VMware Horizon

General Information

Technologies must be operated and maintained in accordance with Federal and Department security and privacy policies and guidelines. More information on the proper use of the TRM can be found on the TRM Proper Use Tab/Section.

Website:	Go to site
Description:	VMware Horizon (formerly VMware Horizon View) is a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solution. It allows users to deploy virtual desktops and applications through a single platform. VMware Horizon View is part of the VMware Horizon Suite. The TRM decisions in this entry only apply to technologies and versions owned, operated, managed, patched, and version-controlled by VA. This includes technologies deployed as software installations on VMs within VA-controlled cloud environments (e.g. VA Enterprise Cloud (VAEC)). Cloud services provided by the VAEC, which are listed in the VAEC Service Catalog, and those controlled and managed by an external Cloud Service Provider (i.e. SaaS) are not in the purview of the TRM. For more information on the use of cloud services and cloud-based products within VA, including VA private clouds, please see the Enterprise Cloud Solutions Office (ECSO) Portal at: https://dvagov.sharepoint.com/sites/OITEPMOECSO
Technology/Standard Usage Requirements:	Users must ensure their use of this technology/standard is consistent with VA policies and standards, including, but not limited to, VA Handbooks 6102 and 6500; VA Directives 6004, 6513, and 6517; and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) standards, including Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS). Users must ensure sensitive data is properly protected in compliance with all VA regulations. Prior to use of this technology, users should check with their supervisor, Information Security Officer (ISO), Facility Chief Information Officer (CIO), or local Office of Information and Technology (OI&T) representative to ensure that all actions are consistent with current VA policies and procedures prior to implementation.
Section 508 Information:	This technology has not been assessed by the Section 508 Office. The Implementer of this technology has the responsibility to ensure the version deployed is 508-compliant. Section 508 compliance may be reviewed by the Section 508 Office and appropriate remedial action required if necessary. For additional information or assistance regarding Section 508, please contact the Section 508 Office at Section508@va.gov.
Decision:	View Decisions

Decision Source:	TRM Mgmt Group
Decision Process:	One-VA TRM v22.1
Decision Date:	01/03/2022
Aliases:	VMware View, VMware Horizon (with View)
Introduced By:	TRM Request
Vendor Name:	VMware

Vendor Release Information

The Vendor Release table provides the known releases for the TRM Technology, obtained from the vendor (or from the release source).

Version	Release Date	Vendor Desupport Date
4.5	09/09/2010
5.0	09/08/2011	09/24/2016
5.1	05/16/2012	09/24/2016
5.2	03/04/2013	09/24/2016
6.x	06/19/2014	06/19/2019
7.x	03/22/2016	03/22/2021
8 2006	08/11/2020
8 2012	01/07/2021
8 2103	03/23/2021
8 2111	11/30/2021

Current Decision Matrix (12/30/2021)

Users must ensure their use of this technology/standard is consistent with VA policies and standards, including, but not limited to, VA Handbooks 6102 and 6500; VA Directives 6004, 6513, and 6517; and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) standards, including Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS). Users must ensure sensitive data is properly protected in compliance with all VA regulations. Prior to use of this technology, users should check with their supervisor, Information Security Officer (ISO), Facility Chief Information Officer (CIO), or local Office of Information and Technology (OI&T) representative to ensure that all actions are consistent with current VA policies and procedures prior to implementation.

The VA Decision Matrix displays the current and future VA IT position regarding different releases of a TRM entry. These decisions are based upon the best information available as of the most current date. The consumer of this information has the responsibility to consult the organizations responsible for the desktop, testing, and/or production environments to ensure that the target version of the technology will be supported. Any major.minor version that is not listed in the VA Decision Matrix is considered unapproved for use.

Legend:

White	Approved: The technology/standard has been approved for use.
Yellow	Approved w/Constraints: The technology/standard can be used within the specified constraints located below the decision matrix in the footnote[1] and on the General tab.
Gray	Unapproved: This technology or standard can be used only if a POA&M review is conducted and signed by the Authorizing Official Designated Representative (AODR) as designated by the Authorizing Official (AO) or designee and based upon a recommendation from the POA&M Compliance Enforcement, has been granted to the project team or organization that wishes to use the technology.
Orange	Divest: VA has decided to divest itself on the use of the technology/standard. As a result, all projects currently utilizing the technology/standard must plan to eliminate their use of the technology/standard. Additional information on when the entry is projected to become unapproved may be found on the Decision tab for the specific entry.
Black	Prohibited: The technology/standard is not (currently) permitted to be used under any circumstances.
Blue	Planning/Evaluation Constraint:The period of time this technology is currently being evaluated, reviewed, and tested in controlled environments. Use of this technology is strictly controlled and not available for use within the general population. If a customer would like to use this technology, please work with your local or Regional OI&T office and contact the appropriate evaluation office displayed in the notes below the decision matrix. The Local or Regional OI&T office should submit an inquiry to the TRM if they require further assistance or if the evaluating office is not listed in the notes below.

