE HORIZON
FAQ | 3
Q. What is included in the Horizon editions?
A. Horizon 7 Standard, Horizon 7 Advanced, Horizon 7
Enterprise, and Horizon Apps are bundled with the
components and capabilities shown in Table 1.
Q. What happened to Horizon View
(formerly VMware View)?
A. VMware Horizon View™ is still available as a standalone
oering in Horizon Standard Edition on a per concurrent
connection basis at the same price as the former Horizon
View Premier bundle. If you are looking for a simple
and powerful desktop virtualization solution with a great
user experience, consider Horizon Standard Edition. To
leverage the best of Horizon and extend these benefits
beyond VDI to provide end users with one place to
securely access all their desktops and applications,
purchase Horizon Advanced Edition. If you want to
deliver desktops and applications with the benefits of
cloud management, automation, and orchestration,
choose Horizon Enterprise Edition.
Q. Is Horizon Enterprise Edition equivalent to the
View Enterprise Edition?
A. No. Horizon Enterprise Edition is the most comprehensive
solution in the Horizon portfolio. View Enterprise Edition
reached its end of availability in 2013. Customers with
VMware View Enterprise with current support and
subscription (SnS) continue to receive support. These
customers can also upgrade to any new Horizon edition.
Optimized for the Software-Defined Data Center
• Horizon 7 extends the power of virtualization with
virtual compute, virtual storage, and virtual networking
and security to drive down costs, enhance the user
experience, and deliver greater business agility.
• Only Horizon 7 can leverage native storage optimizations
from VMware vSphere®, including SE Sparse, VAAI, and
storage acceleration, to drive down storage costs while
delivering a superior user experience.
• Horizon 7 with VMware vSAN Advanced for Desktop
automates storage provisioning and leverages direct-
attached storage resources to drive down storage
costs for desktop workloads. Horizon supports all-flash
capabilities to better support more end users at lower
costs across distributed locations.
• Horizon 7 with Virtual Volumes™ simplifies NAS and
SAN storage management and policy setting and
delivers the benefits of VMware View® Composer™
Array Integration (VCAI) on block storage and NFS
to speed ooading for better SLAs and performance.
• VMware VSAN Ready Nodes and other hyper-
converged infrastructure appliances leverage vSAN
and the power of the software-defined data center
(SDDC) to enable organizations to cost-eectively and
quickly transform physical desktops into secure virtual
workspaces with a hyper-converged appliance that’s
easier to procure, deploy, manage, and scale with
consistently great performance.
• VMware NSX® with Horizon brings speed and simplicity
to VDI networking with security policy that dynamically
follows end users across infrastructure, devices, and
locations. Learn more about this solution and how
to add VMware NSX to your Horizon deployment.
Flexible Subscription Pricing Plans
Subscription pricing options make it possible to
purchase Horizon Cloud Service with on-premises
cloud-managed desktops and infrastructure for one
low annual rate.
• Take advantage of low annual rates and the flexibility to
pair the cloud service with infrastructure and desktops
running on-premises, managed by your IT or VMware.
• Leverage a complete cloud-hosted desktop and
application service from VMware at low, predictable
costs with a broad range of options.
• Try Horizon Cloud for less when you renew your
support and subscription on Horizon Enterprise
perpetual licenses.
VMWARE HORIZON
FAQ | 4
Horizon 7 Features by Edition
FEATURE SUBCOMPONENT/
PRODUCT
HORIZON
FOR LINUX
HORIZON
STANDARD
HORIZON
ADVANCED
HORIZON
ENTERPRISE
HORIZON
APPS
STANDARD
HORIZON
APPS
ADVANCED
HORIZON
AIR
(HYBRID
MODE)
License Entitlement
Concurrent User
(CCU)
Named User
Subscription Pricing
Plan
Desktop and Applications
Windows virtual
desktops
VMware Horizon
Linux Desktops VMware Horizon
for Linux
Unified workspace
—XA, RDSH, SaaS,
ThinApp
VMware Identity
Manager Std
Published
Applications (RDSH)
