VMware Horizon 8 (2306)

VMware have released a new version of VMware Horizon 8 (2306), and this release is general available from 6th July 2023. 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. Lets dig into what is new.

What is new in VMware Horizon 8 (2306)

VMware Horizon 8 2306 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 2306
VMware Unified Access Gateway 2306
VMware App Volume 2306
VMware Horizon Clients 2306 for Android, Linux, iOS, Mac, Windows, HTML Access
VMware Horizon Cloud services 2306

VMware Horizon 8 version 2306 is a Current Release (CR), and is supported until 30-03-2026.

VMware Horizon 8 version 2306 includes the following new features and enhancements.

IMPORTANT: Horizon 8 2306 is not supported with vSphere 6.5 or vSphere 6.7, which are both past the end of General Support. Horizon 8 2306 Instant Clones are incompatible with vSphere 6.5 and vSphere 6.7 so you must upgrade to vSphere 7.0 or later before upgrading to Horizon 8 2306 if you are using Instant Clones.

WARNING: This Microsoft security update (KB5014754) will impact customers using certificate-based authentication such as smartcards. If you have applied this update to your windows OS and if you have not mapped certificates to one of the strong mapping types described in the Microsoft KB, then users will be denied authentication when the full enforcement mode is activated by Microsoft, currently planned for November 2023. To address this issue the Horizon 8 2306 release will allow admins to configure certificate mappings to one of the strong types from the Horizon console. If you are using certificate-based authentication, then we recommend that you upgrade to this release to configure certificate mappings. See VMware KB 91595 for details

Console

Horizon 8 includes a new role called Horizon Cloud Service that provides a limited set of privileges to administrators to activate subscription licenses and monitor Horizon 8 components from the Cloud Control Plane via the Edge Gateway service.
You can configure global agent restriction settings to prevent users from connecting to certain Windows agent versions and also provide an appropriate warning message to users.
Administrators can configure certificate mappings from the Horizon console. This addresses the impact of Microsoft security update (KB5014754—Certificate-based authentication changes on Windows domain controllers) on customers using Certificate-Based Authentication such as Smart Cards. See VMware KB 91595 for details.
After the Horizon 8 license expires and the 30-day grace period is over, end users can continue to work with existing desktops, remote applications, and virtual machines. Administrators will be unable to add new pools or farms, expand existing pools and farms, or schedule/reschedule a new push image for desktops and farms.
You can now hide the license subscription banner in Horizon Console though the expiry notice and warnings will still be displayed.

Virtual Desktops & Applications

Support for hardware-accelerated AV1 encoding has been extended to NVIDIA GPUs.
Instant clone smart provisioning now defaults to Mode B (clones created without Parent VMs). Mode A is selected only when using a vTPM device on ESXi hosts with versions older than 7.0 update 3f. Administrators can still set the provisioning mode by setting pae-ProvisionScheme attribute in ADAM database as described in KB 81026.
If you are using a vVol-enabled platform for full clones, then instant clones can co-exist on the same platform without any concerns. Instant clone workflows are not impacted in any way on a vVol-enabled platform.
For customers who are using persistent disks with dedicated linked clones in Horizon 7.x, the persistent disk feature is now available with dedicated instant clones. Persistent disks are used to preserve user profiles when the instant clones are refreshed. Refer to this migration guidance KB 93091 on how you can move your persistent disks from your Horizon 7.x environment to Horizon 8.
Instant clone provisioning will check for available memory in addition to vGPU capacity when provisioning vGPU-enabled virtual machines. Earlier, only availability of vGPU was considered when placing instant clone VMs on hosts. This resulted in insufficient resources error when memory resources on a particular host were exhausted even though other hosts in the cluster had enough memory. This feature can be enabled by setting the pae-HostRamThresholdForVgpuPool value in ADAM database. See KB 93092 for details.
Administrators can now enable Instant Clone debug mode from Horizon console instead of by setting Configuration Parameters in the vCenter. With debug mode, administrators can analyze failed internal virtual machines before these virtual machines are deleted. This feature will also display the path of the internal virtual machines making it easier to locate them in vCenter and troubleshoot errors.

