5.2

Table Of Contents
Managing Linked-Clone Desktops 10
With View Composer, you can update linked-clone desktops, reduce the size of their operating system data,
and
rebalance the linked-clone virtual machines among disk drives. You also can manage the View Composer
persistent disks associated with linked clones.
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Reduce Linked-Clone Size with Desktop Refresh on page 251
A desktop refresh operation restores the operating system disk of each linked clone to its original state
and size, reducing storage costs.
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Update Linked-Clone Desktops on page 253
You can update linked-clone desktops by creating a new base image on the parent virtual machine and
using the recompose feature to distribute the updated image to the linked clones.
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Rebalance Linked-Clone Desktops on page 257
A desktop rebalance operation evenly redistributes linked-clone desktops among available datastores.
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Manage View Composer Persistent Disks on page 260
You can detach a View Composer persistent disk from a linked-clone desktop and attach it to another
linked clone. This feature lets you manage user information separately from linked-clone desktops.
Reduce Linked-Clone Size with Desktop Refresh
A desktop refresh operation restores the operating system disk of each linked clone to its original state and
size, reducing storage costs.
If possible, schedule refresh operations during off-peak hours.
For guidelines, see “Desktop Refresh Operations,” on page 252.
Prerequisites
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Decide when to schedule the refresh operation. By default, View Composer starts the operation
immediately.
You can schedule only one refresh operation at a time for a given set of linked clones. You can schedule
multiple refresh operations if they affect different linked clones.
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Decide whether to force all users to log off as soon as the operation begins or wait for each user to log off
before refreshing that user's desktop.
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