VMware Horizon 6.1.1, Horizon View - 6.1.1 User Manual

Setting Up Desktop and Application

Pools in View

VMware Horizon 6

Version 6.1.1

This document supports the version of each product listed and supports all subsequent versions until the document is replaced by a new edition. To check for more recent editions of this document, see http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs.

EN-001724-02

Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View

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Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View 7

Introduction to Desktop and Application Pools 9

Farms, RDS Hosts, and Desktop and Application Pools 9

Advantages of Desktop Pools 10

Desktop Pools for Specific Types of Workers 11

Advantages of Application Pools 14

Preparing Unmanaged Machines 15

Prepare an Unmanaged Machine for Remote Desktop Deployment 15

Install View Agent on an Unmanaged Machine 16

Creating and Preparing Virtual Machines 19

Creating Virtual Machines for Remote Desktop Deployment 19

Install View Agent on a Virtual Machine 27

Install View Agent Silently 30

Configure a Virtual Machine with Multiple NICs for View Agent 37

Optimize Guest Operating System Performance for All Windows Versions 37

Optimize Windows 7 and Windows 8 Guest Operating System Performance 38

Optimizing Windows 7 and Windows 8 for Linked-Clone Virtual Machines 40

Preparing Virtual Machines for View Composer 46

Creating Virtual Machine Templates 52

Creating Customization Specifications 53

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Creating Automated Desktop Pools That Contain Full Virtual Machines 55

Automated Pools That Contain Full Virtual Machines 55

Worksheet for Creating an Automated Pool That Contains Full Virtual Machines 55

Create an Automated Pool That Contains Full Virtual Machines 59

Desktop Settings for Automated Pools That Contain Full Virtual Machines 60

Creating Linked-Clone Desktop Pools 63

Linked-Clone Desktop Pools 63

Worksheet for Creating a Linked-Clone Desktop Pool 63

Create a Linked-Clone Desktop Pool 71

Desktop Pool Settings for Linked-Clone Desktop Pools 73

View Composer Support for Linked-Clone SIDs and Third-Party Applications 74

Keeping Linked-Clone Machines Provisioned and Ready During View Composer Operations 78

Use Existing Active Directory Computer Accounts for Linked Clones 79

Creating Manual Desktop Pools 81

Manual Desktop Pools 81

Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View

Worksheet for Creating a Manual Desktop Pool 81

Create a Manual Desktop Pool 83

Create a Manual Pool That Contains One Machine 84

Desktop Pool Settings for Manual Pools 85

Setting Up Remote Desktop Services Hosts 87

Remote Desktop Services Hosts 87

Install Remote Desktop Services on Windows Server 2008 R2 89

Install Remote Desktop Services on Windows Server 2012 or 2012 R2 89

Install Desktop Experience on Windows Server 2008 R2 90

Install Desktop Experience on Windows Server 2012 or 2012 R2 90

Restrict Users to a Single Session 91

Install View Agent on a Remote Desktop Services Host 91

Enable Time Zone Redirection for RDS Desktop and Application Sessions 94

Enable Windows Basic Theme for Applications 94

Configure Group Policy to Start Runonce.exe 95

RDS Host Performance Options 95

Creating Farms 97

Farms 97

Worksheet for Creating a Farm 98

Create a Farm 99

Creating Application Pools 101

Application Pools 101

Worksheet for Creating an Application Pool Manually 102

Create an Application Pool 102

Creating RDS Desktop Pools 105

Understanding RDS Desktop Pools 105

Create an RDS Desktop Pool 106

Desktop Pool Settings for RDS Desktop Pools 106

Configure Adobe Flash Throttling with Internet Explorer for RDS Desktop Pools 107

Provisioning Desktop Pools 109

User Assignment in Desktop Pools 109

Naming Machines Manually or Providing a Naming Pattern 110

Manually Customizing Machines 115

Desktop Pool Settings for All Desktop Pool Types 117

Adobe Flash Quality and Throttling 120

Setting Power Policies for Desktop Pools 121

Configuring 3D Rendering for Desktops 126

Prevent Access to View Desktops Through RDP 133

Deploying Large Desktop Pools 134

Entitling Users and Groups 137

Add Entitlements to a Desktop or Application Pool 137

Remove Entitlements from a Desktop or Application Pool 138

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Review Desktop or Application Pool Entitlements 138

Restricting Remote Desktop Access 138

Contents

Configuring Remote Desktop Features 143

Configuring Unity Touch 143

Configuring Flash URL Redirection for Multicast or Unicast Streaming 146

Configuring Real-Time Audio-Video 150

Configuring Scanner Redirection 164

Configuring Serial Port Redirection 169

Managing Access to Windows Media Multimedia Redirection (MMR) 176

Managing Access to Client Drive Redirection 178

Using USB Devices with Remote Desktops and Applications 179

Limitations Regarding USB Device Types 180

Overview of Setting Up USB Redirection 181

Network Traffic and USB Redirection 182

Automatic Connections to USB Devices 182

Deploying USB Devices in a Secure View Environment 183

Using Log Files for Troubleshooting and to Determine USB Device IDs 185

Using Policies to Control USB Redirection 186

Troubleshooting USB Redirection Problems 195

Reducing and Managing Storage Requirements 197

Managing Storage with vSphere 197

Reducing Storage Requirements with View Composer 202

Storage Sizing for Linked-Clone Desktop Pools 203

Storage Overcommit for Linked-Clone Virtual Machines 207

Linked-Clone Data Disks 209

Storing Linked Clones on Local Datastores 210

Storing View Composer Replicas and Linked Clones on Separate Datastores 211

Configure View Storage Accelerator for Desktop Pools 212

Reclaim Disk Space on Linked-Clone Virtual Machines 213

Using View Composer Array Integration with Native NFS Snapshot Technology (VAAI) 215

Set Blackout Times for ESXi Operations on View Virtual Machines 216

Configuring Policies for Desktop and Application Pools 217

Setting Policies in View Administrator 217

Using Active Directory Group Policies 219

Using View Group Policy Administrative Template Files 220

View ADM and ADMX Template Files 221

View Agent Configuration ADM Template Settings 222

View PCoIP Session Variables ADM Template Settings 227

Using Remote Desktop Services Group Policies 238

Setting Up Location-Based Printing 246

Active Directory Group Policy Example 251

Configuring User Profiles with View Persona Management 255

Providing User Personas in View 255

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Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View

Using View Persona Management with Standalone Systems 256

Migrating User Profiles with View Persona Management 257

Persona Management and Windows Roaming Profiles 259

Configuring a View Persona Management Deployment 259

Best Practices for Configuring a View Persona Management Deployment 268

View Persona Management Group Policy Settings 272

Troubleshooting Machines and Desktop Pools 281

Display Problem Machines 281

Send Messages to Desktop Users 282

Troubleshooting Desktop Pool Creation Problems 282

Troubleshooting Network Connection Problems 292

Troubleshooting USB Redirection Problems 295

Manage Machines and Policies for Unentitled Users 297

Resolving Database Inconsistencies with the ViewDbChk Command 297

Further Troubleshooting Information 300

Index 301

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Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View

Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View describes how to create and provision pools of machines and create pools of remote applications that run on Microsoft Remote Desktop Services (RDS) hosts. It includes information about preparing machines, configuring policies, entitling users and groups, configuring remote desktop features, and configuring user profiles with View Persona Management.

Intended Audience

This information is intended for anyone who wants to create and provision desktop and application pools. The information is written for experienced Windows system administrators who are familiar with virtual machine technology and datacenter operations.

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Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View

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Introduction to Desktop and

Application Pools 1

With VMware Horizon 6, you can create desktop pools that include one or hundreds or thousands of virtual desktops. You can deploy desktops that run on virtual machines, physical machines, and Windows Remote Desktop Services (RDS) hosts. Create one virtual machine as a base image, and View can generate a pool of virtual desktops from that image. You can also create application pools that give users remote access to applications.

This chapter includes the following topics:

“Farms, RDS Hosts, and Desktop and Application Pools,” on page 9

“Advantages of Desktop Pools,” on page 10

“Desktop Pools for Specific Types of Workers,” on page 11

“Advantages of Application Pools,” on page 14

Farms, RDS Hosts, and Desktop and Application Pools

With View, you can create desktop and application pools to give users remote access to virtual machinebased desktops, session-based desktops, physical computers, and applications. View takes advantage of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services (RDS) and VMware PC-over-IP (PCoIP) technologies to provide highquality remote access to users.

RDS Hosts

RDS hosts are server computers that have Windows Remote Desktop Services and View Agent installed. These servers host applications and desktop sessions that users can access remotely. To use RDS desktop pools or applications, your end users must have access to Horizon Client 3.0 or later software.

Desktop Pools

There are three types of desktop pools: automated, manual, and RDS. Automated desktop pools use a vCenter Server virtual machine template or snapshot to create a pool of identical virtual machines. Manual desktop pools are a collection of existing vCenter Server virtual machines, physical computers, or thirdparty virtual machines. In automated or manual pools, each machine is available for one user to access remotely at a time. RDS desktop pools are not a collection of machines, but instead, provide users with desktop sessions on RDS hosts. Multiple users can have desktop sessions on an RDS host simultaneously.

Application Pools

Application pools let you deliver applications to many users. The applications in application pools run on a farm of RDS hosts.

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Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View

Farms

Farms are collections of RDS hosts and facilitate the management of those hosts. Farms can have a variable number of RDS hosts and provide a common set of applications or RDS desktops to users. When you create an RDS desktop pool or an application pool, you must specify a farm. The RDS hosts in the farm provide desktop and application sessions to users.

Advantages of Desktop Pools

View offers the ability to create and provision pools of desktops as its basis of centralized management.

You create a remote desktop pool from one of the following sources:

A physical system such as a physical desktop PC or an RDS host

A virtual machine that is hosted on an ESXi host and managed by vCenter Server

A virtual machine that runs on a virtualization platform other than vCenter Server that supports View

Agent

If you use a vSphere virtual machine as a desktop source, you can automate the process of making as many identical virtual desktops as you need. You can set a minimum and maximum number of virtual desktops to be generated for the pool. Setting these parameters ensures that you always have enough remote desktops available for immediate use but not so many that you overuse available resources.

Using pools to manage desktops allows you to apply settings or deploy applications to all remote desktops in a pool. The following examples show some of the settings available:

Specify which remote display protocol to use as the default for the remote desktop and whether to let

end users override the default.

If using a virtual machine, specify whether to power off the virtual machine when it is not in use and

whether to delete it altogether.

Specify whether to use a Microsoft Sysprep customization specification or QuickPrep from VMware.

Sysprep generates a unique SID and GUID for each virtual machine in the pool.

In addition, using desktop pools provides many conveniences.

Dedicated-assignment pools

Each user is assigned a particular remote desktop and returns to the same desktop at each login. Users can personalize their desktops, install applications, and store data.

Floating-assignment pools

The remote desktop is optionally deleted and re-created after each use, offering a highly controlled environment. A floating-assignment desktop is like a computer lab or kiosk environment where each desktop is loaded with the necessary applications and all desktops have access to necessary data.

Using floating-assignment pools also allows you to create a pool of desktops that can be used by shifts of users. For example, a pool of 100 desktops could be used by 300 users if they worked in shifts of 100 users at a time.

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Desktop Pools for Specific Types of Workers

View provides many features to help you conserve storage and reduce the amount of processing power required for various use cases. Many of these features are available as pool settings.

The most fundamental question to consider is whether a certain type of user needs a stateful desktop image or a stateless desktop image. Users who need a stateful desktop image have data in the operating system image itself that must be preserved, maintained, and backed up. For example, these users install some of their own applications or have data that cannot be saved outside of the virtual machine itself, such as on a file server or in an application database.

Chapter 1 Introduction to Desktop and Application Pools

Stateless desktop images

Stateful desktop images

You create stateless desktop images by using View Composer and creating floating-assignment pools of linked-clone virtual machines.

You create stateful desktop images by creating dedicated-assignment pools of either linked-clone virtual machines or full virtual machines. If you use linked-clone virtual machines, you can configure View Composer persistent disks and folder redirection. Some storage vendors have cost-effective storage solutions for stateful desktop images. These vendors often have their own best practices and provisioning utilities. Using one of these vendors might require that you create a manual dedicated-assignment pool.

Stateless architectures have many advantages, such as being easier to support and having lower storage costs. Other benefits include a limited need to back up the linked-clone virtual machines and easier, less expensive disaster recovery and business continuity options.

These images might require traditional image management techniques. Stateful images can have low storage costs in conjunction with certain storage system technologies. Backup and recovery technologies such as VMware Consolidated Backup and VMware Site Recovery Manager are important when considering strategies for backup, disaster recovery, and business continuity.

Pools for Task Workers

You can standardize on stateless desktop images for task workers so that the image is always in a wellknown, easily supportable configuration and so that workers can log in to any available desktop.

