Cloud Pod Architecture is a feature that allows administrators to link multiple Horizon pods across sites and data centers to form a single logical entity called a pod federation. Cloud Pod Architecture enables global entitlements, which allow users to access desktops and applications from any pod in the pod federation. Cloud Pod Architecture also provides load balancing, high availability, and disaster recovery capabilities for Horizon deployments.
However, Cloud Pod Architecture has some feature limitations that administrators should be aware of. Two of these limitations are:
Cloud Pod Architecture does not support Active Directory two-way trusts between domains: This means that the domains that contain the Horizon pods in the pod federation must have a one-way trust relationship, where the domain that contains the Cloud Pod Architecture home site trusts all the other domains, but not vice versa. A two-way trust relationship, where each domain trusts and is trusted by all the other domains, is not supported by Cloud Pod Architecture and can cause authentication and entitlement issues.
Kiosk mode clients are not supported unless a workaround has been implemented: This means that users who log in to Horizon Client in kiosk mode, which is a mode that allows users to access a single desktop or application without entering credentials, cannot access desktops or applications from a Cloud Pod Architecture implementation. Kiosk mode clients are not compatible with global entitlements and load balancing features of Cloud Pod Architecture. However, there is a workaround that involves creating a dedicated user account and a dedicated desktop pool for each kiosk mode client and using a script to launch Horizon Client with the appropriate parameters. For instructions, see VMware Knowledge Base (KB) article 21488881.
The other options are not limitations of Cloud Pod Architecture:
Cloud Pod Architecture is supported with Unified Access Gateway appliances: Unified Access Gateway is a platform that provides secure edge services for Horizon deployments, such as secure remote access, load balancing, and authentication. Unified Access Gateway is compatible with Cloud Pod Architecture and can be configured to route user requests to the appropriate pod in the pod federation based on global entitlements and load balancing policies.
Cloud Pod Architecture can span multiple sites and data centers simultaneously: This is one of the main benefits of Cloud Pod Architecture, as it allows administrators to scale up and out their Horizon deployments across different geographic locations and network boundaries. Cloud Pod Architecture can support up to 15 pods per pod federation and up to 5 sites per pod federation, with a maximum of 200,000 sessions per pod federation.
The Cloud Pod Architecture feature is supported in an IPv6 environment: IPv6 is the latest version of the Internet Protocol that provides a larger address space and enhanced security features for network communication. Cloud Pod Architecture supports IPv6 environments and can operate in mixed IPv4 and IPv6 environments as well.
References: Cloud Pod Architecture Limitations in Horizon 8 and [VMware Horizon 8.x Professional Course]
