These are the free VMware Visio stencils and shapes I built for my own architecture work and have kept available here ever since. They cover VMware vSphere, VMware Horizon View, and vCenter Orchestrator, and they download directly from this page — no sign-up, no email, no link shortener.
Everything here was drawn between 2012 and 2014. The shapes still open in current versions of Visio and still describe the components most people need to diagram, but I want to be straightforward about their age rather than pretend they are new. See a note on product names below for what these products are called today.
Download the stencils
Pick .vssx for Visio 2013 or later (including Visio 2016, 2019, 2021 and the Microsoft 365 desktop app), or .vss for Visio 2003–2010. The contents are the same; only the file format differs.
| Stencil | Visio 2013+ (.vssx) | Visio 2003–2010 (.vss) |
|---|---|---|
| VMware vSphere icons Generic VMware and vCenter shapes |
Download .vssx 1.1 MB |
Download .vss 1.3 MB |
| VMware Horizon View VDI infrastructure shapes |
Download .vssx 14 MB |
Download .vss 17.3 MB |
| vCenter Orchestrator 118 workflow and automation shapes |
Download .vssx 579 KB |
Download .vss 664 KB |
What is in each stencil
VMware vSphere icons
I started this set because I was architecting VMware projects and could not find Visio shapes I actually wanted to use for virtual machines and vCenter actions, so I drew my own. It is the general-purpose set: the shapes you reach for when you are diagramming a vSphere environment and need to show hosts, virtual machines, and the moving parts around them.
This is the stencil most people are after when they search for VMware Visio icons, and it is the smallest download of the three.
VMware Horizon View
A stencil for diagramming VMware View virtual desktop infrastructure. It had 184 shapes when I first published it in September 2012, and I added more in the May 2013 update. The shapes cover a View environment end to end — the View server components themselves, and then down to users, group policies, smart cards, SSL certificates, applications and the like.
Some of the icons are borrowed from other collections that were circulating at the time; others are shapes I made specifically for this set. The 2013 update added Persona Management and ThinApp repository shapes, a Transfer Server shape, several client access device shapes, and a set of hand-drawn shapes for whiteboard-style diagrams.
vCenter Orchestrator
118 shapes for mocking up Orchestrator workflows. It has the basic workflow vocabulary — start, decision, and so on — plus product-specific shapes for directory services, credentials, nested workflows, policies and custom actions. If you are sketching out automation for your virtual data center and want something to share with your team, this is the set.
Installing a stencil in Visio
Two ways, depending on whether you want it once or permanently:
- Open it directly. In Visio, go to More Shapes → Open Stencil and browse to the file you downloaded.
- Make it permanent. Copy the file into your My Shapes folder (usually Documents\My Shapes), then restart Visio. The stencil appears under More Shapes → My Shapes from then on.
If Windows blocks the file after download, right-click it, choose Properties, and tick Unblock.
A note on product names
These stencils were drawn when everything on them was called VMware. Three things have changed since, and it is worth knowing if you are searching for current shapes:
- Broadcom acquired VMware in November 2023. vSphere and vCenter are Broadcom products now.
- Horizon View is now Omnissa Horizon. VMware’s End-User Computing business was sold to KKR and became the standalone company Omnissa in July 2024. The rebrand reached the product itself in the Horizon 2412 release.
- vCenter Orchestrator is now Aria Automation Orchestrator, by way of vRealize Orchestrator. It is still bundled with vCenter Server.
The shapes have not been redrawn for any of this. They are what they are: 2012–2014 artifacts that still diagram the architecture accurately, with the old names on the tin.
The original 2012 releases
The downloads above are the current versions. The original 2012 packages are still here if you need them — in particular, the XML stencil (.vsx) format, which I only ever published in that first release:
- VMware icons, original 2012 release (.zip, 1.1 MB)
- VMware View, original 2012 release (.zip, 12.6 MB)
- VMware View, XML stencil (.vsx) format (.zip, 13.7 MB)
Unless you specifically need the XML format, take the .vssx or .vss files above instead — they have more shapes.
The posts behind these stencils
Each release has its own post, with screenshots of the shapes and the comment threads where people asked for formats and additions:
- vCenter Orchestrator Visio Stencil — March 2014
- Updated VMware Horizon View Visio Shapes Stencil — May 2013
- VMware View Visio Stencil Download — September 2012
- New VMware Icons Visio Stencil Download — September 2012
By May 2013 the stencil pages had been viewed more than 37,000 times, which was more than I expected when I drew a few boxes for my own diagrams.
Not official, and not supported
These are not official VMware, Broadcom, or Omnissa releases and are not supported by any of them. They are something I put together in my spare time over a cold beer. Use them freely in your own diagrams; if a shape is wrong or missing, leave a comment on the relevant post and I will see what I can do.
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