A Horizon desktop pool is a collection of desktops that users select when they log in using the Horizon client. A pool can be created based on a subset of users, such as finance, but this is not explicitly required unless you will be deploying multiple virtual desktop master images. The pool can be thought of as a central point of desktop management within Horizon: from it, you create, manage, and entitle access to Horizon desktops. This chapter will discuss how to create a desktop pool using the Horizon Administrator console, an important administrative task.
In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:
- An overview of Horizon desktop pools
- Desktop pool common terms
- How to create three different types of Horizon desktop pools
- How to monitor the provisioning of Horizon desktop pools
- Common problems encountered when provisioning a Horizon desktop pool
- How to manage entitlements to Horizon desktop pools
Many storage array vendors have given their products the ability to provision desktops outside the Horizon environment and then register them directly within Horizon. If you choose to use this method to create your virtual desktops, you should review the vendor documentation carefully to understand the impact it has on managing your Horizon environment. For example, you will need to know how virtual desktop maintenance, discussed in Chapter 9, Performing Horizon Pool Maintenance, differs if the desktops are not deployed using Horizon.