and session-based
desktops
RDS Published
Apps
Packaged
Applications
VMware ThinApp
Blast Extreme
Protocol
VMware Horizon
Virtualization Pack
for Skype for
Business
VMware Horizon
Application and
Desktop Access with
Single Sign On
VMware Identity
Manager Standard
Cloud Connector Horizon Air Cloud
Managed
Workspace Environment Management
Image Management
Image management
for physical desktop
VMware Mirage
Desktop and Application Management
Real-time application
delivery
VMware App
Volumes
Just-in-time delivery
with Instant Clone
technology
VMware Horizon
User Environment Management
User, profile, and
policy management
VMware User
Environment
Manager
VMWARE HORIZON
FAQ | 5
Q. What is Blast Performance?
A. Blast Performance is a comprehensive set of technologies
available with Horizon 7 that are designed to ensure that
end users have a consistently great experience across
devices, locations, media, and connections. Blast
Performance extends across the following:
• Blast Adaptive UX – Optimized access across the WAN
and LAN through an HTML browser or Horizon Clients
with PCoIP or Blast Extreme protocols. Blast Extreme
oers a new protocol purpose-built and optimized for
the mobile cloud, built on industry standard H.264.
• Blast Extreme Adaptive Transport – BEAT maintains a
great user experience across a wide variety of network
types, ranging from corporate LAN to public Wi-Fi and
mobile networks.
• Blast Multimedia – High-performance multimedia
streaming for rich user experience.
• Blast 3D – Rich virtualized graphics delivering
workstation-class performance.
• Blast Live Communications – Fully optimized unified
communications and real-time audio-video (RTAV)
support. Horizon 7 now includes support for Microsoft
Lync with Windows 10.
Q. What is the dierence between Horizon Enterprise
and VMware Horizon Suite?
A. Horizon Enterprise has all the features and functionality
included in VMware Horizon Suite, with the exception of
support for file sharing. However, Horizon Enterprise
includes features not bundled with Horizon Suite, such as
support for hosted RDS applications and desktops, App
Volumes for just-in-time application delivery, and vSAN
Ready Nodes.
Q. What is VMware Identity Manager?
A. VMware Identity Manager is an identity-as-a-service
(IDaaS) oering, providing application provisioning, self-
service catalog, conditional access controls, and SSO
for SaaS, web, cloud, and native mobile applications. It
supports access to applications and desktops running
Microsoft Windows Remote Desktop Services, XenApp
5.0 and later, ThinApp, SaaS, and virtual desktops with
Horizon View. The unified workspace also provides IT
with a central point of control on the back end to manage
reporting, policy access, and delivery. VMware Identity
Manager Standard is included in Horizon Advanced and
Enterprise editions.
FEATURE SUBCOMPONENT/
PRODUCT
HORIZON
FOR LINUX
HORIZON
STANDARD
HORIZON
ADVANCED
HORIZON
ENTERPRISE
HORIZON
APPS
STANDARD
HORIZON
APPS
ADVANCED
HORIZON
AIR
(HYBRID
MODE)
Cloud Analytics and Operations Management
Help Desk Tool VMware Horizon
Operations
Dashboard—Health
Monitoring &
Performance
Analytics
VMware vRealize
Operations for
Horizon
Capacity
Management—
Planning &
Optimization
VMware vRealize
Operations for
Horizon
Infrastructure
Storage
Virtual Storage VMware vSAN
Advanced for
Desktop with all-
flash
Desktop Infrastructure
Cloud infrastructure VMware vSphere
Desktop & VMware
vCenter® Desktop
VMWARE HORIZON
FAQ | 6
Q. What is image management for physical machines?
A. Image management for physical and virtual machines
leverages Mirage to ensure that IT can easily deploy
images to end users across all physical endpoints.
This capability is included in Horizon Advanced
and Enterprise editions.
Q. What is VMware App Volumes?
A. VMware App Volumes supports real-time application
delivery to virtualized desktop environments. With Horizon
7 and App Volumes, IT can build a real-time application
delivery system that ensures all applications are centrally
managed. Applications are delivered to virtual desktops
through VMDK virtual disks, without modifying the VM or
applications themselves, and can be scaled out to virtual
desktops with superior performance, at lower costs and
without compromising end-user experience.