Because task workers perform repetitive tasks within a small set of applications, you can create stateless desktop images, which help conserve storage space and processing requirements. Use the following pool settings:

Create an automated pool so that desktops can be created when the pool is created or can be generated

on demand based on pool usage.

Use floating assignment so that users log in to any available desktop. This setting reduces the number

of desktops required if everyone does not need to be logged in at the same time.

Create View Composer linked-clone desktops so that desktops share the same base image and use less

storage space in the datacenter than full virtual machines.

Determine what action, if any, to take when users log off. Disks grow over time. You can conserve disk

space by refreshing the desktop to its original state when users log off. You can also set a schedule for periodically refreshing desktops. For example, you can schedule desktops to refresh daily, weekly, or monthly.

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Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View

If applicable, consider storing desktops on local ESXi datastores. This strategy can offer advantages

such as inexpensive hardware, fast virtual-machine provisioning, high-performance power operations, and simple management. For a list of the limitations, see “Storing Linked Clones on Local Datastores,” on page 210.

NOTE For information about other types of storage options, see Chapter 15, “Reducing and Managing

Storage Requirements,” on page 197.

Use the Persona Management feature so that users always have their preferred desktop appearance and

application settings, as with Windows user profiles. If you do not have the desktops set to be refreshed or deleted at logoff, you can configure the persona to be removed at logoff.

IMPORTANT View Persona Management facilitates implementing a floating-assignment pool for those users who want to retain settings between sessions. Previously, one of the limitations of floating-assignment desktops was that when end users logged off, they lost all their configuration settings and any data stored in the remote desktop.

Each time end users logged on, their desktop background was set to the default wallpaper, and they would have to configure each application's preferences again. With View Persona Management, an end user of a floating-assignment desktop cannot tell the difference between their session and a session on a dedicatedassignment desktop.

Pools for Knowledge Workers and Power Users

Knowledge workers must be able to create complex documents and have them persist on the desktop. Power users must be able to install their own applications and have them persist. Depending on the nature and amount of personal data that must be retained, the desktop can be stateful or stateless.

Because power users and knowledge workers, such as accountants, sales managers, marketing research analysts, must be able to create and retain documents and settings, you create dedicated-assignment desktops for them. For knowledge workers who do not need user-installed applications except for temporary use, you can create stateless desktop images and save all their personal data outside of the virtual machine, on a file server or in an application database. For other knowledge workers and for power users, you can create stateful desktop images. Use the following pool settings:

Use dedicated assignment pools so that each knowledge worker or power user logs in to the same

desktop every time.

Use the Persona Management feature so that users always have their preferred desktop appearance and

application settings, as with Windows user profiles.

Use vStorage thin provisioning so that at first, each desktop uses only as much storage space as the disk

needs for its initial operation.

For power users and knowledge workers who must install their own applications, which adds data to

the operating system disk, create full virtual machine desktops. Use Mirage to deploy and update applications without overwriting user-installed applications.

If knowledge workers do not require user-installed applications except for temporary use, you can

create View Composer linked-clone desktops. The desktop images share the same base image and use less storage space than full virtual machines.

If you use View Composer with vSphere 5.1 or later virtual desktops, enable the space reclamation

feature for vCenter Server and for the desktop pool. With the space reclamation feature, stale or deleted data within a guest operating system is automatically reclaimed with a wipe and shrink process.

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Chapter 1 Introduction to Desktop and Application Pools

If you use View Composer linked-clone desktops, implement View Persona Management, roaming

profiles, or another profile management solution.

Configure persistent disks so that you can refresh and recompose the linked-clone OS disks while keeping a copy of the user profile on the persistent disks.

Pools for Kiosk Users

Kiosk users might include customers at airline check-in stations, students in classrooms or libraries, medical personnel at medical data entry workstations, or customers at self-service points. Accounts associated with client devices rather than users are entitled to use these desktop pools because users do not need to log in to use the client device or the remote desktop. Users can still be required to provide authentication credentials for some applications.

Virtual machine desktops that are set to run in kiosk mode use stateless desktop images because user data does not need to be preserved in the operating system disk. Kiosk mode desktops are used with thin client devices or locked-down PCs. You must ensure that the desktop application implements authentication mechanisms for secure transactions, that the physical network is secure against tampering and snooping, and that all devices connected to the network are trusted.

As a best practice, use dedicated View Connection Server instances to handle clients in kiosk mode, and create dedicated organizational units and groups in Active Directory for the accounts of these clients. This practice not only partitions these systems against unwarranted intrusion, but also makes it easier to configure and administer the clients.

To set up kiosk mode, you must use the vdmadmin command-line interface and perform several procedures documented in the topics about kiosk mode in the View Administration document. As part of this setup, you can use the following pool settings.

Create an automated pool so that desktops can be created when the pool is created or can be generated

on demand based on pool usage.

Use floating assignment so that users can access any available desktop in the pool.

Create View Composer linked-clone desktops so that desktops share the same base image and use less

storage space in the datacenter than full virtual machines.

Institute a refresh policy so that the desktop is refreshed frequently, such as at every user logoff.

If applicable, consider storing desktops on local ESXi datastores. This strategy can offer advantages

NOTE For information about other types of storage options, see Chapter 15, “Reducing and Managing

Storage Requirements,” on page 197.

Use an Active Directory GPO (group policy object) to configure location-based printing, so that the

desktop uses the nearest printer. For a complete list and description of the settings available through Group Policy administrative (ADM) templates, see Chapter 16, “Configuring Policies for Desktop and

Application Pools,” on page 217.

Use a GPO if you want to override the default policy that enables connecting local USB devices to the

desktop when the desktop is launched or when USB devices are plugged in to the client computer.

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Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View

Advantages of Application Pools

With application pools, you give users access to applications that run on servers in a data center instead of on their personal computers or devices.

Application pools offer several important benefits:

Accessibility

Users can access applications from anywhere on the network. You can also configure secure network access.

Device independence

With application pools, you can support a range of client devices, such as smart phones, tablets, laptops, thin clients, and personal computers. The client devices can run various operating systems, such as Windows, iOS, Mac OS, or Android.

Access control

You can easily and quickly grant or remove access to applications for one user or a group of users.

Accelerated deployment

With application pools, deploying applications can be accelerated because you only deploy applications on servers in a data center and each server can support multiple users.

Manageability

Managing software that is deployed on client computers and devices typically requires significant resources. Management tasks include deployment, configuration, maintenance, support, and upgrades. With application pools, you can simplify software management in an enterprise because the software runs on servers in a data center, which requires fewer installed copies.

Security and regulatory compliance

With application pools, you can improve security because applications and their associated data are centrally located in a data center. Centralized data can address security concerns and regulatory compliance issues.

Reduced cost

Depending on software license agreements, hosting applications in a data center can be more costeffective. Other factors, including accelerated deployment and improved manageability, can also reduce the cost of software in an enterprise.

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Preparing Unmanaged Machines 2

Users can access remote desktops delivered by machines that are not managed by vCenter Server. These unmanaged machines can include physical computers and virtual machines running on virtualization platforms other than vCenter Server. You must prepare an unmanaged machine to deliver remote desktop access.

For information about preparing machines that are used as Remote Desktop Services (RDS) hosts, see

Chapter 7, “Setting Up Remote Desktop Services Hosts,” on page 87.

For information about preparing Linux virtual machines for remote desktop deployment, see the Setting Up Horizon 6 for Linux Desktops guide.

This chapter includes the following topics:

“Prepare an Unmanaged Machine for Remote Desktop Deployment,” on page 15

“Install View Agent on an Unmanaged Machine,” on page 16

Prepare an Unmanaged Machine for Remote Desktop Deployment

You must perform certain tasks to prepare an unmanaged machine for remote desktop deployment.

Prerequisites

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Verify that you have administrative rights on the unmanaged machine.

To make sure that remote desktop users are added to the local Remote Desktop Users group of the

unmanaged machine, create a restricted Remote Desktop Users group in Active Directory. See the View Installation document for more information.

Procedure

1 Power on the unmanaged machine and verify that it is accessible to the View Connection Server

instance.

2 Join the unmanaged machine to the Active Directory domain for your remote desktops.

3 Configure the Windows firewall to allow Remote Desktop connections to the unmanaged machine.

What to do next

Install View Agent on the unmanaged machine. See “Install View Agent on an Unmanaged Machine,” on page 16.

Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View

Install View Agent on an Unmanaged Machine

You must install View Agent on an all unmanaged machines. View cannot manage an unmanaged machine unless View Agent is installed.

To install View Agent on multiple Windows physical computers without having to respond to wizard prompts, you can install View Agent silently. See “Install View Agent Silently,” on page 30.

Prerequisites

Verify that you have administrative rights on the unmanaged machine.

To use an unmanaged Windows Server machine as a remote desktop rather than as an RDS host,

perform the steps described in “Prepare Windows Server Operating Systems for Desktop Use,” on page 24.

Familiarize yourself with the View Agent custom setup options for unmanaged machines. See “View

Agent Custom Setup Options for Unmanaged Machines,” on page 17.

Familiarize yourself with the TCP ports that the View Agent installation program opens on the firewall.

See the View Architecture Planning document for more information.

If the machine has the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable package installed, verify that the version of

the package is 2005 SP1 or later. If the package version is 2005 or earlier, you can either upgrade or uninstall the package.

Download the View Agent installer file from the VMware product page at

http://www.vmware.com/go/downloadview.

Procedure

1 To start the View Agent installation program, double-click the installer file.

The installer filename is VMware-viewagent-y.y.y-xxxxxx.exe or VMware-viewagent-x86_64-y.y.y-

xxxxxx.exe, where y.y.y is the version number and xxxxxx is the build number.

2 Accept the VMware license terms.

3 Select the Internet Protocol (IP) version, IPv4 or IPv6.

You must install all View components with the same IP version.

4 Select your custom setup options.

5 Accept or change the destination folder.

6 In the Server text box, type the host name or IP address of a View Connection Server host.

During installation, the installer registers the unmanaged machine with this View Connection Server instance. After registration, the specified View Connection Server instance, and any additional instances in the same View Connection Server group, can communicate with the unmanaged machine.

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Chapter 2 Preparing Unmanaged Machines

7 Select an authentication method to register the unmanaged machine with the View Connection Server

instance.

Option Action

Authenticate as the currently logged in user

Specify administrator credentials

The Username and Password text boxes are disabled and you are logged in to the View Connection Server instance with your current username and password.

You must provide the username and password of a View Connection Server administrator in the Username and Password text boxes.

Provide the username in the following format: Domain\User.

The user account must be a domain user with access to View LDAP on the View Connection Server instance. A local user does not work.

8 Follow the prompts in the View Agent installation program and finish the installation.

9 If you selected the USB redirection option, restart the unmanaged machine to enable USB support.

In addition, the Found New Hardware wizard might start. Follow the prompts in the wizard to configure the hardware before you restart the unmanaged machine.

The VMware Horizon View Agent service is started on the unmanaged machine.

What to do next

Use the unmanaged machine to create a remote desktop. See “Manual Desktop Pools,” on page 81.

View Agent Custom Setup Options for Unmanaged Machines

When you install View Agent on an unmanaged machine, you can select or deselect certain custom setup options. In addition, View Agent installs certain features automatically on all guest operating systems on which they are supported. These features are not optional.

Table 2‑1. View Agent Custom Setup Options for Unmanaged Machines in an IPv4 Environment (Optional)

Option Description

USB Redirection Gives users access to locally connected USB devices on

their desktops.

USB redirection is supported on remote desktops that are deployed on single-user machines. In addition, redirection of USB flash drives and hard disks is supported on RDS desktops and applications.

This setup option is not selected by default. You must select the option to install it.

For guidance on using USB redirection securely, see the View Security guide. For example, you can use group policy settings to disable USB redirection for specific users.

Client Drive Redirection Allows Horizon Client users to share local drives with their

remote desktops.

This setup option is not selected by default. You must select the option to install it.

After this setup option is installed, no further configuration is required on the remote desktop.

Client Drive Redirection is also supported on VDI desktops that run on managed, single-user virtual machines and on RDS desktops and applications.

View Persona Management Synchronizes the user profile on the local desktop with a

remote profile repository, so that users have access to their profiles whenever they log in to a desktop.

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Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View

Table 2‑1. View Agent Custom Setup Options for Unmanaged Machines in an IPv4 Environment (Optional) (Continued)

Option Description

PCoIP Smartcard Lets users authenticate with smart cards when they use the

Virtual audio driver Provides a virtual audio driver on the remote desktop.

In an IPv6 environment, the only optional feature is PCoIP Smartcard.

