Microsoft Lync 2013 with Horizon View 6
There are all the articles available and most of them are on Horizon View 5.2 with Lync 2013. However these are still valid there is nothing changes. One great article which I refer to when doing my Proof of Concept (POC) with my customer is here. The document that the article refers to is a must read and its pretty clear. But some confusion that came to my mind when doing so here are some of questions you might have.
On the endpoint, it has to be a physical machine running Windows which can be 32 bit or 64 bit. The LyncVDI plugin needs to be the same bit level as the Office (where Lync is usually installed with) or the Standalone Lync that is installed in the virtual desktop.
Note: Do not install Lync Client on the end points where Lync VDI plugin is installed. And no USB redirection should be done for the camera or audio device which will be used by Lync for video and audio.
On the end point, you will need three things:
Microsoft Lync VDI 2013 Plugin (32 bit)
Microsoft Lync VDI 2013 Plugin (64 bit)
Horizon View Clients
Save the below file with a .reg extension and run on all your Windows Machine that will access the virtual desktops to create the entries. Change the Internal and External server name (Microsoft does not reocmmend using IP address) of the Lync Server that you are connecting to.
Registry file=================================
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Lync]
"ConfigurationMode"=dword:00000001
"ServerAddressInternal"=LyncServer.Local
"ServerAddressExternal"=LyncExt.Local
EndOfFile==================================
On the Virtual Desktop, install Lync Client and make sure Horizon View Agent is also installed. Login to the Lync client making sure it does connect in the first place as a test. If you have not configured the email setting, lightly you will need to manually enter your internal and external server name. Note: You can have no External Server that is fine.
Next is to test out the plugin. Once you are connected using View Client to the virtual desktop, you will login to your Lync Client. You will encounter a second prompt to login below:
Here you will need to provide your Active Directory (AD) credential.
Note: In my customer environment, their email domain and AD domain are not the same so when entering credential make sure you enter the right credential.
Once that is login successfully you will see the bottom status bar of Lync client.
The left icon indicate the audio device connected successfully. The right icon indicate the connection with the Lync VDI plugin.
Troubleshooting
I enter the below status although my Lync VDI plugin was connected successfully.
You can see the left icon indicate an alert. Clicking on it will indicate any alerts e.g. audio device not available/disabled.
If you try to connect a video call with this alert still on, the Lync Client will crash immediately. If you view a person profile picture it does the same thing.
In my scenario, the audio device was disabled on my end point, enabling the icon immediately refreshes to normal while my View session is still connected.
In summary, the Lync VDI plugin is not that difficult to setup. The good thing is any changes related to Lync on the end point device while connected to the View session, gets updated on the Lync Client. The bad side of this, if any issues, the Lync only response is by crashing completely leaving you no option to figure out what is wrong.
Hope this helps for those trying to setup Lync 2013 on Horizon View.
Update 27th Oct 2015
If you are using Horizon View on physical desktop meaning using View agent and setting up a manual pool, you might hit some issue with Lync Plugin. refer to this KB to rectify this.
On the endpoint, it has to be a physical machine running Windows which can be 32 bit or 64 bit. The LyncVDI plugin needs to be the same bit level as the Office (where Lync is usually installed with) or the Standalone Lync that is installed in the virtual desktop.
Note: Do not install Lync Client on the end points where Lync VDI plugin is installed. And no USB redirection should be done for the camera or audio device which will be used by Lync for video and audio.
On the end point, you will need three things:
- Horizon View Client
- MS Lync VDI 2013 Plugin
- Registry entry
Microsoft Lync VDI 2013 Plugin (32 bit)
Microsoft Lync VDI 2013 Plugin (64 bit)
Horizon View Clients
Save the below file with a .reg extension and run on all your Windows Machine that will access the virtual desktops to create the entries. Change the Internal and External server name (Microsoft does not reocmmend using IP address) of the Lync Server that you are connecting to.
Registry file=================================
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Lync]
"ConfigurationMode"=dword:00000001
"ServerAddressInternal"=LyncServer.Local
"ServerAddressExternal"=LyncExt.Local
EndOfFile==================================
On the Virtual Desktop, install Lync Client and make sure Horizon View Agent is also installed. Login to the Lync client making sure it does connect in the first place as a test. If you have not configured the email setting, lightly you will need to manually enter your internal and external server name. Note: You can have no External Server that is fine.
Next is to test out the plugin. Once you are connected using View Client to the virtual desktop, you will login to your Lync Client. You will encounter a second prompt to login below:
Note: In my customer environment, their email domain and AD domain are not the same so when entering credential make sure you enter the right credential.
Once that is login successfully you will see the bottom status bar of Lync client.
Troubleshooting
I enter the below status although my Lync VDI plugin was connected successfully.
If you try to connect a video call with this alert still on, the Lync Client will crash immediately. If you view a person profile picture it does the same thing.
In my scenario, the audio device was disabled on my end point, enabling the icon immediately refreshes to normal while my View session is still connected.
In summary, the Lync VDI plugin is not that difficult to setup. The good thing is any changes related to Lync on the end point device while connected to the View session, gets updated on the Lync Client. The bad side of this, if any issues, the Lync only response is by crashing completely leaving you no option to figure out what is wrong.
Hope this helps for those trying to setup Lync 2013 on Horizon View.
Update 27th Oct 2015
If you are using Horizon View on physical desktop meaning using View agent and setting up a manual pool, you might hit some issue with Lync Plugin. refer to this KB to rectify this.
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