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Table Of Contents
VMware, Inc. 127
Chapter 7 Offline Desktop
Oncecheckedout,OfflineDesktopusesthinprovisionedvirtualdiskstostore
informationonthehostsystem.Thistypeofdiskoccupiesnomorespacethanthat
requiredbythedataitcontains,andphysicaldiskspaceisonlyallocatedasdatais
written;thisminimizesthestoragefootprintofthedownl
oadedsystem.
Ifanetworkconnectionispresentontheclientsystem,thedesktopthathasbeen
checkedoutwillcontinuetocommunicatewithViewConnectionServerinorderto
obtainusagedata,providepolicyupdates,andensurethatlocallycached
authenticationcriteriaiscurrent.Contactisattemptedevery5minutes.Intheab
sence
ofanetworkconnection,thedesktopwillfallbackonlocallycachedinformationin
ordertoauthenticatetheuserduringlogin.
Thedataoneachofflinesystemisencryptedandhasalifetimecontrolledthrough
policy—iftheclientlosescontactwiththeViewConnectionServer,themaximumtime
withoutserv
ercontactistheperiodinwhichtheusercancontinuetousethedesktop
beforetheyarerefusedaccess;thiscountdownisresetoncetheconnectionis
reestablished.Priortodisconnection,theuserisnotifiedthattheofflinedesktop
lifetimeisabouttoexpire.
Similarly,ifuseraccessisremov
ed—thatis,ifentitlementiswithdrawnortheaccount
issuspended—theclientsystembecomesinaccessiblewhenthecacheexpiresorafter
theclientismadeawareofthischangebytheViewConnectionServer(whichever
comesfirst).Inthisscenario,theuserisnotnotifiedpriortodisconnection.
Tunneled Communications and SSL
OfflineDesktopsupportstunneledornontunneledcommunicationsforLANbased
datatransfers.
Whentunnelingisenabled,alltrafficisroutedthroughtheViewConnection
Server.
Whentunnelingisnotenabled,datatransferstakeplacedirectlybetweenthe
onlinedesktophostsystemandtheofflineclient.
YoucandisabletunnelingbyselectingtheDirectconnectionforOfflineDesktop
operationscheckboxintheConfigurationpageoftheadministrativeinterface.
Inadditiontospecifyingtherouteforcommunications,youcanencryptthe
c
ommunicationsanddatatransfersthattakeplacebetweentheOfflineDesktopclient
andtheViewConnectionServ erbyselectingtheRequireSSLforOfflineDesktop
operationscheckboxintheConfigurationpageoftheadministrativeinterface.
N
OTEBypassingthetunnelandusinganunencryptedconnectionincreasesdata
transferspeedattheexpenseofsecuredatacommunication.Theencryptionsettinghas
noeffectontheofflinedataitself,whichisalwaysencryptedontheclientsystem.