vCenter Server requirements
You should use a dedicated VMware vCenter Server for VMware Horizon wherever possible, particularly if you are using Horizon Composer to deploy linked-clone desktops. For larger Horizon deployments, this will ensure that your vCenter Server is configured based on the exact requirements of your Horizon infrastructure, ensuring optimal performance and providing maximum flexibility when future upgrades or updates are required.
While Horizon and vCenter supports up to 10,000 desktops per vCenter Server instance, for performance and availability reasons VMware recommends no more than 2,000 desktops per vCenter Server.
Using a dedicated vCenter Server for the Horizon provides a number of benefits over using an existing vCenter Server. These benefits include the following:
- A new Horizon deployment that plans to use an existing vCenter Server may require a version of vCenter that is currently not in use, necessitating an upgrade that may not be possible based on environmental or licensing constraints.
- If a Horizon upgrade or patch requires an accompanying vCenter Server upgrade or patch, this operation will not affect the existing vCenter server.
- The existing vCenter Server may not be properly sized to handle the planned number of virtual desktops, and may require changes to CPU, memory, the OS version, or vCenter Server settings.
- For organizations that plan to deploy linked-clone desktops using Horizon Composer, the vCenter Server will be placed under a significant load during various Composer Operations. Isolating these operations to a dedicated vCenter Server ensures that this load does not affect the management of other, non-Horizon related, ESXi servers.
The installation and configuration of VMware vCenter can proceed as outlined in the VMware vSphere Installation and Setup Guide (https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/6.7/vsphere-vcenter-server-67-installation-guide.pdf).