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Table Of Contents
- VMware View Architecture Planning
- Contents
- VMware View Architecture Planning
- Introduction to VMware View
- Planning a Rich User Experience
- Feature Support Matrix
- Choosing a Display Protocol
- Using View Persona Management to Retain User Data and Settings
- Benefits of Using View Desktops in Local Mode
- Accessing USB Devices Connected to a Local Computer
- Printing from a View Desktop
- Streaming Multimedia to a View Desktop
- Using Single Sign-On for Logging In to a View Desktop
- Using Multiple Monitors with a View Desktop
- Managing Desktop Pools from a Central Location
- Architecture Design Elements and Planning Guidelines
- Virtual Machine Requirements
- VMware View ESX/ESXi Node
- Desktop Pools for Specific Types of Workers
- Desktop Virtual Machine Configuration
- vCenter and View Composer Virtual Machine Configuration and Desktop Pool Maximums
- View Connection Server Maximums and Virtual Machine Configuration
- View Transfer Server Virtual Machine Configuration and Storage
- vSphere Clusters
- VMware View Building Blocks
- VMware View Pod
- Planning for Security Features
- Understanding Client Connections
- Choosing a User Authentication Method
- Restricting View Desktop Access
- Using Group Policy Settings to Secure View Desktops
- Implementing Best Practices to Secure Client Systems
- Assigning Administrator Roles
- Preparing to Use a Security Server
- Understanding VMware View Communications Protocols
- Overview of Steps to Setting Up a VMware View Environment
- Index
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Use centralized file shares or a View Composer persistent disk for user-generated content and user-
installed applications.
The amount of storage space required must take into account the following files for each virtual desktop:
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The ESX/ESXi suspend file is equivalent to the amount of RAM allocated to the virtual machine.
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The Windows page file is equivalent to 150 percent of RAM.
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Log files take up approximately 100MB for each virtual machine.
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The virtual disk, or .vmdk file, must accommodate the operating system, applications, and future
applications and software updates. The virtual disk must also accommodate local user data and user-
installed applications if they are located on the virtual desktop rather than on file shares.
If you use View Composer, the .vmdk files grow over time, but you can control the amount of growth by
scheduling View Composer refresh operations, setting a storage over-commit policy for View desktop
pools, and redirecting Windows page and temporary files to a separate, nonpersistent disk.
You can also add 15 percent to this estimate to be sure that users do not run out of disk space.
VMware View ESX/ESXi Node
A node is a single VMware ESX/ESXi host that hosts virtual machine desktops in a VMware View deployment.
VMware View is most cost-effective when you maximize the consolidation ratio, which is the number of
desktops hosted on an ESX/ESXi host. Although many factors affect server selection, if you are optimizing
strictly for acquisition price, you must find server configurations that have an appropriate balance of processing
power and memory.
There is no substitute for measuring performance under actual, real world scenarios, such as in a pilot, to
determine an appropriate consolidation ratio for your environment and hardware configuration.
Consolidation ratios can vary significantly, based on usage patterns and environmental factors. Use the
following guidelines:
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As a general framework, consider compute capacity in terms of 8 to 10 virtual desktops per CPU core. For
information about calculating CPU requirements for each virtual machine, see “Estimating CPU
Requirements for Virtual Desktops,” on page 35.
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Think of memory capacity in terms of virtual desktop RAM, host RAM, and overcommit ratio. Although
you can have between 8 and 10 virtual desktops per CPU core, if virtual desktops have 1GB or more of
RAM, you must also carefully consider physical RAM requirements. For information about calculating
the amount of RAM required per virtual machine, see “Estimating Memory Requirements for Virtual
Desktops,” on page 33.
Note that physical RAM costs are not linear and that in some situations, it can be cost-effective to purchase
more smaller servers that do not use expensive DIMM chips. In other cases, rack density, storage
connectivity, manageability and other considerations can make minimizing the number of servers in a
deployment a better choice.
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Finally, consider cluster requirements and any failover requirements. For more information, see
“Determining Requirements for High Availability,” on page 45.
For information about specifications of ESX/ESXi hosts in vSphere, see the VMware vSphere Configuration
Maximums document.
VMware View Architecture Planning
36 VMware, Inc.