VMware Horizon Connection Server On-Premises

Horizon 8 no longer supports Microsoft Systems Center Operations Manager for monitoring Connection Server.
When using Cloud Pod Architecture, administrators can now configure Global Entitlements to distribute session load across available resources based on their current utilization. For more information, see Cloud Pod Architecture in Horizon 8.
A Horizon administrator can configure a timeout after which Single Sign-On (SSO) credentials will be discarded. This can be configured to affect internal and/or external connections. When SSO credentials are discarded after the timeout, Desktop and Application sessions will remain open and connected. Launching a new Desktop or a new application from a different RDS Farm will require authentication directly to the Windows Guest Operating System. See Horizon Administration for details.
You can set the Connection Server enforcement state from clients with the same or a higher certificate checking mode. Horizon Clients 2306 and higher support this setting.
Security configuration setting balancedHost can now accept a list for those with more than one load balancer. The syntax is exactly the same as portalHost.

VMware Horizon Agent 8 2306 for Linux

his release adds support for the following Linux distributions:
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Workstation 8.8 and 9.2
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Server 8.8 and 9.2
- Rocky Linux 8.8 and 9.2
- Debian 11.6 and 11.7
This release drops support for the following Linux distributions:
- RHEL Workstation 8.4
- RHEL Server 8.4
This release adds support for VMware Horizon Recording. This feature allows administrators to record desktop and application sessions to monitor user behavior for Linux remote desktops and applications.
VMware Integrated Printing now supports the ability to add a watermark to printed jobs. Administrators can enable this feature using the printSvc.watermarkEnabledproperty in /etc/vmware/config.
Administrators can store the VMwareBlastServer CA-signed certificate and private key in a BCFKS keystore. Two new configuration options in /etc/vmware/viewagent-custom.conf, SSLCertName and SSLKeyName, can be used to customize the names of the certificate and private key.

VMware Horizon Agent 8 2306 for Windows

- The Horizon Agent Installer has a checkbox to automatically restart the system on successful completion.
- This release adds HEVC 4:4:4 support for Intel HW Encoding.
- Horizon now supports Windows 11 as a Guest OS when running on VMware Cloud on AWS.
- This release has added the FIDO2 Redirection feature for Windows Client and Agent, which enables users to take advantage of local endpoint FIDO2 components in the remote desktop or remote application. New GPO settings for this feature are Allow FIDO2 Authenticator Access which determines whether applications in remote desktops can access the endpoint’s FIDO2 authenticators and FIDO2 Allow List which allows you to specify applications that can access endpoint’s FIDO2 authenticators.
- The group policy Block Thumbnail Representation When Minimized determines whether hovering over the thumbnail of a remote desktop will show remote desktop content when its window is minimized.
- You can filter thousands of printers by column by activating the LBP Enabled option. You can also locate a specific printer by typing the printer name or partial name.
- The group policy Config the LBP Parallel Mode improves the printer mapping experience when users have massive LBP printers.
- Media Optimization for Microsoft Teams offers simulcast support, which enables multiple video call streams at the same time in meetings, allowing better experience with low network quality. (Windows, Mac, and Linux clients).

VMware Horizon 8 2306 GPO Bundle

no new features

Windows OS Optimization Tool for Horizon

Supports Windows 11 22H2.
Includes additional built-in functions.
This release adds support for MDT Environment Automation that simplifies the process of creating an MDT server and setting up the base image. The tool automates the installation of the required applications and configures the Optimization tool MDT plugin.
Optimization Tool MDT plugin includes:
- Ability to gather optimization result reports.
- Support for importing customized extension to the optimization template.
- Support for multiple deployment shares.

Horizon Client

For client certificates, Horizon 8 administrators can set the Connection Server enforcement state for Windows Client sessions and specify the minimum desired security setting to restrict client connections.
The Unlock a Desktop With True SSO and Workspace ONE feature is now supported on Horizon Mac and Linux clients

Horizon RESTful APIs

New REST APIs for Application pool, Application icon, Virtual Center summary statistics, UserOrGroupsSummary, Datastore usage, Session statistics, Machines etcetera are available along with existing API updates to create robust automations. For more details, refer to API documentation

VMware Dynamic Environment Manager 2306

VMware Dynamic Environment Manager participates in VMware’s Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP). Customers can choose to join the CEIP, and modify their CEIP participation preference anytime.
Added a new Schedule trigger to triggered tasks that can be used to periodically refresh Dynamic Environment Manager configuration.
Dynamic configuration of Horizon browser content redirection policy for users.
Updated Components. This release updates the main product components. Application Profiler, Helpdesk Support Tool, and SyncTool are not updated for the 2306 release

