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This article provides details on the Extended Service Branch (ESB) in relation to Horizon 7, App Volumes and Dynamic Environment Manager. It also provides answers to frequently asked questions on the Extended Service Branch. For information on Horizon 8 ESB, please refer to https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/864777.13.x end of general support date is April 30th, 2023, with the technical guidance phase completing on April 30th, 2025. Please see Ensuring a successful migration from Horizon 7 to Horizon 8 (89840)
Starting in Q2 2018, Horizon introduced an option of Extended Service Branch (ESB) in addition to the Current Release (CR) branch. ESBs receive three planned periodic maintenance updates – typically 6 months, 9 months and 15 months after the base version release. Each update will only contain critical bug, security fixes and new Win 10 support, no new features will be added to these updates.Product & features covered as part of the ESB are Horizon Server & Agents, App Volumes (AV), Dynamic Environment Manager (DEM), formerly User Environment Manager.Each AV and DEM will have their corresponding ESB with coordinated release cadence. For example, Horizon 7.5.2 will be released with the corresponding ESB update from AV, DEM. AV and DEM recommends customers use the latest maintenance release of the respective products.Whenever a maintenance update is released , corresponding release notes and download page will reflect the ESB update explicitly.Each ESB is actively supported for 2 years during which hot patches are eligible. After 2 years, the ESB will be under general support but no new patches will be issued on the branch.Approximately every 12 months, a new ESB release version will available, accumulating updates and features since the previous ESB release.No new special licensing requirement are needed for ESBs. A customer with a license to access the CR branch can also access ESBs Horizon Updates Release1st Update2nd Update3rd UpdateHorizon 7.5 ESB7.57.5.27.5.37.5.4Horizon 7.10 ESB7.10.07.10.17.10.27.10.3Horizon 7.137.137.13.17.13.27.13.3 Notes: 7.13 is not labeled an ESB release but it is maintained as a ESB releaseVMware strongly recommends that customers who want to continue running Horizon 7 upgrade to version 7.13.1. For information about our support for Horizon 7 version 7.13, Horizon Client 5.5 (Windows, macOS, Linux); App Volumes 4 version 2009 and DEM version 2009 see KB 81189.There were errors in the Horizon ESB Updates table as of August 28, 2020, the content was corrected on 2020/09/16. Horizon ESB Product Interop with App Volumes and Dynamic Environment Manager (DEM) HorizonApp VolumesDEMHorizon 7.5 ESB7.5.x2.14.x9.4.xHorizon 7.10 ESB7.10.x2.18.x9.9.xHorizon 7.137.13.x2009.x2009.x Note: VMware recommends customers deploy the latest available maintenance update for the given ESB version. For example, customers using Horizon 7.10.2 ESB released with App Volumes 2.18 should use version App Volumes 2.18.x where x is the latest available/most current App Volumes maintenance update. FAQ Q. What are Extended Service Branches (ESB) and how are they different from Current Releases (CR)? A.Starting in Q2 of 2018, VMware Horizon 7 will provide customers with the option of deploying Extended Service Branches (ESB). An Extended Service Branch is a parallel release branch to the existing Current Releases (CR) of the product. By choosing to deploy an ESB, customers will receive periodic service packs (SP) updates, which include cumulative critical bug fixes and security fixes. Most importantly, there will be no new features in the SP updates, so customers can rely on a stable Horizon platform for their critical deployments. In addition to Horizon 7, App Volumes (AV) and Dynamic Environment Manager (DEM) (formerly, User Environment Manager) will have their own separate but coordinated ESB releases. VMware will release new ESB train once a year, typically 12 months apart. Once released, they will be actively supported for 24 months. During those 24 months, there will be up to 3 scheduled maintenance updates, approximately every 6-8 months. Active support is defined here to mean eligibility to receive hot fixes. After the 24 months of active support, this particular ESB will no longer be eligible for hot fixes, but will still be supported under the general support guidelines until the end of general support period, as defined in the VMware Lifecycle Product Matrix.Let us illustrate how it works with an example. The first Horizon 7 ESB was Horizon 7.5. At the time of the Horizon 7.5 release, it was both a CR as well as the start of an ESB. After the release, the two branches diverged. One branch continues as the Current Release branch, similar to the old process. A new ESB branch split off when Horizon 7.5.2 (update 1) was released. Then 7.5.3 (update 2) was released after 6 months, and 7.5.4 (update 3) 6-8 months after. Once update 3 is released, the ESB was maintained until the completion of 24 months. 24 months after Horizon 7.5 was first released, the Horizon 7.5 ESB branch reached end of active support status. Approx. one year after Horizon 7.5.0 was first released, Horizon 7.10.0 version became the next ESB version. At any given time, there can be as many as two active ESBs for customers to choose from.Extended Service Branches for AV and DEM will work in a similar way. Horizon 7, AV, and DEM ESB release cadence will be coordinated in terms of timing. They will be released around the same time, and so will their corresponding updates until end of ESB version support dates. Q. Which App Volumes 4 version is ESB?A. App Volumes 4 has yet to be included in an ESB release; however, customers may choose to leave ESB interlock and adopt App Volumes 4 with Horizon 7.10 or later.Q. What is the scope of an Extended Service Branch release?A. The Extended Service Branch releases are aimed at bringing minimum disruption and maximum stability to our customer’s Horizon deployments. Every maintenance update in an ESB is scoped at the following only: Critical defect fixes.Security fixes.Support for the latest Window 10 (SAC/LTSC) versions.Support for update releases only from other VMware products (vSphere/ESX, vSAN, vCenter, etc.) that Horizon runs on for rolled up fixes only. No new features from update release will be supported in the ESB. Q. What customer environments are best suited