Release date: April 15th 2019
Welcome to my VMware Horizon series. In this sub-session I will describe how I prepared my MS Server 2016 RDS template for use with Horizon.
When preparing the image for deployment, i followed in large part the instructions from VMware Digital Workspace Tech Zone posted here: Creating an Optimized Windows Image for a VMware Horizon Virtual Desktop
At the end of their post, they state that during preparations before use, we have to clone the vm to another datastore, in order to shrink the vm-size. As I have a storage-cluster, I will skip this step and just create a snapshot of the vm instead.
Next, I will do some customizations in Active Directory for my deployment.
In Active Directory, I have created a somewhat logical structure for my Horizon View components. During provisioning of my clones, it will create computer accounts in the «2016SRV_RD4VDI»-OU.
I have created a GPO called «2016SRV_RD_UEM_Settings» with all my settings linked to the «2016SRV_RD4VDI»-OU.
As this is a lab-setup, in a lab shared with other people, I have selected «Block Inheritance» on my GPO, as I have no control what other people do to GPO’s higher up in the OU hierarchy. That makes the Group Policy loopback processing setting somewhat unnecessary, but I put it in anyway.
I have the following settings defined in my «2016SRV_RD_UEM_Settings»-GPO
Logon script delay: Disabled
Group Policy loopback processing mode: Replace
Show first sign-in animation: Disabled
Do not display the Getting Started welcome screen at logon: Enabled
Always wait for the network at computer startup and logon: Enabled
Delete cached copies of roaming profiles: Enabled
Set roaming profile path for all users logging onto this computer: Enabled
Users logging onto this computer should use this roaming profile path: C:\Users\Mandatory
Allow deployment operations in special profiles: Enabled
Restricted groups:
I add my user group from AD to the local user group «Remote Desktop Users» and «Users»
Now that my template and environment is set up, I can proceed with creating a RDS Farm for testing, covered here: VMware Horizon – Setup RDS Farm
Recommended reading:
VMware Tech Zone: Creating an Optimized Windows Image for a VMware Horizon Virtual Desktop
VMware Horizon – Setup Server 2016 RDS Template
VMware Horizon planning, deployment etc.
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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