6.0.2

A recomposition restores the linked clone to its original state, before the customization specification was run
the first time. In this state, the linked clone does not have a local computer SID or the GUID of any third-
party software installed in the system drive. View must run the Sysprep customization specification after
the linked clone is recomposed.
Keeping Linked-Clone Machines Provisioned and Ready During View
Composer Operations
If your users must be able to access remote desktops at all times, you must maintain a certain number of
machines that stay provisioned and ready to accept connection requests from your users even when View
Composer maintenance operations take place. You can set a minimum number of provisioned, ready
machines while View Composer refreshes, recomposes, or rebalances the linked-clone virtual machines in a
pool.
When you specify a Minimum number of ready (provisioned) machines during View Composer
maintenance operations, View ensures that the specified number of machines stays provisioned and ready
while View Composer proceeds through the operation. You can specify the minimum number of ready
machines when you create or edit a linked-clone pool.
The following guidelines apply to this setting:
n
If you use a naming pattern to provision machines and provision machines on demand, set the number
of ready machines during View Composer operations to a smaller value than the specified Min number
of machines. If the minimum number were smaller, your pool could end up with fewer total machines
than the minimum number you want to keep provisioned and ready during View Composer
operations. In this case, View Composer maintenance operations could not take place.
n
If you provision machines by manually specifying a list of machine names, do not reduce the total pool
size (by removing machine names) to a lower number than the minimum number of ready machines. In
this case, View Composer maintenance operations could not take place.
n
If you set a large minimum number of ready machines in relation to the pool size, View Composer
maintenance operations might take longer to complete. While View maintains the minimum number of
ready machines during a maintenance operation, the operation might not reach the concurrency limit
that is specified in the Max concurrent View Composer maintenance operations setting.
For example, if a pool contains 20 machines and the minimum number of ready machines is 15, View
Composer can operate on at most five machines at a time. If the concurrency limit for View Composer
maintenance operations is 12, the concurrency limit is never reached.
n
The term "ready" applies to the state of the linked-clone virtual machine, not the machine status that is
displayed in View Administrator. A virtual machine is ready when it is provisioned and ready to be
powered on. The machine status reflects the View-managed condition of the machine. For example, a
machine can have a status of Connected, Disconnected, Agent Unreachable, Deleting, and so on.
Use Existing Active Directory Computer Accounts for Linked Clones
When you create or edit a desktop pool, you can configure View Composer to use existing computer
accounts in Active Directory for newly provisioned linked clones.
By default, View Composer generates a new Active Directory computer account for each linked clone that it
provisions. The Allow reuse of pre-existing computer accounts option lets you control the computer
accounts that are created in Active Directory by ensuring that View Composer uses existing AD computer
accounts.
With this option enabled, when a linked clone is provisioned, View Composer checks if an existing AD
computer account name matches the linked clone machine name. If a match exists, View Composer uses the
existing AD computer account. If View Composer does not find a matching AD computer account name,
View Composer generates a new AD computer account for the linked clone.
Chapter 5 Creating Linked-Clone Desktop Pools
VMware, Inc. 75