VMware Horizon 8: Virtual Desktop Bootcamp

VMware Horizon® 8: Virtual Desktop Bootcamp is a five-day combination course of VMware Horizon 8: Skills for Virtual Desktop Management and VMware Horizon 8: Virtual Desktop Troubleshooting. This training combination gives you the skills to deliver virtual desktops and applications through a single virtual desktop infrastructure platform.

You build skills in configuring and managing VMware 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 resolve common issues that occur in a VMware Horizon environment.

You engage in a series of lab exercises to bring existing environment issues to resolution. The exercises mirror real-world troubleshooting use cases. These exercises equip learners with the knowledge and practical skills to manage typical challenges faced by virtual desktop administrators and operators. 

Product Alignment

• VMware Horizon 8 v2006

Objectives

By the end of the course, you should be able to meet the following objectives:

• Recognize the features and benefits of Horizon
• Use VMware 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 Horizon desktop
• Configure and manage the VMware Horizon® Client™ systems and connect the client to a VMware Horizon desktop
• Configure, manage, and entitle desktop pools of full VMs
• 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 Horizon Console Dashboard and Horizon Help Desk Tool
• Implement a structured approach to troubleshooting
• Resolve common issues that occur in a Horizon environment
• Troubleshoot issues with linked and instant clones
• Configure the Windows client
• Identify the correct log level for gathering logs
• Optimize protocols for the best end-user experience

Certifications

VMware Horizon 8: Skills for Virtual Desktop Management is the first half of a two-course requirement for the following certification:

• VMware Certified Professional – Desktop and Mobility 2020 (VCP-DTM 2020)

VMware Horizon 8: Virtual Desktop Troubleshooting does not satisfy a course requirement for the VCP-DTM exam.

Intended Audience

Operators, administrators, and architects responsible for the creation, maintenance, or delivery of remote and virtual desktop services.

Prerequisites

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

Attendees should also have the following 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
• Build an ODBC connection to an SQL Server database

Course 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

3 Introduction to Use Case

• Define a use case for your virtual desktop and application infrastructure
• Convert customer requirements to use-case attributes

4 vSphere for Horizon 8

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

5 VMware Horizon Desktops

• Create a Windows and a Linux virtual machine using vSphere
• Optimize and prepare Windows and Linux virtual machines to set up VMware Horizon desktop VMs

6 VMware Horizon Agents

• Outline the configuration choices when installing Horizon Agent on Windows and Linux virtual machines
• Create a gold master for Windows Horizon desktops

7 VMware Horizon Pools

• Identify the steps to set up a template for desktop pool deployment
• List the steps to add desktops to the VMware 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

8 VMware 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

9 Creating and Managing Instant-Clone Desktop Pools

• 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

10 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 build-out of RDSH farms
• Configure load-balancing for RDSHs on a farm

11 Monitoring VMware Horizon

• Monitor the status of the VMware Horizon components using the Horizon Administrator console dashboard
• Monitor desktop sessions using the HelpDesk tool

12 Overview of Virtual Desktop Troubleshooting

• Structured approach to troubleshooting configuration and operational problems
• Applying troubleshooting methods
• Documenting the steps to resolve the problem

13 Command-Line Tools and Backup Options

• Command-line tools
• Backing-up and restoring VMware Horizon databases

14 Troubleshooting VMware Horizon Linked Clone Desktops

• VMware Horizon linked clone desktops
• View Agent Direct-Connection
• Optimizing a VMware Horizon desktop

15 Troubleshooting Instant Clones

• Logs for instant clones
• Keyword strategies
• Troubleshoot instant clones

16 Windows Client

• Configure the Windows client
• Enable the required SSL configuration

17 Ports and Protocols

• Key ports and protocols
• Optimize Blast
• Black Screen
• Applying GPO’s