Q. Does App Volumes support published applications?
A. Yes, App Volumes technology can also be leveraged to
publish applications. App Volumes simplifies management
and can be used to quickly update or add new applications
without the need to reimage the master template.
Q. What is User Environment Manager?
A. VMware User Environment Manager oers personalization
and dynamic policy configuration across any virtual,
physical, or cloud-based environment. User Environment
Manager can simplify end-user profile management by
providing organizations with a single and scalable solution
that leverages existing infrastructure. IT can simply map
infrastructure (including networks and printer mappings)
and dynamically set policies for end users to securely
support more use cases. With this solution, end users can
also enjoy quick access to their Windows workspace and
applications, with a personalized and consistent
experience across devices and locations.
Q. What happened to persona management previously
available in Horizon and VMware View products?
A. Persona management is still available in Horizon 7
products to support customers looking to continue
to take advantage of this capability.
Q. What are cloud analytics and operations management?
A. VMware vRealize Operations for Horizon provides cloud
analytics and operations management for virtual desktop
and application environments, allowing IT to optimize the
health, availability, performance, and eciency of desktop
and application services. vRealize Operations for
• Blast Unity Touch – Intuitive and contextual user
experience across devices, making it easy to run
Windows on mobile.
• Blast Local Access – Access to local devices, USB,
and device peripherals.
• Horizon Clients with Blast – Unified client for consistently
great experience across devices and locations.
Q. You mentioned support for 3D above; does Horizon
support NVIDIA vGPU today?
A. VMware Horizon supports NVIDIA GRID vGPU with
vSphere to deliver secure, immersive 3D graphics from the
cloud, via virtual desktops or RDSH hosted applications
that can be easily accessed across devices and locations,
more aordably than ever before.
Q. What are some of the capabilities in Horizon that
support RDS hosted apps and desktops?
A. VMware oers a number of features with RDS hosted
apps and desktops, including support for printing, USB
flash drive, imaging devices and scanners, HTML access,
chrome clients, multimedia redirection, file association,
Lync 2013 support, NVIDIA GRID vGPU support, and more.
VMware also oers support for RDSH hosted applications
with linked clones and instant clones to allow IT to
quickly update RDSH server farms. Organizations can
take advantage of load balancing support for RDSH
optimized server utilization while ensuring great user
experience. Additionally, VMware is now supporting
cloud pod architecture for hosted apps, allowing
organizations to build the largest, most distributed
infrastructure while enabling easy access to RDSH
hosted apps and desktops across geographic locations.
Q. Does Horizon also support Linux operating systems in
addition to Windows operating systems?
A. Yes, Horizon Enterprise supports both Windows and
Linux (RHEL, Ubuntu, CentOS, and NeoKylin).
Q. What is VMware workspace environment management?
A. Workspace environment management encompasses a
core set of management and automation capabilities that
customers can take advantage of with Horizon. These
capabilities consolidate, control, orchestrate, and protect
user compute resources and leverage VMware App
Volumes, VMware Mirage, VMware User Environment
Manager, and vRealize Operations for Horizon. With
Horizon products, customers can now access these core
capabilities through a single pane of glass to streamline
desktop, application, and infrastructure management.
VMWARE HORIZON
FAQ | 7
Q. Does Instant Clone technology support
published applications?
A. Yes, Instant Clone technology also supports RDS
published applications, creating a live copy of an
application publishing host in seconds, using the same
storage and memory footprint as the original master
image. This enables new applications and updates to
existing applications to roll out quickly to a large number
of clones, with no downtime during rollout. Scaling is also
radically simple—a new clone can spin up as needed to
elastically support peak demand.
Q. What is the dierence between fat clones, linked
clones, and instant clones?
A. Fat clones, or “full clones,” are those virtual machines
(desktops) that will persist across sessions. Each user is
allocated a virtual desktop that uses a system image
dedicated only to that user with no dependencies on a
parent VM/clone. Virtual desktops deployed as “linked
clones” share a common system image across all users,
made from the snapshot of a parent virtual machine.
If the central image is recomposed, user changes to
a virtual desktop are not retained. These desktops are
considered nonpersistent. This dramatically reduces the
total required storage space, because there is no need
to copy the same system image repeatedly for each new
virtual desktop user. Instant clones, like linked clones, are
derived from a parent virtual machine. However, the
provisioning process is much faster, because the parent
VM is captured in a booted-up state such that the creation
of each child VM does not require power cycle and
reconfiguration steps required of linked clones.
Q. What is True SSO?
A. True SSO streamlines the user login experience by
leveraging a Horizon certificate to authenticate users
accessing their Horizon desktop via Identity Manager, all
the way through to their Windows desktop. Prior to True
SSO, users would be presented with the usual Microsoft
Active Directory login prompt before they could access
their desktop, incurring a secondary login step after
authenticating through Identity Manager.
Q. What is the dierence between Blast Extreme
and PCoIP?
A. Blast Extreme is a new display technology built on the
H.264 protocol. It oers customers an additional means
by which their Horizon workspace can be remoted to their
client device. Horizon 7 continues to support devices that
leverage PCoIP, and with the addition of Blast Extreme,
customers can choose the display technology that best
fits their use cases.
Horizon is included in the Horizon Enterprise Edition,
and in addition to monitoring Horizon environments, it
supports Citrix XenApp 6.5 and XenDesktop/XenApp
7.6 environments.
Q. What is cloud pod architecture?
A. The cloud pod architecture allows customers to
dynamically move and locate Horizon VDI and RDSH
pods across multiple data centers for ecient
management of end users across distributed locations.
This feature is available with all Horizon editions.
Instant Clone technology is available through Horizon
Enterprise Edition and in Horizon Cloud Service™ with
On-Premises Infrastructure.
Q. What is VMware vSAN?
A. VMware vSAN, a software-defined storage tier, pools
compute and direct-attached storage resources and
clusters server disks and flash to create resilient shared
storage. vSAN provides customers with a low-cost
storage alternative that eliminates the need to
overprovision storage to ensure that end users have
enough IOPS per desktop. Customers can additionally
simplify storage provisioning by managing this through
Horizon. VMware vSAN Advanced for Desktop is
included in Horizon Advanced and Enterprise editions.
Q. What is NSX for Horizon, and is it included with
Horizon editions?
A. NSX for Horizon is a standalone oering available to
customers who are looking for a fast and easy way to set
networking security policy for end users that follows them
across devices and locations—regardless of changes in the
underlying physical infrastructure. NSX for Horizon does
not come with any of the Horizon editions.
Q. What is Instant Clone technology?
A. Instant Clone technology provides a new, dramatically
accelerated means to provision virtual machines in vSphere.
With Instant Clone technology, a booted-up parent VM can
be quiesced and “hot-cloned” to produce derivative (child)
VMs rapidly, leveraging the same disk and memory of
the parent VM, with the clone starting in an already
“booted-up” state. This process bypasses the cycle time
incurred with traditional cloning, where several power
cycle and reconfiguration calls are usually made. When
administrators combine Instant Clone technology with App
Volumes and User Environment Manager, they can rapidly
spin up desktops for users that retain user customization
and persona from session to session, even though the
desktop itself is destroyed when the user logs out.
VMWARE HORIZON
FAQ | 8
components of the bundle (e.g., VMware Identity Manager
and Mirage) are also considered to be attached to that
user and not entitled to other users.
Example:
Suppose organization A has 100 concurrent connection
licenses of Horizon Enterprise. User A connects to their
virtual desktop and consumes one concurrent connection.
However, user A is not using Mirage. Does this free up
Mirage for another user—given that user A is not active
on Mirage? No. Even if user A is not connected to all of the
components in the bundle, once user A connects to any
one of the components in the bundle, the others by default
become attached to that user for as long as they are
connected to their session.
When to Use Named User (NU) and When to Use
Concurrent Connection User (CCU)
If the primary use case is around Horizon virtual desktops
and the customer has end users accessing their desktops
in shifts (e.g., 200 in the morning and 200 in the evening,
but never all 400 at the same time), and the customer
does not foresee needing more than 200 instances of
Mirage or Identity Manager at any given time, then the
customer should buy 200 CCU of Horizon.
If the primary use case is around Horizon with View and
the customer does not have shift workers (e.g., all 400
employees are always connected at the same time),
then the customer should buy NU. In this instance, the
customer would also have access to 400 seats of
Mirage and Identity Manager to entitle to these same
400 employees.
