VMware has released Horizon View 7.5.0 with support for vSphere 6.7 and other new features; also released an update for a set of auxiliary and complementary applications such as:

• VMware User Environment Manager 9.4.0.
• VMware App Volumes 2.14.0.
• Horizon Client 4.8.

Horizon View 7.5.0

What’s new in Horizon Connection Server

Horizon Console

• Horizon Console is the latest version of the Web interface through which you can create and manage virtual desktops and published desktops and applications.
• Horizon Console also integrates VMware Horizon Just-in-Time Management Platform (JMP) Integrated Workflow features for managing workspaces.
• For more information click here.

Deployment on VMware Cloud for AWS

• We can deploy desktop pools that contain full virtual machines on VMware Cloud on AWS to scale Horizon 7 desktops and applications on an elastic cloud platform.

Virtual Desktops

• We can create a virtual machine in vSphere to use Virtualization-based security (VBS). Using a virtual machine enabled with VBS provides better protection from vulnerabilities within and malicious exploits to the operating system. 
• For an automated desktop pool that uses full virtual machines, if we use a virtual machine enabled with VBS, we can add a vTPM device for enhanced security.
• Horizon 7 supports vSphere 6.7.

Instant Clones

• Multiple vGPU profiles are supported for instant clones.
• We can select either PCoIP or VMware Blast (non-h264 hardware encode) as a display protocol with NVIDIA GRID vGPU for an instant-clone desktop pool.
• We can change the 3D vSGA or 3D software settings for instant-clone pools.
• Horizon 7 version 7.5 supports instant-clone API in vSphere 6.7

Cloud Pod Architecture

• The total session limit is increased to 200,000, and the full-size limit is increased to 10.   
• We can configure desktop shortcuts for global entitlements.

Horizon Help Desk Tool

• Horizon Help Desk Tool is integrated into Horizon Console
• We can troubleshoot Linux desktop sessions in Horizon Help Desk Tool in Horizon Console.

What’s new in Horizon Agent for Linux

• Using VMware User Environment Manager, you can define policies that allow you to control the USB redirection, clipboard copy-and-paste redirection, and client drive redirection (CDR) features.
• We can now access the Horizon Help Desk Tool to troubleshoot Linux desktop sessions. This feature is available from Horizon Console.
• VMware Blast supports network Intelligence. Based on current network conditions, Blast dynamically chooses to use either UDP or TCP to provide the best user experience when transmitting data.

What’s new in Horizon Agent

HTML5 Multimedia Redirection support for the Edge browser

• We can now use the Edge browser with the HTML5 Multimedia Redirection feature. Previously, only the Chrome browser was supported.

Simple Device Orientation (SDO) Sensor Redirection

• The SDO sensor redirection can sense changes in the screen orientation of a client device and accordingly display a different view on the device.

VMware Login Monitor

• VMware Login Monitor monitors Windows user logins and reports performance metrics intended to help administrators, support staff, and developers to troubleshoot slow login performance.

VMware Horizon Performance Tracker 

• VMware Horizon Performance Tracker runs on a remote desktop and monitors the performance of the display protocol and system resource usage. We can also create an application pool and run Horizon Performance Tracker as a published application.

What’s new Horizon GPO Bundle

• The Horizon Performance Tracker ADMX template file (perf_tracker.admx) contains policy settings related to Horizon Performance Tracker.

 

What’s new Horizon JMP Server

The new JMP (Just-in-Time Management Platform) Integrated Workflow features in Horizon Console allow you to easily define and manage desktop workspaces that consist of a desktop operating system, applications, and settings. These features integrate the JMP technologies (Instant Clones for rapid image creation, VMware App Volumes for real-time application delivery, and VMware User Environment Manager for policies and personalization) into a single workflow. 

 

VMware User Environment Manager 9.4.0

What’s new:

Added All AppStacks attached event in a triggered task.

You can use this new event to perform tasks when all AppStacks are attached. This configuration is useful when actions have corresponding conditions that rely on an AppStack not yet connected during login.

Argument-based privilege elevation.

This new method of privilege elevation allows elevating executable files based on specific combinations of file paths and command-line arguments.

Privilege elevation logging.

When we enable Privilege elevation logging to the Windows event log, now have the option of configuring User Environment Manager also to log de-elevated child processes launched by the high application.

Operating System condition.

This condition changed names from “Windows Version” to “Operation System.”

Windows 10 Start Menu.

We can use this new User Environment Manager built-in setting for the Start menu layout on Windows 10 Version 1703 and higher. Support for Windows 10, Version 1803 (April 2018 Update).

 

VMware App Volumes 2.14

What’s new:

Roles and Privileges with Role-based Access Controls

Delegate the ability to create AppStacks, assign applications, and perform other end-user support and environmental monitoring tasks.
Use pre-packaged roles to grant Active Directory groups access to the App Volumes Manager console. The following roles are now available by default:

• Administrator
• Administrator (Read Only)
• AppStacks Administrators
• Security Administrators
• Writables Administrators

Also, we can create custom roles to grant a combination of specific privileges based on your security requirements.

• Writable Volumes on Shared Datastores

You can share Writable Volumes across vCenters using Shared Datastores, and the users can access their Writable Volumes from multiple vCenters with a Shared Datastore. In larger deployments, end-user persistence is no longer pinned to a specific vCenter. A user can use their Writable Volume in one session, log out and log in to a session on another vCenter and continue to use their volume.

• Move, Back Up, and Restore Writable Volumes

Manage your user’s data more efficiently with App Volumes Manager. Use the new controls to move, back up, and restore Writable Volumes.

• Move Writable Volumes – Rebalance storage by moving user volumes from one datastore to another.
• Back Up and Restore – Make a copy of a Writable Volume to be kept outside of the system. If the volume is no longer needed in production, the admin can select to have the volume deleted from App Volumes manager after the copy. At a later time, the volume may be copied back to restore a user’s previous state.
• Regular Backups – The administrator can now provide a datastore and indicate how often to make a full copy of all Writable Volumes in the system. If a user’s volume has been attached after the period has elapsed, a copy will automatically be made to the specified datastore.
• Support for Cached Exchange Mode and Windows Search Indexing

Microsoft Outlook and Windows Search indexes are now saved along with the Outlook OST file to the user’s Writable Volume. If User Environment Manager (UEM) is configured to redirect the user’s OST file, then Outlook will use that configuration.

• Improved Login Performance

When asynchronous mounting is enabled, the App Volumes Manager no longer waits for disks to be attached before responding to the agent. Login times are faster, and App Volumes Manager will be able to handle more simultaneous login requests. There is also reduced load on Active Directory and vCenter. For less performant vCenter configurations, administrators can configure mount throttling to reduce peak load on the vCenter server further.

• Auto-enabling One-time Volume Deletion Protection

In previous releases of App Volumes, if the AVM_PROTECT_VOLUMES environment variable was not enabled, the App Volumes Manager required multiple operations per login to protect volumes from unintended deletion. When using vSphere 6.5 and above, the manager now automatically leverages the more efficient, one-time protection upon volume creation.

• Windows 10 Semi-Annual Channel Alignment

Starting with App Volumes 2.14, Windows 10 versions 1709 and 1803 are supported. Every six months Microsoft plans to release a new version of Windows and App Volumes plans to align with Windows 10 Guest OS.

• Extended Service Branch for Horizon

App Volumes 2.14 is an Extended Service Branch (ESB) release.

 

For More Information:

Horizon Console Administration Document

VMware Horizon 7.5 Technical What’s New

App Volumes 2.14 What’s New Technical

VMware User Environment Manager 9.4 Technical What’s New

 

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