Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) is a server-based computing model that allows you to deliver a desktop image—over a network—to an endpoint device. Users can then access the operating system (OS) and applications on that endpoint. Endpoints may include PCs, thin clients, or mobile devices. The potential benefits of using VDI include data protection, better support for remote workers, and the ability to keep older machines in service longer.
The VDI Zoom Workplace client can be used with Citrix, VMware, Azure/Windows 365 Virtual Desktop, Amazon Workspaces, or HP Anyware VDI solutions and can be delivered to a thin client. The different download packages can be found on this page along with links to installation guidelines.
Zoom's VDI solution can also provide media optimization when connecting to a physical Windows machine via the Remote Desktop client.
The VDI Zoom Workplace installer is an .msi file type that can be deployed through standard software and device management tools. The plugin installers are available as an .msi for Windows, .pkg for Mac, and .deb, .rpm or a zipped package for Linux platforms, and can be similarly deployed through device management software. For details, visit the VDI installation and connectivity page.
Note: The VDI Zoom Workplace client and VDI plugin are two separate programs with their own respective physical install locations.
Installation of the VDI Zoom Workplace client in a VDI environment requires administrator privileges and two installation steps:
More detailed installation instructions can be found on the support pages for Citrix, VMware, Amazon Workspaces, or HP Anyware.
Notes:
The VDI Zoom Workplace client runs exclusively on 64-bit Windows-based operating systems and requires Windows Server 2012 at minimum for server deployment. Windows 7 and later are supported for VDI media offloading with the Azure/Windows 365 Virtual Desktop (AVD) (formerly Windows Virtual Desktop) plugin if connected through Windows RDP. For details, visit the Supported VDI software requirements article.
The VDI Zoom Workplace client and the Windows Zoom Workplace client are developed in the same code branch, and most features are automatically supported by the VDI Zoom Workplace client. Some features may not be enabled for VDI if additional work is required to support the feature. To view a comparison table of supported features for different Zoom meeting clients, please visit the VDI client features comparison article. Please also check Zoom system requirements for VDI to view more information about software and hardware requirements and specific features that are not supported.
New VDI Zoom Workplace client feature releases are typically made available each quarter. The release version for new features uses a version number where the patch (Major.minor.patch) ends with "dot ten". Examples are 6.0.10, 6.2.10, 6.3.10, etc. All supported features released in the Windows Zoom Workplace client before the VDI release are included in the next available VDI release. As stated above, many new features for Zoom Workplace are separate from the audio and video optimization provided for VDI and are available in the earliest VDI release following availability in the standard Windows client.
Zoom also releases EP (Engineering Patch) releases as needed. Patch releases are made available for upcoming security announcements and to provide fixes for known issues.
To stay up-to-date on VDI releases and features:
New VDI plugins are not backward compatible with older versions of the VDI Zoom Workplace client. The VDI plugin version must always be equal to or lower than the VDI Zoom Workplace client internal version number. Zoom recommends updating both the VDI Zoom Workplace client and VDI plugin to the same release for feature parity and product improvements. Updates should begin with an update of the VDI Zoom Workplace client to a newer release, followed by updating the VDI Plugin.
Although using the latest version is recommended, VDI patch releases for users on older versions are provided for the last two major releases if possible. Each patch release corresponds to an internal version number which can be found on the backwards compatibility page. Compatibility checks use the internal version to determine if the VDI plugin version is compatible with the VDI Zoom Workplace version. For more information, please refer our VDI version compatibility check article.
Follow the VDI backwards compatibility page to access both Zoom Client and VDI release content.
The VDI plugin optimizes audio and video for all of the core collaboration features of Zoom Workplace: Zoom Meetings, Zoom Phone, Zoom Webinars, Zoom Events, and Zoom Contact Center. Please check our release notes for more information about new features to learn which version added support for new features. Some features may require updating both the VDI Zoom Workplace client and the VDI plugin.
In the optimized experience, the VDI Zoom Workplace client and VDI plugin work together to create a seamless experience by rendering the Zoom meeting in layers, superimposing the plugin’s media on top of the VDI Zoom Workplace client placeholder. This experience is synchronized between the VDI plugin and VDI Zoom Workplace client using virtual channels supported by the VDI software platform and desktop connection applications such as Citrix Workspace client, Omnissa Horizon client, Amazon Workspaces client, or HP Anyware client. For Microsoft Azure/Windows 365 the Remote Desktop Client available from Microsoft's website is required. The Remote Desktop Client can also be used for VDI plugin optimization when connecting to a physical Windows desktop.
The VDI Zoom Workplace client supports three different connection modes with the Zoom meeting infrastructure. The most common mode is the Direct Optimized experience, where both the VDI Zoom Workplace client and VDI plugin establish unique connections to Zoom and independently render their own portion of a Zoom meeting for a seamless experience.
The VDI Zoom Workplace client is also capable of working in alternative connection modes — UDP/Channel Optimized and Fallback Mode — to fit network routing limitations and security concerns.
Note: The ChromeOS plugin only supports direct connection mode.
Similar to the optimized meeting experience, the VDI plugin offloads Zoom Phone media on operating systems and virtual desktop agents. This creates a richer quality experience through a direct network connection to the plugin and processes the media on the local machine.
Screen sharing for VDI users is handled differently depending on whether the user is sharing their screen from a virtual desktop or receiving a share session from another participant while using a virtual desktop.
