VMware Horizon 8 2103

VMware have released a new version of VMware Horizon 8 (2103), and this release is for now general available from March 2021. This is a major release, so I hope you like this article I put together. VMware have made some huge improvements in this release, which customers/partners are going to benefit from.

HINT – If you are using Nvidia vGPU (on-prem) there is currently no driver support for Horizon 8 2103.

I have in this article also included the new features of Horizon Cloud service for 2103 IBM Cloud, AWS, Azure.

Lets dig into what is new.

What is new in VMware Horizon 8 (2103)

VMware Horizon 8 2103 provides the following new features and enhancements

VMware Horizon Connection Server
VMware Horizon Agent for Linux
VMware Horizon Agent for Windows
VMware Horizon GPO Bundle
VMware Dynamic Environment Manager 2103
VMware Unified Access Gateway 2103
VMware Horizon Clients 2103 for Android, Linux, iOS, Mac, Windows, HTML Access

VMware Horizon Cloud services 2103

AMD (NvV4-series) and Microsoft Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD)

Hi all

I am excited to share this is a blogseries around better understanding the value of NVv4-series in Azure and I will cover different views. From what NVv4-series is, which software vendors it works with and which remoting technology it can be used with, and I also cover later in a blogpost how you can scale and run different workloads and utilize the AMD CPU/GPU and how you can monitor and troubleshoot.

In this blogpost i will cover the overview of Microsoft Windows Virtual Desktop and how it can be hardware accelerated (GPU) enabled with AMD CPU/GPU more specific the NVv4 series in Azure.

You will learn what offerings Microsoft have with Windows Virtual Desktop high level and where you can access the NVv4-series in which Azure datacenter. The process which is required to start and how you can start enabling your VM’s with graphics acceleration.

I will also cover what the difference is with the difference NVv4 instances and the use cases how to use them with Windows Virtual Desktop.

Windows Virtual Desktop have now been GA for almost a year, and it have been a huge success globally. NVv4-series also have 1 year anniversary as it was GA in 4th March 2020, which I covered in a blogpost here

Case study – NVv4, Azure, Citrix BIM customer TBI

Last March 2020, I wrote about the availability of the AMD NVv4-series powered by AMD CPU/GPU. I have been working with NVv4-series and I am excited to share one of the customers, I have helped are now an official reference customer for NVv4-series.

TBI, is a dutch BIM customer, I have been working together with a couple of years designing their on-prem which is now a hybrid platform. They are the first official customer case study using AMD NVv4 instances in Azure together with Citrix Cloud. They have been using VDI for several years and been one of the leading innovators using high end graphics for VDI for their BIM users. Microsoft, Autodesk, Citrix uses them as reference customer through the years.

NVIDIA vGPU Software 12

It’s time to plan updating your NVIDIA Enterprise GPUs. NVIDIA vGPU Software 12 is now GA.

NVIDIA vGPU software includes vWS, vCS, vPC, and vApps.

If you got any of followin NVIDIA GPU’s: M6, M10, M60, P4, P6, P40, P100, V100, T4, RTX6000, RTX8000, A100, A40, RTXA6000.

If you are interested in a quick overview of which NVIDIA enterprise GPU is supporting which hypervisor, Guest os and remoting technology, I highly recommend you check out this link from NVIDIA that provides the NVIDIA vGPU software product support matrix.

NVIDIA vGPU software 12 is supported until January 2022.

NVIDIA vGPU software 12 is a new-feature branch support. If you are looking for Long-Term support branch latest release is 11.x or 8.x

I this article, I am also covering which Public Cloud instance is available with NVIDIA GPUs and which license is BYO or provided by the public cloud provider such as Azure, AWS, GCP, Alibaba.

For a list of validated server platforms, refer to NVIDIA vGPU Certified Servers.

