VMware Horizon View

VMware View is a commercial desktop-virtualization product developed by VMware, Inc. Its first two releases (2.0.0 and 2.1.0) sold under the name VMware VDM, but with the 3.0.0 release in 2008^[1] VMware Inc. changed the name to "VMware View". "VMware View" became "Horizon View" with the launch of Horizon 6 in April 2014.^[2]

VMware View provides remote-desktop capabilities to users using VMware's virtualization technology. A client desktop operating-system - typically Microsoft Windows 7, Vista or XP - runs within a virtual environment on a server. The VMware View product has a number of components which are required to provide the virtual desktops, including:

• VMware vSphere for Desktops (includes ESXi, VMware's hypervisor)
• VMware vCenter Server (management of virtualization environment)
• View Composer (advanced View management, with automation and cloning)
• View Manager (administration of the View Environment)
• View Client (communication between View and the desktop OS)
• VMware ThinApp (application virtualization)
• View Persona Management (user profile management)
• vShield Endpoint (offloaded desktop antivirus)

Although VMware licenses vSphere hypervisor per physical CPU-socket,^[3] it licenses VMware View per concurrent desktop.^[4] The bundled hypervisor, vSphere for Desktops, is functionally equivalent to vSphere Enterprise Plus.^[5]

VMware View has two licensing options, Enterprise and Premier. Enterprise comes with vSphere for Desktops, vCenter Server, and View Manager, and has an MSRP of $150 per concurrent desktop. View Composer, Persona Management, vShield Endpoint, and ThinApp are included in the Premier edition at an MSRP of $250 per concurrent desktop.^[6]

In order to transport a view of the desktop to users, keyboard, video, mouse and other interactions travel over a LAN connection. VMware View supports both the Microsoft-developed RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) and the Teradici-licensed PCoIP (PC-over-IP) protocol.^[7]

Users establish client connections to VMware View sessions by running a VMware View Client on a local host. The product supports most versions of Windows, along with Mac OS X. Specific embedded clients are also supported for a large number of thin clients, for a list of supported clients refer to the VMware website.^[8]

An open-source product called "VMware View Open Client" can connect from a Linux or Mac OS X desktop to remote Windows desktops managed by VMware View.^[9] The client uses rdesktop under-the-hood to connect to the host. The VMware View Open Client was abandoned in 2013.^[10]

An HTML5 Client for VMware View is available to enable access to VMware View desktops directly from within any HTML5-compatible web browser such as Safari, Chrome, Internet Explorer and Firefox (for Windows, Linux, Mac and Chrome OS devices, such as Chromebooks).^[11]

Ubuntu 12.10 can login to VMware View desktops directly from the login screen.

Versions

VMware View/Horizon

Version release history:

VMware View 3.1.3 (May 5, 2009)

VMware View 4 (November 9, 2009)

• VMware View 4.0.2 (September 15, 2010)
• VMware View 4.5 (September 9, 2010)
• VMware View 4.6 (February 24, 2011)
• VMware View 4.6.1 (March 15, 2012)
• VMware View 4.6.2 (December 11, 2012)
• VMware View 4.6.3 (March 7, 2013)

VMware View 5.0 (September 8, 2011)

• VMware View 5.0.1 (March 15, 2012)
• VMware View 5.1 (May 16, 2012)
• VMware View 5.1.1 (August 16, 2012)
• VMware View 5.1.2 (December 13, 2012)
• VMware View 5.1.3 (March 14, 2013)
• VMware View 5.2 (October 4, 2012)
• VMware View 5.3 (November 21, 2013)
• VMware View 5.3.1 (March 11, 2014)
• VMware View 5.3.2 (June 24, 2014)
• VMware View 5.3.3 (November 25, 2014)
• VMware View 5.3.4 (March 17, 2015)
• VMware View 5.3.5 (September 10, 2015)
• VMware View 5.3.6 (March 1, 2016)

VMware Horizon 6.0 (June 19, 2014)

• VMware Horizon 6.0.1 (September 9, 2014)
• VMware Horizon 6.0.2 (December 9, 2014)
• VMware Horizon 6.1 (March 12, 2015)
• VMware Horizon 6.1.1 (June 4, 2015)
• VMware Horizon 6.2 (September 3, 2015)
• VMware Horizon 6.2.1 (December 8, 2015)
• VMware Horizon 6.2.2 (February 4, 2016)
• VMware Horizon 6.2.3 (July 21, 2016)

VMware Horizon 7.0 (March 22, 2016)

• VMware Horizon 7.0.1 (June 16, 2016)
• VMware Horizon 7.0.2 (September 15, 2016)
• VMware Horizon 7.0.3 (December 8, 2016)
• VMware Horizon 7.1 (March 16, 2017)
• VMware Horizon 7.2 (Jun 20, 2017)

References

Further reading

• Keith Schultz (December 14, 2011) VDI shoot-out: Citrix XenDesktop vs. VMware View. Citrix XenDesktop 5.5 and VMware View 5 vie for the most flexible, scalable, and complete virtual desktop infrastructure, InfoWorld
• Keith Schultz (December 14, 2011) VDI shoot-out: HDX vs. PCoIP. The differences between the Citrix and VMware remote desktop protocols are more than skin deep, InfoWorld

External links

• Official site
• VMware View Open Client

Installation Instruction