VMWare Horizon discovery requirements for SAM Professional

[Sean W2]

I have a customer who uses VMWare Horizon for their VDI environment. They have a few base images that are all Non-Persistent and use App Volumes when users require specific applications like MS Project. 

I am trying to determine if there are any additional discovery jobs/integrations that are required so that we can properly assess SW compliance for the applications hosted in App volumes.

[Joe Ryder]

You could technically have a whole section of SAM considerations dedicated to VM Horizon and the licensing trap of virtual desktops.

The problem with using out-of-the-box discovery on VM Horizon desktops is that the licensing rules when virtualized for many products don't apply the same way. For instance, Windows itself isn't necessary to license if the user is accessing their Horizon VDI instance from a Windows machine you've already licensed. Same for Office (depending on your buying method). Then, some products don't allow their products to run virtualized, even though they may technically run.

Here's the rules I have always put around VDI environments from a SAM perspective:

• Avoid device-based licensing as the rules are too complicated to be of benefit.
• Where possible, look for concurrent licensing to save cost, but keep in mind that identifying concurrent use may be extremely difficult if looking to optimize down to daily use metrics. Limit your need to get too granular and just take a simple number of active users per day to determine concurrency.
• Where concurrency is not available, the best metric for licensing is active user logs which are available in Horizon's admin panel. This logging can be equally available for App Volume access. While I have not seen an integration to Horizon logging to tables in ServiceNow, I would say that taking the log and doing an allocation import based on who is accessing what is simple enough to be done either quickly in a manual upload or perhaps an appropriate external data intake method.
• Prevent requests to load new apps without reviewing the licensing options. You don't want to get in trouble with Quest or Micro Focus for instance just by not knowing what geographic or access restrictions there are in the licensing. ServiceNow is not going to be able to determine those restrictions for you in its current state.

The trouble with finding a turn-key solution that is third-party to VMware that gives you the right answer to license compliance is the number of potential non-compliance scenarios that are out there. This area of virtualization might get better over time, but I think it's a continuous problem within SAM for the time being.

[Sean W2]

Great insight Joe, thank you! 

[Paul_Butler]

Hi Sean,

Did you ever get to the bottom of your issue as we have a similar configuration?

Many Thanks & Regards,

Paul.