Release/Version Information:

VA decisions for specific versions may include a ‘.x’ wildcard, which denotes a decision that pertains to a range of multiple versions.

For example, a technology approved with a decision for 7.x would cover any version of 7.(Anything) - 7.(Anything). However, a 7.4.x decision would cover any version of 7.4.(Anything), but would not cover any version of 7.5.x or 7.6.x on the TRM.

VA decisions for specific versions may include ‘+’ symbols; which denotes that the decision for the version specified also includes versions greater than what is specified but is not to exceed or affect previous decimal places.

For example, a technology approved with a decision for 12.6.4+ would cover any version that is greater than 12.6.4, but would not exceed the .6 decimal ie: 12.6.401 is ok, 12.6.5 is ok, 12.6.9 is ok, however 12.7.0 or 13.0 is not.

<Past

CY2021

CY2022

CY2023

Future>

Release

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

4.5

Unapproved

5.0

Unapproved

5.1

Unapproved

5.2

Unapproved

6.x

Unapproved

7.x

Divest
[6, 8]

Unapproved

8 2012

Approved w/Constraints
[6, 8]

Approved w/Constraints
[6, 9]

Unapproved

8 2103

Unapproved

8 2111

Unapproved

Approved w/Constraints
[4, 6, 9, 10, 11]

Approved w/Constraints
[4, 6, 10, 11, 12]

Decision Constraints


[1]	Product must remain patched and operated in accordance with Federal and Department security policies and guidelines in order to mitigate known and future security vulnerabilities.

[2]	Product must remain patched and operated in accordance with Federal and Department security policies and guidelines in order to mitigate known and future security vulnerabilities

[3]	As of April 23, 2015, per the Deputy CIO of Architecture, Strategy and Design (ASD), all technologies in use by the VA require an assessment by the VA Section 508 office. Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998 is a federal law that sets the guidelines for technology accessibility. A VA Section 508 assessment of this technology has not been completed at the time of publication. Therefore, as of April 23, 2015 only users of this technology who have deployed the technology to the production environment, or have project design and implementation plans approved, may continue to operate this technology. In the case of a project that has implemented, or been approved for a specific site or number of users, and that project needs to expand operations to other sites or to an increased user base, it may do so as long as the project stays on the existing version of the technology that was approved or implemented as of April 22, 2015. Use of this technology in all other cases is prohibited.

[4]	Technology must remain patched and operated in accordance with Federal and Department security policies and guidelines in order to mitigate known and future security vulnerabilities.

[5]	Due to potential information security risks, cloud based technologies may not be used without the approval of the Enterprise Cloud Solution Office (ECSO). This body is in part responsible for ensuring organizational information, Personally Identifiable Information (PII), Protected Health Information (PHI), and VA sensitive data are not compromised. (Ref: VA Directive 6004, VA Directive 6517, VA Directive 6513 and VA Directive 6102).

[6]	Due to National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) identified security vulnerabilities, extra vigilance should be applied to ensure the versions remain properly patched to mitigate known and future vulnerabilities. The local ISO can provide assistance in reviewing the NIST vulnerabilities.

[7]	Due to potential information security risks for cloud-based technologies, users should coordinate closely with their facility ISSO for guidance and assistance on cloud products. If further guidance is needed contact the Enterprise Cloud Solution Office (ECSO), which is the body responsible for new software development in and migration of existing systems to the VA Enterprise Cloud (VAEC) and ensuring organizational information, Personally Identifiable Information (PII), Protected Health Information (PHI), and VA sensitive data are not compromised within the VAEC. For information about Software as a Service (SaaS) products or to submit a SaaS product request with the Project Special Forces (SPF) team, please use their online form. (Ref: VA Directive 6004, VA Directive 6517, VA Directive 6513 and VA Directive 6102).

[8]	Due to potential information security risks for cloud-based technologies, users should coordinate closely with their facility ISSO for guidance and assistance on cloud products. If further guidance is needed contact the Enterprise Cloud Solution Office (ECSO), which is the body responsible for new software development in and migration of existing systems to the VA Enterprise Cloud (VAEC) and ensuring organizational information, Personally Identifiable Information (PII), Protected Health Information (PHI), and VA sensitive data are not compromised within the VAEC. For information about Software as a Service (SaaS) products or to submit a SaaS product request with the Project Special Forces (SPF) team, please use their online form. (Ref: VA Directive 6004, VA Directive 6517, VA Directive 6513 and VA Directive 6102).