Important note for EUC (Citrix/VMware customers):

NVIDIA vGPU 12.0 is supported with VMware Horizon 2006 (8.0), 7.13, 7.12, 7.11, 7.10, 7.9, 7.8, 7.7, 7.6, 7.5, 7.4, 7.3, 7.2, 7.1, 7.0
NVIDIA vGPU 12.0 is only supported with Citrix Virtual Apps & Desktops (LTSR) 7.15, 7 1912, (CR) 7 2006, 7 2012

This release includes the following software:

NVIDIA vGPU Manager version 460.32.04 for following hypervisors. (Citrix Hypervisor, VMware vSphere, RHEL KVM)
NVIDIA Windows driver version 461.09
NVIDIA Linux driver version 460.32.03

New Features in Release 12.0

Support for NVIDIA^® GPU Operator
Support for NVIDIA^®NVSwitch™ on-chip memory fabric
Miscellaneous bug fixes

Hardware and Software Support Introduced in Release 12.0

Support for the following GPUs:
- NVIDIA A100 HGX 80GB
- NVIDIA A40
- NVIDIA RTX A6000
Support for Windows 10 October 2020 Update (20H2) as a guest OS
Support for Red Hat CoreOS 4.7 as a guest OS
Support for SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2

NVIDIA vGPU Software v 10.0

Hi All

Its time to plan updating your NVIDIA TESLA M6, M10, M60, P4, P6, P40, P100, V100, T4, RTX6000, RTX8000 with NVIDIA vGPU software 10.0. NVIDIA have released new drivers for vGPU 10.0.

I have in this article also included which Public Cloud instance is available with NVIDIA GPUs and which license is BYO or provided by the public cloud provider such as Alibaba, Azure, AWS, GCP, Alibaba.

For a list of validated server platforms, refer to NVIDIA vGPU Certified Servers.

Important:

Citrix XenServer 7.0, 7.1 is not supported with NVIDIA Tesla T4
NVIDIA vGPU 10.0 is supported with VMware Horizon 7.11, 7.10, 7.9, 7.8, 7.7, 7.6, 7.5, 7.4, 7.3, 7.2, 7.1, 7.0, 6.2
NVIDIA vGPU 10.0 is only supported with Citrix Virtual Apps & Desktops 7.15, 7 1808, 7 1903, 7 1906, 7 1909, 7 1912 in HDX 3D Pro mode
If you are a customer using XenServer 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5 its no longer supported with NVIDIA vGPU 10.0 and should plan upgrading to Citrix Hypervisor 8.1

This release includes the following software:

NVIDIA vGPU Manager version 440.43 for the Citrix Hypervisor, VMware vSphere, RHEL KVM, Nutanix AHV
NVIDIA Windows driver version 441.66
NVIDIA Linux driver version 440.43

New Features in Release 10.0

Support for NVIDIA^® GRID™ Virtual PC and GRID Virtual Applications on Quadro RTX 6000 and Quadro RTX 8000 GPUs
Increase in the maximum number of virtual display heads supported by -1Q, -2B, and -1B4 vGPUs:
- All -1Q vGPUs now support 4 heads instead of 2 heads.
- All -2B vGPUs now support 4 heads instead of 2 heads.
- All -1B4 vGPUs now support 4 heads instead of 1 head.
Flexible virtual display resolutions
Instead of a fixed maximum resolution per head, vGPUs now support a maximum combined resolution based on their frame buffer size. This behavior allows the same number of lower resolution displays to be used as before, but alternatively allows a smaller number of higher resolution displays to be used.
Virtual display resolutions greater than 4096×2160
10-bit color
Changes to allow cross-branch driver support in future main release branches
Note: This feature cannot be used until the next NVIDIA vGPU software main release branch is available.

The purpose of this change is to allow a release of the Virtual GPU Manager from a later main release branch to be used with the NVIDIA vGPU software graphics drivers for the guest VMs from the previous branch.
Miscellaneous bug fixes

Hardware and Software Support Introduced in Release 10.0

Support for passively cooled Quadro RTX 6000 and Quadro RTX 8000 GPUs
Support for Tesla V100S PCIe 32GB GPUs
Support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.1 as a guest OS
Support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.0 and CentOS 8.0 as a guest OS
Support for Windows 10 November 2019 Update (1909) as a guest OS
Support for Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops version 7 1912
Support for Citrix Hypervisor 8.1
Support for VMware Horizon 7.11

Features Deprecated in Release 10.0

The following table lists features that are deprecated in this release of NVIDIA vGPU software. Although the features remain available in this release, they might be withdrawn in a future release. In preparation for the possible removal of these features, use the preferred alternative listed in the table.

Deprecated Feature	Preferred Alternative
-1B4 vGPU types	-1B vGPU types
-2B4 vGPU types	-2B vGPU types