Author: lenzker

The following section shows you how to make use of VMware’s Unified Access Gateway (UAG) Appliance to give the enduser access into our virtual Desktop / Remote hosted Applications over an unsecure network like the Internet.

When we are creating this access we have multiple options.

• Using a VPN to ‘tunnel’ into the secure cooperate network environment and connect further to the Horizon View environment.
• Placing a Windows Server in the DMZ and installing/configuring the Horizon View Security Server and make it public accessible.
• Placing the virtual Unified Access Gateway in the DMZ and installing/configuring the Horizon View Security Server and make it public accessible.

What is the / my recommendation nowadays? Go with the Unified Access Gateway. Why?

1. It is a general opinion within Security experts that a Windows, even if it’s hardened, offers more attack potentials than a hardened minimal linux.
2. Using the Windows based security server creates a 1:1 relationship between the Security Server and the Connection Server, therefore it takes away some access flexibility.
3. The UAG is getting more and more features to integrate other solutions like specific Airwatch functionality
4. You can make use of the UDP based Blast Extreme Protocol Adaptive Transport protocol that gives you a better remote/user experience even if you are connecting over a lossy network
5. It is much easier to operate than the first Access Point versions VMware has made GA a few years ago ;-)

One important aspect of the UAG is that you need to know about the packet-flow between the Horizon Client and the Desktop. You will be dependant on the networking and security guys. Make sure you are able to clearly articulate the requirements and what is going to happen. If you can tell the flow, the other people will be able to help you much better.

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In the following article I am going to tell you how easy it is to set up a load balanced Horizon View environment. But remember: Just because something is easy to install it is not necessarily easy to design. There are multiple design affecting factors I am going to discuss in my #design guide. There are many Installation Guidelines out there, so I will keep it quick and simple and try to give you some hints what to do or not to do.

What do I want to achieve or show to you in this blog post?

• Creation Redundant Connection Server to access virtual Desktops
• A redundant Load Balancer in front of it (#NSX ftw)
• Internal Access only – I spent a lot of time with the Unified Access Gateway and show you in the second blog post about how to enable access over the Internet into your Horizon Homelab

Connection Server

The Connection Server is a core component within our Horizon View environment. It gives us the opportunity to create Desktop Pools out of Windows / Linux machines or Application Pools (based on Microsoft RDSH-Hosts) and entitle them to any Active Directory User in our environment. It offers us the following key functionality

• Brokering between Endpoints (that have the Horizon Client installed) and a virtual Desktop / Remote Desktop Session Host (Application)
• Authentication Handler (AD only or 2nd factor)
• View Administration via web-based (Flash :-/ ) user interface
• HTML5-Client to access the Desktops/Applications without the need of a client
• Connection to the vCenter Server to create new VMs / Desktops

*taken from the Horizon Reference Architecture

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Before we can start with the implementation guide I want to give a brief description what key functionalities must exist.

The following components has been installed and configured:

• vSphere ESXi host (physical or nested)*
• vCenter Server (Appliance)*
• HA/DRS Cluster
• vSAN Cluster
• Active Directory Domain Controller (including DNS)*
• Microsoft Certificate Authority Role*
• NSX Manager*
• FTP Service (for backing up NSX Manager)
• CIFS-Share for UEM User Profile Archive and Config files

*Required.

This will be the first post in my Horizon Guide implementation section. Since my focus is on Horizon I will not go through each of the steps that are involved in setting up the foundation. If you want to get a feeling of the purpose of my blog series: Check it out here.

In my design guide I will write a little bit about general design decisions regarding the management & virtualization topic. In my implementation guide I will quickly go through the setup I have chosen.  As a side note I want to remember you to always use English Language and Keyboard Layout :-). Going into native US-Mode for all kind of setup will keep a lot of pain away from you.

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