7.0

Table 16‑6. Storage Overcommit Levels
Option Storage Overcommit Level
None Storage is not overcommitted.
Conservative 4 times the size of the datastore. This is the default level.
Moderate 7 times the size of the datastore.
Aggressive 15 times the size of the datastore.
Storage overcommit levels provide a high-level guide for determining storage capacity. To determine the
best level, monitor the growth of linked clones in your environment.
Set an aggressive level if your OS disks will never grow to their maximum possible size. An aggressive
overcommit level demands attention. To make sure that the linked clones do not run out of disk space, you
can periodically refresh or rebalance the desktop pool and reduce the linked clones' OS data to its original
size. Automated farms do not support refresh or rebalance. If the linked clones in an automated farm are in
danger of running out of disk space, change the overcommit level.
For example, it would make sense to set an aggressive overcommit level for a floating-assignment desktop
pool in which the virtual machines are set to delete or refresh after logoff.
You can vary storage overcommit levels among different types of datastores to address the different levels
of throughput in each datastore. For example, a NAS datastore can have a different setting than a SAN
datastore.
Set the Storage Overcommit Level for Linked-Clone Virtual Machines
You can control how aggressively View creates linked-clone virtual machines on a datastore by using the
storage overcommit feature. This feature lets you create linked clones that have a total logical size larger
than the physical storage limit of the datastore.
This feature works only with linked-clone pools and automated farms.
The storage overcommit level calculates the amount of storage greater than the physical size of the datastore
that the clones would use if each clone were a full virtual machine. For details, see “Storage Overcommit for
View Composer Linked-Clone Virtual Machines,” on page 245. The following procedure applies to linked-
clone desktop pools. The steps are similar for automated farms.
Procedure
1 In View Administrator, select Catalog > Desktop Pools.
2 When you create a new desktop pool or edit an existing pool, navigate to the vCenter Settings page.
Option Action
New desktop pool
a Click Add.
b Proceed through the Add Desktop Pool wizard until the vCenter
Settings page appears.
Existing desktop pool
a Select the linked-clone pool and click Edit.
b Click the vCenter Settings tab.
3 On the vCenter Settings page, click Browse next to Datastores.
4 Select the datastore on the Select Linked Clone Datastores page.
A drop-down menu appears in the Storage Overcommit column for the selected datastore.
Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View
246 VMware, Inc.