[9]	Due to potential information security risks for cloud-based technologies, users should coordinate closely with their facility ISSO for guidance and assistance on cloud products. If further guidance is needed contact the Enterprise Cloud Solution Office (ECSO), which is the body responsible for new software development in and migration of existing systems to the VA Enterprise Cloud (VAEC) and ensuring organizational information, Personally Identifiable Information (PII), Protected Health Information (PHI), and VA sensitive data are not compromised within the VAEC. For information about Software as a Service (SaaS) products or to submit a SaaS product request with the Project Special Forces (PSF) team, please use their online form. (Ref: VA Directive 6004, VA Directive 6517, VA Directive 6513 and VA Directive 6102).

[10]	This technology should not use the SSL features. SSL is not approved for use within the VA at this time.

[11]	This technology has received one or more VA security bulletins that provide specific guidance on vulnerability patching and mitigation. It is the responsibility of VA system owners to ensure that the appropriate mitigations are taken to address all known and future discovered vulnerabilities with this product. See the Reference tab for more information on security bulletins related to this product.

[12]	Due to potential information security risks for cloud-based technologies, users should coordinate closely with their facility ISSO for guidance and assistance on cloud products. If further guidance is needed contact the Enterprise Cloud Solution Office (ECSO), which is the body responsible for new software development in and migration of existing systems to the VA Enterprise Cloud (VAEC) and ensuring organizational information, Personally Identifiable Information (PII), Protected Health Information (PHI), and VA sensitive data are not compromised within the VAEC. For information about Software as a Service (SaaS) products or to submit a SaaS product request with the VA OIT Product Engineering team, please use their online form. (Ref: VA Directive 6004, VA Directive 6517, VA Directive 6513 and VA Directive 6102).

Note:

At the time of writing this, VMware Horizon 8 2111 is the most current version released 11/30/2021. The naming convention changed to denote the year and month of build release (formatted YYMM).

Version 8 2111 fixes a critical security vulnerability in VMware Horizon`s use of Log4j. Because of this, prior versions are unapproved for use.

References

The following reference(s) are associated with this entry:
Type	Name	Source	Description

Technology Components

Note: This list may not be complete. No component, listed or unlisted, may be used outside of the technology in which it is released. The usage decision for a component is found in the Decision and Decision Constraints.
Name	Description
VMware ThinApp	ThinApp is an agentless application virtualization solution. VMware has announced the end of availability of ThinApp as a separate purchasable product, effective December 15, 2013. ThinApp capabilities will still be available in VMware Horizon View.

VA Categories View the VA Categorization Framework

Domain Area	Category	Customer Guidance	Category Locked By ELT Date
Platforms and Storage Cloud Services/Server Virtualization	Virtualization Software

Operating Systems Supported by the Technology

Windows Server - Approved w/Constraints

Technologies/Standards Relationships

Runtime Dependencies:

No runtime dependencies have been identified.

Comparable Technologies:

Companion Technologies/Supported Standards:

General Analysis

Adoption Benefits

Use of this product may improve the security posture of the organization through improvements to control of end-user desktop environments.
This is a mature technology.
As a virtual machine, this technology may reduce organization power, cooling and management costs and optimize use of existing hardware.
This is a well-documented technology.

Adoption Risks

There are other approved solutions that provide similar functionality available on the TRM. The use of several similar solutions may increase organization requirements for support and maintenance.
Due to the rapid release schedule of this technology, the VA may be unable to update to the most recent patch and may require a deployment model requiring the use of specific versions.
This technology can potentially use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), an unapproved protocol.
Potential vendor lock exists when utilizing proprietary vendor technologies.
There are known Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) and VA Cyber Security Operations Center (CSOC) vulnerabilities. Please see NVD - Search and Statistics (nist.gov)for more details.

Architectural Benefits

This technology is compatible with virtual machines, therefore consistent with the enterprise Server Virtualize First Policy (VAIQ 7266972 08-27-2012).

Architectural Risks

This technology includes cloud-based functionality which has potential information security risks.

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General Information

Vendor Release Information

Current Decision Matrix (12/30/2021)

Decision Constraints

References

Technology Components

VA Categories View the VA Categorization Framework

Operating Systems Supported by the Technology

Technologies/Standards Relationships

Runtime Dependencies:

Comparable Technologies:

Companion Technologies/Supported Standards:

General Analysis

Adoption Benefits

Adoption Risks

Architectural Benefits

Architectural Risks

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VA Technical Reference Model v 22.11

General Information

Vendor Release Information

Current Decision Matrix (12/30/2021)

Decision Constraints

References

Technology Components

VA Categories View the VA Categorization Framework

Operating Systems Supported by the Technology

Technologies/Standards Relationships

Runtime Dependencies:

Comparable Technologies:

Companion Technologies/Supported Standards:

General Analysis

Adoption Benefits

Adoption Risks

Architectural Benefits

Architectural Risks

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