When another participant shares their screen during the meeting, the video from that participant is sent to the virtual desktop and, by default, forwarded to the VDI plugin. Forwarding to the VDI plugin is designed to optimize the rendering of all video, meeting, and shared sessions on the thin client. It is possible to disable this behavior through a registry key if there is a need to render the shared session directly on the virtual desktop.
When the virtual desktop user shares their screen, the shared session is sent from the virtual desktop to the Zoom cloud, which is forwarded to all other participants. For the video content in the shared session, the VDI plugin is not used. Audio is sent from the virtual desktop to the VDI plugin, which is sent to the Zoom cloud and combined with the video from the desktop shared when sent to all participants. There is a Share sound option check box in the Share selection dialog box that must be checked to include audio from the virtual desktop.
Yes, initiating screen sharing from the virtual desktop requires the VDI server to process local and outbound screen-sharing data. Since virtual desktops are provisioned with virtual CPU cores, some offloading to a GPU that can be done with real hardware is not an option for the virtual desktop. To address those performance challenges, the VDI Client is optimized to reduce the frame rate of screen sharing to five frames per second to maintain server performance.
For deployments where there is a desire to increase the frame rate to the highest possible rate that the virtual desktop can support, the registry key EnableOptimizeForVideo can be enabled. The actual frame rate that is achieved is dependent on the number of cores provisioned to the desktop and other factors, such as the media being shared and the application used to present the media.
For customers concerned about virtual desktop performance, the capture rates can be reduced through the registry key ShareCaptureFps to optimize server performance.
A Direct Optimized connection allows the VDI Zoom Workplace client and the VDI plugin to maintain independent connections with Zoom’s cloud infrastructure. The VDI plugin and VDI Zoom Workplace client are taking optimal data routes for the best user experience. Zoom recommends using Direct optimization whenever possible.
The UDP and Channel Optimized connection for the VDI Zoom Workplace client can be used in circumstances where a business would like to control how media data flows between the VDI plugin and Zoom's cloud infrastructure, particularly for deployments where the VDI plugin is installed on thin clients that do not have a direct connection to the internet and Zoom's cloud infrastructure. Instead, all audio, video, and screen-sharing data goes through the VDI server, and the VDI Client delivers data to the plugin through an encrypted out-of-band SRTP UDP connection. In the event an out-of-band UDP connection fails, the client will fail over to the VDI vendor’s channel connection, such as the ICA channel.
The out-of-band UDP connection is established between the VDI client and plugin, using UDP ports 7200-17210 by default. This encrypted connection is confirmed through the already-encrypted virtual connection between the VDI plugin and VDI Zoom Workplace client (e.g., a .ica channel), where encryption keys are exchanged between the endpoints and the connection is confirmed. If a UDP connection cannot be established, the connection will fail over to the virtual connection channel.
The UDP port range can be adjusted through registry keys under the UDPPortBegin and UDPPortEnd keys. The range for begin port is (1700, 64000). The range for end port is (1800, 65000). The total range from the beginning port to the ending port cannot be less than 100. This requirement means the lowest possible valid range is 1000–1100, and the highest possible range of 100 is 64000–64100.
Note: The UDPPortBegin value cannot be higher than 64000.
Organizations that use the Windows Defender Firewall with customized port ranges require advanced configurations.
Note: Zoom recommends reserving at least 8 ports per user if multiple users share the same host machine.
In the event a direct connection or UDP connection cannot be established between the VDI Zoom Workplace client and the VDI plugin, the connection will fail over to the virtual connection used by the virtual desktop agent. These connections have limited bandwidth available and will likely impact media quality.
For meetings, the VDI registry keys allow for enforcing various connection methods using the DisableMMRDirect, DisableICABridge, and DisableUDPBridge keys.
For phones, the VDI registry keys allow for enforcing various connection methods using the DisableMMRDirect_Phone, DisableChannelBridge_Phone, and DisableUDPBridge_Phone keys.
All in-meeting traffic is secured with 256-bit AES-GCM encryption for UDP connections, regardless of optimization configuration. Failover media connection methods utilize TLS 1.2 encryption.
All communication between the VDI plugin and VDI Zoom Workplace client is encrypted through the intrinsic virtual connection, or an out-of-band UDP connection.
No special networking configurations are required for meeting connectivity with the VDI Zoom Workplace client over the standard client. Networking configuration rules are available in the firewall and proxy configuration guide.
See UDP Connection Establishment for port requirements for Direct and Channel Optimized modes.
The VDI Zoom Workplace client MSI package opens UDP ports 7200-17210 in the Windows Defender firewall during installation for plugin connectivity. Companies that use the Windows Defender firewall and customize the UDP port range using registry keys must update these parameters in the Windows Defender firewall to maintain functionality.
In addition to accessing meeting and phone statistics during a meeting, you can view VDI statistics in the VDI tab if you have the VDI Zoom Workplace client.
VDI statistics allow you to view various diagnostic information such as hardware or performance information, your VDI connection status, the proxy setting of a terminal, and the encryption level of an ICA channel. VDI statistics also allow you to gauge whether you are experiencing a network issue.
If you are using the VDI Zoom Workplace client and the VDI tab is not displayed, check to see if the standard Windows client is installed instead. Group policies may also specify a required minimum version of the VDI plugin. Check with your local help desk for assistance.
For details, please visit Accessing VDI statistics.
The following articles can help troubleshoot specific issues related to the VDI client, plugins, and integrations: