This five-day, hands-on course gives you the skills to deliver virtual desktops and applications through a single virtual desktop infrastructure platform. This course builds your skills in installing, configuring, and managing VMware Horizon® 7 through a combination of lecture and hands-on labs. You learn how to configure and deploy pools of virtual machines, how to manage the access and security of the machines, and how to provide a customized desktop environment to end users.

 

By the end of the course, you should be able to meet the following objectives:
• Recognize the features and benefits of VMware Horizon
• Install and configure VMware Horizon® Connection Server™
• Create and optimize Windows VMs to create VMware Horizon desktops
• Describe the purpose of Horizon Agent
• Compare the remote display protocols that are available in VMware Horizon
• Configure and manage the VMware Horizon® Client™ systems and connect the client to a VMware Horizon desktop
• Configure, manage, and entitle automated pools of full VMs
• Configure, manage, and entitle pools of instant-clone desktops and linked-clone desktops
• Install and configure View Composer
• Outline the steps and benefits for using TLS CA signed certificates in VMware Horizon environments
• Use the role-based delegation to administer a VMware Horizon environment
• Configure secure access to VMware Horizon desktops
• Understand and create Remote Desktop Services (RDS) desktops and application pools
• Install and configure App Volumes to deliver and manage applications
• Deploy VMware Dynamic Environment Manager™ for user and application management
• Install and configure a Just-in-Time Management Platform (JMP) server for managing JMP components
• Describe VMware Dynamic Environment Manager Smart Policies
• Use the command-line tools available in VMware Horizon to back up and restore the required VMware Horizon databases
• Manage the performance and scalability of a VMware Horizon deployment
• Identify the benefits of the Cloud Pod Architecture feature for large-scale VMware Horizon deployments

Outline:         1 Course Introduction
• Introductions and course logistics
• Course objectives

2 Introduction to VMware Horizon
• Recognize the features and benefits of VMware Horizon
• Describe the conceptual and logical architecture of VMware Horizon
• Define a use case for your virtual desktop and application infrastructure
• Convert customer requirements to use case attributes

3 Horizon Connection Server
• Recognize VMware Horizon reference architecture
• Identify the recommended system requirements for Horizon Connection Server
• Identify the recommended virtualization requirements for a Horizon® Connection Server™ instance
• Access Horizon Manager
• License VMware Horizon components
• Outline the steps for the initial configuration of Horizon Connection Server
• Describe the capabilities that Horizon Administrator provides for monitoring the health of a VMware Horizon deployment
• Use the dashboard to quickly focus on the details of a problem
• Access the settings and status of a pool
• Access the settings and status of a specific machine and the resources controlled by vCenter Server that the VM uses
• Identify the benefits of using the VMware Horizon Help Desk tool

4 VMware Horizon Desktops
• Outline the process and choices to set up Windows VMware Horizon VMs
• Assign vCPUs and RAM to Windows VMs
• Create Windows VMs
• Configure VMware ESXi™ host virtual switches
• Optimize the performance of Windows VMs
• Outline the process and choices to set up Linux VMware Horizon VMs
• Assign vCPUs and RAM to Linux VMs
• Create Linux VMs
• Optimize the performance of Linux VMs
• Compare the remote display protocols that are available in VMware Horizon
• Outline the steps to enable a machine for remote access from VMware Horizon® Client™
• Describe BLAST
• Describe the purpose of Horizon Agent
• List the steps to prepare a VM before installing Horizon Agent
• Outline the configuration choices when installing Horizon Agent
• Use the Horizon Skype for Business Virtualization Pack

5 VMware Horizon 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
• Define user entitlement
• Describe how information found on the Users and Groups page is used to control and monitor VMware Horizon users
• Explain the hierarchy of global, pool-level, and user-level policies
• List the VMware Horizon Group Policy ADMX files

6 VMware Horizon Client Options
• Describe the requirements for a Horizon Client installation on a Windows system
• Explain USB redirection and options
• Describe the shared folders option
• Describe the different clients and their benefits
• Discuss the benefits of the Virtual Printing feature
• Explain the architecture of the Virtual Printing feature
• List the steps to install the Virtual Printing feature
• Configure the Virtual Printing feature
• Discuss the benefits of the location-based printing feature
• Identify use cases where location-based printing is desirable
• List the client system parameters that can be used to assign a printer

7 Creating Automated Desktop Pools
• Describe how an automated pool operates
• Compare dedicated-assignment and floating-assignment pools
• Outline the steps to create an automated pool

8 Configuring and Managing Linked-Clone Desktop Pools
• Describe VMware linked-clone technology
• Explain why both a parent VM and a snapshot must be used to create linked clones
• Outline the system requirements for View Composer
• Describe the relationship between a vCenter Server instance and a View Composer instance
• Identify the View Composer objects in a vCenter Server inventory
• Describe the preparation required for installing View Composer
• Outline the steps to install View Composer
• Outline the necessary steps to set up an automated desktop pool that uses linked clones
• Compare the purpose of parent and replica VMs
• Describe the additional steps that are required for linked clones that are not necessary for other automated pools
• Discuss the merits of using tiered storage for replica and linked clones
• Compare the benefits of vSAN and tiered storage
• Compare the recompose, refresh, and rebalance management operations for linked clones
• Describe the management operations for persistent disks

9 Creating and Managing Instant-Clone Desktop Pools
• Describe instant clones
• List the advantages of instant clones
• Differentiate between View Composer linked clones and instant clones
• Describe the different types of instant-clone VMs
• Recognize the use of folders in delegating pool administration
• Explain how instant clones work
• Describe instant clone desktop pools
• Determine the requirements for an instant-clone desktop pool
• Identify the steps used to create an instant clone
• Set up an automated pool of instant clones
• Enable instant clones and authorize a VMware Horizon administrator account for use by ClonePrep
• Update the image of an instant-clone desktop pool using the push image operation

10 VMware Horizon Authentication and Certificates
• Compare the authentication options that Horizon Connection Server supports
• Explain the purpose of roles and privileges in VMware Horizon
• Explain how folders are used to delegate pool administration
• Describe a permission and its components
• Outline the steps to create a Horizon administrator
• List the management options for permissions and folders
• Outline the steps to create a custom role
• List some of the best practices for configuring Horizon Administrator
• Describe the purpose of using TLS certificates for VMware Horizon
• Outline the benefits of using TLS certificates signed by a CA
• Outline the steps to set up TLS certificates

11 Managing VMware Horizon Security
• Compare tunnels and direct connections for client access to desktops
• Identify the benefits of using VMware Unified Access Gateway™ in the DMZ
• Identify the tunnel endpoints when the security gateway is not used
• Describe a direct connection in a VMware Horizon environment
• List the advantages of direct connections
• Describe how direct connections are enabled
• Discuss the benefits of using Unified Access Gateway
• List the two-factor authentication options that are supported by Unified Access Gateway
• Describe the situations in which you might deploy Unified Access Gateway with one, two, or three network interfaces

12 Profile Management Using User Environment Manager
• Identify the VMware Dynamic Environment Manager functional areas and their benefits
• Prepare infrastructure for VMware Dynamic Environment Manager
• Outline the steps that are required to install and configure VMware Dynamic Environment Manager components
• Manage user personalization and application configurations using the VMware Dynamic Environment Manager management console and application profiler
• Outline the VMware Horizon Smart Policies available when using VMware Dynamic Environment Manager in the Horizon environment

13 Creating RDS Desktop and Application Pools
• Explain how App Volumes works
• Identify the features and benefits of App Volumes
• Identify the interface elements of App Volumes
• Install and configure App Volumes

14 Provisioning and Managing Application Using App Volumes
• Explain how App Volumes works
• Identify the features and benefits of App Volumes
• Identify the interface elements of App Volumes
• Install and configure App Volumes

15 Just-in-Time Management Platform and VMware Horizon
• Identify the benefits of Just-in-Time Management Platform (JMP)
• List the JMP and Horizon 7 components
• Install and configure a JMP server
• Identify App Volumes deployment considerations
• Identify VMware Dynamic Environment Manager deployment considerations

16 Command-Line Tools and Backup Options
• Describe key Horizon Connection Server features that are available as command-line options with the vdmadmin command
• Explain the purpose of kiosk mode for client systems and how it is configured
• Explain why you limit the domains that Horizon Connection Server displays to users as they attempt to authenticate
• Identify the log locations for each VMware Horizon component
• Collect Horizon Client and Horizon Agent log files
• Describe the backup options for VMware Horizon databases
• Explain the potential problems related to not synchronizing databases
• Outline solutions to handle orphaned linked clones

17 VMware Horizon Performance and Scalability
• Describe the purpose of a replica connection server
• Compare a replica server to a standard connection server
• Explain how multiple Horizon Connection Server instances in a pod maintain synchronization
• List several best practices for multiserver deployment in a pod
• Describe how a load-balancing capability might improve VMware Horizon performance
• Describe the benefits of the Cloud Pod Architecture feature for large-scale VMware Horizon deployments
• Establish a session with a desktop machine in a different pod by logging in to a local Horizon Connection Server instance
• Compare the purpose of the global LDAP instance and the local LDAP instance
• Describe the purpose of interpod communication and the View Interpod API (VIPA)
• Create global entitlements for accessing Horizon Desktops
 

Customers attending this course should have, at a minimum, the following VMware infrastructure skills:
•  Use VMware vSphere® Web Client to view the state of virtual machines, datastores, and networks
•  Open a virtual machine console on VMware vCenter Server® and access the guest operating system
•  Create snapshots of virtual machines
•  Configure guest customization specifications
•  Modify virtual machine properties
•  Convert a virtual machine into a template
•  Deploy a virtual machine from a template 

Attendees should also have the following Microsoft Windows system administration experience:
•  Configure Active Directory services, including DNS, DHCP, and time synchronization
•  Restrict users’ activities by implementing Group Policy objects
•  Configure Windows systems to allow Remote Desktop Connections
•  Build an ODBC connection to an SQL Server database

Certifications
This course prepares you for the following certification:
•  VMware Certified Professional 7 – Desktop and Mobility (VCP7-DTM)