Configuring automatic Horizon Agent downloads

Overview

This guide covers what is required to configure the automatic download of the latest Horizon DaaS Agents in the Horizon DaaS Admin portal.

This involves configuring a file share for the DaaS appliances to connect to and store the installers on, it is recommended to create an isolated file share for this to avoid accidental deletion of the installers.

The appliances will then automatically download new agents on a schedule and store them in this location, then if any VDI are running an older version it will display a message next to the Desktop Assignment.

This process only applies to the use of RDS Farms and Static/Dedicated VDI, for updating the agent on Dynamic VDI you need to update the Gold Image and then redeploy the VDI.

Requirements

To complete this guide, you will need the below:

• Access to a Windows server to create a file share and enable sharing (this needs to be on a domain joined server)

• Ability to create a new user account that has access to the newly created file share

• Admin access to the Horizon DaaS Admin Portal

Process

This is a high-level process and assumes that you have knowledge of how to navigate the Horizon DaaS Admin Portal and knowledge of Windows File Shares.

Follow the steps below to enable the automatic download of Agent updates in the Horizon DaaS Admin Portal.

Step 1. Create the Windows File Share

On a Windows Server create a new file share and enable sharing to the network. You can lock this down to specific users/groups if you would like, you will be required to provide a user account to securely connect to this share in the next step.

If you are locking it down to specific users/groups, please ensure the users/groups in question have the 'Full Access' permission to the share as the DaaS appliances need full control to read/write to the share.

The file share cannot contain spaces in the file path.

This UNC Path will not be accepted: "\\fs01.demo.local\Agent Installers"

However, this UNC Path will be accepted: "\\fs01.demo.local\Agent-Installers"

Step 2. Add the file share to the Admin portal

Once you've created the share login to your DaaS Admin Portal and navigate to 'Settings' and then 'File Shares'. Click on 'NEW' above the table which should open a small window.

Give the File Share a name (this should allow you to easily identify what its for in the Admin portal) and provide it with user account details that have access to the file share as well as the full UNC path to the share.

Click on 'Save' to save the file share.

If you get an error when trying to save this please change the UNC path of the share to use the full server hostname or the LAN IP, the use of the NetBIOS server name is not supported currently.

Step 3. Wait for the agents to download

Once you've successfully saved the file share in the admin portal wait for 15~20 minutes to allow the DaaS Appliances to download the latest agent installers.

You will know it is done when the folders have been created and a 'cdsClient' folder has been created in the file share.

Step 4. Update the Desktop Assignments

Once the DaaS Appliances have successfully downloaded the agent installers it will verify if any of the running VDI Assignments are running an older version and then place a notification next to their name to indicate a new update is available (see below)

For assignments with pending updates like above you can deploy the update by ticking the box to the left of the assignment name and then click 'Update Agent' above the table.

This will open the Agent Update screen, here you can adjust a few details on how it rolls out the update including how many VDI to keep online and whether to ignore VDI with active sessions or not. Once you've adjusted everything click on 'Next' at the bottom of the window.

On the next screen you can provide command line arguments for the DaaS Agent however these aren't needed if you're updating as it will preserve all the settings from the currently installed agent.

Click on 'Submit' to start the update process, you can monitor the progress of updating the agent via the 'Activity' section of the DaaS Admin portal.