The steps required to install a Horizon Replica Connection Server are largely the same as those for a Standard Connection Server; only a few steps differ. The following list outlines where the installation process differs, using the numbered steps provided within the Deploying the first Horizon Connection Server section as a reference:
- In step 5: Installation Options | Choose Horizon 7 Replica Server as the instance type and click on Next>.
- New Step: Source Server then provide the FQDN for the Horizon Standard Connection Server deployed in the previous section and click on Next>. For our sample server, the FQDN is horcon1.vjason.local. Refer to the following screenshot as an example:
This installation step is unique to the Horizon Replica Connection Server installation.
- Steps 6, 8, and 9 are not required.
During the installation process, the Horizon Replica Connection Server will install all the same components as a Standard Connection Server but the AD LDS database will be a replica of the Standard Connection Server AD LDS database. The AD LDS database holds the configuration data for the Horizon environment, so no additional configuration is needed beyond the installation itself.
Once the installation has successfully completed, the Horizon Replica Connection Server will be displayed in the View Configuration | Servers | Connection Servers window in the Horizon Administrator console as shown in the following screenshot:
At this point, the Horizon Connection Server would be available to broker connections to whatever resources have been configured within the Horizon Administrator console.
Once installed, a Horizon Replica Connection Server is a full peer of all other Horizon Standard Connection Servers and Horizon Replica Connection Servers within the installation. Unlike some software platforms, which have a master-slave or split role architecture, all Horizon Standard Connection Servers and Horizon Replica Connection Servers share the same responsibilities and capabilities.
As previously mentioned, Horizon lacks any native load-balancing capabilities. As a result, unless a load-balancing solution of some sort is deployed, clients will need to manually choose which of the two Horizon Connection Servers they want to connect to. Since this is likely to lead to an unbalanced distribution of client resources, it is recommended that you consider one of the previously mentioned options for load-balancing the Horizon client connections.