High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC). This means the encoder preserves all of the information related to color instead of sacrificing some to increase codec efficiency. Visit these other VMware sites for additional resources and content. Explore custom assets and resources for federal, state, and local government framework solutions here, including industry-leading, public-sector solutions for endpoint management security, virtualization, cloud, and mobile, commercial requirements, industry standards, government certification, and accreditation programs. This is simply due to the larger number of pixels that must be supported at higher resolutions. TCP port 32111 is then used between the Unified Access Gateway and agent. Support full-motion video at 4K display resolution or above without HTML5 redirection. Start with these recommendations before moving on to more specialized settings. The following updates were made to this guide. Instructions for configuring all of the Blast Extreme codec options are provided in the next chapter, How to Configure Blast Extreme. If extensive use of graphically intensive content such as streaming video must be supported, consider asking users to view this content in a window, instead of full-screen mode. For information about configuring this setting, see the guides Setting Up Virtual Desktops in Horizon, Setting Up Published Desktops and Applications in Horizon, and Administering Cloud Pod Architecture in Horizon, available from the VMware Horizon Documentation site. TCP 443 is used between the client and the Connection Server. The settings allow you to manage the maximum bandwidth that any one user can consume. It is remarkable that this setup can be made to work over a WAN at all! The encoder switch ensures that the most efficient codec is dynamically used based on screen content. What about frame rate? If Sound Card is not available in the Settings pane, click Add Device > Sound Card, then click Add. Although JPG/PNG and the Blast Codec are ideal for ensuring still image quality, this capability hinders their ability to efficiently support rapidly moving screen content and motion graphics such as streaming video, video editing, and gaming. It also causes some screen content to letterbox, which may impair user experience. Our Communities feature the top Digital Workspace Experts across the world and 3rd-party content. Horizon Client (4.7): Forcing settings by GPO - VMware Let's set this to "Enabled" and set it to 60. Same applications that are ideal for H.264 with HCA while offloading the encoding from the ESXi host CPUs to an NVIDIA GPU. The log files are located in: :\ProgramData\VMware\VMware Blast\. EUC Solutions Exchange on VMware CODE is the best place to find and share snippets. Note: To enable the new Blast Codec with Horizon Client 5.2, create a file named: config.ini in %appdata%/Vmware in each users profile on their virtual desktop or shared RDSH server. Introduced in Horizon 8 (2111) is the ability to adjust the size of the Blast codec cache. With the exception of Build-to-Lossless which impacts all screens at all resolutions, each logfile entry denotes the codec used, the number of the screen (monitor) being configured of the total number, and its display resolution. Using Horizon to Access Physical Windows Machines | VMware Therefore, images compressed using JPG cannot be decoded and restored to the same quality they had before compression. 1 In VMware Horizon, when using PCoIP Secure Gateway on the Connection Server or Security Server. Test the new Blast Codec unless this use-case is primarily in support of full motion video or high-speed motion graphics such as gaming. At Tech Zone, our mission is to provide the resources you need, wherever you are in your digital workspace journey. Fortunately, Blast Extreme can be tuned to handle all of these situations. VMware recommends configuring QoS to prioritize Blast Extreme one level below Voice over IP traffic, commonly the highest prioritized application. See Enabling the USB Over Session Enhancement SDK Feature. This gateway then directs the traffic to the correct port and location on the Connection Server and agent. By default, the traffic is then side-channeled on the Blast Extreme channel to the agent. Keep in mind, however, that Blast Extreme will always resort to using more bandwidth, if necessary, to prevent the session from crashing. In addition to leveraging all of the optimizations described in the preceding section for still images, 3D design, and font quality, try the following suggestions: VMware Horizon and Blast Extreme support not just virtual desktops, but physical ones too. Is there a GPO or something? The next component to optimize is the Windows operating system. With zero attack surface, unpublished API, and encrypted data Wyse ThinOS is virus and malware resistant. HEVC is also known as H.265 and is the industry successor to H.264. 8 Use View Administrator to configure the Blast External URL setting to use for the Blast Secure Gateway on the applicable View Connection Server instances and security servers. Figure 2: Codec Options Available in the Horizon Client. Note: Different types of client devices support different features of Blast Extreme. By design, Blast Extreme provides an excellent out-of-the-box user experience for typical applications and use cases on LANs. EncoderSwitchEnabled Enables or turns off automatic switching between H.264 and JPG/PNG based on screen content. If desired, the traffic between Horizon Client and Horizon Agent can be configured to use a separate port (TCP 9427). General settings include proxy options, time zone forwarding, multimedia acceleration, and other display settings. Be certain to test key applications and multimedia content before widespread deployment. Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc.\VMware Blast\Config" -Name "SslHash" -Value $regthumb # Fill the SslHash for Blast to use the computernamed certificate # Restart the Blast service to take effect Restart-Service -Name VMBlast -Force } Kind regards, Ralph Hofman Share Reply 0 Kudos chsa_topsoe Contributor 11-17-2021 04:03 PM In the following screenshot, the Horizon Performance Tracker is reporting that the Blast session is using UDP and the NVIDIA HEVC codec. Some of the codecs and codec options can be enabled using the Horizon Client, as shown in the following screenshot. Testing has shown this enables smooth 4K video playback without need for hardware GPUs. Broad client support, including Windows, Linux, Mac, Android, iOS, Chrome, and web (HTML Access) clients. EncoderImageCacheSizeKB Introduced in Horizon 8 (2111). EncoderMaxFPS The maximum frames per second that Blast Extreme will display. There is a unified image quality configuration setting that controls the remoted display image quality level across all Blast encoders. Yes. One of the easiest methods is to use the Windows Group Policy template provided with each release of VMware Horizon. The fewer packets the display protocol puts on the network, the fewer that will be affected by packet loss. Although RAM is rarely the bottleneck, monitor RAM to ensure it is not being over utilized by applications. We also frequently discover that the underlying ESXi hosts are overutilized and are exhibiting clear indicators of problems impacting user experience such as high CPU Ready times. Optimize the Windows operating system in virtual desktops and RDSH servers using the VMware Operating System Optimization Tool, but recognize that some optimizations applied by default might reduce quality or turn off features required to support higher-quality applications. Specializing in IT architecture on every scale, Mark has designed hundreds of successful solutions for organizations of all sizes and verticals. Ability to meet performance requirements for visually demanding applications when used with NVIDIA Tesla GPUbased hardware acceleration in the host. WANs typically have just a fraction of the bandwidth that is available on local area networks (LANs). H.264 will provide support for full-motion graphics, whereas the encoder switch will ensure that the most efficient codec is dynamically used for each screen based on screen content. Information on how to enable build-to-lossless mode is covered in the next chapter, How to Configure Blast Extreme. For details about port requirements for connectivity between the various components and servers in a Horizon deployment, see Network Ports in VMware Horizon. Figure 1: Choosing Blast Extreme in the Horizon Client Options. Tunneling traffic through the Connection Server allows for ports to be open between the Connection Server and the client, and between the Connection Server and the agent, but not between the client and the agent. (Requires NVIDIA GPU). If UDP is not enabled or is blocked, the initial TCP connection (Step 3) is used instead. 1 enabled in both directions Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure Activity Path. VMware Horizon View: GPO Optimizations for Power Users In testing, Blast Extreme has been measured using essentially the same amount of bandwidth with both TCP and UDP. VMware Horizon 2206 release enhances security, end-user experience, and Added information about the Blast Codec, which was introduced in the Horizon 7.10 release, and new information about the encoder switch. Let us help you become the hero of your department. Demanding graphical applications commonly require more than two virtual CPUs, even with hardware GPU support. Since first joining VMware in 2008, Mark has focused on helping customers succeed with their end-user computing endeavors. And limiting frame rate for multimedia use cases such as streaming video simply impairs playback quality and user experience. NVIDIA Ampere A10 and A40 GPUs. In testing, UDP has been shown to handle packet loss better than TCP in most situations. VMware has built a set of tools and resources to support you and your team as you build out an adoption strategy. More information about the admin settings is provided in the next section of this chapter. Start here to discover how the Digital Workspace empowers the Public Sector. If desired, the traffic between the Unified Access Gateway and Horizon Agent can be configured to use a separate port (TCP 9427). General Settings The following table describes the general settings in the Horizon Client Configuration ADMX template file. Value: 1. H264maxQP The lowest quality that H.264 will start with before building the screen to higher quality. Click the View All button for the full list. Fortunately, VMware has developed a free tool to optimize Windows desktops and servers. If full-motion graphics must be supported, such as streaming video, use the encoder switch to dynamically switch between the Blast Codec or JPG/PNG and the H.264 codec. :\ProgramData\VMware\VMware Blast\. NVIDIA Encoded H.264 Streaming video, for example, may freeze for a moment or pixelate briefly, but otherwise continue playing. If the Horizon Performance Tracker cannot be used or does not provide the desired details, the most effective way to verify the Blast Extreme configuration is to examine the log files on the virtual desktops, physical desktops, or RDSH servers. However, in testing it has been determined that only Intel GPUs support OpenGL applications in a remote session. All three howeverNVIDIA, AMD, and Intelare able to support Microsoft DirectX. Figure 2: Internal Connection from Client to Agent Using Blast Extreme. Look for Desktop & End-User Computing and under this category, select Download Product under VMware Horizon. This will force H.264 