There are multiple license models for VMware Horizon View. Here, we used Horizon View Standard Edition for most of the functionality, but you will require Horizon View Advanced Edition to utilize VMware Virtual SAN technology.

VMware vSphere is required for use in this book. VMware Horizon View can be used with all editions of vSphere but I would strongly recommend vSphere Enterprise, vSphere Remote Office Branch Office Standard, or vSphere Essentials Plus Kit levels of licensing for access to Distributed Resource Schedule (DRS) and DRS Rules. DRS is essential to ensure that hosts are properly balanced within a cluster and that VMs are bound to the correct host. High Availability is also required to bring VMs up after a host failure.

For VMware Horizon View, you will need to license Windows Enterprise Edition for the Client Desktops and have a Microsoft KMS (short for Key Management Service) activation server deployed.

For Windows servers, you will need at least three licensed copies; up to five are used in this book. You will need the following components on separate Windows servers: vCenter, View Composers, View Security server, Active Directory servers, and any redundant pairs. Each server should be licensed with a Windows Server Standard license.

For Microsoft databases, you will need either a Microsoft SQL Standard or higher license for High Availability or use the Express Edition.