Horizon View 5.3 Appendix B – View Agent Installation Options

/ seanpmassey

By default, the View Agent installs with all of the options enabled except for PCoIP Smartcard support.  While these options may be suitable for general virtual desktop use, they aren’t suitable for all deployments.

There are two parts to the Horizon View Agent installer.  The first part is the View Agent itself, and the second part is Remote Experience Agent that adds the new capabilities from Feature Pack 1.

The features that you enable on the View Agent are highly dependent upon the requirements of your environment.

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The View Agent features are:

  • USB Redirection – This feature provides support for connecting local USB devices, such as USB storage, to a remote desktop.  If this option is not installed, local USB devices cannot be passed through to the desktop.
  • View Composer Agent – This feature provides support for QuickPrep and other features of VIew Composer.  It does not need to be installed if you are not using View Composer in your environment.
  • Virtual Printing – This feature installs VMware’s licensed version of Thin Print, and it enables users to connect the local printers on their machine to a Horizon View desktop.  If this feature is not installed, local printers will not be available in Horizon View.
  • vCenter Operations Manager Agent – This is a plugin for vCenter Operations Manager for View.  It collects statistics directly from the desktop.  If you do not use vCenter Operations Manager for View, you do not need to install this.
  • PCoIP Server – This is a core component of the View Agent.  If this is not installed, users will not be able to connect to the desktops using the PCoIP protocol.
  • PCoIP Smartcard – This feature allows users to authenticate using smartcards when connecting over PCoIP.
  • VMware Audio – This is VMware’s audio driver for PCoIP.
  • View Persona Management – Persona Management is VMware’s version of Roaming Profiles.  If this feature is not installed, you will not be able to use Persona Management to manage the user profile.

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The Remote Experience Agent features are:

  • HTML Access – This feature provides support for VMware Blast.  VMware Blast provides access to Horizon View desktops through an HTML5 compatible desktop.  If this feature is not enabled, HTML5 access will not be available.
  • Real-Time Audio-Video – This feature allows the redirection of audio and video peripherals like webcams to the Horizon View desktop.
  • Unity Touch – This feature provides an easier method for accessing files and applications on Android and IOS mobile devices.