Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Adapters

FlexNet Manager Suite 2022 R2 (On-Premises)

The VMware Horizon and Citrix Cloud virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) adapters, provided by Flexera, allow you to collect data from VMware Horizon and Citrix Cloud non-persistent VDIs and import it into FlexNet Manager Suite.

Imported VDI data and application evidence collected by the FlexNet inventory agent will give you full IT visibility of inventory running on VMware Horizon and Citrix Cloud platforms, and provide licensing capabilities for all applications used by end-users on non-persistent VDIs.

Note: Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) is a technology that refers to the use of virtual machines to provide and manage virtual desktops. VDI hosts desktop environments on a centralized server and deploys them to end-users on request.

The difference between non-persistent and persistent VDIs

Once a user logs off a virtual machine (VM), that VM and associated data is destroyed. This is referred to as a non-persistent VDI. Any changes made on the VM will not persist when the VM is destroyed. Because of this, non-persistent VMs are very difficult to license. This is the problem that the VDI adapters provided by Flexera solve.

Unlike non-persistent VMs, persistent VMs are not destroyed once a user logs off. Persistent VMs are similar to that of a standard VM, and when set up, administrators can give access to groups/users who can continue to use it until the administrator deletes it.

What will you see in the UI

In FlexNet Manager Suite, you can view a VDI template for each gold image that has been configured in VMware Horizon and Citrix Cloud. This template allows you to see the full list of applications on all VDIs deployed from that template.

Tip: The "VDI template" terminology is used in the FlexNet Manager Suite UI. For customers not familiar with this terminology, the "VDI template" can also be referred to as the "golden image virtual machine".

For each user who has access to any of the non-persistent VDIs that were deployed from a VDI template, the application evidence is mapped over to any inventory device for which that user is the primary user.

For any end-user who can access a VDI template who is not a primary user of any inventory device, a remote device will be created for them, and the application evidence will be mapped.

Supported versions

VMware Horizon

• VMware Horizon version 8.0.0 or higher, if you are not using Cloud Pod Architecture
• If you are using Cloud Pod Architecture, version 2012 or higher
• The VMware Horizon adapter is supported by version 2022 R1 of FlexNet Manager Suite onwards.

Citrix

• Any version of Citrix Remote PowerShell SDK
• The Citrix Cloud adapter is supported by version 2022 R2 of FlexNet Manager Suite onwards.

What's not supported

• Elastic app layering in Citrix Cloud and Layered Images in VMware Horizon is currently not supported. This technology allows you to dynamically assign applications to a specific VDI instance outside of the VDI template.

Applicable to Citrix Cloud only

• Delivery groups with the allow all authenticated users access policy are not supported.

• The entitlement policy is not evaluated, as this policy may limit users from launching desktops.

  Access to delivery group is the only permission that is evaluated. This permission gives users access to any desktops in a specific delivery group.