For instant-clone operations in Active Directory, the user account used by VMware Horizon needs specific permissions to manage computer objects effectively. These include the ability to create and delete child objects and computer objects, as well as read and write all properties of those objects. These permissions ensure that Horizon can create, modify, and clean up computer accounts associated with instant clones, facilitating seamless desktop provisioning and management.

The user’s problem is that their settings for the e-mail client are not being saved across sessions. This means that their user profile, which contains their personal data, settings, and preferences, is not being preserved or synchronized properly. To solve this problem, the administrator can deploy one or more of the following options to manage user profiles in Horizon:

• VMware App Volumes Writable Volumes: This option allows users to store user-installed applications, data, and settings on a disk independent of the VM. Writable volumes can be attached to desktops along with application packages, and they can isolate the user-installed applications from the system-installed applications. Writable volumes can also be configured to capture specific files and registry keys by using the snapvol.cfg policy file. This option can help users retain their e-mail client settings on a writable volume that is attached to their desktop at each login.
• Persona Management: This option allows administrators to manage user profiles by using a remote repository that stores user profiles. Persona Management synchronizes the user profile between the remote repository and the local desktop at login, logout, and at regular intervals during the session. Persona Management also supports profile redirection, which allows administrators to redirect certain folders in the user profile to a network share or a writable volume. This option can help users access their e-mail client settings from the remote repository or the redirected folder at each login.
• VMware Dynamic Environment Manager: This option allows administrators to manage user profiles and policies by using a central share that stores user configuration files. Dynamic Environment Manager captures and applies user settings and preferences based on conditions and triggers, such as location, device, or application launch. Dynamic Environment Manager also supports profile archives, which allow administrators to back up and restore user profiles on demand or on schedule. This option can help users apply their e-mail client settings from the central share or the profile archive at each login.

The other options are not valid options for managing user profiles in Horizon:

• Roaming Profiles: This option is a native Windows feature that allows users to access their user profile from any computer in a domain by storing it on a network share. However, this option is not recommended for Horizon because it can cause long login times, profile corruption, and data loss due to its synchronous and overwrite behavior. Roaming profiles are also incompatible with instant clones and linked clones.
• Flexible profiles: This option does not exist in Horizon or Windows. It might be confused with Flex Profiles, which is a third-party product from Liquidware that provides profile management solutions similar to Dynamic Environment Manager.

References: Writable Volumes Overview, Configuring User Profiles with Horizon Persona Management, VMware Dynamic Environment Manager Overview, and [VMware Horizon 8.x Professional Course]

Enabling Quiesce Mode in the Unified Access Gateway (UAG) Admin UI is the recommended approach for minimizing downtime during maintenance or upgrades when the UAG is part of a load-balanced cluster. Quiesce Mode allows the UAG to stop accepting new connections while allowing existing sessions to continue until they naturally end. This ensures minimal disruption to users and allows for a controlled upgrade process.

To correctly sequence the TLS Certificate Configuration Steps:

• Get a new signed TLS certificate from a CA. Before making any modifications or importing the certificate, you'll first need to obtain a new signed TLS certificate from a Certificate Authority (CA). So, this should be Step 1.
• Import the TLS certificate into the Windows local computer certificate store. After obtaining the new signed TLS certificate, the next logical step is to import this certificate into the Windows local computer certificate store. This would be Step 2.
• Modify the certificates/ friendly names to vdm and reflect the current active certificate. Once the certificate is imported, the next step is to modify its friendly names to ensure the Horizon Service recognizes and uses this certificate. This becomes Step 3.
• Restart Horizon Service. Finally, after all the modifications and configurations are done, you should restart the Horizon Service to apply the changes. This is Step 4.

In summary:

A golden image must have a current snapshot to be used for cloning, and having multiple active snapshots can cause confusion and issues in the provisioning process. Additionally, selecting the correct Guest OS version is crucial for compatibility and optimal performance. These factors must be correctly configured for a VM to appear in the list of available golden images for provisioning.

A black screen when connecting to a Horizon virtual desktop can be caused by various reasons, such as network issues, hardware issues, Horizon tunnel issues, or underlying guest operating system issues. Based on the options given, the following could be the cause of the issue:

• A vRAM shortage on the Horizon virtual machine. This can affect the display performance and cause a black screen or a disconnect. To resolve this issue, you should configure the pool to provide enough video memory for the resolutions you plan to present to the clients1.
• The incorrect video driver version installed on the Horizon virtual machine. This can cause compatibility issues and prevent the display protocol from working properly. To resolve this issue, you should verify that the View desktop is using the correct video driver and that it is compatible with the VMware Tools and Horizon Agent versions installed23.
• An incorrect firewall configuration. This can block or misroute the display protocol traffic and cause a connection failure. To resolve this issue, you should verify that the required ports are open between the client, UAG/Security server/Connection server, and VDI machine4 .

The other options are not likely to cause a black screen when connecting to a Horizon virtual desktop:

• The client machine video memory is too high. This should not affect the display protocol performance or cause a black screen. The client machine video memory is only used to render the display on the local device, not on the remote desktop.
• The Horizon virtual machine video memory is too high. This should not cause a black screen or a disconnect either. The Horizon virtual machine video memory is used to allocate resources for the display protocol on the server side, not on the client side.

References:

• Dual monitors configured using PCoIP does not span both the monitors for VMware View and Connecting to a VDI desktop with PCoIP displays a black screen and disconnects after 10 seconds
• Error attaching to SVGADevTap, error 4000: EscapeFailed reported by PCoIP server
• Interoperability Matrices
• Configuring PCoIP Secure Gateway in VMware View
• [Network Ports in VMware Horizon]