to start at higher quality and prevent it from expending bandwidth to send initial low-quality screens. and includes optimization templates for both Windows desktop and server operating systems. Continuing the theme of useful registry key settings you can bake into your image or manually configure for some quick testing, below is a list of corresponding Blast Extreme registry settings to the Horizon 7. In testing, TCP has been shown to handle high latency better than UDP. Although Blast Extreme has been able to provide a functional desktop and application experience when packet loss is in excess of 20 percent, it is with noticeable degradation to user experience. Dell Wyse ThinOS 9.1.3129, 9.1.3112, 9.1.2101, and 9.1.1131 VMware vSAN is a software-based storage feature that is built into the ESXi hypervisor and integrated with vSphere; it pools disk space from multiple ESXi hosts and provisions it via smart policies, such as protection limits, thin provisioning and erasure coding. Certificates and BLAST - VMware Technology Network VMTN JPG/PNG can also be configured to use build-to-lossless mode. Begin your journey leveraging cloud-based services for desktop environments. It may be a good idea to completely uninstall VMware Tools and re-install. Other codec options can only be enabled by administrators and also require a corresponding Horizon Client setting. Update for VMware Horizon 7 version 7.10. Let us help you learn how to use it. Deploying Hardware-Accelerated Graphics with VMware Horizon EncoderH264YUV444 Enables or turns off support for High Color Accuracy for H.264. This section details the workflow of connections that are made so that Blast Extreme can provide the best remote display experience, regardless of whether the user is inside or outside of the corporate network. However, it is important to note that building-to-lossless increases session bandwidth utilization because more display information is sent across the network. Flexibility with regard to configuration methods, which include using Windows Group Policy or Horizon Smart Policies included with, Option to simplify setup, including opening only one port (TCP 443) on front-end firewalls when, AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) encryption. Test the new Blast Codec. H.264s 4:4:4 GPU decoding is also not supported by many GPUs. Why it is only showing this low settings? Diagrams show which ports are used at which locations, and the numbered lists that follow the diagrams show what is happening at each connection. The next section describes the workflow of connections made between the client and agent components. also impact all services, including audio and file transfer, while. Horizon Configuration | VMware EncoderBuildToPNG Enables or turns off build-to-lossless mode for the JPG/PNG codec. After comprehensive testing, we have determined that limiting frame rate provides little to no reduction in bandwidth or CPU utilization for typical applications and use cases. Moving to the cloud? Find all of TechZone's available downloadable content here. I'm sure this feature looked awesome on paper. It is better to leverage HTML5 multimedia redirection to optimize such use cases. However, it does increase client CPU utilization by up to 200 percent for the duration of the redirection (from an average of 8 to 24 percent on a sample test system). Therefore, it is imperative to start by verifying that all components are sized properly and have sufficient resources and available capacity. MaxBandwidthKbpsPerMegaPixelSlope The maximum bandwidth used to transfer screen contents per megapixel remoted, in kilobits per second. Navigate to Virtual Machine > Settings (Fusion) or VM > Settings (Workstation). Troubleshooting VMware Horizon View Blast Secure Gateway Service Initiation Issues (54145) - This article walks through steps to increase logging to get precise . HEVC requires NVIDIA GPUs to be installed in the ESXi hosts to offload encoding. Added guidance on using Network Quality-of-Service (Qos) to prioritize Blast. VMware Horizon Blank Screen - The Tech Journal Note that this increases bandwidth and virtual desktop CPU utilization. Screen 0/1 @ Resolution: 3840 x 2160. 2 When RDP protocol is tunneled through the Connection Server or Security Server. Before tuning Blast Extreme, it is critical to properly size and optimize the virtual desktops, physical desktops, Microsoft RDSH servers, and supporting infrastructure. On the client, this means near universal H.264 GPU decode support, because nearly all devices with graphics cards manufactured since 2013 have hardware H.264 decode support, including cell phones and most thin clients. Horizon Client, on the client device, connects to a Connection Server on TCP port 443 for authentication and to request a desktop or application. Most settings make the option available to be used (set to 1) or not (set to 0). Watch conversations with VMware experts on top-of-mind issues. Yes: Select Allow H.264 Decoding, and select Allow High Color Accuracy. Access technical, third-party tips, tricks, and how-tos. Each setting is a string value (REG_SZ). The Connection Server returns the connection information for the virtual desktop or RDSH server that provides remote applications (on TCP port 443). The range is 136, where 1 is the highest quality. Horizon Client 5.2 requires a special client setting. EncoderNvidiaH264Enabled Enables or turns off support for offloading H.264 encoding to NVIDIA GPUs installed in the ESXi hosts. To verify operation, examine the logs. Expanded the guidance on how to enable different codecs and verify the running configuration. Go to https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/downloads. In other words, the settings do not directly enable the feature, such as forcing all connections to use H.264.