Dynamic Environment Manager Overview

This section provides a description of each component of Dynamic Environment Manager, which can be summarized in three parts:

  1. Management Console – Primary application interface for IT to configure and manage Dynamic Environment Manager.
  2. FlexEngine – Agent component, which is installed on the virtual or physical machines that you want to manage.
  3. File shares – Dynamic Environment Manager relies on a folder hierarchy, which you will create in a later exercise. Dynamic Environment Manager stores configuration files in the configuration share. User data is stored in the profile archives share.

Before beginning the installation, its important to understand the terminology specific to Dynamic Environment Manager. The following Dynamic Environment Manager documentation topic, User Environment Manager Infrastructure and Terminology, provides a comprehensive list of Dynamic Environment Manager terminology.

Architecture of Dynamic Environment Manager

The architecture of Dynamic Environment Manager is straight forward and can be configured with a basic configuration in 1 hour or less.

Therefore we will only cover the components on a high level.

  • Dynamic Environment Manager GPO are used to configured the settings for each Active Directory organizational unit (OU) you want to manage.
  • Dynamic Environment Manager Management Console is use this Dynamic Environment Manager administrative UI to configure application settings, Windows environment manager settings, conditions under which the settings go into effect, and various other configuration settings and Horizon Smart Policies for things like printer mapping, attaching devices to the virtual desktop or application, and the ability to copy and paste text.
    In case of Horizon Cloud on IBM Cloud this is typically installed on the Utility Server but can be also installed an any other supported OS.
  • Dynamic Environment Manager Application Profiler is used to create application configuration that is not already included in the application templates. The profiles captures where the application stores its file and registry configuration, and also set the initial configuration state of the application.
  • Central configuration share this file share is used to store the Management Console configuration and Dynamic Environment Manager configuration files. The Dynamic Environment Manager agent (FlexEngine) on virtual desktops and RDSH servers reads the configuration file on this share and applies the settings specified in the configuration file.
    In case of Horizon Cloud on IBM Cloud this is typically configured on the Utility Server. You can use DFS-R to sync the settings to your on-premise environment as backup. More information on supported configurations can be found here https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2137300
  • Network folder per user in this file share that you create, each folder, or profile archive, contains ZIP files where the Dynamic Environment Manager agent  (FlexEngine) stores the personalized settings of a user. For each Dynamic Environment Manager (Flex) configuration file that you create, FlexEngine creates a profile archive for each user. In case of Horizon Cloud on IBM Cloud this is typically configured on the Utility Server. You can use DFS-R to sync the settings to your on-premise environment as backup.
  • Dynamic Environment Manager Helpdesk Support Tool – This tool provides capabilities to support and maintain the Dynamic Environment Manager profile archives and profile archive backups.
  • Clients with Dynamic Environment Manager FlexEngine – The agent software, FlexEngine, runs on each virtual desktop or RDSH server whose applications are to be managed. This agent reads the centralized configuration file, applies Dynamic Environment Manager settings, and saves those user settings that end users are allowed to control. In this client-server architecture, the FlexEngine agent software plays the client role, and the Dynamic Environment Manager Flex configuration file plays the server role.
  • SyncTool in case of using Dynamic Environment Manager on Laptops this tool can sync your settings to a central share for virtual desktop or RDSH server this is not require.