Release date: January 30th 2024
Welcome to my VMware Horizon series. In this session I will describe how I upgraded the VMware Horizon Agent in my template to v. 2312. According to the VMware Horizon 8 2312 Release Notes, these are the changes to the Horizon Windows Agent:
- Horizon Agent for Windows
- DEEM agent integration was enhanced to support in-guest VM telemetry, including use cases for application resource utilization, usage, hang and crash information, and more.
- Media Optimization for Microsoft Teams allow users to blur backgrounds, select effects, or select an available background image before or during a video call or meeting. Administrators can also specify a background image for users as part of a company mandate.
- The TLS 1.3 security protocol is supported. This release drops support for TLS 1.0.
- Horizon Agent no longer supports the Blast protocol EncoderSwitch. See kb.vmware.com/kb/96214 for details.
- Horizon Agent adds lossless support in the Blast protocol by introducing the Build to Lossless GPO setting and EncoderBuildToLossless registry key.
According to VMware’s official documentation, this agent-upgrade should be done as step 11 in the supported update sequence.
I start out by downloading the installation media from VMware Customer Connect
As I’ve gone over to using MDT to create Horizon templates, described here: Automating Template Creation & Maintenance, I will update the Horizon Agent in the Deployment Share, and run through the task sequence to create a new template. Before I begin, I open the task sequence and can see that it has found the 2309 Agent in the Deployment Share.
I close the Deployment Workbench MMC before I continue. To update the Horizon Agent in the Deployment Share I will first delete the existing agent and msi-folder from the Deployment Share
Next, I copy the new VMware Horizon Agent executable to the “HorizonAgent” folder in the Deployment Share. It is important to make sure that the executable isn’t blocked by Windows Security, therefore I right-click the exe-file, select Properties and tick the Unblock box, if it exists. This also applies to the other executable files under the “D:\DeploymentShare\VMware” folder.
When I now open the Deployment Workbench MMC, the new Horizon Agent will be identified and the msi-files will be automatically extracted.
As my task sequence is based on the osot.xml template, I will also have to edit this file
I locate the “Horizon Agent” step and adjust the name of the “ExeInstaller” to match the executable I copied in earlier
Once done, I open Deployment Workbench MMC and verify that the correct Horizon Agent is found, and update the deployment Share, before I run through the task sequence and push the new template to my desktop pool.
Having finished the Windows Agent upgrade, I can now proceed with upgrading the agent in my Linux template, covered here: VMware Horizon – Upgrade Horizon Linux Agent to v. 2312
VMware Documentation:
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.
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