Table 2‑2. View Agent Features That Are Installed Automatically on Unmanaged Machines in an IPv4 Environment (Not Optional)

Feature Description

PCoIP Agent Lets users connect to the remote desktop with the PCoIP

Lync Provides support for Microsoft Lync 2013 Client on remote

Unity Touch Allows tablet and smart phone users to interact easily with

PCoIP display protocol.

PCoIP Smartcard is supported on remote desktops that are deployed on single-user machines but is not supported on RDS host-based remote desktops.

display protocol.

The PCoIP Agent feature is supported on physical machines that are configured with a Teradici TERA host card.

desktops.

Windows applications that run on the remote desktop. Users can browse, search, and open Windows applications and files, choose favorite applications and files, and switch between running applications, all without using the Start menu or Taskbar.

In an IPv6 environment, the only automatically installed feature is PCoIP Agent.

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Creating and Preparing Virtual

Machines 3

You can use virtual machines managed by vCenter Server to provision and deploy remote desktops. You can use a virtual machine managed by vCenter Server as a template for an automated pool, a parent for a linked-clone pool, or a machine in a manual pool. You must prepare virtual machines to deliver remote desktop access.

For information about preparing machines that are used as Remote Desktop Services (RDS) hosts, see

Chapter 7, “Setting Up Remote Desktop Services Hosts,” on page 87.

For information about preparing Linux virtual machines for remote desktop deployment, see the Setting Up Horizon 6 for Linux Desktops guide.

This chapter includes the following topics:

“Creating Virtual Machines for Remote Desktop Deployment,” on page 19

“Install View Agent on a Virtual Machine,” on page 27

“Install View Agent Silently,” on page 30

“Configure a Virtual Machine with Multiple NICs for View Agent,” on page 37

“Optimize Guest Operating System Performance for All Windows Versions,” on page 37

“Optimize Windows 7 and Windows 8 Guest Operating System Performance,” on page 38

“Optimizing Windows 7 and Windows 8 for Linked-Clone Virtual Machines,” on page 40

“Preparing Virtual Machines for View Composer,” on page 46

“Creating Virtual Machine Templates,” on page 52

“Creating Customization Specifications,” on page 53

Creating Virtual Machines for Remote Desktop Deployment

The initial virtual machine establishes a virtual hardware profile and operating system to be used for rapid deployment of remote desktops.

1 Create a Virtual Machine for Remote Desktop Deployment on page 20

You use vSphere Client to create virtual machines in vCenter Server for remote desktops.

2 Install a Guest Operating System on page 22

After you create a virtual machine, you must install a guest operating system.

3 Prepare a Guest Operating System for Remote Desktop Deployment on page 22

You must perform certain tasks to prepare a guest operating system for remote desktop deployment.

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Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View

4 Prepare Windows Server Operating Systems for Desktop Use on page 24

To use a Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows Server 2012 R2 virtual machine as a single-session View desktop (rather than as an RDS host), you must perform certain steps before you install View Agent in the virtual machine. You must also configure View Administrator to treat Windows Servers as supported operating systems for View desktop use.

5 Install Desktop Experience on Windows Server 2008 R2 on page 25

For RDS desktops and applications, and for VDI desktops that are deployed on single-user virtual machines that run Windows Server, scanner redirection requires that you install the Desktop Experience feature on the RDS hosts and the single-user virtual machines.

6 Install Desktop Experience on Windows Server 2012 or 2012 R2 on page 26

7 Configure the Windows Firewall Service to Restart After Failures on page 26

Some Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows 8.1 machines that are deployed as single-session desktops do not become available immediately after they are provisioned. This issue occurs when the Windows Firewall service does not restart after its timeout period expires. You can configure the Windows Firewall service on the parent or template virtual machine to ensure that all machines in a desktop pool become available.

Create a Virtual Machine for Remote Desktop Deployment

You use vSphere Client to create virtual machines in vCenter Server for remote desktops.

Prerequisites

Upload an ISO image file of the guest operating system to a datastore on your ESXi server.

Familiarize yourself with the custom configuration parameters for virtual machines. See “Virtual

Machine Custom Configuration Parameters,” on page 21.

Procedure

1 In vSphere Client, log in to the vCenter Server system.

2 Select File > New > Virtual Machine to start the New Virtual Machine wizard.

3 Select Custom and configure custom configuration parameters.

4 Select Edit the virtual machine settings before completion and click Continue to configure hardware

settings.

a Add a CD/DVD drive, set the media type to use an ISO image file, select the ISO image file of the

guest operating system that you uploaded to your datastore, and select Connect at power on.

b Set Power-on Boot Delay to 10,000 milliseconds.

5 Click Finish to create the virtual machine.

What to do next

Install a guest operating system on the virtual machine.

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Chapter 3 Creating and Preparing Virtual Machines

Virtual Machine Custom Configuration Parameters

You can use virtual machine custom configuration parameters as baseline settings when you create a virtual machine for remote desktop deployment.

You can change certain settings when you use View Administrator to deploy desktop pools from the virtual machine.

Table 3‑1. Custom Configuration Parameters

Parameter Description and Recommendations

Name and Location

Host/Cluster

Resource Pool

Datastore

Hardware Machine Version

Guest Operating System

CPUs

Memory

Network

The name and location of the virtual machine.

If you plan to use the virtual machine as a template, assign a generic name. The location can be any folder within your datacenter inventory.

The ESXi server or cluster of server resources that will run the virtual machine.

If you plan to use the virtual machine as a template, the location of the initial virtual machine does not necessarily specify where future virtual machines created from template will reside.

If the physical ESXi server resources are divided into resource pools, you can assign them to the virtual machine.

The location of files associated with the virtual machine.

The hardware machine version that is available depends on the ESXi version you are running. As a best practice, select the latest available hardware machine version, which provides the greatest virtual machine functionality. Certain View features require minimum hardware machine versions.

The type of operating system that you will install in the virtual machine.

The number of virtual processors in the virtual machine.

For most guest operating systems, a single processor is sufficient.

The amount of memory to allocate to the virtual machine.

In most cases, 512MB is sufficient.

The number of virtual network adapters (NICs) in the virtual machine.

One NIC is usually sufficient. The network name should be consistent across virtual infrastructures. An incorrect network name in a template can cause failures during the instance customization phases.

When you install View Agent on a virtual machine that has more than one NIC, you must configure the subnet that View Agent uses. See “Configure a Virtual Machine with

Multiple NICs for View Agent,” on page 37 for more

information.

IMPORTANT For Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows 2012 R2, and Windows Server 2008 R2 operating systems, you must select the VMXNET 3 network adapter. Using the default E1000 adapter can cause customization timeout errors on virtual machines. To use the VMXNET 3 adapter, you must install a Microsoft hotfix patch:

For Windows 7 SP1:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2550978

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Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View

Table 3‑1. Custom Configuration Parameters (Continued)

Parameter Description and Recommendations

SCSI Controller

Select a Disk

Install a Guest Operating System

After you create a virtual machine, you must install a guest operating system.

The type of SCSI adapter to use with the virtual machine.

For Windows 8/8.1 and Windows 7 guest operating systems, you should specify the LSI Logic adapter. The LSI Logic adapter has improved performance and works better with generic SCSI devices.

LSI Logic SAS is available only for virtual machines with hardware version 7 and later.

The disk to use with the virtual machine.

Create a new virtual disk based on the amount of local storage that you decide to allocate to each user. Allow enough storage space for the OS installation, patches, and locally installed applications.

To reduce the need for disk space and management of local data, you should store the user's information, profile, and documents on network shares rather than on a local disk.

Prerequisites

Verify that an ISO image file of the guest operating system is on a datastore on your ESXi server.

Verify that the CD/DVD drive in the virtual machine points to the ISO image file of the guest operating

system and that the CD/DVD drive is configured to connect at power on.

Procedure

1 In vSphere Client, log in to the vCenter Server system where the virtual machine resides.

2 Right-click the virtual machine, select Power, and select Power On to start the virtual machine.

Because you configured the CD/DVD drive to point to the ISO image of the guest operating system and to connect at power on, the guest operating system installation process begins automatically.

3 Click the Console tab and follow the installation instructions provided by the operating system vendor.

4 If you are installing Windows 7 or Windows 8, activate Windows online.

What to do next

Prepare the guest operating system for View desktop deployment.

Prepare a Guest Operating System for Remote Desktop Deployment

You must perform certain tasks to prepare a guest operating system for remote desktop deployment.

Prerequisites

Create a virtual machine and install a guest operating system.

Configure an Active Directory domain controller for your remote desktops. See the View Installation

document for more information.

To make sure that desktop users are added to the local Remote Desktop Users group of the virtual

machine, create a restricted Remote Desktop Users group in Active Directory. See the View Installation document for more information.

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Chapter 3 Creating and Preparing Virtual Machines

Verify that Remote Desktop Services are started on the virtual machine. Remote Desktop Services are

required for View Agent installation, SSO, and other View operations. You can disable RDP access to your View desktops by configuring desktop pool settings and group policy settings. See “Prevent

Access to View Desktops Through RDP,” on page 133.

Verify that you have administrative rights on the guest operating system.

On Windows Server operating systems, prepare the operating system for desktop use. See “Prepare

Windows Server Operating Systems for Desktop Use,” on page 24.

If you intend to configure 3D graphics rendering for desktop pools, familiarize yourself with the Enable

3D Support setting for virtual machines.

This setting is active on Windows 7 and later operating systems. On ESXi 5.1 and later hosts, you can also select options that determine how the 3D renderer is managed on the ESXi host. For details, see the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration document.

Procedure

1 In vSphere Client, log in to the vCenter Server system where the virtual machine resides.

2 Right-click the virtual machine, select Power, and select Power On to start the virtual machine.

3 Right-click the virtual machine, select Guest, and select Install/Upgrade VMware Tools to install the

latest version of VMware Tools.

NOTE The virtual printing feature is supported only when you install it from View Agent. Virtual printing is not supported if you install it with VMware Tools.

4 Use the VMware Tools time synchronization function to ensure that the virtual machine is

synchronized to ESXi.

ESXi must synchronize to an external NTP source, for example, the same time source as Active Directory.

Disable other time synchronization mechanisms such as Windows Time Service.

The VMware Tools online help provides information on configuring time synchronization between guest and host.

5 Install service packs and updates.

6 Install antivirus software.

7 Install other applications and software, such as smart card drivers if you are using smart card

authentication.

If you plan to use Workspace Portal to offer a catalog that includes ThinApp applications, you must install Workspace Portal for Windows.

IMPORTANT If you are installing Microsoft .NET Framework, you must install it after you install View Agent.

8 If Horizon Client devices will connect to the virtual machine with the PCoIP display protocol, set the

power option Turn off the display to Never.

If you do not disable this setting, the display will appear to freeze in its last state when power savings mode starts.

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Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View

9 If Horizon Client devices will connect to the virtual machine with the PCoIP display protocol, go to

Control Panel > System > Advanced System Settings > Performance Settings and change the setting for Visual Effects to Adjust for best performance.

If you instead use the setting called Adjust for best appearance or Let Windows choose what's best for my computer and Windows chooses appearance instead of performance, performance is negatively affected.

10 If a proxy server is used in your network environment, configure network proxy settings.

11 Configure network connection properties.

a Assign a static IP address or specify that an IP address is assigned by a DHCP server.

View does not support link-local (169.254.x.x) addresses for View desktops.

b Set the preferred and alternate DNS server addresses to your Active Directory server address.

12 Join the virtual machine to the Active Directory domain for your remote desktops.

A parent virtual machine that you use for View Composer must either belong to the same Active Directory domain as the domain that the linked-clone desktops will join or be a member of the local WORKGROUP.

13 Configure Windows Firewall to allow Remote Desktop connections to the virtual machine.

14 (Optional) Disable Hot Plug PCI devices.

This step prevents users from accidentally disconnecting the virtual network device (vNIC) from the virtual machine.

15 (Optional) Configure user customization scripts.

What to do next

Install View Agent. See “Install View Agent on a Virtual Machine,” on page 27.

Prepare Windows Server Operating Systems for Desktop Use

Prerequisites

Familiarize yourself with the steps to install the Desktop Experience feature on Windows Server 2008

R2 or Windows Server 2012 R2. See “Install Desktop Experience on Windows Server 2008 R2,” on page 25 or “Install Desktop Experience on Windows Server 2012 or 2012 R2,” on page 26

On Windows Server 2012 R2 machines, familiarize yourself with the steps to configure the Windows

Firewall service to restart after failures occur. See “Configure the Windows Firewall Service to Restart

After Failures,” on page 26.

Procedure

1 Verify that the Remote Desktop Services role is not installed.

When the Remote Desktop Services role is not present, the View Agent installer prompts you to confirm that you want to install View Agent in desktop mode. If the Remote Desktop Services role is present, the View Agent installer does not display this prompt and it treats the Windows Server machine as an RDS host instead of a single-session View desktop.

