Overview of VMware Horizon Connection Server

In Chapter 1, VMware Horizon Infrastructure Overview, we discussed some of the roles of the Horizon Connection Server. These roles include:

• Managing connections between Horizon clients and Horizon-managed resources including Horizon desktops and Microsoft RDS servers
• Authenticating user connection requests and providing access to assigned resources
• Hosting the Horizon Administrator console for the VMware Horizon infrastructure
• Working in tandem with VMware vCenter and Horizon Composer to manage, deploy, and maintain virtual desktops

The following diagram shows the placement of the Horizon Connection Server in a simple Horizon environment. For now, only the Horizon Connection Server is displayed; later chapters will add respective Horizon Servers to this diagram.

The Horizon Connection Server authenticates the clients and provides them with access to the appropriate resources. Depending on the configuration of the Horizon Connection Server, the clients may connect directly to the remote resource, or the connection may be tunneled through the Horizon Connection Server. The behavior of a Horizon client connection will be discussed further in this chapter, again in Chapter 4, Implementing Horizon Security Server, when discussing the Horizon Security Server, and once more in Chapter 5, Implementing VMware Horizon Access Point, when discussing the Horizon Access Point.

The Horizon Connection Server also hosts the Horizon Administrator console, the central management point for Horizon resources. The following screenshot shows the dashboard presented to a Horizon administrator upon login:

While virtual desktops appear in VMware vCenter in the same format as a typical virtual machine, it is important that all changes to those virtual desktops are done only through the Horizon Administrator console. Horizon maintains configuration information about the virtual desktops within a Microsoft Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (MS LDS) database installed on each Horizon Connection Server, and any changes made to those desktops within the vCenter console may lead to problems that prevent the desktop from being managed by Horizon or available for client connections.