7.0
Table Of Contents
- View Architecture Planning
- Contents
- View Architecture Planning
- Introduction to View
- Planning a Rich User Experience
- Feature Support Matrix for Horizon Agent
- Choosing a Display Protocol
- Using Hosted Applications
- Using View Persona Management to Retain User Data and Settings
- Using USB Devices with Remote Desktops and Applications
- 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
- Monitors and Screen Resolution
- Managing Desktop and Application Pools from a Central Location
- Advantages of Desktop Pools
- Advantages of Application Pools
- Reducing and Managing Storage Requirements
- Application Provisioning
- Deploying Individual Applications Using an RDS Host
- Deploying Applications and System Updates with View Composer
- Deploying Applications and System Updates with Instant Clones
- Managing VMware ThinApp Applications in View Administrator
- Deploying and Managing Applications Using App Volumes
- Using Existing Processes or VMware Mirage for Application Provisioning
- Using Active Directory GPOs to Manage Users and Desktops
- 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
- Using Smart Policies
- 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
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Use centralized file shares or a View Composer persistent disk or App Volumes for user-generated
content and user-installed applications.
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If you are using vSphere 5.1 or later, enable space reclamation for vCenter Server and for the linked-
clone desktop pools.
If virtual machine desktops use the space-efficient disk format available with vSphere 5.1 or later, stale
or deleted data within a guest operating system is automatically reclaimed with a wipe and shrink
process.
The amount of storage space required must take into account the following files for each virtual desktop:
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The ESXi suspend file is equivalent to the amount of RAM allocated to the virtual machine.
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By default, the Windows page file is equivalent to 150 percent of RAM.
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Log files can take up as much as 100MB for each virtual machine.
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The virtual disk, or .vmdk file, must accommodate the operating system, applications, and future
applications and software updates. The virtual disk must also accommodate local user data and user-
installed applications if they are located on the virtual desktop rather than on file shares.
If you use View Composer, the .vmdk files grow over time, but you can control the amount of growth by
scheduling View Composer refresh operations, setting a storage over-commit policy for virtual machine
desktop pools, and redirecting Windows page and temporary files to a separate, nonpersistent disk.
If you use instant clones, the .vmdk files grow over time within a login session. Whenever a user logs
out, the instant clone desktop is automatically deleted and a new instant clone is created and ready for
the next user to log in. With this process, the desktop is effectively refreshed and returned to its original
size.
You can also add 15 percent to this estimate to be sure that users do not run out of disk space.
View ESXi Node
A node is a single VMware ESXi host that hosts virtual machine desktops in a View deployment.
View is most cost-effective when you maximize the consolidation ratio, which is the number of desktops
hosted on an ESXi host. Although many factors affect server selection, if you are optimizing strictly for
acquisition price, you must find server configurations that have an appropriate balance of processing power
and memory.
There is no substitute for measuring performance under actual, real world scenarios, such as in a pilot, to
determine an appropriate consolidation ratio for your environment and hardware configuration.
Consolidation ratios can vary significantly, based on usage patterns and environmental factors. Use the
following guidelines:
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As a general framework, consider compute capacity in terms of 8 to 10 virtual desktops per CPU core.
For information about calculating CPU requirements for each virtual machine, see “Estimating CPU
Requirements for Virtual Machine Desktops,” on page 53.
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Think of memory capacity in terms of virtual desktop RAM, host RAM, and overcommit
ratio. Although you can have between 8 and 10 virtual desktops per CPU core, if virtual desktops have
1GB or more of RAM, you must also carefully consider physical RAM requirements. For information
about calculating the amount of RAM required per virtual machine, see “Estimating Memory
Requirements for Virtual Machine Desktops,” on page 51.
Note that physical RAM costs are not linear and that in some situations, it can be cost-effective to
purchase more smaller servers that do not use expensive DIMM chips. In other cases, rack density,
storage connectivity, manageability and other considerations can make minimizing the number of
servers in a deployment a better choice.
View Architecture Planning
54 VMware, Inc.