Specifications

If using vSphere 4.1, specify whether to use a Microsoft Sysprep customization specification or QuickPrep

from VMware. Sysprep generates a unique SID and GUID for each virtual machine in the pool.

Specify whether the View desktop can or must be downloaded and run on a local client system.

In addition, using desktop pools provides many conveniences.

Dedicated-assignment

pools

Each user is assigned a particular View desktop and returns to the same virtual

desktop at each login. Users can personalize their desktops, install applications,

and store data.

Floating-assignment

pools

The virtual desktop is optionally deleted and re-created after each use, offering

a highly controlled environment. A floating-assignment desktop is like a

computer lab or kiosk environment where each desktop is loaded with the

necessary applications and all desktops have access to necessary data.

Using floating-assignment pools also allows you to create a pool of desktops

that can be used by shifts of users. For example, a pool of 100 desktops could

be used by 300 users if they worked in shifts of 100 users at a time.

Reducing and Managing Storage Requirements

Using virtual desktops 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 desktops in a pool share a virtual disk with a base image.

Managing Storage with vSphere on page 24

VMware 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.

Reducing Storage Requirements with View Composer on page 25

Because View Composer creates desktop images that share virtual disks with a base image, you can

reduce the required storage capacity by 50 to 90 percent.

Managing Storage with vSphere

VMware 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 VMware 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.

With View 4.5 and later and vSphere 4.1 and later, you can now also use the following features:

vStorage thin provisioning, which lets you start out with as little disk space as necessary and grow the

disk to add space later

Tiered storage, which allows you to distribute virtual disks in the View environment across high-

performance storage and lower-cost storage tiers, to maximize performance and cost savings

Local storage on the ESX server for the virtual machine swap files in the guest operating system

VMware View Architecture Planning

24 VMware, Inc.