Step by Step Installation and Configuration of Omnissa Horizon 8 on Nutanix AHV

by | Dec 29, 2025 | Omnissa | 0 comments

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Step by Step Installation and Configuration of Omnissa Horizon 8 on Nutanix AHV

Published December 2025 at blog.youngtech.com

Click Here to Download this Full Guide as a PDF

In May 2025 I attended Nutanix .NEXT in Washington D.C. and presented during an End User Computing (EUC) focused breakfast thanks to an invitation from a long-time friend of the industry, Jim Luna. Thanks again, Jim and Nutanix for the opportunity!

During my presentation, I shared about the End User Computing evolution many of us have participated in, since even before Nutanix came on the EUC scene in 2009. Announced during the event, Omnissa and Nutanix shared long-awaited news that their flagship EUC product (Horizon) would be ‘coming soon to Nutanix AHV’. With the Horizon on AHV Beta, Limited Availability release and now GA, I’ve been extensively involved in testing over the last nine months!

With the release to web of Horizon 8 2512 on December 16th, I am happy to join in the many announcements that Horizon 8 is now officially supported on Nutanix AHV! There are many blog posts and press releases about this ‘General Availability (GA)’ announcement, which you can find here: Omnissa Blog Announcement, and Nutanix Blog Announcement.

This blog series and guide is not intended to restate announcements or news from either company, but rather to expand on what’s already available online. For familiarization, Nutanix AHV is a full-stack bare metal hypervisor, which combines with Nutanix’s robust management platform. For interested customers moving off Broadcom VMware in Private Datacenters, this provides another option for deploying Omnissa Horizon, with the Nutanix platform visualized in the simple to understand image below:

In December 2025 (at the time of writing), Horizon 8 and Horizon Cloud Service officially support the following infrastructure providers and platforms: Broadcom VMware vSphere (ESXi + vCenter), VMware Cloud Foundation, Azure, Azure VMware Solution, VMware Cloud on AWS, AWS Workspaces, Google Cloud VMware Engine, Oracle Cloud VMware Solution, and Alibaba Cloud VMware Service. You can see from this extensive and growing list, Omnissa is fully owning the vision of ‘Any Cloud, Anywhere’ first shared years back under management of VMware.

The First Detailed Installation and Configuration Guide for Horizon 8 Specifically for Nutanix AHV

My goal in writing this blog series and guide is to provide the first detailed Installation and Configuration walk-through for deployment of Horizon 8 on Nutanix AHV. In doing so, I’ll demonstrate that anyone with current access to Horizon 8 licenses (or through an evaluation) can fully test and validate this integration functionality on their own. Access to current generation Nutanix production hardware is ideal for a basic Proof of Concept (POC), but it is not a hard requirement as everything I will be showing can be accomplished using the freely available Nutanix Community Edition (CE). As you’ll see in this guide, Horizon 8 fully functions on Nutanix CE and allows Consultants and Individuals to validate Horizon 8 on AHV using any qualified hardware. Just don’t seek support as Horizon 8 on Nutanix AHV Community Edition is not officially supported.

Resources

Before we get started on the deployment, there are a number of useful resources that we’ll use as reference:

What This Guide Covers

This walkthrough is designed to help lay the foundation for a successful Proof of Concept (PoC) or initial deployment of Horizon 8 on AHV. Here’s what we’ll cover:

  • Section 1: Initial Review of Nutanix Infrastructure (Including in this Blog Post)
  • Section 2: Windows 11 25H2 on AHV Master Image Creation (Including in this Blog Post)
  • Section 3: Nutanix AHV Drivers and Tools Installation on Windows 11 (See Full Guide)
  • Section 4: Horizon 8 2512 Connection Server Deployment (See Full Guide)
  • Section 5: Horizon 8 2512 Agent Installation for Windows 11 25H2 (See Full Guide)
  • Section 6: Horizon OS Optimization Tool (OSOT) 2512 for Windows 11 25H2 on AHV (See Full Guide)
  • Section 7: Creating Additional Horizon Pools Using Optimized Windows 11 25H2 (See Full Guide)
  • Section 8: Upgrading Nutanix AHV to 11.0 and Performing Final Validation Steps (See Full Guide)