If the primary use case is around Horizon with View
and the customer has 200 shift workers in the morning
and 200 in the evening, and the customer has 50 other
nonshift workers who need Mirage, then the customer
should buy 200 per CCU licenses of Horizon and an
additional 50 seats of Mirage standalone.
Concurrent Connection: Mirage, Identity Manager
(formerly VMware Workspace Portal), Fusion Pro
Although Horizon Advanced and Enterprise are available
on a per concurrent connection basis, the Mirage and
Identity Manager components in the bundle can be
consumed only a named user (Mirage, Identity Manager)
or device (Mirage, VMware Fusion® Pro) basis. If a
customer has 400 workers and 200 of these workers
come in during the day and 200 at night—and if the
customer wants to give all of these workers access to
View and Mirage—then the customer has two choices.
They can buy 200 CCU of Horizon Advanced and a 200
pack of VMware Mirage, or they can buy 400 CCU of
Q. Which Horizon products support Windows 10 today?
A. Horizon 7 and Horizon Cloud both support Windows 10.
Q. What is the SysTrack Desktop Assessment?
A. The SysTrack Desktop Assessment (SDA) is a free
self-service platform that provides customers with
comprehensive visibility into their end-user environment,
infrastructure, and applications. It provides solution
recommendations based on user segmentation to put
customers on the path to success as they move forward
with VMware and Horizon products.
Q. How do I buy VMware Horizon 7?
A. VMware Horizon 7 is available through the VMware
Store and authorized VMware resellers and desktop
competency partners. For more information, visit
http://www.vmware.com/go/horizon.
Q. What happens if I am using an earlier version of
Horizon (e.g., VMware Horizon View)?
A. All customers with a valid VMware SnS contract are
eligible to upgrade to the latest version of Horizon at no
cost. If you do not have a current SnS contract and want
to reinstate your contract, contact VMware Support or
visit http://www.vmware.com/support/questions.html.
Horizon 7 Licensing
Q. How is Horizon 7 licensed?
A. The Horizon Advanced and Horizon Enterprise editions
and Horizon Apps are available in two perpetual
license models.
• Per named user (NU) – For virtual environments with
sta that require dedicated access to a virtual machine
throughout the day.
• Concurrent connection (CCU) – For virtual environments
with a high number of users who share machines
throughout the day, such as students and shift workers.
A concurrent connection is defined as a powered-on VM
and connected virtual desktop session.
Note: Horizon Standard is only available on a concurrent
connection basis.
In both NU and CCU metrics, the components of the
bundle cannot be split between users. This applies to both
named and concurrent connection instances. Although
the bundle has individual components, they should be
thought of as a single product. In this manner—even if
an end user in a concurrent connection scenario is only
connected to a virtual desktop—the other associated
VMWARE HORIZON
FAQ | 9
Q. If I buy Horizon 7 on-premises licenses, can I use
them with Horizon Cloud Service with On-Premises
Infrastructure?
A. No, you need to buy Horizon Cloud Service with
On-Premises Infrastructure to be able to leverage the
Horizon 7 cloud connector for cloud-hosted management.
Q. Are add-ons still available?
A. Yes, customers with excess vSphere licenses can buy
Horizon Standard, Horizon Advanced, or Horizon
Enterprise add-ons.
Q. Can I run other server workloads on the vSphere
component that is included in Horizon editions?
A. The Horizon vSphere and vCenter components are
restricted to desktop deployments. A desktop virtual
machine is defined as a virtual machine running the
following operating systems: Windows 95/98, Windows
2000 Professional, Windows XP Professional, Windows
Vista Ultimate, Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista
Enterprise, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows
10, or Windows Server 2008/2012. Components that
make up the virtualized desktop infrastructure include
VMware View Manager™, VMware vCenter Server®
(or another connection broker), and any desktop
management, performance monitoring, and automation
tools used solely for hosted desktop virtual machines.
Q. Can I run Horizon Standard Edition and Horizon
Standard Add-ons in the same environment?
