The previous post covered the steps for configuring a Windows Server with the Remote Desktop Session Host role and installing the Horizon View agent.  There is one more step that need to be completed before applications can be published out.

That step is creating the server farm.  In Horizon View terms, a farm is a group of Windows Servers with the Remote Desktop Services role.  They provide redundancy, load balancing, and scalability for a remote desktop pool, multiple published application pools, or both for a group of users.

The steps for setting up an RDS Farm are:

1. Log into View Administrator

2. In the Inventory side-panel, expand Resources and select Farms.

3. Click Add to create a New RDS Farm.

4.  Enter a name for the pool in the ID field and a description for the pool.  The name cannot have any spaces.  Click Next to continue.

You can also use this page to configure the settings for the farm.  The options are:

• Default Display Protocol – The default protocol used by clients when connecting to the application
• Allow users to choose protocol – Allows users to change the protocol when they connect to their applications
• Empty SessionTimeout – the length of time a session without any running applications remains connected
• Timeout Action – Determine if the user is logged out or disconnected when the Empty Session Timeout expires.
• Log Off Disconnected Sessions – Determines how long a session will remain logged in after a user has disconnected their session

5. Select the RDS host or hosts to add to the Farm and click next to continue.

6. Review the settings and click Finish.

Once you have a farm created and an RDS host assigned, you can create application pools.  This will be covered in the next article in this series.