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Chapter 3 Creating and Preparing Virtual Machines

2 Install Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1) or Windows Server 2012 R2.

If you do not install SP1 with Windows Server 2008 R2, an error occurs when you install View Agent.

3 (Optional) Install the Desktop Experience feature if you plan to use the following features.

HTML Access

Scanner redirection

Windows Aero

4 (Optional) To use Windows Aero on a Windows Server desktop, start the Themes service.

When you create or edit a desktop pool, you can configure 3D graphics rendering for your desktops. The 3D Renderer setting offers a Software option that enables users to run Windows Aero on the desktops in the pool.

5 On Windows Server 2012 R2 machines, configure the Windows Firewall service to restart after failures

occur.

6 Configure View Administrator to treat Windows Servers as supported desktop operating systems.

If you do not perform this step, you cannot select Windows Server machines for desktop use in View Administrator.

a In View Administrator, select View Configuration > Global Settings.

b In the General pane, click Edit.

c Select the Enable Windows Server desktops check box and click OK.

When you enable Windows Server desktops in View Administrator, View Administrator displays all available Windows Server machines, including machines on which View Connection Server is installed, as potential machines for desktop use. You cannot install View Agent on machines on which other View software components are installed.

Install Desktop Experience on Windows Server 2008 R2

Procedure

1 Log in as an administrator.

2 Start Server Manager.

3 Click Features.

4 Click Add Features.

5 On the Select Features page, select the Desktop Experience checkbox.

6 Review the information about other features that are required by the Desktop Experience feature, and

click Add Required Features.

7 Follow the prompts and finish the installation.

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Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View

Install Desktop Experience on Windows Server 2012 or 2012 R2

Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2 are supported on machines that are used as RDS hosts. Windows Server 2012 R2 is supported on single-user virtual machines.

Procedure

1 Log in as an administrator.

2 Start Server Manager.

3 Select Add roles and features.

4 On the Select Installation Type page, select Role-based or feature-based installation.

5 On the Select Destination Server page, select a server.

6 On the Select Server Roles page, accept the default selection and click Next.

7 On the Select Features page, under User Interfaces and Infrastructure, select Desktop Experience.

8 Follow the prompts and finish the installation.

Configure the Windows Firewall Service to Restart After Failures

If you encounter this issue during provisioning, the Windows event logs display the following error: The

Windows Firewall service terminated with the following service-specific error: This operation returned because the timeout period expired.

This issue occurs on Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows 8.1 machines. Other guest operating systems are not affected.

Procedure

1 On the Windows Server 2012 R2 or Windows 8.1 parent or template virtual machine from which you

will deploy a desktop pool, select Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services.

2 In the Services dialog box, right-click the Windows Firewall service and select Properties.

3 In the Windows Firewall Properties dialog box, click the Recovery tab.

4 Select the recovery settings to restart the service after a failure occurs.

Setting Drop-down Menu Option

First failure:

Second failure:

Subsequent failures:

5 Select the Enable actions for stops with errors check box and click OK.

Restart the Service

6 Deploy or redeploy the desktop pool from the parent or template virtual machine.

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Install View Agent on a Virtual Machine

You must install View Agent on virtual machines that are managed by vCenter Server so that View Connection Server can communicate with them. Install View Agent on all virtual machines that you use as templates for automated desktop pools, parents for linked-clone desktop pools, and machines in manual desktop pools.

To install View Agent on multiple Windows virtual machines without having to respond to wizard prompts, you can install View Agent silently. See “Install View Agent Silently,” on page 30.

The View Agent software cannot coexist on the same virtual or physical machine with any other View software component, including a security server, View Connection Server, View Composer, or Horizon Client.

Prerequisites

Prepare the guest operating system for remote desktop deployment. See “Prepare a Guest Operating

System for Remote Desktop Deployment,” on page 22.

To use a Windows Server virtual machine as a remote desktop (rather than as an RDS host), perform

the steps described in “Prepare Windows Server Operating Systems for Desktop Use,” on page 24.

If the machine has the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable package installed, verify that the version of

the package is 2005 SP1 or later. If the package version is 2005 or earlier, you can either upgrade or uninstall the package.

Chapter 3 Creating and Preparing Virtual Machines

Download the View Agent installer file from the VMware product page at

http://www.vmware.com/go/downloadview.

Verify that you have administrative rights on the virtual machine.

Familiarize yourself with the View Agent custom setup options. See “View Agent Custom Setup

Options,” on page 28.

Familiarize yourself with the TCP ports that the View Agent installation program opens on the firewall.

See the View Architecture Planning document for more information.

If you select the View Composer Agent custom setup option, verify that you have a license to use View

Composer.

Procedure

1 To start the View Agent installation program, double-click the installer file.

The installer filename is VMware-viewagent-y.y.y-xxxxxx.exe or VMware-viewagent-x86_64-y.y.y-

xxxxxx.exe, where y.y.y is the version number and xxxxxx is the build number.

2 Accept the VMware license terms.

3 If you install View Agent on a Windows Server machine on which the Remote Desktop Services (RDS)

role is not installed, select Install VMware Horizon View Agent in 'desktop mode'.

Selecting this option configures the Windows Server machine as a single-user View desktop rather than as an RDS host. If you intend the machine to function as an RDS host, cancel the View Agent installation, install the RDS role on the machine, and restart the View Agent installation.

4 Select the Internet Protocol (IP) version, IPv4 or IPv6.

You must install all View components with the same IP version.

5 Select your custom setup options.

To deploy linked-clone desktops, select the View Composer Agent option.

6 Accept or change the destination folder.

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Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View

7 Follow the prompts in the View Agent installation program and finish the installation.

NOTE If you did not enable Remote Desktop support during guest operating system preparation, the View Agent installation program prompts you to enable it. If you do not enable Remote Desktop support during View Agent installation, you must enable it manually after the installation is finished.

8 If you selected the USB redirection option, restart the virtual machine to enable USB support.

In addition, the Found New Hardware wizard might start. Follow the prompts in the wizard to configure the hardware before you restart the virtual machine.

The VMware Horizon View Agent service is started on the virtual machine.

If you selected the View Composer Agent option, the VMware Horizon View Composer Guest Agent Server service is started on the virtual machine.

What to do next

If the virtual machine has multiple NICs, configure the subnet that View Agent uses. See “Configure a

Virtual Machine with Multiple NICs for View Agent,” on page 37.

View Agent Custom Setup Options

When you install View Agent on a virtual machine, you can select or deselect custom setup options. In addition, View Agent installs certain features automatically on all guest operating systems on which they are supported. These features are not optional.

To learn which features are supported on which guest operating systems, see "Feature Support Matrix for View Agent" in the View Architecture Planning document.

All custom setup options are selected by default except Client Drive Redirection, Serial Port Redirection, Scanner Redirection, USB Redirection, and PCoIP Smartcard.

Table 3‑2. View Agent Custom Setup Options in an IPv4 Environment

Option Description

Serial Port Redirection Redirects serial COM ports that are connected to the client

system so that they can be used on the remote desktop.

This setup option is not selected by default. You must select the option to install it.

Serial port redirection is supported on remote desktops that are deployed on single-user machines.

Serial port redirection is available in Horizon 6 version

6.1.1 and later releases.

Scanner Redirection Redirects scanning and imaging devices that are connected

to the client system so that they can be used on the remote desktop or application.

This setup option is not selected by default. You must select the option to install it.

Scanner redirection is available in Horizon 6.0.2 and later releases.

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Chapter 3 Creating and Preparing Virtual Machines

Table 3‑2. View Agent Custom Setup Options in an IPv4 Environment (Continued)

Option Description

USB Redirection Gives users access to locally connected USB devices on

HTML Access Allows users to connect to View desktops by using

View Composer Agent Lets View Agent run on the linked-clone desktops that are

Real-Time Audio-Video Redirects webcam and audio devices that are connected to

Client Drive Redirection Allows Horizon Client users to share local drives with their

Virtual Printing Lets users print to any printer available on their client

vRealize Operations Desktop Agent Provides information that allows vRealize Operations for

View Persona Management Synchronizes the user profile on the local desktop with a

their desktops.

USB redirection is supported on remote desktops that are deployed on single-user machines. In addition, redirection of USB flash drives and hard disks is supported on RDS desktops and applications.

This setup option is not selected by default. You must select the option to install it.

For guidance on using USB redirection securely, see the View Security guide. For example, you can use group policy settings to disable USB redirection for specific users.

HTML Access. The HTML Access Agent must be installed on View desktops to allow users to make connections with HTML Access.

deployed from this virtual machine.

the client system so that they can be used on the remote desktop.

remote desktops.

This setup option is not selected by default. You must select the option to install it.

After this setup option is installed, no further configuration is required on the remote desktop.

Client Drive Redirection is also supported on RDS desktops and applications and on VDI desktops that run on unmanaged machines.

computers. Users do not have to install additional drivers on their desktops.

In Horizon 6.0.1 and later, virtual printing is supported on the following remote desktops and applications:

Desktops that are deployed on single-user machines,

including Windows Desktop and Windows Server machines

Desktops that are deployed on RDS hosts, where the

RDS hosts are virtual machines

Hosted Apps

Hosted Apps that are launched from Horizon Client

inside remote desktops

In Horizon 6.0 and earlier, virtual printing is supported on desktops that are deployed on single-user, Windows Desktop machines.

The virtual printing feature is supported only when you install it from View Agent. It is not supported if you install it with VMware Tools.

View to monitor View desktops.

remote profile repository, so that users have access to their profiles whenever they log in to a desktop.

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Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View

Table 3‑2. View Agent Custom Setup Options in an IPv4 Environment (Continued)

Option Description

PCoIP Smartcard Lets users authenticate with smart cards when they use the

VMware Audio Provides a virtual audio driver on the remote desktop.

In an IPv6 environment, the only optional features are View Composer Agent and VMware Audio.

Table 3‑3. View Agent Features That Are Installed Automatically (Not Optional)

Feature Description

PCoIP Agent Lets users connect to the View desktop using the PCoIP

Windows Media Multimedia Redirection (MMR) Extends multimedia redirection to Windows 7 and later

Unity Touch Allows tablet and smart phone users to interact easily with

Virtual video driver Provides a virtual video driver on the remote desktop.

PCoIP display protocol. This option is not selected by default.

PCoIP Smartcard is supported on remote desktops that are deployed on single-user machines.

display protocol.

Installing the PCoIP Agent feature disables sleep mode on Windows 8 and Windows 7 desktops. When a user navigates to the Power Options or Shut Down menu, sleep mode or standby mode is inactive. Desktops do not go into sleep or standby mode after a default period of inactivity. Desktops remain in active mode.

desktops and clients. This feature delivers a multimedia stream directly to the client computer, allowing the multimedia stream to be processed on the client hardware instead of the remote ESXi host.

In an IPv6 environment, the only automatically installed feature is PCoIP Agent.

Install View Agent Silently

You can use the silent installation feature of the Microsoft Windows Installer (MSI) to install View Agent on several Windows virtual machines or physical computers. In a silent installation, you use the command line and do not have to respond to wizard prompts.

With silent installation, you can efficiently deploy View components in a large enterprise.

If you do not want to install all features that are installed automatically or by default, you can use the

ADDLOCAL MSI property to selectively install individual setup options and features. For details about the ADDLOCAL property, see Table 3-5.

Prerequisites

Prepare the guest operating system for desktop deployment. See “Prepare a Guest Operating System

for Remote Desktop Deployment,” on page 22.

To use Windows Server as a single-session remote desktop (rather than as an RDS host), perform the

steps described in “Prepare Windows Server Operating Systems for Desktop Use,” on page 24.

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Chapter 3 Creating and Preparing Virtual Machines

If the machine has the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable package installed, verify that the version of

the package is 2005 SP1 or later. If the package version is 2005 or earlier, you can either upgrade or uninstall the package.

Download the View Agent installer file from the VMware product page at

http://www.vmware.com/go/downloadview.

The installer filename is VMware-viewagent-y.y.y-xxxxxx.exe or VMware-viewagent-x86_64-y.y.y-

xxxxxx.exe, where y.y.y is the version number and xxxxxx is the build number.

Verify that you have administrative rights on the virtual machine or physical PC.

Familiarize yourself with the View Agent custom setup options. See “View Agent Custom Setup

Options,” on page 28.

If you select the View Composer Agent custom setup option, verify that you have a license to use View

Composer.

Familiarize yourself with the MSI installer command-line options. See “Microsoft Windows Installer

Command-Line Options,” on page 32.

Familiarize yourself with the silent installation properties available with View Agent. See “Silent

Installation Properties for View Agent,” on page 34.

Familiarize yourself with the TCP ports that the View Agent installation program opens on the firewall.

See the View Architecture Planning document for more information.

Verify that the latest Windows Update patches are installed on the guest operating systems on which

you plan to install View Agent silently. In certain cases, an interactive installation by an administrator might be required to execute pending Windows Update patches. Verify that all OS operations and subsequent reboots are completed.