Prerequisites for Smooth Deployments

To ensure time-efficient Proof of Concepts and smooth deployments, we’ll want to ensure the following basics are in place before starting:

  • Access to download Horizon 8 Binaries and License
  • Access to Nutanix Production Hardware or download for Community Edition on a compatible system
  • Dedicated host or Cluster with ‘sufficient’ CPU, Memory and Storage resources to support a basic POC. (Note: for this guide, I recommend a minimum of 24 physical CPU cores, 192GB RAM, and 1TB usable capacity)
  • A healthy and functional Nutanix AHV Cluster with Prism Element available with Administrative credentials
  • A healthy and functional Prism Central instance, available with Administrative credentials
  • A healthy and functional Active Directory domain, available with Administrative credentials
  • Windows Server template to be used to clone and create Horizon Connection Server. (Note: for this guide, I recommend running infrastructure and management components outside of the Nutanix AHV node/cluster to allow for the full hardware to be used for Windows 11 Virtual Desktops)

To serve as a visual aide, below is a basic Horizon 8 Proof of Concept (POC) Topology Diagram we’ll review during this blog series and guide.

<< Click to view a larger / full size image of the Topology Diagram below >>

Topology diagram adapted from ‘Horizon 8 on Nutanix AHV Reference Architecture’ on Omnissa Tech Zone

Click Here to Download this Full Guide as a PDF

Section 1: Initial Review of Nutanix AHV Infrastructure for Deployment

To get started, as shown in the POC Topology Diagram, we have two web browser accessible management interfaces we’ll use to investigate and review the Nutanix AHV Infrastructure for Deployment. First is Prism Element, launched from https://z8ahv01.youngtechx.com:9440/ as shown below:

From this view we can see we have a total of two VMs on the Cluster and Block, which is in Good health. The Cluster Resiliency / Fault Tolerance Status of Critical is to be expected for Community Edition with a single host and Failures to Tolerate (FTT) of 1. We can safely disregard that for the purpose of this blog series and guide.

From the main menu drop-down we’ll start by reviewing the Hardware section to see the single host running Community Edition has 55.2Ghz Total CPUs, 313.9GiB Total Memory with virtually no active usage.

Next we’ll go to the Life Cycle Manager (LCM) section and review the installed software on the host. Click the main menu and select LCM, taking us to the Best Practices section. Click Inventory:

At the time of writing, the host is running the latest components available with the exception of AHV hypervisor, which is 10.3.1.2.

Note: For stability reasons, this Proof of Concept will begin with a host running the latest AHV 10.3, and the in-place upgrade to AHV 11 will be completed after all validation work has been completed. At the time of writing, AHV 11.x is still an ‘initial release’ (11.0), hence the conservative approach for validation. In this blog series and guide we’ll first show everything functioning on the latest 10.3 release, which is deemed very stable at this point. Once everything is working, we’ll show the process to update to AHV 11.0. If you want to take a more risky strategy, you could begin your deployment already running AHV 11.0, but do so at your own risk.

Latest / installed versions of each component are:

  • AHV hypervisor: 10.3.1.2 (Released December 03, 2025)
  • AOS: 7.5 (Released December 08, 2025)
  • FSM: 5.2.1 (Released October 29, 2025)
  • Foundation: 5.10 (Released December 02, 2025)
  • Foundation Platforms: 2.19 (Released December 03, 2025)
  • Licensing: LM 2025.9.2 (Released September 02, 2025)
  • NCC: 5.3.0 (Released December 09, 2025)

Inspecting the Updates \ Software section, we can see that the only applicable and available update is for AHV 11.0 as mentioned in the note above.

Navigating to the Storage section, we can see there’s several Terabytes of available capacity for this deployment:

The Table view shows all Storage Containers in the cluster, which have a Replication Factor of 1, given that it’s a Community Edition cluster and single host.

