General support for VMware Horizon 7 ends April 30, 2023, impacting all versions up to and including VMware Horizon 7.13. Read this blog to understand why and how to upgrade to Horizon 8 now: “Top 8 Reasons to Upgrade to VMware Horizon 8.”
Co-Author: Graeme Gordon, Senior Staff EUC Architect for VMware EUC Technical Marketing.
The updated VMware Horizon 7 Enterprise Edition Multi-Site Reference Architecture is now available to download!
Business continuity and a solid disaster recovery plan are paramount for organizations. This updated reference architecture provides guidance and best practices for IT organizations that want to plan and design a multi-site Horizon 7 deployment with business continuity in mind.
The services designed and delivered to users focus on availability and recoverability, but can be easily adapted to general multi-site requirements. The services can be customized and allow for the creation of an active/passive service, where the user is normally serviced out of one data center, or active/active, where the user can be serviced from either data center.
The latest edition of the Horizon 7 Enterprise Edition Multi-Site Reference Architecture includes updates to VMware Identity Manager and VMware App Volumes architecture best practices, as well as updates to diagrams for clarity.
Here are some highlights from the updated paper.
Identity Manager Architecture
To provide resilience in a multi-site deployment, each site requires its own group of Identity Manager virtual appliances to allow the site to operate independently, without reliance on another site. One site runs as the active Identity Manager, while the second site has a passive group.
Best practice for Identity Manager architecture is to place the Identity Manager appliances in the DMZ. Identity Manager Connectors are hosted in the internal network to provide integration with internal resources such as Active Directory.
For details, see the section on Identity Manager in the VMware Horizon 7 Enterprise Edition Multi-Site Reference Architecture.
App Volumes Architecture
There are two architectural options for deploying App Volumes across multiple sites:
- Separate instances per site with each site having a separate database
- A stretched instance using a clustered database with Microsoft SQL AlwaysOn
The separate instances and databases approach is easier to implement than setting up clustered databases in both sites and is the general recommendation for multi-site App Volumes architecture. The installations in each location are separate and have their own database. Replication of the AppStacks between sites can be automated, but any entitlements to AppStacks must be replicated in both sites. Optionally, this process can be automated using a PowerShell script.
For details, see the section on App Volumes in the VMware Horizon 7 Enterprise Edition Multi-Site Reference Architecture
Additional Updates
Further updates to this reference architecture include:
- Infrastructure design detail for a stretched VMware vSAN service including settings for vSAN, VMware Sphere, distributed switches and storage
- Detailed procedure to set up Identity Manager for High Availability in multiple sites, and configuration steps for Microsoft SQL Always On
- In-depth detail on App Volumes configuration including Microsoft SQL setup options for separate databases or using a stretched Microsoft SQL Always On
For these details and more, download the VMware Horizon 7 Enterprise Edition Multi-Site Reference Architecture now.
