VMware Horizon – Upgrade Client repository with Horizon 2103 Clients

Release date: April 10th 2021

Welcome to my VMware Horizon series. Upgrading the Horizon Client is the last step in upgrading a Horizon environment. As the Horizon Client is distributed in all kinds of different ways to users, GPO, application deployments, scripts, I won’t go into this now.

In my lab, I use the Horizon Portal to distribute clients. After having done an upgrade of the Connection Server, I will have to recreate the repository. In this session I will recreate the local repository for VMware Horizon Client installations. This is especially handy if connection servers is located in isolated VLAN’s. I will perform the following tasks in order to create a local client repository.

• Download the newest VMware Horizon Clients from VMware here: https://my.vmware.com/en/web/vmware/downloads/info/slug/desktop_end_user_computing/vmware_horizon_clients/horizon_8
• Create a folder named “downloads” in “C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware View\Server\broker\webapps” on the connection server
• Copy the downloaded client to “C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware View\Server\broker\webapps\downloads”
• Backup the “C:\ProgramData\VMware\VDM\portal\portal-links-html-access.properties” file
• Edit the “C:\ProgramData\VMware\VDM\portal\portal-links-html-access.properties” file with new paths to client installation
• Restart the connection server

In the VMware Horizon portal, the users can click “Install VMware Horizon Client”, which will normally redirect the users to VMware’s client download page. This is the functionality I’m going to change in this session.

I log into the connection server and create new folder named downloads under “C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware View\Server\broker\webapps”

Next, I copy the downloaded Horizon Clients v. 8.2 to the new “C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware View\Server\broker\webapps\downloads” folder.

I backup “C:\ProgramData\VMware\VDM\portal\portal-links-html-access.properties” before I open Notepad as Administrator and edit the portal-links-html-access.properties file.

Back in Notepad, I modify the “link.win64”, “link.linux64” and “link.mac” paths to match my downloads location.

Finally, I restart the connection server in order to apply my changes from this session.

VMware Horizon – Upgrades

VMware Horizon planning, deployment etc.

Official VMware Horizon 8 Documentation

Disclaimer: Every tips/tricks/posting I have published here, is tried and tested in different it-solutions. It is not guaranteed to work everywhere, but is meant as a tip for other users out there. Remember, Google is your friend and don’t be afraid to steal with pride! Feel free to comment below as needed.