Next, reviewing the Networking section shows we have two 10G connections from the host to the switch (dotted line indicates passive connection):

With the Prism Element review completed, next we’ll check things out through Prism Central, launched from https://prismcentral.youngtechx.com:9440/ as shown below:

Through Prism Central, we can see that our Cluster and Host has been added and is available for management:

Navigate to Menu \ Admin Center \ LCM \ Prism Central. Clicking the three dots next to the prismcentral instance shows no updates available for installation. The Summary shows Prism Central is fully up to date.

The Software tab shows the following:

While in Prism Central, we’ll start the Windows 11 ISO upload process, which can take a couple minutes to complete. Navigate to the Menu \ Infrastructure. Under Compute \ Images, click Add Image.

For this deployment, we’ll use the latest available Windows 11 25H2 ISO file, obtained from Microsoft Volume License Service Center (VLSC) from September 2025 with the following file name: SW_DVD9_Win_Pro_11_25H2_64BIT_English_Pro_Ent_EDU_N_MLF_X24-13075.iso. Click Add File and navigate to the ISO.

Select the file and click Open:

The file name provided by Microsoft is too long for Nutanix Prism Central / Element, so I’ll change the name as follows: SW_DVD9_Win11_25H2_64BIT_English_Pro_Ent_EDU_N_MLF_X24-13075.ISO. I’ll add the full file name to the Description field. I’ve found it’s always best to keep the full and original ISO file name available for reference, in case something becomes unusable in future Windows 11 ISOs and you need to reference the build. Click Next to continue.

Select the Default placement and click Save:

A task is created in the top right activity center, which we can investigate while waiting for the ISO to be uploaded and distributed. This process can take several minutes to complete, so be patient.

VirtIO ISO steps in fast forward…using the same process just stepped through for the Win11 25H2 ISO. For a brand new Nutanix AHV Cluster, if the VirtIO driver image for Windows has not yet been uploaded, to install Windows VMs on AHV we will need the latest VirtIO driver ISO. The full ISO package can be obtained from here: https://portal.nutanix.com/page/downloads?product=ahv. Select VirtIO from the drop-down and download the Windows ISO package. In Prism Central under Compute \ Images, click Add Image to upload the VirtIO ISO as shown below. Select the default options to import and distribute to the Cluster.

After a couple minutes of uploads and waiting, we’ll now see two ISOs in the Compute \ Images section, ready to proceed with the next steps outlined in the following section.

Click Here to Download this Full Guide as a PDF

Section 2: Windows 11 25H2 on AHV Master Image Creation

Now that the Windows 11 25H2 ISO has finished uploading to Prism Central and has distributed to the Cluster, we can build our first Windows 11 25H2 virtual machine. We’ll label this first virtual machine hrzw11-1m (the Master Image for our first Horizon pool). Once deployed, it will be joined to the same Active Directory domain as the Connection Server, which is why we’re keeping the system names consistent with the diagram and POC topology shared. In Prism Central, navigate to the main menu \ Infrastructure \ Compute \ VMs. Click Create VM.

Specify the following as shown, selecting 2 CPUs, 2 Cores Per CPU, and 16GiB Memory.

A meaningful Name and Description is also highly recommended. Click Next.

Click Attach Disk.

Select CD-ROM, Clone from Image, and select the Win11 25H2 ISO uploaded previously and click Save.

Click Attach Disk in the top right of the Disks section:

Select CD-ROM, Clone from Image, and select the VirtIO ISO uploaded previously and click Save.

Click Attach Disk in the top right of the Disks section:

Leave Disk selected in the drop-down and enter the appropriate initial disk size for the System Disk. As a starting point I do not recommend anything smaller than 80 GiB as shown below:

Attach the Network to the appropriate Subnet. Leave UEFI BIOS Mode selected as shown, then scroll down:

Check both ‘Secure Boot’ and ‘Attach vTPM’ in the Shield VM Security Settings section. Review the following note below and click Next:

IMPORTANT: Do not check ‘Windows Defender Credential Guard’ as this option is not supported, and will cause your Horizon Pool to fail deployment.

