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Table Of Contents
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When you install Horizon Agent on the parent virtual machine, select the VMware Horizon Instant
Clone Agent option for instant clones or the VMware Horizon View Composer Agent option. See
“Install Horizon Agent on a Virtual Machine,” on page 26.
To update Horizon 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 push
image or the recompose operation to update Horizon Agent.
NOTE For View Composer linked clones, 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 will not start.
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To deploy Windows machines, configure a volume license key and activate the parent virtual machine's
operating system with volume activation. See “Activating Windows on Instant Clones and View
Composer Linked Clones,” on page 47.
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Verify that you followed the best practices for optimizing the operating system. See “Optimizing
Windows for Instant-Clone and View Composer Linked-Clone Virtual Machines,” on page 39.
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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.
Procedure
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Remove the DHCP lease on the parent virtual machine to avoid copying a leased IP address to the
linked clones in the pool.
a On the parent virtual machine, open a command prompt.
b Type the ipconfig /release command.
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Verify that the system disk contains a single volume.
You cannot deploy linked clones from a parent virtual machine that contains more than one volume.
Multiple virtual disks are supported.
NOTE For View Composer linked clones, if the parent virtual machine contains multiple virtual disks,
when you create a desktop pool, do not select a drive letter for the View Composer persistent disk or
disposable data disk that already exists on the parent virtual machine or that conflicts with a drive letter
that is used for a network-mounted drive.
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Verify that the virtual machine does not contain an independent disk.
An independent disk is excluded when you take a snapshot of the virtual machine. Clones are based on
a snapshot and therefore will not contain the independent disk.
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For View Composer linked clones, if you plan to configure disposable data disks when you create
linked-clone machines, remove default user TEMP and TMP variables from the parent virtual machine.
You can also remove the pagefile.sys file to avoid duplicating the file on all the linked clones. If you
leave the pagefile.sys file on the parent virtual machine, a read-only version of the file is inherited by
the linked clones, while a second version of the file is used on the disposable data disk.
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Disable the hibernation option to reduce the size of each clone's virtual disk.
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Before you take a snapshot of the parent virtual machine, disable searching Windows Update for device
drivers.
This Windows feature can interfere with the customization process. As each clone is customized,
Windows might search for the best drivers on the Internet for that clone, resulting in delays.
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In vSphere Client, disable the vApp Options setting on the parent virtual machine.
Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View
46 VMware, Inc.