5.2

Table Of Contents
Desktop Pools for Specific Types of Workers
Horizon View provides many features to help you conserve storage and reduce the amount of processing
power required for various use cases. Many of these features are available as pool settings.
The most fundamental question to consider is whether a certain type of user needs a stateful desktop image
or a stateless desktop image. Users who need a stateful desktop image have data in the operating system image
itself that must be preserved, maintained, and backed up. For example, these users install some of their own
applications or have data that cannot be saved outside of the virtual machine itself, such as on a file server or
in an application database.
Stateless desktop
images
Stateless architectures have many advantages, such as being easier to support
and having lower storage costs. Other benefits include a limited need to back
up the linked-clone virtual machines and easier, less expensive disaster
recovery and business continuity options.
Stateful desktop images
These images might require traditional image management techniques.
Stateful images can have low storage costs in conjunction with certain storage
system technologies. Backup and recovery technologies such as VMware
Consolidated Backup and VMware Site Recovery Manager are important when
considering strategies for backup, disaster recovery, and business continuity.
You create stateless desktop images by using View Composer and creating floating-assignment pools of linked-
clone virtual machines. You create stateful desktop images by creating dedicated-assignment pools of either
linked-clone virtual machines or full virtual machines. If you use linked-clone virtual machines, you can
configure View Composer persistent disks and folder redirection. Some storage vendors have cost-effective
storage solutions for stateful desktop images. These vendors often have their own best practices and
provisioning utilities. Using one of these vendors might require that you create a manual dedicated-assignment
pool.
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Pools for Task Workers on page 41
You can standardize on stateless desktop images for task workers so that the image is always in a well-
known, easily supportable configuration and so that workers can log in to any available desktop.
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Pools for Knowledge Workers and Power Users on page 41
Knowledge workers must be able to create complex documents and have them persist on the desktop.
Power users must be able to install their own applications and have them persist. Depending on the
nature and amount of personal data that must be retained, the desktop can be stateful or stateless.
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Pools for Mobile Users on page 42
These users can check out a View desktop and run it locally on their laptop or desktop even without a
network connection.
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Pools for Kiosk Users on page 43
Kiosk users might include customers at airline check-in stations, students in classrooms or libraries,
medical personnel at medical data entry workstations, or customers at self-service points. Accounts
associated with client devices rather than users are entitled to use these desktop pools because users do
not need to log in to use the client device or the View desktop. Users can still be required to provide
authentication credentials for some applications.
VMware Horizon View Architecture Planning
40 VMware, Inc.