4.6

Manage View Composer Persistent Disks
You can detach a View Composer persistent disk from a linked-clone desktop and attach it to another linked
clone. This feature lets you manage user information separately from linked-clone desktops.
When you attach persistent disks to linked-clone desktops, the target linked clones must use vSphere mode.
View Composer Persistent Disks
With View Composer, you can configure OS data and user information on separate disks in linked-clone
desktops. View Composer preserves the user information on the persistent disk when the OS data is updated,
refreshed, or rebalanced.
A View Composer persistent disk contains user settings and other user-generated data. You create persistent
disks when you create a linked-clone desktop pool. See “Worksheet for Creating a Linked-Clone Desktop
Pool,” on page 76.
You can detach a persistent disk from its linked-clone desktop and store the disk on its original datastore or
another datastore. After you detach the disk, the linked-clone virtual machine is deleted. A detached persistent
disk is no longer associated with any desktop.
You can use several methods to attach a detached persistent disk to another linked-clone desktop. This
flexibility has several uses:
n
When a linked clone is deleted, you can preserve the user data.
n
When an employee leaves the company, another employee can access the departing employee's user data.
n
A user who has multiple desktops can consolidate the user data on a single desktop.
n
If a virtual machine becomes inaccessible in vCenter Server, but the persistent disk is intact, you can import
the persistent disk and create a new linked clone using the disk.
NOTE You cannot detach a persistent disk from a Windows XP linked clone and recreate or attach the persistent
disk to a Windows 7 or Windows Vista linked clone. Persistent disks must be reconnected to the operating
system that was used when they were created.
View Manager can manage persistent disks from linked-clone pools that were created in View Manager 4.5 or
later. Persistent disks that were created in earlier versions of View Manager cannot be managed and do not
appear on the Persistent Disks page in View Administrator.
Detach a View Composer Persistent Disk
When you detach a View Composer persistent disk from a linked-clone desktop, the disk is stored and the
linked clone is deleted. By detaching a persistent disk, you can store and reuse user-specific information with
another desktop.
Procedure
1 In View Administrator, click Inventory > Persistent disks.
2 Select the persistent disk to detach.
3 Click Detach.
Chapter 9 Managing Linked-Clone Desktops
VMware, Inc. 173