Procedure

1 Open a Windows command prompt on the virtual machine or physical PC.

2 Type the installation command on one line.

This example installs View Agent in a virtual machine that is managed by vCenter Server. The installer configures the View Composer Agent, Virtual Printing, USB redirection, HTML Access, and Real-Time Audio-Video custom setup options and the non-optional features that are installed automatically.

VMware-viewagent-y.y.y-xxxxxx.exe /s /v"/qn VDM_VC_MANAGED_AGENT=1 ADDLOCAL=Core,SVIAgent,ThinPrint,USB,HtmlAccess,RTAV"

This example installs View Agent on an unmanaged computer and registers the desktop with the specified View Connection Server, cs1.companydomain.com. The installer configures the Virtual Printing and USB redirection custom setup options and the non-optional features that are installed automatically.

VMware-viewagent-y.y.y-xxxxxx.exe /s /v"/qn VDM_VC_MANAGED_AGENT=0 VDM_SERVER_NAME=cs1.companydomain.com VDM_SERVER_USERNAME=admin.companydomain.com VDM_SERVER_PASSWORD=secret ADDLOCAL=Core,ThinPrint,USB"

If you install View Agent on a Windows Server machine, and you intend to configure the machine as a single-user View desktop rather than as an RDS host, you must include the VDM_FORCE_DESKTOP_AGENT=1 property in the installation command. This requirement applies to machines that are managed by vCenter Server and unmanaged machines.

The VMware View Agent service is started on the virtual machine.

If you selected the View Composer Agent option, the VMware View Composer Guest Agent Server service is started on the virtual machine.

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Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View

What to do next

If the virtual machine has multiple NICs, configure the subnet that View Agent uses. See “Configure a

Virtual Machine with Multiple NICs for View Agent,” on page 37.

Microsoft Windows Installer Command-Line Options

To install View components silently, you must use Microsoft Windows Installer (MSI) command-line options and properties. The View component installers are MSI programs and use standard MSI features.

For details about MSI, see the Microsoft Web site. For MSI command-line options, see the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) Library Web site and search for MSI command-line options. To see MSI command-line usage, you can open a command prompt on the View component computer and type

msiexec /?.

To run a View component installer silently, you begin by silencing the bootstrap program that extracts the installer into a temporary directory and starts an interactive installation.

At the command line, you must enter command-line options that control the installer's bootstrap program.

Table 3‑4. Command-Line Options for a View Component's Bootstrap Program

Option Description

/v" MSI_command_line_options"

Disables the bootstrap splash screen and extraction dialog, which prevents the display of interactive dialogs.

For example: VMware-viewconnectionserver-y.y.y-xxxxxx.exe /s The /s option is required to run a silent installation.

Instructs the installer to pass the double-quote-enclosed string that you enter at the command line as a set of options for MSI to interpret. You must enclose your command-line entries between double quotes. Place a double quote after the /v and at the end of the command line.

For example: VMware-viewagent-y.y.y-xxxxxx.exe /s /v"command_line_options"

To instruct the MSI installer to interpret a string that contains spaces, enclose the string in two sets of double quotes. For example, you might want to install the View component in an installation path name that contains spaces.

For example: VMware-viewconnectionserver-y.y.y-

xxxxxx.exe /s /v"command_line_options INSTALLDIR=""d:\abc\my folder"""

In this example, the MSI installer passes on the installation-directory path and does not attempt to interpret the string as two command-line options. Note the final double quote that encloses the entire command line.

The /v"command_line_options" option is required to run a silent installation.

You control the remainder of a silent installation by passing command-line options and MSI property values to the MSI installer, msiexec.exe. The MSI installer includes the View component's installation code. The installer uses the values and options that you enter in the command line to interpret installation choices and setup options that are specific to the View component.

32 VMware, Inc.

Table 3‑5. MSI Command-Line Options and MSI Properties

MSI Option or Property Description

/qn

INSTALLDIR

ADDLOCAL

Instructs the MSI installer not to display the installer wizard pages.

For example, you might want to install View Agent silently and use only default setup options and features:

VMware-viewagent-y.y.y-xxxxxx.exe /s /v"/qn"

Alternatively, you can use the /qb option to display the wizard pages in a noninteractive, automated installation. As the installation proceeds, the wizard pages are displayed, but you cannot respond to them.

The /qn or /qb option is required to run a silent installation.

Specifies an alternative installation path for the View component. Use the format INSTALLDIR=path to specify an installation path. You can ignore this

MSI property if you want to install the View component in the default path.

This MSI property is optional.

Determines the component-specific options to install.

In an interactive installation, the View installer displays custom setup options that you can select or deselect. In a silent installation, you can use the ADDLOCAL property to selectively install individual setup options by specifying the options on the command line. Options that you do not explicitly specify are not installed.

In both interactive and silent installations, the View installer automatically installs certain features. You cannot use ADDLOCAL to control whether or not to install these nonoptional features.

Type ADDLOCAL=ALL to install all custom setup options that can be installed during an interactive installation, including those that are installed by default and those that you must select to install, as well as all non-optional features that are installed automatically (on supported guest operating systems).

The following example installs Core, PCoIP, UnityTouch, VmVideo, PSG, and all features that are supported on the guest operating system: VMware-viewagent-y.y.y-

xxxxxx.exe /s /v"/qn ADDLOCAL=ALL"

If you do not use the ADDLOCAL property, the custom setup options that are installed by default and the automatically installed features are installed. Custom setup options that are off (unselected) by default are not installed.

The following example installs Core, PCoIP, UnityTouch, VmVideo, PSG, and the onby-default custom setup options that are supported on the guest operating system:

VMware-viewagent-y.y.y-xxxxxx.exe /s /v"/qn"

To specify individual setup options, type a comma-separated list of setup option names.

Do not use spaces between names. Use the format ADDLOCAL=value,value,value....

You must include Core when you use the ADDLOCAL=value,value,value... property.

The following example installs View Agent in a guest operating system with the Core, PCoIP, UnityTouch, VMVideo, PSG, View Composer Agent, and Virtual Printing features (if View Composer Agent and Virtual Printing are supported on the guest operating system):

VMware-viewagent-y.y.y-xxxxxx.exe /s /v"/qn ADDLOCAL=Core,SVIAgent,ThinPrint"

The preceding example does not install other options, even those that are installed by default interactively.

The ADDLOCAL MSI property is optional.

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Table 3‑5. MSI Command-Line Options and MSI Properties (Continued)

MSI Option or Property Description

REBOOT You can use the REBOOT=ReallySuppress option to allow system configuration tasks to

complete before the system reboots.

This MSI property is optional.

/l*v log_file

Writes logging information into the specified log file with verbose output. For example: /l*v ""%TEMP%\vmmsi.log""

This example generates a detailed log file that is similar to the log generated during an interactive installation.

You can use this option to record custom features that might apply uniquely to your installation. You can use the recorded information to specify installation features in future silent installations.

The /l*v option is optional.

Silent Installation Properties for View Agent

You can include specific properties when you silently install View Agent from the command line. You must use a PROPERTY=value format so that Microsoft Windows Installer (MSI) can interpret the properties and values.

Table 3-6 shows the View Agent silent installation properties that you can use at the command-line.

Table 3‑6. MSI Properties for Silently Installing View Agent

MSI Property Description Default Value

INSTALLDIR

RDP_CHOICE

UNITY_DEFAULT_APPS

VDM_VC_MANAGED_AGENT

The path and folder in which the View Agent software is installed. For example: INSTALLDIR=""D:\abc\my folder""

The sets of two double quotes that enclose the path permit the MSI installer to ignore the space in the path.

This MSI property is optional.

Determines whether to enable Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) on the desktop.

A value of 1 enables RDP. A value of 0 leaves the RDP setting disabled.

This MSI property is optional.

Specifies a default list of default favorite applications that are displayed in the Unity Touch sidebar on a mobile device. This property was created to support the Unity Touch component. It is not a general MSI property.

For information about configuring a default list of favorite applications and about the syntax and format to use with this property, see “Configure Favorite Applications Displayed by Unity

Touch,” on page 144.

This MSI property is optional.

Determines whether vCenter Server manages the virtual machine on which View Agent is installed.

A value of 1 configures the desktop as a vCenter Server-managed virtual machine.

A value of 0 configures the desktop as unmanaged by vCenter Server.

This MSI property is required.

%ProgramFiles %\VMware\VMware View\Agent

None

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Table 3‑6. MSI Properties for Silently Installing View Agent (Continued)

MSI Property Description Default Value

VDM_SERVER_NAME

VDM_SERVER_USERNAME

VDM_SERVER_PASSWORD

VDM_IP_PROTOCOL_USAGE

The host name or IP address of the View Connection Server computer on which the View Agent installer registers an unmanaged desktop. This property applies to unmanaged desktops only.

For example: VDM_SERVER_NAME=10.123.01.01

This MSI property is required for unmanaged desktops.

Do not use this MSI property for virtual-machine desktops that are managed by vCenter Server.

The user name of the administrator on the View Connection Server computer. This MSI property applies to unmanaged desktops only.

For example: VDM_SERVER_USERNAME=domain\username

This MSI property is required for unmanaged desktops.

Do not use this MSI property for virtual-machine desktops that are managed by vCenter Server.

The View Connection Server administrator user password. For example: VDM_SERVER_PASSWORD=secret

This MSI property is required for unmanaged desktops.

Do not use this MSI property for virtual-machine desktops that are managed by vCenter Server.

Specifies the IP version that View Agent uses. The possible values are IPv4 and IPv6.

None

IPv4

In a silent installation command, you can use the MSI property, ADDLOCAL=, to specify options that the View Agent installer configures.

Table 3-7 shows the View Agent options you can type at the command line. These options have

corresponding setup options that you can deselect or select during an interactive installation. For details about the custom setup options, see “View Agent Custom Setup Options,” on page 28.

When you do not use the ADDLOCAL property at the command line, View Agent installs all options that are installed by default during an interactive installation, if they are supported on the guest operating system. When you use ADDLOCAL=ALL, View Agent installs all of the following options, both on-by-default and offby-default, if they are supported on the guest operating system. For details, see the ADDLOCAL table entry in

“Microsoft Windows Installer Command-Line Options,” on page 32.

Table 3‑7. View Agent Silent Installation Options and Interactive Custom Setup Options (Optional)

Silent Installation Option

USB USB Redirection No

HtmlAccess HTML Access Agent Yes

SVIAgent View Composer Agent Yes

RTAV Real-Time Audio-Video Yes

ClientDriveRedirection Client Drive Redirection No

SerialPortRedirection Serial Port Redirection No

ScannerRedirection Scanner Redirection No

ThinPrint Virtual Printing Yes

V4V vRealize Operations Desktop Agent Yes

VPA View Persona Management Yes

Custom Setup Option in an Interactive Installation

Installed by Default Interactively or When ADDLOCAL Is Not Used

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Table 3‑7. View Agent Silent Installation Options and Interactive Custom Setup Options (Optional) (Continued)

Silent Installation Option

SmartCard PCoIP Smartcard. This feature is not installed

VmwVaudio VMware Audio (virtual audio driver) Yes

TSMMR Windows Media Multimedia Redirection

RDP This feature enables RDP in the registry if

Custom Setup Option in an Interactive Installation

by default in an interactive installation.

(MMR)

you use the RDP_CHOICE=1 property on the command line or select RDP as the default display protocol when you create or edit a desktop pool in View Administrator.

This feature is hidden during interactive installations.

Installed by Default Interactively or When ADDLOCAL Is Not Used

Yes

Table 3-8 shows the View Agent features that are installed automatically. The features are installed on all

guest operating systems on which they are supported. These features are not optional. You cannot control whether or not to install them by using the ADDLOCAL= property.

Table 3‑8. View Agent Silent Installation Features That Are Installed Automatically (Not Optional)

Silent Installation Feature Description

Core The core View Agent functions.

If you specify ADDLOCAL=ALL, the Core features are installed.

PCoIP PCoIP Protocol Agent

VmVideo Virtual video driver

UnityTouch Unity Touch

PSG This features sets a registry entry that tells View Connection Server whether

View Agent is using IPv4 or IPv6.

You install the Flash URL Redirection feature by typing the command-line argument, FlashURLRedirection, in a silent installation. This feature is not installed during an interactive installation or by using

ADDLOCAL=ALL in a silent installation.

For example: VMware-viewagent-y.y.y-xxxxxx.exe /s /v"/qn VDM_VC_MANAGED_AGENT=1

ADDLOCAL=Core,SVIAgent,ThinPrint,USB,HtmlAccess,FlashURLRedirection,RTAV"

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Configure a Virtual Machine with Multiple NICs for View Agent

When you install View Agent on a virtual machine that has more than one NIC, you must configure the subnet that View Agent uses. The subnet determines which network address View Agent provides to the View Connection Server instance for client protocol connections.

