Configuring RADIUS Two Factor Authentication with Horizon View

One of the things I fell short on in the VCAP-DTA exam was RADIUS and two factor authentication. I hadn’t really done much with it for the thick end of 10 years and when it came to the exam, I just hadn’t worked through it enough to remember what all the moving parts were and how they worked. Once I failed the exam, I wanted to go back and re-review what all the moving parts were, how they hung together and basically how to set it all up from start to finish.

Like most people with home labs, I have a couple of Windows Servers performing multiple roles, including Domain Controller, Certificate Authority etc. One thing you can do to practice configuring RADIUS authentication for Horizon View is to install the Network Policy Server role on one of your Windows boxes and configure RADIUS. When Googling how to do this, I found a really good (and up to date) white paper on VMware’s website with clear and concise instructions about how to configure the Windows Server end and also the Connection Server end to make two factor authentication happen.

Literally from start to finish, the process took no longer than around 10-15 minutes. Well worth a run through before the VCAP-DTA exam to make sure you really understand RADIUS components and how Horizon View hooks into it. The guide also covers RSA Authentication Manager if you want to practice that, but I wouldn’t expect to see that option on the exam. Worth knowing though, just in case.

The white paper (PDF) is available here.