for Extended Service Branch?A. Extended Release Branch is best suited for customers with mission critical desktop and application workloads where a predictability & stable of the platform is paramount, and where frequent platform upgrade does not align with their business needs. Alternatively, customers who requires latest features & capabilities should instead consider the Current Release branch.Q. What is the licensing requirement for the Extended Service Branch?A. Extended Release branches will be covered under the same licensing as the Current Releases. Q. Does the Extended Service Branch impact existing releases? A. No. Current Releases of Horizon, AV, and DEM will continue as they are, with no change. Q. What specific component will be supported as an Extended Service Branch? A. The following products are covered under the Extended Service Branches: Horizon 7 core components (Connection Servers, View Composer, Administrative Console, etc)App VolumesDEM Horizon Client software is not covered by the Extended Service Branch policy. Current Horizon Client versions will be qualified with Horizon ESB.Q. Can you mix and match products from Extended Service Branch and Current Release Branch? For example, running a Horizon 7 ESB with a App Volumes CR branch?A. Mixing release branches may be supported per the interoperability matrices; however, VMware does not necessarily test these combinations for ESB interlock. While each product may retain their individual ESB support, mixing ESB and non-ESB versions does invalidate the specific ESB interlock between products. VMware recommends keeping all products ESB for optimal support across the platform. Please see the VMware Interoperability Matrices for more details regarding generally supported product combinations. VMware strongly recommends customers not to break the interlock of ESB product versions (Horizon, AV, DEM). If only they remain compliant to this condition, then the fix to dependent problems is guaranteed (for ESB release only and as long as ESB period is active). If they break the interlock, then either they must upgrade their environment to the higher product version that may carry the fix OR they must request the fix through general support channel (assuming those additional products are used). Maintenance update versions across these products should be current (i.e. once upgrading Horizon to the latest maintenance update version, other products should also have the corresponding maintenance update version as well).For example:Horizon 7.5, AV 2.14 and DEM (earlier UEM) 9.4 are the ESB versions and the first respective SPs are Horizon 7.5.2, AV 2.14.x, and DEM 9.4.x.If a customer has deployed a combination of two or more products in his environment then following scenarios can occur: Customer finds an issue with interoperability between Horizon 7.5.2 and AV 2.14.3. Since both the products involved are ESB versions, VMware will provide active support to the issue, either as an immediate Hotfix or in the next maintenance update. Customer remains on Horizon 7.5.2 but has upgraded to AV 2.15.1 to take benefit of the new features available in the AV 2.15.1. Customer has now run into an interoperability issue between Horizon 7.5.2 and AV 2.15.1. Customer is no longer ESB compliant and has broken the interlock of the ESB products. In this case, customer can: Upgrade to the latest version of Horizon and/or AV if that version addresses the issue. Or, Request for support through general support channel. Q. What is the support policy around interoperability between Unified Access Gateway, vSphere, /vSAN and Horizon ESB releases? A. For Unified Access Gateway compatibility with Horizon ESB, refer to the VMware interoperability matrix. vSphere does update releases to address the defects found after the release. Since Horizon interlocks with vSphere very closely, our customers wait for Horizon to confirm the interoperability with the new releases before upgrading the vSphere. Until then their vSphere stack remains locked. Given this fact, the following is the support policy around interoperability between vSphere, /vSAN and Horizon ESB releases. Horizon ESB will support only the new update release of the vSphere (e.g., vSphere 6.7U1, 6.7U2) with the condition that no new feature of vSphere will be supported. This will have very minimal impact on Horizon and customer will also be able to upgrade vSphere stack for the fixes. Horizon ESB will not support any major release of vSphere because it may bring substantial changes to the infrastructure which defeats the purpose of ESB. Q. What is the upgrade path for customers on the Extended Service Branch? A. Once customers deploy an Extended Service Branch, following options are available to upgrade the environment: Upgrade to the next Extended Release Branch before the end-of-support date of the current ESB. Alternatively, if they choose to switch to the Current Release branch, they may upgrade as long as the CR they upgrade to is released at the same or later date than the most recent ESB SP update they received. Q. What if a third-party product is deprecated between two consecution service pack releases of an ESB?A. If a third-party product (OS or other) has reached EOL by the vendor, Horizon will also stop support for the 3rd party product and either remove or replace with newer, supported version of the 3rd party product in the subsequent release of ESB and CR. Q. What is the Win 10 support policy for Horizon 7 Extended Release branch? A. At the time of the initial release of the Extended Release Branch, the Win 10 versions supported will be defined by the Win 10 Guest OS Support FAQ on Horizon. Each subsequent SP update will support the most recently released Win 10 versions, 2 previous versions (as long as they are still supported by MSFT), and one future Win 10 version (once released). Q. Is there a separate versioning pattern for the ESB maintenance update?A. There is no separate versioning pattern for ESB Service Packs. Once a version is designated as an ESB version, subsequent .dot release will be considered service packs on the ESB branch. E.g., Since 7.5 is an ESB release, 7.5.2, 7.5.3 and 7.5.4 are the service packs on the 7.5 ESB release.Q. How do I approach a major version upgrade?A. Please see Ensuring a successful migration from Horizon 7 to Horizon 8 (89840) for additional advice.
简体中文：常见问题解答：Horizon 7、App Volumes、UEM Extended Service Branch (ESB)