A. Horizon includes all the components for end-to-end
desktop deployments and is licensed on a concurrent
connection basis. Horizon Standard Add-on SKUs only
include the desktop components included in Horizon
Manager. Horizon Add-ons require an a la carte vSphere
license to support the concurrent connections purchased.
You cannot deploy Horizon Add-ons on the vSphere
edition included in Horizon, because add-ons are restricted
to the number of concurrent connections purchased. It is
recommended that customers choose a licensing path of
bundles or add-ons to simplify license management.
Q. Can I run Horizon Add-ons on any edition of vSphere?
A. Customers running Horizon Add-on SKUs can run these
workloads on vSphere Desktop or vSphere Enterprise
Plus Edition™, but may lose some functionality if running
workloads on vSphere Standard Edition™. However,
mixed workloads cannot be run on vSphere Desktop and
must be run on vSphere that is licensed per processor.
If customers have an exclusively desktop workload, they
may run it on vSphere Desktop, but they are advised to
Mirage. Clearly the first option is much more cost-
eective for most customers. However, regardless of the
choice, the customer will need 400 seats of Mirage to
cover for the 400 employees even if only 200 are ever
connected at any given time. The same rules apply to
Identity Manager.
Q. How do I get a Horizon Client for my devices, and how
much does it cost?
A. Horizon clients for dierent devices are included as part of
the Horizon solution at no additional cost and are available
in the product download portal.
• Horizon Client for iOS is available from the Apple
iTunes store.
• Horizon Client for Android is available from the
Google Play store.
Q. Which VMware vSphere edition does the VMware
Horizon 100-pack contain? How many licenses
are included?
A. All Horizon editions include VMware vSphere® Desktop,
which has the same functionality and features as vSphere
Enterprise Plus Edition™. vSphere Desktop is licensed on
a per concurrent connection basis, so you can deploy
as many hosts as needed to support the number of
concurrent connections for which you are licensed.
Q. What if I have a third-party or homegrown
connection broker but want to deploy my desktops
on VMware infrastructure?
A. You can purchase vSphere Desktop on a per powered-on
desktop virtual machine basis.
Q. Can I mix vSphere hosts with licenses from the
Horizon 7 and vSphere hosts that are licensed via
vSphere a la carte?
A. A mixed environment is not recommended because
during disaster recovery, server workloads might
live-migrate via VMware vSphere vMotion® to a vSphere
host running the Horizon license, which would violate the
EULA. Customers are advised to keep their environments
separated or purchase a la carte vSphere, vCenter,
and Horizon licenses to entitle the deployment of
a mixed environment.
VMWARE HORIZON
FAQ | 10
Edition to support users looking to access both Windows
and Linux sessions. It is also available as a standalone
oering on a concurrent connection user basis.
Q. How is VMware Mirage licensed in Horizon 7?
A. Mirage is a feature of the Horizon Advanced and
Horizon Enterprise editions. Mirage is licensed for up to
the total number of Horizon named users or concurrent
connections that you have purchased. Mirage, however,
cannot be used on a concurrent connection basis. If you
purchase 200 licenses (regardless of whether these are
named user or concurrent), you will only be able to deploy
the Mirage licenses on a per named user basis, because
once they are deployed, they remain active and
connected at all times.
Q. If I have Mirage, is there an upgrade path to
Horizon FLEX?
A. Horizon FLEX™ is a dierent product that supports
centralized management of BYO and disconnected
MacBook and Windows laptop users with advanced
policy settings, while ensuring that end users can enjoy
local compute resources. There is no upgrade path
from Mirage to Horizon FLEX.
Q. How is ThinApp licensed in Horizon 7?
A. ThinApp is licensed per named user, device, or concurrent
connection when purchased as part of Horizon 7. You can
deploy ThinApp client licenses included in Horizon 7 to
physical or virtual machines. As a result, you can use
ThinApp licenses purchased separately or as part of
Horizon interchangeably.
Q. I notice you have an App Volumes Enterprise Edition
(formerly Horizon Application Management™ Bundle)—
can I purchase this as a Horizon customer?
