Horizon desktop pools are used to publish and entitle RDS-based desktops to Horizon clients. In this section, we will configure a simple desktop pool based on a pool of Microsoft RDS servers. To create an RDS desktop pool in Horizon, we need to have at least one RDS farm configured in our pod. Refer to Chapter 9, Creating Horizon Application Pools, for the procedures that are used to prepare and deploy an RDS farm.

The following steps outline the procedure for creating an RDS desktop pool. An RDS farm is required before you can create an application pool; in this example, we are using a farm that we created previously:

1. Log into the Horizon Administrator console using an account that has administrative privileges.
2. Navigate to Catalog | Desktop Pools and click on Add..., as shown in the following screenshot:

3. On the Add Desktop Pool page's Type tab, click the RDS Desktop Pool radio check box and then click Next >:

4. On the Add Desktop Pool page's Desktop Pool Identification tab, populate the ID and the optional Display name fields, and then click Next >:

5. On the Add Desktop Pool page's Desktop Pool Settings tab, specify the options for the RDS desktop pool and then click Next >:

6. On the Add Desktop Pool page's Select an RDS farm tab, select the RDS farm you created and then click Next >:

7. On the Add Desktop Pool page's Ready to Complete tab, which is shown in the following screenshot, review the settings and then click Finish. You may also choose to check the Entitle users after this wizard finishes check box if you wish to immediately proceed with entitling access to the desktop pool:

The RDS desktop pool has been created and entitled, and is now available to the entitled Horizon clients.