Procedure

On the virtual machine on which View Agent is installed, open a command prompt, type regedit.exe,

and create a registry entry to configure the subnet.

For example, in an IPv4 network:

HKLM\Software\VMware, Inc.\VMware VDM\IpPrefix = n.n.n.n/m (REG_SZ)

In this example, n.n.n.n is the TCP/IP subnet and m is the number of bits in the subnet mask.

NOTE In releases earlier than Horizon 6 version 6.1, this registry path was

HKLM\Software\VMware, Inc.\VMware VDM\Node Manager\subnet = n.n.n.n/m (REG_SZ). The old

registry setting is not used with View Agent 6.1 or later. If you upgrade View Agent from an earlier release to version 6.1 or later, make sure to use the current registry setting.

Optimize Guest Operating System Performance for All Windows Versions

You can perform certain steps to optimize guest operating system performance for remote desktop deployment. The steps apply to all Windows operating systems. All of the steps are optional.

These recommendations include turning off the screen saver and not specifying a sleep timer. Your organization might require the use of screen savers. For example, you might have a GPO-managed security policy that locks a desktop a certain time after the screen saver starts. In this case, use a blank screen saver.

Prerequisites

Prepare a guest operating system for remote desktop deployment.

Procedure

Disable any unused ports, such as COM1, COM2, and LPT.

Adjust display properties.

a Choose a basic theme.

b Set the background to a solid color.

c Set the screen saver to None.

d Verify that hardware acceleration is enabled.

Select a high-performance power option and do not specify a sleep timer.

Disable the Indexing Service component.

NOTE Indexing improves searches by cataloging files. Do not disable this feature for users who search often.

Remove or minimize System Restore points.

Turn off system protection on C:\.

Disable any unnecessary services.

Set the sound scheme to No Sounds.

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Set visual effects to Adjust for best performance.

Open Windows Media Player and use the default settings.

Turn off automatic computer maintenance.

Adjust performance settings for best performance.

Delete any hidden uninstall folders in C:\Windows, such $NtUninstallKB893756$.

Delete all event logs.

Run Disk Cleanup to remove temporary files, empty the Recycle Bin, and remove system files and other

items that are no longer needed.

Run Disk Defragmenter to rearrange fragmented data.

If users are going to play full-screen videos or run 3D applications on desktops that run in a vSphere 5.1

environment, follow the instructions to modify the registry described in Microsoft KB 235257.

The Microsoft KB is titled "Server Does Not Use All Bandwidth Available When Streaming Files with Bit Rates over 100 Kbps" and is located at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/235257. Restart the virtual machine to enable the modified registry setting to take effect.

Without this optimization, brief freezes can occur, or the videos can stutter.

NOTE Making this optimization delivers performance improvements in both ESXi 5.x and ESXi 5.1, but it is required for ESXi 5.1.

What to do next

For Windows 7 and Windows 8 guest operating systems, perform additional optimization tasks. See

“Optimize Windows 7 and Windows 8 Guest Operating System Performance,” on page 38.

Optimize Windows 7 and Windows 8 Guest Operating System Performance

You can perform additional steps to optimize Windows 7 and Windows 8 guest operating system performance for remote desktop deployment. All of the steps are optional.

Prerequisites

Perform the guest operating system optimization steps that apply to all Windows operating systems.

See “Optimize Guest Operating System Performance for All Windows Versions,” on page 37.

Familiarize yourself with the procedure for disabling the Windows Customer Experience Improvement

Program. See “Disable the Windows Customer Experience Improvement Program,” on page 39.

Procedure

1 Uninstall Tablet PC Components, unless this feature is needed.

2 Disable IPv6, unless it is needed.

3 Use the File System Utility (fsutil) command to disable the setting that keeps track of the last time a

file was accessed.

For example: fsutil behavior set disablelastaccess 1

4 Start the Registry Editor (regedit.exe) and change the TimeOutValue REG_DWORD in

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\Disk to 0x000000be(190).

5 Turn off the Windows Customer Experience Improvement Program and disable related tasks from the

Task Scheduler.

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6 Shut down the guest operating system and power off the virtual machine.

7 Power on the virtual machine.

What to do next

See “Optimizing Windows 7 and Windows 8 for Linked-Clone Virtual Machines,” on page 40 for information on disabling certain Windows 7 and Windows 8 services and tasks to reduce the growth of View Composer linked-clone virtual machines. Disabling certain services and tasks can also result in performance benefits for full virtual machines.

Disable the Windows Customer Experience Improvement Program

Disabling the Windows Customer Experience Improvement Program and the related Task Scheduler tasks that control this program can improve Windows 7 and Windows 8 system performance in large desktop pools.

Procedure

1 In the Windows 7 or Windows 8 guest operating system, start the control panel and click Action Center

> Change Action Center settings.

2 Click Customer Experience Improvement Program settings.

3 Select No, I don't want to participate in the program and click Save changes.

4 Start the control panel and click Administrative Tools > Task Scheduler.

5 In the Task Scheduler (Local) pane of the Task Scheduler dialog box, expand the Task Scheduler

Library > Microsoft > Windows nodes and open the Application Experience folder.

6 Disable the AITAgent, ProgramDataUpdater, and if available, Microsoft Compatibility Appraiser

tasks.

7 In the Task Scheduler Library > Microsoft > Windows node, open the Customer Experience

Improvement Program folder.

8 Disable the Consolidator, KernelCEIPTask, and UsbCEIP tasks.

9 In the Task Scheduler Library > Microsoft > Windows node, open the Autochk folder.

10 Disable the Proxy task.

What to do next

Perform other Windows 7 or Windows 8 optimization tasks. See “Optimize Windows 7 and Windows 8

Guest Operating System Performance,” on page 38.

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Optimizing Windows 7 and Windows 8 for Linked-Clone Virtual Machines

By disabling certain Windows 7 or Windows 8 services and tasks, you can reduce the growth of View Composer linked-clone virtual machines. Disabling certain services and tasks can also result in performance benefits for full virtual machines.

Benefits of Disabling Windows 7 and Windows 8 Services and Tasks

Windows 7 and Windows 8 schedule services and tasks that can cause View Composer linked clones to grow, even when the linked-clone machines are idle. The incremental growth of linked-clone OS disks can undo the storage savings that you achieve when you first create the linked-clone machines. You can reduce linked-clone growth by disabling these Windows services.

Windows 7 and Windows 8 introduce new services and schedules older services, such as disk defragmentation, to run by default. These services run in the background if you do not disable them.

Services that affect OS disk growth also generate input/output operations per second (IOPS) on the Windows 7 or Windows 8 virtual machines. Disabling these services can reduce IOPS and improve performance on full virtual machines and linked clones.

These best practices for optimizing Windows 7 and Windows 8 apply to most user environments. However, you must evaluate the effect of disabling each service on your users, applications, and desktops. You might require certain services to stay active.

For example, disabling Windows Update Service makes sense if you refresh and recompose the linked clones. A refresh operation restores the OS disks to their last snapshots, deleting all automatic Windows updates since the last snapshots were taken. A recompose operation recreates the OS disks from a new snapshot that can contain the current Windows updates, making automatic Windows updates redundant.

If you do not use refresh and recompose regularly, you might decide to keep Windows Update Service active.

Overview of Windows 7 and Windows 8 Services and Tasks That Cause LinkedClone Growth

Certain services and tasks in Windows 7 and Windows 8 can cause linked-clone OS disks to grow incrementally every few hours, even when the linked-clone machines are idle. If you disable these services and tasks, you can control the OS disk growth.

Services that affect OS disk growth also generate IOPS on Windows 7 and Windows 8 virtual machines. You can evaluate the benefits of disabling these services on full virtual machines as well as linked clones.

Before you disable the Windows 7 or Windows 8 services that are shown in Table 3-9, verify that you took the optimization steps in “Optimize Guest Operating System Performance for All Windows Versions,” on page 37 and “Optimize Windows 7 and Windows 8 Guest Operating System Performance,” on page 38.

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Table 3‑9. Impact of Windows 7 and Windows 8 Services and Tasks on OS Disk Growth and IOPS When OS Is Left Idle

Service or Task Description

Windows Hibernation

Windows Scheduled Disk Defragmentation

Windows Update Service

Windows Diagnostic Policy Service

Prefetch/Superfetch Stores specific

Provides a powersaving state by storing open documents and programs in a file before the computer is powered off. The file is reloaded into memory when the computer is restarted, restoring the state when the hibernation was invoked.

Disk defragmentation is scheduled as a background process.

Detects, downloads, and installs updates for Windows and other programs.

Detects, troubleshoots, and resolves problems in Windows components. If you stop this service, diagnostics no longer function.

information about applications that you run to help them start faster.

Default Occurrence or Startup

Default powerplan settings disable hibernation.

Once a week High.

Automatic startup Medium to high.

Always on, unless it is disabled.

Impact on Linked-Clone OS Disks Impact on IOPS

High.

By default, the size of the hibernation file, hiberfil.sys, is the same as the installed RAM on the virtual machine. This feature affects all guest operating systems.

Repeated defragmentation operations can increase the size of linked-clone OS disks by several GB and do little to make disk access more efficient on linked clones.

Causes frequent writes to the linked-clones' OS disks because update checks occur often. The impact depends on the updates that are downloaded.

The service is triggered on demand. The write frequency varies, depending on demand.

Medium

Causes periodic updates to its layout and database information and individual prefetch files, which are generated on demand.

High.

When hibernation is triggered, the system writes a hiberfil.sys file the size of the installed RAM.

High Yes

Medium to high Yes, if you use View

Small to medium Yes, if you do not

Medium Yes, if application

Turn Off This Service or Task?

Yes

Hibernation provides no benefit in a virtual environment.

For instructions, see

“Disable Windows Hibernation in the Parent Virtual Machine,” on

page 49..

Composer recompose to install Windows updates and refresh to return OS disks to their original snapshots.

need the diagnostic tools to function on the desktops.

startup times are acceptable after you disable this feature.

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Table 3‑9. Impact of Windows 7 and Windows 8 Services and Tasks on OS Disk Growth and IOPS When OS Is Left Idle (Continued)

Service or Task Description

Windows Registry Backup (RegIdleBackup)

System Restore Reverts the

Windows Defender Provides anti-

Microsoft Feeds Synchronization task (msfeedssync.exe)

Automatically backs up the Windows registry when the system is idle.

Windows system to a previous, healthy state.

spyware features.

Periodically updates RSS feeds in Windows Internet Explorer Web browsers. This task updates RSS feeds that have automatic RSS feeds synchronization turned on. The process appears in Windows Task Manager only when Internet Explorer is running.

Default Occurrence or Startup

Every 10 days at 12:00 am

When Windows starts up and once a day thereafter.

When Windows starts up. Performs a quick scan once a day. Checks for updates before each scan.

Once a day. Medium.

Impact on Linked-Clone OS Disks Impact on IOPS

Medium.

Each time this task runs, it generates registry backup files.

Small to medium.

Captures a system restore point whenever the system detects that it is needed. When the linked clone is idle, this overhead is small.

Medium to high.

Performs definition updates, scheduled scans, and scans that are started on demand.

Affects OS-disk growth if persistent disks are not configured. If persistent disks are configured, the impact is diverted to the persistent disks.

Turn Off This Service or Task?

Medium. Yes.

There is no need for Windows Registry Backup. To restore registry data, you can use the View Composer refresh operation.

No major impact. Yes

Although its impact is small, this task is redundant if you use View Composer refresh to return OS disks to their original snapshots.

Medium to high. Yes, if other anti-

spyware software is installed.

Medium Yes, if your users do

not require automatic RSS feed updates on their desktops.

Disable Scheduled Disk Defragmentation on Windows 7 and Windows 8 Parent Virtual Machines

Before you create linked clones, you must disable scheduled defragmentations on Windows 7 and Windows 8 parent virtual machines. Windows 7 and Windows 8 schedule weekly disk defragmentations by default. Repeated defragmentation operations significantly increase the size of linked-clone OS disks and do not make disk access more efficient on linked clones.

When you create a linked-clone pool from the parent virtual machine, the linked clones share the replica's disk. Subsequent defragmentation operations do not affect the replica's disk, which is read-only. Instead, defragmentations expand each clone's OS disk.

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As a best practice, defragment the parent virtual machine one time, before you take a snapshot and create the pool. The linked clones benefit from the defragmentation because they share the replica's optimized, read-only disk.

Prerequisites

Verify that the applications that you intend to deploy to the linked clones are installed on the virtual

machine.

Verify that View Agent with View Composer Agent is installed on the virtual machine.