A. The VMware App Volumes Bundle includes ThinApp,
App Volumes, User Environment Manager, and vRealize
Operations for Published Applications™. This version of
vRealize Operations supports only Citrix XenApp 6.5 and
XenDesktop/XenApp 7.6 environments. Horizon customers
who wish to purchase this bundle may do so—but it is
important to note that the instance of vRealize Operations
that is included does not support a Horizon environment.
Q. Which products can be purchased standalone?
A. You can purchase Mirage, ThinApp, App Volumes, User
Environment Manager, vRealize Operations for Horizon,
vSphere for Desktop, Horizon for Linux Desktops, and
vSAN as standalone products.
purchase the full version of the Horizon bundles that
include vSphere Desktop and vCenter Server for Desktop,
unless they have extra vSphere Desktop licenses
(purchased as a standalone) that they can repurpose.
Q. How can I tell if I have a vSphere Desktop license, and
how is the license licensed?
A. The vSphere license included with Horizon is designated
for use with client and server OS desktop and application
workloads only and appears in the license portal as
“vSphere Desktop” for tracking and auditing purposes.
vSphere Desktop is licensed for the total number of
Horizon named users or concurrent connections you
have purchased.
Q. How is vSAN for Desktop licensed in Horizon 7?
A. vSAN Advanced for Desktops is a feature of the Horizon
Advanced and Horizon Enterprise editions. VSAN is
licensed for up to the total number of Horizon named
users or concurrent connections that you have purchased.
Q. How is User Environment Manager (formerly of
Immidio) licensed in Horizon 7?
A. User Environment Manager is licensed with Horizon
Enterprise on a per named user or per concurrent
connection basis and will map directly to the licensing
of the overall bundled oering. In a concurrent setting,
customers need to ensure that they do not exceed the
maximum agreed-upon active and powered-on sessions.
This oering is also available as a standalone, a la carte
oering for customers using Citrix or looking to manage
physical and cloud-hosted environments.
Q. How is App Volumes (formerly of Cloud Volumes)
licensed in Horizon 7?
A. App Volumes is licensed with Horizon Enterprise on a
per named user or per concurrent connection basis and
will map directly to the licensing of the overall bundled
oering. In a concurrent setting, customers need to
ensure that they do not exceed the maximum agreed-
upon active and powered-on sessions. App Volumes is
also available as a standalone, a la carte oering for
customers looking to use it with Citrix environments.
Q. How is Horizon for Linux licensed in Horizon 7?
A. Horizon for Linux is licensed on a per named user or per
concurrent connection basis and will map directly to the
licensing of the overall bundled oering. In a concurrent
setting, customers need to ensure that they do not exceed
the maximum agreed-upon active and powered-on
sessions. This feature is available only in Horizon Enterprise
VMWARE HORIZON
FAQ | 11
Q. Where can I get more information on Desktop EOA
and lifecycle management?
A. For more information around VMware Enterprise
Desktop EOA and support policies, please visit https://
www.vmware.com/support/policies/enterprise-desktop/
faqs.html.
Horizon Cloud
Q. What is Horizon Cloud?
A. Horizon Cloud supports customers with a cloud managed
service for desktops and applications that can be paired
with on-premises desktops and infrastructure (Horizon
Cloud Services with On-Premises Infrastructure) or
Horizon Cloud Services with Hosted Infrastructure.
Q. What is Horizon Cloud Services with Hosted
Infrastructure?
A. VMware Horizon Cloud Services with Hosted
Infrastructure (formerly Horizon Air™ Desktops and Apps)
is a VMware managed oering that enables organizations
to rapidly deploy desktops and applications as an easily
managed, integrated cloud service to any device,
anywhere, at an aordable price. Horizon Cloud Service
with Hosted Infrastructure allows end users to securely
access their virtual desktops from any device or browser,
and enables IT to easily manage their deployment using
existing skills and tools. Backed by the trusted foundation
of VMware vSphere, Horizon Cloud Service with Hosted
Infrastructure delivers the reliability, security, and
performance that IT expects, with VMware business-
essential support. For more information on Horizon
Cloud Service with Hosted Infrastructure, please visit
http://vmware.com/go/daas.
Q. What is Horizon Cloud Service with On-Premises
Infrastructure?
