5.0

Table Of Contents
Procedure
1 In View Administrator, click Inventory > Pools.
2 Select the pool to refresh by double-clicking the pool ID in the left column.
3 Choose whether to refresh the whole pool or selected desktops.
Option Action
To refresh all desktops in the pool
On the selected pool's page, click the Settings tab.
To refresh selected desktops
a On the selected pool's page, click the Inventory tab.
b Select the desktops to refresh.
4 Click View Composer > Refresh.
5 Follow the wizard instructions to refresh the linked-clone desktops.
The OS disks are reduced to their original size.
In vCenter Server, you can monitor the progress of the refresh operation on the linked-clone virtual machines.
In View Administrator, you can monitor the operation by clicking Inventory > Pools, selecting the pool ID,
and clicking the Tasks tab. You can click Cancel Task, Pause Task, orResume Task to terminate a task, suspend
a task, or resume a suspended task.
Desktop Refresh Operations
As users interact with linked-clone desktops, the clones' OS disks grow. A desktop refresh operation restores
the OS disks to their original state and size, reducing storage costs.
A refresh operation does not affect View Composer persistent disks.
A linked clone uses less storage space than the parent virtual machine, which contains the complete OS data.
However, a clone's OS disk expands each time data is written to it from within the guest operating system.
When View Composer creates a linked clone, it takes a snapshot of the clone's OS disk. The snapshot uniquely
identifies the linked-clone virtual machine. A refresh operation reverts the OS disk to the snapshot.
View Composer can refresh a linked clone in as little as half the time it takes to delete and recreate the clone.
Apply these guidelines to refresh operations:
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You can refresh a desktop pool on demand, as a scheduled event, or when the OS data reaches a specified
size.
You can schedule only one refresh operation at a time for a given set of linked clones. If you start a refresh
operation immediately, the operation overwrites any previously scheduled task.
You can schedule multiple refresh operations if they affect different linked clones.
Before you schedule a new refresh operation, you must cancel any previously scheduled task.
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You can refresh dedicated-assignment and floating-assignment pools.
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You cannot refresh desktops that are running local sessions.
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A refresh can only occur when users are disconnected from their View desktops.
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A refresh preserves the unique computer information set up by QuickPrep or Sysprep. You do not need
to rerun Sysprep after a refresh to restore the SID or the GUIDs of third-party software installed in the
system drive.
VMware View Administration
192 VMware, Inc.