Procedure

1 In vSphere Client, select the parent virtual machine and select Open Console.

2 Log in to the Windows 7 or Windows 8 guest operating system as an administrator.

3 Click Start and type defrag in the Search programs and files box.

4 In the Programs pane, click Disk Defragmenter.

5 In the Disk Defragmenter dialog box, click Defragment disk.

The Disk Defragmenter consolidates defragmented files on the virtual machine's hard disk.

6 In the Disk Defragmenter dialog box, click Configure schedule.

7 Deselect Run on a schedule (recommended) and click OK.

Defragmentation operations will not take place on linked-clone virtual machines that are created from this parent virtual machine.

Disable the Windows Update Service on Windows 7 and Windows 8 Virtual Machines

Disabling the Windows Update Service can reduce the number of files that are created and writes that occur when updates are downloaded and installed. This action can reduce linked-clone growth and reduce IOPS in linked clones and full virtual machines.

Disable Windows Update Service if you refresh and recompose the linked-clone desktops. A refresh operation restores the OS disks to their original snapshots, deleting the automatic Windows updates. A recompose operation recreates the OS disks from a new snapshot that can contain Windows updates, making automatic Windows updates redundant.

Do not disable the Windows Update Service if you do not use recompose to install Windows updates in the linked clones.

Prerequisites

Verify that the most recent Windows updates are downloaded and installed on the virtual machine.

Procedure

1 In vSphere Client, select the parent virtual machine and select Open Console.

2 Log in to the Windows 7 or Windows 8 guest operating system as an administrator.

3 Click Start > Control Panel > System and Security > Turn automatic updating on or off.

4 In the Important updates menu, select Never check for updates.

5 Deselect Give me recommended updates the same way I receive important updates.

6 Deselect Allow all users to install updates on this computer and click OK.

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Disable the Diagnostic Policy Service on Windows 7 and Windows 8 Virtual Machines

Disabling the Windows Diagnostic Policy Service can minimize the number of system writes and reduce the growth of linked-clone machines.

Do no disable the Windows Diagnostic Policy Service if your users require the diagnostic tools on their desktops.

Procedure

1 In vSphere Client, select the parent virtual machine and select Open Console.

2 Log in to the Windows 7 or Windows 8 guest operating system as an administrator.

3 Click Start > Control Panel > System and Security > Administrative Tools.

4 Select Services and click Open.

5 Double-click Diagnostic Policy Service.

6 In the Diagnostic Policy Service Properties (Local Computer) dialog, click Stop.

7 In the Startup type menu, select Disabled.

8 Click OK.

Disable the Prefetch and Superfetch Features on Windows 7 and Windows 8 Virtual Machines

By disabling the Windows prefetch and superfetch features, you can avoid generating prefetch files and the overhead associated with prefetch and superfetch operations. This action can reduce the growth of linkedclone machines and minimize IOPS on full virtual machines and linked clones.

To disable the prefetch and superfetch features, you must edit a Windows registry key and disable the Prefetch service on the virtual machine.

Prerequisites

See the Microsoft TechNet Web site for information on how to use the Windows Registry Editor on Windows 7 and Windows 8.

Procedure

1 Start the Windows Registry Editor on the local Windows 7 or Windows 8 virtual machine.

2 Navigate to the registry key called PrefetchParameters.

The registry key is located in the following path:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters.

3 Set the EnablePrefetcher and EnableSuperfetch values to 0.

4 Click Start > Control Panel > System and Security > Administrative Tools.

5 Select Services and click Open.

6 Double-click the Superfetch service.

7 In the Superfetch Properties (Local Computer) dialog, click Stop.

8 In the Startup type menu, select Disabled.

9 Click OK.

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Disable Windows Registry Backup on Windows 7 and Windows 8 Virtual Machines

Disabling the Windows registry backup feature, RegIdleBackup, can minimize the number of system writes and reduce the growth of linked-clone machines.

Procedure

1 In vSphere Client, select the parent virtual machine and select Open Console.

2 Log in to the Windows 7 or Windows 8 guest operating system as an administrator.

3 Click Start > Control Panel > System and Security > Administrative Tools.

4 Select Task Scheduler and click Open.

5 In the left pane, expand Task Scheduler Library, Microsoft, Windows.

6 Double-click Registry and select RegIdleBackup.

7 In the Actions pane, click Disable.

Disable the System Restore on Windows 7 and Windows 8 Virtual Machines

You do not need to use the Windows System Restore feature if you use View Composer refresh to restore linked-clone OS disks to their original snapshots.

When the operating system is idle, System Restore does not have a visible impact on OS-disk growth. However, when the operating system is in use, System Restore generates restore points based on system use, which can have a significant impact on OS-disk growth.

The function of Windows System Restore is the same as View Composer refresh.

As a best practice, you can disable Windows System Restore and avoid unnecessary growth in your linked clones.

If you do not use refresh, evaluate whether it is best to leave System Restore active in your View environment.

Procedure

1 In vSphere Client, select the parent virtual machine and select Open Console.

2 Log in to the Windows 7 or Windows 8 guest operating system as an administrator.

3 Click Start > Control Panel > System and Security > Administrative Tools.

4 Select Task Scheduler and click Open.

5 In the left pane, expand Task Scheduler Library, Microsoft, Windows.

6 Double-click SystemRestore and select SR.

7 In the Actions pane, click Disable.

Disable Windows Defender on Windows 7 and Windows 8 Virtual Machines

Microsoft Windows Defender can contribute to linked-clone OS disk growth and increase IOPS in linked clones and full virtual machines. Disable Windows Defender if you install other anti-spyware software on the virtual machine.

If Windows Defender is the only anti-spyware installed on the virtual machine, you might prefer to keep Windows Defender active on the desktops in your environment.

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Procedure

1 In vSphere Client, select the parent virtual machine and select Open Console.

2 Log in to the Windows 7 or Windows 8 guest operating system as an administrator.

3 Click Start and type Windows Defender in the Search programs and files box.

4 Click Tools > Options > Administrator.

5 Deselect Use this program and click Save.

Disable Microsoft Feeds Synchronization on Windows 7 and Windows 8 Virtual Machines

Windows Internet Explorer uses the Microsoft Feeds Synchronization task to update RSS feeds in users' Web browsers. This task can contribute to linked-clone growth. Disable this task if your users do not require automatic RSS feed updates in their browsers.

Microsoft Feeds Synchronization can cause OS-disk growth if persistent disks are not configured. If persistent disks are configured, the impact is diverted to the persistent disks. In this situation, you should still disable Microsoft Feeds Synchronization to control persistent-disk growth.

Procedure

1 In vSphere Client, select the parent virtual machine and select Open Console.

2 Log in to the Windows 7 or Windows 8 guest operating system as an administrator.

3 Click Start > Control Panel > Network and Internet > Internet Options.

4 Click the Content tab.

5 Under Feeds and Web Slices, click Settings.

6 Deselect Automatically check feeds and Web Slices for updates and click OK.

7 In the Internet Properties dialog, click OK.

Preparing Virtual Machines for View Composer

To deploy a linked-clone desktop pool, you must prepare a parent virtual machine that meets the requirements of the View Composer service.

Prepare a Parent Virtual Machine on page 47

The View Composer service requires a parent virtual machine from which you generate a base image for creating and managing a linked-clone desktop pool.

Activating Windows on Linked-Clone Virtual Machines on page 49

To make sure that View Composer properly activates Windows 8 and Windows 7 operating systems on linked-clone machines, you must use Microsoft volume activation on the parent virtual machine. The volume-activation technology requires a volume license key.

Disable Windows Hibernation in the Parent Virtual Machine on page 49

The Windows hibernation option creates a large system file that can increase the size of the linkedclone OS disks that are created from the parent virtual machine. Disabling the hibernation option reduces the size of linked-clones.

Configure a Parent Virtual Machine to Use Local Storage on page 50

When you prepare a parent virtual machine for View Composer, you can configure the parent virtual machine and linked clones to store virtual-machine swap files on the local datastore. This optional strategy lets you take advantage of local storage.

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Keep a Record of the Parent Virtual Machine's Paging-File Size on page 51

When you create a linked-clone pool, you can redirect the linked clones' guest OS paging and temp files to a separate disk. You must configure this disk to be larger than the paging file in the guest OS.

Increase the Timeout Limit of QuickPrep Customization Scripts on page 51

View Composer terminates a QuickPrep post-synchronization or power-off script that takes longer than 20 seconds. You can increase the timeout limit for these scripts by changing the

ExecScriptTimeout Windows registry value on the parent virtual machine.

Prepare a Parent Virtual Machine

The View Composer service requires a parent virtual machine from which you generate a base image for creating and managing a linked-clone desktop pool.

Prerequisites

Verify that you prepared a virtual machine to use for deploying remote desktops. See “Creating Virtual

Machines for Remote Desktop Deployment,” on page 19.

A parent virtual machine that you use for View Composer must either belong to the same Active Directory domain as the domain that the linked-clone machines will join or be a member of the local WORKGROUP.

IMPORTANT To use features that are supported in View 4.5 or later, such as redirecting disposable data to a separate disk and customizing linked-clone machines with Sysprep, you must deploy the machines from a parent virtual machine on which View Agent 4.5 or later is installed.

Verify that the virtual machine was not converted from a View Composer linked clone. A virtual

machine that is converted from a linked clone has the clone's internal disk and state information. A parent virtual machine cannot have state information.

IMPORTANT Linked clones and virtual machines that were converted from linked clones are not supported as parent virtual machines.

When you install View Agent on the parent virtual machine, select the View Composer Agent option.

See “Install View Agent on a Virtual Machine,” on page 27.

To update View Agent in a large environment, you can use standard Windows update mechanisms such as Altiris, SMS, LanDesk, BMC, or other systems management software. You can also use the recompose operation to update View Agent.

NOTE Do not change the log on account for the VMware View Composer Guest Agent Server service in a parent virtual machine. By default, this is the Local System account. If you change this account, the linked clones created from the parent do not start.

To deploy machines that run Windows 8 or Windows 7, configure a volume license key and activate the

parent virtual machine's operating system with volume activation. See “Activating Windows on

Linked-Clone Virtual Machines,” on page 49.

If the parent virtual machine runs Windows 7 or Windows 8, verify that you followed the best practices

for optimizing the operating system. See “Optimizing Windows 7 and Windows 8 for Linked-Clone

Virtual Machines,” on page 40.

Familiarize yourself with the procedure for disabling searching Windows Update for device drivers.

See the Microsoft Technet article, "Disable Searching Windows Update for Device Drivers" at

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc730606(v=ws.10).aspx.

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Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View

Procedure

Remove the DHCP lease on the parent virtual machine to avoid copying a leased IP address to the

linked clones in the pool.

a On the parent virtual machine, open a command prompt.

b Type the ipconfig /release command.

Verify that the system disk contains a single volume.

You cannot deploy linked clones from a parent virtual machine that contains more than one volume. The View Composer service does not support multiple disk partitions. Multiple virtual disks are supported.

NOTE If the parent virtual machine contains multiple virtual disks, when you create a desktop pool, do not select a drive letter for the View Composer persistent disk or disposable data disk that already exists on the parent virtual machine or that conflicts with a drive letter that is used for a networkmounted drive.

Verify that the virtual machine does not contain an independent disk.

An independent disk is excluded when you take a snapshot of the virtual machine. Linked clones that are created or recomposed from the virtual machine will not contain the independent disk.

If you plan to configure disposable data disks when you create linked-clone machines, remove default

user TEMP and TMP variables from the parent virtual machine.

You can also remove the pagefile.sys file to avoid duplicating the file on all the linked clones. If you leave the pagefile.sys file on the parent virtual machine, a read-only version of the file is inherited by the linked clones, while a second version of the file is used on the disposable data disk.

Disable the hibernation option to reduce the size of linked-clone OS disks that are created from the

parent virtual machine.

Before you take a snapshot of the parent virtual machine, disable searching Windows Update for device

drivers.

This Windows feature can interfere with the customization of linked-clone machines. As each linked clone is customized, Windows might search for the best drivers on the Internet for that clone, resulting in repeated searches and customization delays.

In vSphere Client, disable the vApp Options setting on the parent virtual machine.

On Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Windows Server 2012 R2 machines, disable the

scheduled maintenance task that recovers disk space by removing unused features.

For example: Schtasks.exe /change /disable /tn "\Microsoft\Windows\AppxDeploymentClient\Pre-

staged app cleanup"

If left enabled, this maintenance task can remove the Sysprep customization script after the linked clones are created, which would cause subsequent recompose operations to fail with customization operation timeout errors. For more information, see the Microsoft KB article available at

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2928948.

You can deploy a linked-clone pool from the parent virtual machine.

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Chapter 3 Creating and Preparing Virtual Machines

What to do next

Use vSphere Client or vSphere Web Client to take a snapshot of the parent virtual machine in its powereddown state. This snapshot is used as the baseline configuration for the first set of linked-clone machines that are anchored to the parent virtual machine.

