6.1

Reducing and Managing Storage
Requirements 15
Deploying desktops on virtual machines that are managed by vCenter Server provides all the storage
efficiencies that were previously available only for virtualized servers. Using View Composer increases the
storage savings because all virtual machines in a pool share a virtual disk with a base image.
This chapter includes the following topics:
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“Managing Storage with vSphere,” on page 185
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“Reducing Storage Requirements with View Composer,” on page 190
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“Storage Sizing for Linked-Clone Desktop Pools,” on page 191
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“Storage Overcommit for Linked-Clone Virtual Machines,” on page 195
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“Linked-Clone Data Disks,” on page 197
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“Storing Linked Clones on Local Datastores,” on page 198
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“Storing View Composer Replicas and Linked Clones on Separate Datastores,” on page 199
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“Configure View Storage Accelerator for Desktop Pools,” on page 200
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“Reclaim Disk Space on Linked-Clone Virtual Machines,” on page 201
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“Using View Composer Array Integration with Native NFS Snapshot Technology (VAAI),” on
page 203
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“Set Blackout Times for ESXi Operations on View Virtual Machines,” on page 204
Managing Storage with vSphere
vSphere lets you virtualize disk volumes and file systems so that you can manage and configure storage
without having to consider where the data is physically stored.
Fibre Channel SAN arrays, iSCSI SAN arrays, and NAS arrays are widely used storage technologies
supported by vSphere to meet different datacenter storage needs. The storage arrays are connected to and
shared between groups of servers through storage area networks. This arrangement allows aggregation of
the storage resources and provides more flexibility in provisioning them to virtual machines.
Compatible vSphere 5.0 and 5.1 or Later Features
With vSphere 5.0 or a later release, you can use the following features:
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With the View storage accelerator feature, you can configure ESXi hosts to cache virtual machine disk
data.
VMware, Inc.
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