VMware Unified Access Gateway 2306

VMware Unified Access Gateway 2306 provides the following new features and enhancements:

Added compatibility with Horizon Connection Server’s support for setting enforcement state from clients with the same or a higher certificate checking mode.
Added support for PKG file type to Custom Executable distribution.
Support for enforcing virtual channel restrictions with Blast protocol. This list overrides any settings applied through the Horizon Agent.
Improved compatibility with Web Reverse Proxying to web services using NTLM authentication.
Enhancements in SAML authentication for the Admin UI administrator login.
- Configuration of static Service Provider entity id that is included in the Service Provider’s metadata.
- Option to sign SAML AuthNRequest with TLS certificate installed on admin interface.
Added support to Tunnel Edge Service for optional Configuration ID parameter (used in future UEM release).
Logging improvements and troubleshooting enhancements.
Updates to Photon OS package versions and Java component versions.

Supported versions of Windows 10 and Windows 11 on Horizon Agent Including All VDI Clones (Full Clones, Instant Clones, and Linked Clones on Horizon 8 2306)

Windows 11 22H2 GAC (Pro, Education, Enterprise) Full support
Windows 11 21H2 GAC (Pro, Education, Enterprise) Full support
Windows 10 22H2 GAC (Pro, Education, Enterprise) Full support
Windows 10 21H2 GAC (Pro, Education, Enterprise) Full support
Windows 10 21H1 SAC (Pro, Education, Enterprise) Full support
Windows 10 20H2 SAC (Pro,Education,Enterprise) Full support
Windows 10 2004 SAC (Pro,Education,Enterprise) Not Supported
Windows 10 1909 SAC (Pro,Education,Enterprise) Not Supported
Windows 10 1903 SAC and earlier (Pro,Education,Enterprise) Not Supported
Windows 10 LTSC 2021 (Enterprise) Full support
Windows 10 LTSC 2019 (Enterprise) Full support
Windows 10 LTSB 2016 (Enterprise) Not Supported

For more additional information please read this knowledge article

VMware Cloud Connector

Applicable to customers with VMware Horizon Universal Subscription, Horizon Enterprise Plus Subscription, Horizon Standard Plus Subscription, Horizon Apps Universal Subscription, or Horizon Apps Standard Subscription.

The Horizon Cloud Connector virtual appliance is a required component for VMware Horizon to support the management of Horizon pods using Horizon Cloud Service.

Horizon 8 Deployed on Public Cloud SDDCs

Horizon 8 Deployed on Azure VMware Solution

For a list of VMware Horizon 8 features supported on Azure VMware Solution (AVS), see Deploying VMware Horizon 8 on Azure VMware Solution.

Horizon 8 Deployed on VMware Cloud on AWS

For a list of VMware Horizon features supported on VMware Cloud on AWS, see VMware Knowledge Base article 58539.

Horizon 8 Deployed on Google Cloud VMware Engine

For a list of VMware Horizon 8 features supported on Google Cloud VMware Engine, see VMware Knowledge Base article 81922

Horizon 8 Deployed on Oracle Cloud VMware Solution

For a list of VMware Horizon 8 features supported on Oracle Cloud VMware Solution, see VMware Knowledge Base article 88202.

VMware App Volumes 4 2306

App Links for Apps on Demand

Send an App Link in an email, post on a webpage, or add to your app portal. These application URIs can now be used to deliver and launch applications wherever App Volumes agent is installed. Administrators can collect these links from the App Volumes Manager admin UI and distribute them as needed.
VMDK Package Attachment Resiliency

In combination with vSphere 8.0 Update 1, App Volumes has added a feature to allow partial disk attachment in the vCenter. If a particular VMDK application package is unable to be attached, any application package disks that are able to be added will still be added. The default behavior in vSphere is to cancel the VM reconfigure which typically results in none of the applications being delivered to end users. This new vSphere feature is particularly important for classic application delivery when multiple disks are added to the machine during startup or login.

To activate this new feature on upgraded App Volumes Manager instances, the feature toggle must be turned on. For more information, see the VMDK Package Attachment Resiliency advanced setting in the App Volumes Manager Configuration Settings Page section in the VMware App Volumes 4 Administration Guide.
VMware App Volumes Deployment Guide for Azure Virtual Desktop Remote Apps

Remote app streaming for Azure Virtual Desktop enables users to access applications on an as-needed basis, without requiring the applications to be installed locally on their devices or on the image of a multi-session server.

