6.1.1

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Keep a Record of the Parent Virtual Machine's Paging-File Size on page 51
When you create a linked-clone pool, you can redirect the linked clones' guest OS paging and temp
files to a separate disk. You must configure this disk to be larger than the paging file in the guest OS.
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Increase the Timeout Limit of QuickPrep Customization Scripts on page 51
View Composer terminates a QuickPrep post-synchronization or power-off script that takes longer
than 20 seconds. You can increase the timeout limit for these scripts by changing the
ExecScriptTimeout Windows registry value on the parent virtual machine.
Prepare a Parent Virtual Machine
The View Composer service requires a parent virtual machine from which you generate a base image for
creating and managing a linked-clone desktop pool.
Prerequisites
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Verify that you prepared a virtual machine to use for deploying remote desktops. See “Creating Virtual
Machines for Remote Desktop Deployment,” on page 19.
A parent virtual machine that you use for View Composer must either belong to the same Active
Directory domain as the domain that the linked-clone machines will join or be a member of the local
WORKGROUP.
IMPORTANT To use features that are supported in View 4.5 or later, such as redirecting disposable data
to a separate disk and customizing linked-clone machines with Sysprep, you must deploy the machines
from a parent virtual machine on which View Agent 4.5 or later is installed.
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Verify that the virtual machine was not converted from a View Composer linked clone. A virtual
machine that is converted from a linked clone has the clone's internal disk and state information. A
parent virtual machine cannot have state information.
IMPORTANT Linked clones and virtual machines that were converted from linked clones are not
supported as parent virtual machines.
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When you install View Agent on the parent virtual machine, select the View Composer Agent option.
See “Install View Agent on a Virtual Machine,” on page 27.
To update View Agent in a large environment, you can use standard Windows update mechanisms
such as Altiris, SMS, LanDesk, BMC, or other systems management software. You can also use the
recompose operation to update View Agent.
NOTE Do not change the log on account for the VMware View Composer Guest Agent Server service in
a parent virtual machine. By default, this is the Local System account. If you change this account, the
linked clones created from the parent do not start.
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To deploy machines that run Windows 8 or Windows 7, configure a volume license key and activate the
parent virtual machine's operating system with volume activation. See “Activating Windows on
Linked-Clone Virtual Machines,” on page 49.
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If the parent virtual machine runs Windows 7 or Windows 8, verify that you followed the best practices
for optimizing the operating system. See “Optimizing Windows 7 and Windows 8 for Linked-Clone
Virtual Machines,” on page 40.
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Familiarize yourself with the procedure for disabling searching Windows Update for device drivers.
See the Microsoft Technet article, "Disable Searching Windows Update for Device Drivers" at
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc730606(v=ws.10).aspx.
Chapter 3 Creating and Preparing Virtual Machines
VMware, Inc. 47