Load Balancing VMware Horizon
Get a QuoteVMware Horizon is a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solution that simplifies administration and delivery of personalized virtual desktops. In addition to overall improved user experience it provides:
- Reduced PC management complexity
- Reduced costs through virtualization
- Increased PC uptime
- Simplified desktop security
All of Kemp’s LoadMaster application delivery controllers (ADC), whether virtualized or not, support VMware Horizon by increasing application performance and removing single points of failure in the deployment. For high availability and scalability, VMware recommends that multiple Connection Server and Security Server roles be deployed (using the VMware Unified Access Gateway) with a load balancer to achieve resilience and scalability.
LoadMaster delivers improved performance for Horizon by offloading the SSL processing associated with establishing client sessions releasing security server resources. Scaling of VMware environments is simplified as additional security and connection resources are easily added without service interruption. By supporting multiple instances of security and connections servers, LoadMaster also delivers resilience and high availability as failed instances are automatically detected and traffic redirected to available instances.
VMware ports and forwarding
LoadMaster supports the forwarding of VMware traffic on the following ports:
| Protocol | Usage | Port |
|---|---|---|
| HTTPS | Client authentication and ongoing framework traffic | 443 |
| PCoIP | Support the VMware PCoIP protocol | 4172 |
| Blast | Support client connections over the Blast protocol | 8443 |
LoadMaster supports the configuration of both 1:1 port forwarding as per the table above and also supports port address translations where multiple services exist on a single IP and have different port numbers.
To simplify deployment of Horizon, a deployment template is available which preconfigures virtual services on LoadMaster to support the necessary protocols.
Load Balancing Horizon with LoadMaster
Horizon connectivity is provided by the Connection Server and the Unified Access Gateway. A recommended topology is to deploy VMware Unified Access Gateways in a DMZ with Connection Servers deployed on the LAN. The example below shows a topology where Kemp LoadMasters are providing high availability to the Unified Access Gateways in the DMZ and the Connection Servers on the LAN.
How to Configure Horizon Load Balancing
Kemp provides a number of resources to assist with configuration of VMware.
| Resource | |
|---|---|
| High Availability Architecture for Horizon version 7 | A video overview from VMware and Kemp outlining the architecture of VMware Horizon 7 and how to deploy in a highly available LoadMaster environment. |
| Configuring VMware on LoadMaster | A quick video showing the steps to configure Horizon load balancing from the LoadMaster Web UI. |
| VMware Horizon Deployment Guide | Deployment guide to assist with configuring application delivery using VMware |
| VMware Horizon 7 Template | LoadMaster application template for VMware |