With Apps on Demand, the applications are delivered to the server for the user when launching the application in real time. The user gets an application when they need the application without the app rationalization and pre-planning required of admins for typical host pools. Remote applications coupled with App Volumes and its Apps on Demand feature also simplifies application management of app updates. Rolling out a new version of an application to thousands of users is as simple as installing once and moving a marker to indicate the current version.
Technical Preview of App Volumes Deployment Guide for Amazon AppStream 2.0

We are excited to announce the Technical Preview for the integration of VMware App Volumes with Amazon AppStream 2.0, enabling the delivery of App Volumes applications to AppStream users. This integration empowers App Volumes administrators to package and manage applications independently from the underlying operating system, resulting in more efficient management of virtualized applications. These packaged applications can be seamlessly streamed to AppStream Windows multi-session desktop fleets, allowing end users to quickly access the applications they need without the delay of installation processes or fleet reprovisioning.

With this release of App Volumes, which is now generally available, you have the opportunity to explore a technical preview of App Volumes with Amazon AppStream 2.0 applications.

For more information, see the VMware App Volumes Deployment Guide for Amazon AppStream 2.0 guide at VMware Docs.

Horizon Client 2306 – new features

VMware Horizon Client 2306 for Android

Horizon Client for Android 2306 includes bug fixes.

VMware Horizon Client 2306 for ChromeOS

Horizon Client for Chrome 2306 includes the following new features.

Support for VMware Horizon Cloud Service – next-gen

You can now use Horizon Client for Chrome to connect to desktops and applications in a VMware Horizon Cloud Service – next-gen deployment.
Split composite USB devices for redirection

You can split supported composite USB devices into separate components for redirection. This release supports Nuance PowerMic II and Nuance PowerMic III.
Real-Time Audio-Video performance enhancements

You can enhance the performance of Real-Time Audio-Video with two new Google Admin policy settings:
- enableRTAVH264Codec lets you configure use of the H.264 codec for Real-Time Audio-Video.
- hardwareAccelerationOption lets you turn on and off GPU hardware accleration for Real-Time Audio-Video.
Unstable network notifications

Horizon Client displays a notification message in the session window if your network connection become unstable. The Disable network state display option in the Settingswindow lets you turn on and off these notifications. The new Google Admin policy setting networkStateConfig lets you customize the threshold parameters used by Horizon Client to determine the network quality

VMware Horizon Client 2306 for iOS

Horizon Client for iOS 2306 has the following new feature.

Support for iOS client:get friendly device name from HUB for iOS 16

Due to Apple’s privacy policy change, starting with iOS 16 the iOS client will not be able to get the device friendly name from Apple, but instead, a general name such as “iPhone” or “iPad”. To address this, a new feature was added to allow Workspace One UEM administrators to create and define a friendly device name for the device in the VMware iOS client

VMware Horizon Client 2306 for Mac

Horizon Client for Mac 2306 includes the following new features.

Ability to take screenshots of Windows remote desktops

You can use the Screen Capture feature to take screenshots of your Windows remote desktop.
Support for background blur and effects when using Microsoft Teams Optimization

Background blur and effects enable you to blur your background or select a background image from a pre-defined set of images provided by Microsoft before or during a video call or meeting.
Improved Blast connection failure diagnostic information

If the Horizon Client for Mac is unable to connect to the remote desktop or published application via Blast protocol, a detailed error message is displayed on the user interface. The client log files also include a tag called Blast_Connect_Failure_Alert on lines that contain specific error information about Blast connection failures.
Zoom and Cisco plug-in Installation

After you connect to a server, you can install a Zoom or Cisco plug if it is configured on the server.
High-definition color with High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC)

A new option in the Blast configuration settings allows administrators to activate or deactivate high-definition color when HEVC decoding is allowed in Horizon Client.
Blast audio improvement

Audio video synchronization for the Horizon Mac client has been improved in this release.
DEEM (Digital Employee Experience Management) is integrated with Horizon Mac Client

If your Horizon deployment is Horizon Cloud Next-Gen based, and you have purchased the DEEM for Horizon add-on, Wi-Fi connection metrics are automatically collected by Horizon Mac Client and presented under Network/Protocol Score tab of DEEM/Horizon dashboard.

