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VMware Horizon – Upgrade Horizon Linux Agent to v. 2309

Release date: November 8th 2023

Welcome to my VMware Horizon series. In this session I will describe how I upgraded the VMware Horizon Linux Agent in my template to v. 2309. According to the VMware Horizon 8 2309 Release Notes, these are the changes to the Horizon Linux Agent:

  • Horizon Agent for Linux
    • This release adds support for the following Linux distributions:
      • Debian 12.1
      • SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED) 15 SP5
      • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 15 SP5
    • This release drops support for the following Linux distributions:
      • Debian 11.5 and 11.6
      • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 8.7
      • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 8.7
      • SLED/SLES 15 SP3
    • Horizon Agent is now supported on physical Linux machines.
    • By default, Horizon Agent uses the VMware greeter in cases where Horizon 8 SSO is deactivated or SSO credentials fail. Administrators can include the –no-vmwgreeter installation parameter to specify use of the Gnome Shell greeter instead in cases where Horizon 8 SSO is deactivated or SSO credentials fail.
    • In the /etc/vmware/viewagent-custom.conf configuration file, the DEMEnable option is now set by default to true.

According to VMware’s official documentation, this agent-upgrade should be done as step 11 in the supported update sequence.

Update sequence for Horizon 7, Horizon 8, and compatible VMware products (78445)

Before I start the actual Horizon Agent upgrade, I will download and install Ubuntu updates using the following commands:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo reboot
sudo apt autoremove
sudo apt autoclean

Next, once the VM is powered up, I open VMware Remote Console and log in. I start by downloading the installation media from VMware Customer Connect

Once downloaded, I unpack it in the Downloads folder

Next, I log out from the desktop and reboot to ensure the VMwareBlastServer process isn’t running

Before I can Putty into the desktop I need to know the IP address

I check the documentation to determine the correct command line options to use during upgrade here: Command-Line Options for Installing Horizon Agent for Linux

I connect using Putty and run the following command to upgrade:

sudo ./install_viewagent.sh -A yes -M yes --multiple-session -r yes

Once the installer is finished, it automatically reboots the VM. I can now adjust some options, shown below.

Setting Options in Configuration Files on a Linux Desktop

I will be adjusting the following parameters in the “/etc/vmware/config” file

#Set clipboard redirection. Default is 2. 0 means disable; 1 means both directions; 2 means from client to agent only, 3 means from agent to client only.
Clipboard.Direction=1

#Set clipboard maximum size which should be specified in KBytes. Default is 1024 KBytes.
mksvchan.clipboardSize=1024

#Enable/Disable display scaling. This option only works if DPI sync feature is enabled.
Display scaling resizes the screen to auto fit the font size when the DPI is a mismatch between client and agent, the default value is FALSE.
rdeSvc.allowDisplayScaling=TRUE

I will be adjusting the following parameters in the “/etc/vmware/viewagent-custom.conf” file

#Enable/Disable CDR. Default is TRUE
CDREnable=FALSE

#Enable/Disable USB. Default is TRUE
USBEnable=FALSE

#Enable/Disable Help Desk Tool. Default is TRUE
HelpDeskEnable=FALSE

#Instant Clone offline domain join solution, default value is 'pbis'.
#Its value could be 'pbis', 'samba' or 'none', and 'none' means disable.
#OfflineJoinDomain=none
OfflineJoinDomain=pbis
#OfflineJoinDomain=samba

Finally, I shut down the VM, take a Snapshot and deploy this to my Desktop and Application Farm. Once the Push-operation is done, I can verify the agent version in my virtual desktops

This completes the Linux Horizon Agent upgrade. I can now proceed with upgrading the Horizon GPO Bundle, posted here: VMware Horizon – Upgrade Horizon GPO Bundle to v. 2309

VMware Documentation:

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.