What’s New in VMware Horizon 8 v2106 & v2103

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What’s New in VMware Horizon 8 v2106 & v2103

• By Tom Fenton
• 07/28/2021

VMware released Horizon 8 version 2106 on July 15, 2021, and v2103 on March23, 2021. Usually, I like to write an article about each VMware release but as these are rather minor releases, I will combine them into a single article.

In looking over the release notes for VMware Horizon Version 2103, and VMware Horizon Version 2106, I didn’t see anything unexpected or surprising. This shows the maturity of the product and the industry.

New Features Included in Version 2103
Here is a look at some of the new features mentioned within in the 2013 release notes that caught my eye.

• Connection Server:
  • In the past when creating an instant-clone desktop pool, you could only provide a naming pattern. Now you can specify a list of names for the instant clones. Under Provisioning Settings there is a new field entitled Specify names manually. Each line must contain a unique machine name.
  • In the Horizon Console you can add user domains that do not have a formal trust relationship with the Connection Server domain. This will come in handy when setting up a cloud-hosted connection server with an on-premise user domain.
  • You can configure how long to show events and how long to classify them as new.
  • Previous to this release Connection Server logs were in various locations. They have now been consolidated to a single location – <Drive Letter>:\ProgramData\VMware\VDM\logs.
• Horizon Agent for Windows:
  • You can use location-based printers (LBP) for groups of users and nested groups.
  • Blast has been improved to reach and sustain high frame rates, detect client overload and agent feedback loops.
  • This release removed support for the 32-bit Horizon Agent.
• Horizon Agent for Linux:
  • Added operating system support for published desktops and applications for more versions RHEL Workstation and Ubuntu Linux distributions.
  • Added operating system support for instant-clones pools for more versions of Ubuntu, RHEL Workstation and Server, CentOS, Ubuntu, and SLED/SLES.
  • Removed support for Ubuntu 16.04.
• Horizon GPO Bundle:
  • Horizon GPO’s now allow limiting the transmission rate for print jobs and configuring H.264 decoding and high-color accuracy mode for the VMware Blast protocol.

New Features Included in Version 2106
Starting with this release (2106), version numbering is based on the planned year and the month of the release. The actual release date may vary.

Here is a look at some of the new features mentioned in the Horizon 8 2016 release notes that caught my eye.

• Connection Server:
  • Horizon Connection Servers and Horizon Agents can be deployed in different datacenters across WAN, as long as they are located within 120ms of each other.
  • You can use Microsoft Sysprep or ClonePrep for customizing instant clone virtual machines.
  • You can allow application sessions to run without ever timing out using the Bypass Session Timeout setting.
  • Blast supports 5K and UHD (8K) client displays. You can have dual displays 5K and 8K displays.
  • Support for 20,000 desktops and sessions per Pod.
  • SAML authentication, True SSO, and smart card authentication can be used by users in untrusted domains.
  • When adding a vCenter Server instance, you can now select a deployment type. This includes Genera (vCenter is deployed on-premises), AWS, Azure, DELLEMC, Google, or Oracle.
  • You can use SSL to connect to the event database, non-SSL is the default.
  • HTML Access is now supported in an IPv6 environment.
• Horizon Agent for Windows:
  • You can use Multimedia Redirection (MMR) with Microsoft Edge.
  • Media Optimization for Microsoft Teams now supports Linux as well as Windows Clients.
  • With VMware Integrated Printing the session username is displayed on the client-side print queue.
  • Support for NVIDIA Ampere A40 and A10 GPUs with Blast supporting H.265, H.264, and Graphics offload.
• Horizon Agent for Linux:
  • Added operating system support for published desktops and applications for more versions of RHEL Workstation and CentOS.
  • Users can print from a Linux remote desktop to any local or network printer available on their client computer.
• Horizon GPO Bundle:
  • Horizon GPO’s now have more RDS and Microsoft Edge features.
  • The ability to block capturing of Horizon sessions screens using local screen capturing tools.
  • As with other Horizon 8 releases this has only incremental changes and gradual improvements to Horizon on a reliable time-based schedule.

Summary

Of all the new features in 2103 and 2106 the ones I find most interesting and would like to explore further are:

• Horizon Connection Servers and Horizon Agents can be deployed as far away as 120ms across the WAN. This will open up some neat cloud deployment options.
• The use of Microsoft Sysprep for customizing instant clone virtual machines. For the vast majority of use-case ClonePrep will still the customization choice. The biggest thing Sysprep will do is give the instant clone a unique SID.
• Support of dual 5K and UHD (8K) displays with Blast will allow more engineering and media and entertainment workers to take advantage of Horizon.
• The ability to block screen captures of horizon sessions is huge from a security and privacy point of view.
• I also like the effort that VMware is putting into supporting Linux desktops and applications.

In my next article, I will document my process of updating my Horizon 8 environment to version 2106, and share screen captures of some of the items that have changed.