A. Formerly referred to as Horizon Air Hybrid-Mode,
Horizon Cloud Service with On-Premises Infrastructure is
a new cloud-scale architecture that draws on cloud-
based management, intelligent orchestration, and
hyper-converged infrastructure to radically transform
virtual desktop and application delivery—making it easier
and more cost-eective than ever before to deploy, scale,
and move desktops and apps across private or public
clouds or back and forth between the two.
Q. If I am a Mirage, App Volumes, User Environment
Manager, or Identity Manager customer, can I upgrade
to Horizon Advanced or Enterprise?
A. Yes, you can upgrade to Horizon Advanced or Enterprise.
Q. Can I upgrade from ThinApp to a Horizon 7 edition?
A. Yes, you can upgrade in a two-step process to either the
Thin Client Suite or Horizon Add-ons and then to Horizon
Standard Edition.
Q. If I have perpetual licenses, is there currently a
migration path to take these licenses and convert
them to subscription or term-based licenses?
A. This is not something that is currently supported.
Horizon Support
Q. What kind of technical support is available for
VMware Horizon?
A. VMware requires Basic (12x5) and Production (24x7)
support for all components included in the Horizon
editions, including vSphere, vCenter, and View Manager.
In addition, customers can purchase Business Critical
Support to complement Production Support. VMware
Business Critical Support oers access to a dedicated
account team who will build and maintain a profile of your
Horizon installation and provide regular account reviews.
The VMware Professional Services organization is also
available for Horizon consultations or to deploy Horizon
in your organization.
For more information, visit http://www.vmware.com/
support/horizon.
Q. Do I need to buy a VMware support contract for the
Horizon 7 oerings?
A. To ensure that you realize the benefits of Horizon quickly,
a minimum of one year of Basic VMware SnS is required
with the purchase of any Horizon edition. You can upgrade
to Production Support and then elect to add Business
Critical Support. Multiyear discounted oerings for all
VMware support levels are also available.
VMWARE HORIZON
VMware, Inc. 3401 Hillview Avenue Palo Alto CA 94304 USA Tel 877-486-9273 Fax 650-427-5001 www.vmware.com
Copyright © 2017 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. This product is protected by U.S. and international copyright and intellectual property laws. VMware products are covered by one or more patents listed at
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Q. When would I choose among Horizon 7, Horizon
Cloud Service with Hosted Infrastructure, and Horizon
Cloud Service with On-Premises Infrastructure?
A. Customers can choose the Horizon oering that best fits
their preferred IT consumption model and maturity
stage of cloud services adoption. For those who are
aligned with private cloud on-premises deployments
and are not interested in hybridized deployments or
subscription pricing, Horizon 7 is an ideal fit. For those
who are embracing hybridized deployments with the
ability to unify management across pools of desktop
capacity residing in both on-premises and cloud-hosted
deployments, Horizon Cloud Service with On-Premises
Infrastructure may be preferred. For those who seek a
completely cloud-hosted approach with all desktop
capacity residing in the cloud, Horizon Cloud Service
with Hosted Infrastructure is an ideal solution.
FEATURES ON-PREMISES MANAGEMENT
WITH ON-PREMISES
INFRASTRUCTURE
HORIZON CLOUD WITH ON-
PREMISES INFRASTRUCTURE
HORIZON CLOUD WITH HOSTED
INFRASTRUCTURE
Built-in security required
Security & compliance mandates
Need desktops & app services
near end users for performance
reasons
Ease of getting set up
Predictable payments/costs
Ease of day-to-day management
Corporate IT control
Ability to quickly burst up or down
to accommodate changing
number of end users
Ability to leverage existing
infrastructure/SDDC knowledge
and skills
Ability to fully outsource solution
procurement and management
Horizon FLEX
Q. What is Horizon FLEX?
A. Horizon FLEX is a complementary solution to the Horizon
portfolio. Its key feature is that the data is stored locally,
allowing end users to work oine or on the road. It is a
bundled oering that includes a FLEX policy server, FLEX
clients (Fusion Pro for Macs and Player Pro for PCs), and
image management capabilities. Common use cases for
Horizon FLEX include BYO PCs, disconnected workers
where VDI is not a viable option, temporary workers or
contractors, development and training environments,
and regional oces.
Choosing Among Horizon Oerings
