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Table Of Contents
- View Architecture Planning
- Contents
- View Architecture Planning
- Introduction to View
- Planning a Rich User Experience
- Feature Support Matrix for View Agent
- Choosing a Display Protocol
- Using Hosted Applications
- Using View Persona Management to Retain User Data and Settings
- Using USB Devices with Remote Desktops
- Using the Real-Time Audio-Video Feature for Webcams and Microphones
- Using 3D Graphics Applications
- Streaming Multimedia to a Remote Desktop
- Printing from a Remote Desktop
- Using Single Sign-On for Logging In to a Remote Desktop
- Using Multiple Monitors
- Managing Desktop and Application Pools from a Central Location
- Architecture Design Elements and Planning Guidelines for Remote Desktop Deployments
- Virtual Machine Requirements for Remote Desktops
- View ESXi Node
- Desktop Pools for Specific Types of Workers
- Desktop Virtual Machine Configuration
- RDS Host Virtual Machine Configuration
- vCenter Server and View Composer Virtual Machine Configuration
- View Connection Server Maximums and Virtual Machine Configuration
- vSphere Clusters
- Storage and Bandwidth Requirements
- View Building Blocks
- View Pods
- Advantages of Using Multiple vCenter Servers in a Pod
- Planning for Security Features
- Understanding Client Connections
- Choosing a User Authentication Method
- Restricting Remote Desktop Access
- Using Group Policy Settings to Secure Remote Desktops and Applications
- Implementing Best Practices to Secure Client Systems
- Assigning Administrator Roles
- Preparing to Use a Security Server
- Understanding View Communications Protocols
- Overview of Steps to Setting Up a View Environment
- Index
Frequency of Power, Provisioning, and Refit Operations
Certain virtual machine desktop power, provisioning, and refit operations are initiated only by
administrator actions, are usually predictable and controllable, and can be confined to established
maintenance windows. Other virtual machine desktop power and refit operations are triggered by user
behavior, such as using the Refresh on Logoff or Suspend on Logoff settings, or by scripted action, such as
using Distributed Power Management (DPM) during windows of user inactivity to power off idle ESXi
hosts.
If your View design does not require user-triggered power and refit operations, a single vCenter Server
instance can probably suit your needs. Without a high frequency of user-triggered power and refit
operations, no long queue of operations can accumulate that might cause View Connection Server to time-
out waiting for vCenter Server to complete the requested operations within the defined concurrency setting
limits.
Many customers elect to deploy floating pools and use the Refresh on Logoff setting to consistently deliver
desktops that are free of stale data from previous sessions. Examples of stale data include unclaimed
memory pages in pagefile.sys or Windows temp files. Floating pools can also minimize the impact of
malware by frequently resetting desktops to a known clean state.
Some customers are reducing electricity usage by configuring View to power off desktops not in use so that
vSphere DRS (Distributed Resources Scheduler) can consolidate the running virtual machines onto a
minimum number of ESXi hosts. VMware Distributed Power Management then powers off the idle hosts. In
scenarios such as these, multiple vCenter Server instances can better accommodate the higher frequency of
power and refit operations required to avoid operations time-outs.
Simplicity of Infrastructure
A single vCenter Server instance in a large-scale View design offers some compelling benefits, such as a
single place to manage golden master images and parent virtual machines, a single vCenter Server view to
match the View Administrator console view, and fewer production back-end databases and database
servers. Disaster Recovery planning is simpler for one vCenter Server than it is for multiple instances. Make
sure you weigh the advantages of multiple vCenter Server instances, such as duration of maintenance
windows and frequency of power and refit operations, against the disadvantages, such as the additional
administrative overhead of managing parent virtual machine images and the increased number of
infrastructure components required.
Your design might benefit from a hybrid approach. You can choose to have very large and relatively static
pools managed by one vCenter Server instance and have several smaller, more dynamic desktop pools
managed by multiple vCenter Server instances. The best strategy for upgrading existing large-scale pods is
to first upgrade the VMware software components of your existing pod. Before changing your pod design,
gauge the impact of the improvements of the latest version's power, provisioning, and refit operations, and
later experiment with increasing the size of your desktop pools to find the right balance of more large
desktop pools on fewer vCenter Server instances.
Chapter 4 Architecture Design Elements and Planning Guidelines for Remote Desktop Deployments
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