Select the appropriate Timezone and click Next.

Review the settings and scroll down to continue reviewing.

Continue reviewing and when ready, click Create VM:

After a brief delay, the new VM will be displayed in the VMs list. Click the VM hyperlink:

Use Power Operations to Power On the VM:

Once the VM has powered on, click Launch Console:

During the Boot process, be sure to Press any key to boot to the Win11 25H2 ISO. Note: If you don’t catch the key fast enough in the boot process, you can click Actions \ Send “CTRL + ALT + DEL” to try again.

Click Next:

Click Next:

Check the box and click Next:

Select the appropriate edition and click Next:

Click Accept:

To install on AHV, we need to load the Drivers for the storage controller. Click Load Driver:

Click Browse. Since we mounted both the Win11 25H2 and VirtIO ISOs when creating the Virtual Machine, you’ll see two CD-ROM drives listed. Select the Nutanix VirtIO drive as shown:

Expand and select VirtIO CD Drive \ Windows 11 \ x64. Click OK:

Select the Nutanix VirtIO SCSI pass-through controller and click Install:

The allocated Disk space will now show in the list of available disks. Select the appropriate disk and click Next:

Review and click Install:

The ever so familiar ‘Installing Windows 11’ blue screen will be displayed.

After a couple minutes, select the appropriate Country or Region. Click Yes.

Select the appropriate keyboard and click Yes:

Click Skip:

Click ‘I don’t have internet’ as we can come back to driver installation later:

Enter a local administrator account name (hrzahvadmin for example) and click Next:

Enter a password and click Next:

Confirm the password and click Next:

Answer the three security questions and click Next:

On the privacy settings screen, click Next to scroll down:

Click Accept:

The initial logon animation will be displayed as shown:

Section 3: Nutanix AHV Drivers and Tools Installation on Windows 11 (…To be continued in the next post in the series…)

Click Here to Download this Full Guide as a PDF

To compliment this Blog Post, I have created a 325 page PDF with the remaining steps in the following sections:

  • Initial Review of Nutanix Infrastructure
  • Windows 11 25H2 on AHV Master Image Creation
  • Nutanix AHV Drivers and Tools Installation on Windows 11
  • Horizon 8 2512 Connection Server Deployment
  • Horizon 8 2512 Agent Installation for Windows 11 25H2
  • Horizon OS Optimization Tool (OSOT) 2512 for Windows 11 25H2 on AHV
  • Creating Additional Horizon Pools Using Optimized Windows 11 25H2
  • Upgrading Nutanix AHV to 11.0 and Performing Final Validation Steps

This PDF guide is available free of charge to Subscribers of the YOUNGTECH BLOG. To continue reading, please request access to this free resource using the following link: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/sl/rfrHd0o/horizonahv

Click Here to Download this Full Guide as a PDF

By completing the form above, you will receive an e-mail to download a PDF of the full guide and continue reading from this section. Once you’ve received the link, you can unsubscribe from the blog at any time, but it’s our way of staying connected to our audience. Please advise if you have any challenges reaching the link provided in the e-mail.


Low-Cost Proof of Concept Engagements

Statement of Work
 For a limited time, our Professional Services and Consulting team will be offering $1 Statement of Work engagements for qualified customers, to help stand up Horizon on Nutanix AHV in a Proof of Concept capacity! If you’re a U.S. based customer, have already requested & downloaded this guide, and would like additional white glove remote assistance with your deployment, please use this link to make contact and schedule a no-cost discovery call: https://www.youngtech.com/connect/

Thanks for Reading

I trust this will be a useful resource to you and that you’ve enjoyed this Step by Step Installation and Configuration of Omnissa Horizon 8 on Nutanix AHV guide. Best of luck in your Horizon on AHV deployments! If you need any help along the way, don’t hesitate to reach out.

Thank you so much!

Dane Young, MBA
My X | My LinkedIn

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