7.0

Creating and Preparing a Parent
Virtual Machine for Cloning 3
You can create a pool of desktop machines by cloning a vCenter Server virtual machine (VM). Before you
create the desktop pool, you need to prepare and configure this VM, which will be the parent of the clones.
For information about preparing machines that are used as Remote Desktop Services (RDS) hosts, see
Chapter 8, “Setting Up Remote Desktop Services Hosts,” on page 95.
For information about preparing Linux VMs for remote desktop deployment, see the Setting Up Horizon 7 for
Linux Desktops guide.
NOTE
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Starting with version 7.0, View Agent is renamed Horizon Agent and View Administrator is renamed
Horizon Administrator.
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VMware Blast, the display protocol that is available starting with Horizon 7.0, is also known as
VMware Blast Extreme.
This chapter includes the following topics:
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“Creating a Virtual Machine for Cloning,” on page 19
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“Install Horizon Agent on a Virtual Machine,” on page 26
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“Install Horizon Agent Silently,” on page 30
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“Configure a Virtual Machine with Multiple NICs for Horizon Agent,” on page 36
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“Optimize Guest Operating System Performance,” on page 37
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“Disable the Windows Customer Experience Improvement Program,” on page 38
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“Optimizing Windows for Instant-Clone and View Composer Linked-Clone Virtual Machines,” on
page 39
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“Preparing a Parent Virtual Machine,” on page 45
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“Creating Virtual Machine Templates,” on page 49
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“Creating Customization Specifications,” on page 50
Creating a Virtual Machine for Cloning
The first step in the process of deploying a pool of cloned desktops is to create a virtual machine in vSphere,
install and configure the operating system.
1 Create a Virtual Machine in vSphere on page 20
You can create a virtual machine in vSphere from scratch or by cloning an existing VM. This
procedure describes creating a VM from scratch.
VMware, Inc.
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