4.6

Using a Naming Pattern for Automated Desktop Pools
You can provision the desktops in a pool by providing a naming pattern and the total number of desktops you
want in the pool. By default, View Manager uses your pattern as a prefix in all the desktop names and appends
a unique number to identify each desktop.
Length of the Naming Pattern in a Desktop Name
Desktop names have a 15-character limit, including your naming pattern and the automatically generated
number.
Table 5-17. Maximum Length of the Naming Pattern in a Desktop Name
If You Set This Number of Desktops in the Pool This Is the Maximum Prefix Length
1-99 13 characters
100-999 12 characters
1,000 or more 11 characters
Names that contain fixed-length tokens have different length limits. See “Length of the Naming Pattern When
You Use a Fixed-Length Token,” on page 104.
Using a Token in a Desktop Name
You can place the automatically generated number anywhere else in the name by using a token. When you
type the pool name, type n surrounded by curly brackets to designate the token.
For example: amber-{n}-desktop
When View Manager creates a desktop, View Manager replaces {n} with a unique number.
You can generate a fixed-length token by typing {n:fixed=
number of digits }.
View Manager replaces the token with numbers containing the specified number of digits.
For example, if you type amber-{n:fixed=3}, View Manager replaces {n:fixed=3} with a three-digit number
and creates these desktop names: amber-001, amber-002, amber-003, and so on.
Length of the Naming Pattern When You Use a Fixed-Length Token
Names that contain fixed-length tokens have a 15-character limit, including your naming pattern and the
number of digits in the token.
Table 5-18. Maximum Length of the Naming Pattern When You Use a Fixed-Length Token
Fixed-Length Token Maximum Length of the Naming Pattern
{n:fixed=1}
14 characters
{n:fixed=2}
13 characters
{n:fixed=3}
12 characters
Desktop-Naming Example
This example shows how to create two automated desktop pools that use the same desktop names, but different
sets of numbers. The strategies that are used in this example achieve a specific user objective and show the
flexibility of the desktop-naming methods.
The objective is to create two pools with the same naming convention such as VDIABC-XX, where XX
represents a number. Each pool has a different set of sequential numbers. For example, the first pool might
contain desktops VDIABC-01 through VDIABC-10. The second pool contains desktops VDIABC-11 through
VDIABC-20.
VMware View Administration
104 VMware, Inc.