See the Digital Employee Experience for VMware Horizon page.
Unlock a Desktop With True SSO and Workspace ONE

Horizon Client for Mac now supports the Unlock a Desktop With True SSO and Workspace ONE feature

VMware Horizon Client 2306 for Linux

Horizon Client for Linux 2306 includes the following new features.

Debian installer package

Beginning with this release, you have the option to install Horizon Client using a .deb installer package.
Opening local files in published applications

Users can open local files in Windows-based published applications directly from the local file system. The Open local file in hosted applications option in the client Settings window allows users to toggle this feature on and off. The view.enableFileAssociation configuration property allows administrators to activate or deactivate this feature for users.
Support for AOMedia Video 1 (AV1) decoding

You can allow AV1 decoding when using the VMware Blast display protocol. To allow AV1 decoding, select File > Configure VMware Blast to access the Blast configuration settings.
High-definition color with High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC)

A new option in the Blast configuration settings enables users to allow or disallow high-definition color when HEVC decoding is allowed in Horizon Client. High-definition color provides sharper displays of color text and graphics (using a YUV 4:4:4 color matrix instead of the more commonly used YUV 4:2:0). However, some GPUs exhibit poor encode/decode performance for HEVC with high-definition color enabled, causing the frame rate to drop noticeably. The new option enables users to disallow high-definition color if such a performance issue is seen.
Improved Blast connection failure diagnostic information

If Horizon Client is unable to connect to the remote desktop or published application via the Blast protocol, a detailed error message is displayed on the user interface. The client log files also include a tag called Blast_Connect_Failure_Alert on lines that contain specific error information about Blast connection failures.
Configuring client behavior when disconnecting from all sessions

With the new configuration file key view.allSessionsDisconnectedBehavior and its command-line counterpart –allSessionsDisconnectedBehavior, you can configure how the client behaves when all sessions are disconnected.
Configuring auto-connection for single-resource entitlements

With the new configuration file key view.singleAutoConnect and its command-line counterpart –singleAutoConnect, you can configure the client to connect automatically to a remote desktop or published application after the user authenticates to the server, if the user is entitled to only that one desktop or application.
Configuring limits on dump files

A new configuration file key view.GlobalMaxDumpCount enables you to to set the maximum number of core dump files allowed for Horizon Client processes.
Unlock a Desktop With True SSO and Workspace ONE

Horizon Client for Linux now supports the Unlock a Desktop With True SSO and Workspace ONE feature

VMware Horizon Client 2306 for Windows

Horizon Client for Windows 2306 includes the following new features:

Support for Windows ARM64 bit devices

Horizon Client for Windows is now supported on Windows ARM64 bit devices with emulation mode. The following ARM-based devices were tested:
- Lenovo ThinkPad x13s
- Microsoft Surface Pro X
The following client features are not supported on Windows ARM64 bit devices for this release:
- USB redirection
- Login As Current User
- Serial Port redirection
- Anti keylogger
- Windows Hello 4 Business Auth
- Imprivata integration
GPO to control Password Reveal icon

The Horizon Client for Windows includes a new GPO (called Enable show password button) to control whether to display the Reveal Password icon next to the Password field.
Ability to pair a bluetooth device

You can now pair a blue tooth device with the local desktop, which is redirected to the remote desktop

VMware Horizon Client 2306 for HTML5

HTML Access 2306 includes the following new features:

Updated browser support

HTML Access is now validated to run on the following browser versions:
- Chrome: versions 112, 113, 114
- Edge: versions 112, 113, 114
- Firefox: versions 112, 113, 114
Real-Time Audio-Video performance enhancements

You can enhance the performance of Real-Time Audio-Video with two new configuration properties in the Connection Server portal-version.properties file:
- enableRTAVH264Codec lets you configure use of the H.264 codec for Real-Time Audio-Video.
- hardwareAccelerationOption lets you turn on and off GPU hardware accleration for Real-Time Audio-Video.
Unstable network notifications

HTML Access displays a notification message in the session window if it detects network instability due to high latency, as measured by round-trip time (RTT). The Disable network state display option in the Settings window lets you turn on and off these notifications. You can also use configuration properties in the Connection Server portal-version.properties file to customize the threshold parameters used to determine the network quality.