IMPORTANT Before you take a snapshot, completely shut down the parent virtual machine by using the Shut Down command in the guest operating system.

Activating Windows on Linked-Clone Virtual Machines

To activate Windows 8 or Windows 7 with volume activation, you use Key Management Service (KMS), which requires a KMS license key. See your Microsoft dealer to acquire a volume license key and configure volume activation.

NOTE View Composer does not support Multiple Activation Key (MAK) licensing.

Before you create linked-clone machines with View Composer, you must use volume activation to activate the operating system on the parent virtual machine.

When a linked-clone machine is created, and each time the linked clone is recomposed, the View Composer agent uses the parent virtual machine's KMS server to activate the operating system on the linked clone.

The View Composer QuickPrep tool implements the activation through these steps:

1 Invokes a script to remove the existing license status on the linked-clone virtual machine

2 Restarts the guest operating system

3 Invokes a script that uses KMS licensing to activate the operating system on the clone.

Each time QuickPrep runs on a linked clone, the activation takes place.

For KMS licensing, View Composer uses the KMS server that is configured to activate the parent virtual machine. The KMS server treats an activated linked clone as a computer with a newly issued license.

Disable Windows Hibernation in the Parent Virtual Machine

The Windows hibernation option creates a large system file that can increase the size of the linked-clone OS disks that are created from the parent virtual machine. Disabling the hibernation option reduces the size of linked-clones.

The Windows hibernation option creates a hidden system file, Hiberfil.sys. Windows uses this file to store a copy of system memory on the hard disk when the hybrid sleep setting is turned on. When you create a linked-clone pool, the file is created on each linked clone's OS disk.

On Windows 7 or Windows 8 virtual machines, this file can be 10GB.

CAUTION When you make hibernation unavailable, the hybrid sleep setting does not work. Users can lose data if the hybrid sleep setting is turned on and a power loss occurs.

Prerequisites

Familiarize yourself with the Windows hibernation feature. See the Microsoft Support Web site. For information about disabling hibernation on Windows 8 or Windows 7, see the Microsoft Support Web site and search for how to disable and re-enable hibernation on a computer that is running Windows.

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Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View

Procedure

1 In vSphere Client, select the parent virtual machine and select Open Console.

2 Log in to the Windows guest operating system as an administrator.

3 Disable the hibernation option.

a Click Start and type cmd in the Start Search box.

b In the search results list, right-click Command Prompt and click Run as Administrator.

c At the User Account Control prompt, click Continue.

d At the command prompt, type powercfg.exe /hibernate off and press Enter.

e Type exit and press Enter.

4 Log out of the guest operating system.

When you a create linked-clone machines from the parent virtual machine, the Hiberfil.sys file is not created on the linked-clone OS disks.

Configure a Parent Virtual Machine to Use Local Storage

In this procedure, you configure local storage for the virtual-machine swap files, not the paging and temp files in the guest OS. When you create a linked-clone pool, you also can redirect guest OS paging and temp files to a separate disk. See “Worksheet for Creating a Linked-Clone Desktop Pool,” on page 63.

Prerequisites

Prepare the parent virtual machine to meet the requirements of the View Composer service. See “Prepare a

Parent Virtual Machine,” on page 47.

Procedure

1 Configure a swapfile datastore on the ESXi host or cluster on which you will deploy the linked-clone

pool.

2 When you create the parent virtual machine in vCenter Server, store the virtual-machine swap files on

the swapfile datastore on the local ESXi host or cluster:

a In vSphere Client, select the parent virtual machine.

b Click Edit Settings and click the Options tab.

c Click Swapfile location and click Store in the host's swapfile datastore.

For detailed instructions, see the VMware vSphere documentation.

When you deploy a pool from this parent virtual machine, the linked clones use the local ESXi host's swapfile datastore.

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Chapter 3 Creating and Preparing Virtual Machines

Keep a Record of the Parent Virtual Machine's Paging-File Size

When a linked clone that is configured with a separate disk for the disposable files is powered off, View replaces the temporary disk with a copy of the original temporary disk that View Composer created with the linked-clone pool. This feature can slow the growth of linked clones. However, this feature can work only if you configure the disposable-file disk to be large enough to hold the guest OS's paging files.

Before you can configure the disposable-file disk, you must know the maximum paging-file size in the parent virtual machine. The linked clones have the same paging-file size as the parent virtual machine from which they are created.

As a best practice, you can remove the pagefile.sys file from the parent virtual machine before you take a snapshot, to avoid duplicating the file on all the linked clones. See “Prepare a Parent Virtual Machine,” on page 47.

NOTE This feature is not that same as configuring local storage for the virtual-machine swap files. See

“Configure a Parent Virtual Machine to Use Local Storage,” on page 50.

Procedure

1 In vSphere Client, right-click the parent virtual machine and click Open Console.

2 Select Start > Settings > Control Panel > System.

3 Click the Advanced tab.

4 In the Performance pane, click Settings.

5 Click the Advanced tab.

6 In the Virtual memory pane, click Change.

The Virtual Memory page appears.

7 Set the paging file size to a larger value than the size of the memory that is assigned to the virtual

machine.

IMPORTANT If the Maximum size (MB) setting is smaller than the virtual-machine memory size, type a larger value and save the new value.

8 Keep a record of the Maximum size (MB) setting that is configured in the Paging file size for selected

drive pane.

What to do next

When you configure a linked-clone pool from this parent virtual machine, configure a disposable-file disk that is larger than the paging-file size.

Increase the Timeout Limit of QuickPrep Customization Scripts

View Composer terminates a QuickPrep post-synchronization or power-off script that takes longer than 20 seconds. You can increase the timeout limit for these scripts by changing the ExecScriptTimeout Windows registry value on the parent virtual machine.

The increased timeout limit is propagated to linked clones that are created from the parent virtual machine. QuickPrep customization scripts can run on the linked clones for the time that you specify.

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Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View

Alternatively, you can use your customization script to launch another script or process that performs the long-running task.

NOTE Most QuickPrep customization scripts can finish running within the 20-second limit. Test your scripts before you increase the limit.

Prerequisites

Install View Agent with the View Composer Agent option on the parent virtual machine.

Verify that the parent virtual machine is prepared to create a linked-clone pool. See “Prepare a Parent

Virtual Machine,” on page 47.

Procedure

1 On the parent virtual machine, start the Windows Registry Editor.

a Select Start > Command Prompt.

b At the command prompt, type regedit.

2 In the Windows registry, locate the vmware-viewcomposer-ga registry key.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\vmware-viewcomposer-ga

3 Click Edit and modify the registry value.

Value Name: ExecScriptTimeout Value Type: REG_DWORD Value unit: milliseconds

The default value is 20000 milliseconds.

The timeout value is increased. You do not have to restart Windows for this value to take effect.

What to do next

Take a snapshot of the parent virtual machine and create a linked-clone pool.

Creating Virtual Machine Templates

You must create a virtual machine template before you can create an automated pool that contains full virtual machines.

A virtual machine template is a master copy of a virtual machine that can be used to create and provision new virtual machines. Typically, a template includes an installed guest operating system and a set of applications.

You create virtual machine templates in vSphere Client. You can create a virtual machine template from a previously configured virtual machine, or you can convert a previously configured virtual machine to a virtual machine template.

See the vSphere Basic System Administration guide for information on using vSphere Client to create virtual machine templates. See “Automated Pools That Contain Full Virtual Machines,” on page 55 for information on creating automated pools.

NOTE You do not create a linked-clone pool from a virtual machine template.

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Creating Customization Specifications

Customization specifications are optional, but they can greatly expedite automated pool deployments by providing configuration information for general properties such as licensing, domain attachment, and DHCP settings.

With customization specifications, you can customize remote desktops as they are created in View Administrator. You create new customization specifications by using the Customization Specification wizard in vSphere Client. You can also use the Customization Specification wizard to import existing custom sysprep.ini files.

See the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration document for information on using the Customization Specification wizard.

Make sure that the customization specifications are accurate before you use them in View Administrator. In vSphere Client, deploy and customize a virtual machine from your template using the customization specifications. Fully test the virtual machine, including DHCP and authentication, before you create remote desktops.

NOTE You do not have to install Sysprep tools in vCenter Server for desktop pools that use Windows 8 or Windows 7. Sysprep tools are built into these operating systems.

Chapter 3 Creating and Preparing Virtual Machines

When you use a Sysprep customization specification to join a Windows 8 or Windows 7 desktop to a domain, you must use the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the Active Directory domain. You cannot use the NetBIOS name of the Active Directory domain.

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Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View

54 VMware, Inc.

Creating Automated Desktop Pools

That Contain Full Virtual Machines 4

With an automated desktop pool that contains full virtual machines, you create a virtual machine template and View uses that template to create virtual machines for each desktop. You can optionally create customization specifications to expedite automated pool deployments.

This chapter includes the following topics:

“Automated Pools That Contain Full Virtual Machines,” on page 55

“Worksheet for Creating an Automated Pool That Contains Full Virtual Machines,” on page 55

“Create an Automated Pool That Contains Full Virtual Machines,” on page 59

“Desktop Settings for Automated Pools That Contain Full Virtual Machines,” on page 60

Automated Pools That Contain Full Virtual Machines

To create an automated desktop pool, View dynamically provisions machines based on settings that you apply to the pool. View uses a virtual machine template as the basis of the pool. From the template, View creates a new virtual machine in vCenter Server for each desktop.

Worksheet for Creating an Automated Pool That Contains Full Virtual Machines

When you create an automated desktop pool, the View Administrator Add Desktop Pool wizard prompts you to configure certain options. Use this worksheet to prepare your configuration options before you create the pool.

You can print this worksheet and write down the values you want to specify when you run the Add Desktop Pool wizard.

To create a linked-clone pool, see “Linked-Clone Desktop Pools,” on page 63.

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Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View

Table 4‑1. Worksheet: Configuration Options for Creating an Automated Pool That Contains Full Virtual Machines

Option Description Fill In Your Value Here

User assignment Choose the type of user assignment:

Enable automatic assignment In a dedicated-assignment pool, a machine is

vCenter Server Select the vCenter Server that manages the

Desktop Pool ID The unique name that identifies the pool in View

Display name The pool name that users see when they log in

Access group Select an access group in which to place the pool

Delete machine after logoff If you select floating user assignment, choose

In a dedicated-assignment pool, each user is

assigned to a machine. Users receive the same machine each time they log in to the pool.

In a floating-assignment pool, users receive

different machines each time they log in.

For details, see “User Assignment in Desktop

Pools,” on page 109.

assigned to a user when the user first logs in to the pool. You can also explicitly assign machines to users.

If you do not enable automatic assignment, you must explicitly assign a machine to each user.

You can assign machines manually even when automatic assignment is enabled.

virtual machines in the pool.

Administrator.

If multiple vCenter Servers are running in your environment, make sure that another vCenter Server is not using the same pool ID.

A View Connection Server configuration can be a standalone View Connection Server instance or a pod of replicated instances that share a common View LDAP configuration.

from a client device. If you do not specify a display name, the pool ID is displayed to users.

or leave the pool in the default root access group.

If you use an access group, you can delegate managing the pool to an administrator who has a specific role. For details, see the role-based delegated administration chapter in the View Administration document.

NOTE Access groups are different from vCenter Server folders that store desktop virtual machines. You select a vCenter Server folder later in the wizard with other vCenter Server settings.

whether to delete machines after users log off.

NOTE You set this option on the Desktop Pool Settings page.

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Chapter 4 Creating Automated Desktop Pools That Contain Full Virtual Machines

Table 4‑1. Worksheet: Configuration Options for Creating an Automated Pool That Contains Full Virtual Machines (Continued)

Option Description Fill In Your Value Here

Desktop Pool Settings Settings that determine the desktop state, power

status when a virtual machine is not in use, display protocol, Adobe Flash quality, and so on.

For descriptions, see “Desktop Pool Settings for

All Desktop Pool Types,” on page 117.

For a list of the settings that apply to automated pools, see “Desktop Settings for Automated

Pools That Contain Full Virtual Machines,” on

page 60.

For more information about power policies and automated pools, see “Setting Power Policies for

Desktop Pools,” on page 121.

Stop provisioning on error You can direct View to stop provisioning or

continue to provision virtual machines in a desktop pool after an error occurs during the provisioning of a virtual machine. If you leave this setting selected, you can prevent a provisioning error from recurring on multiple virtual machines.

Virtual Machine Naming Choose whether to provision machines by

manually specifying a list of machine names or by providing a naming pattern and the total number of machines.

For details, see “Naming Machines Manually or

Providing a Naming Pattern,” on page 110.

Specify names manually If you specify names manually, prepare a list of

machine names and, optionally, the associated user names.

Naming Pattern If you use this naming method, provide the

pattern.

The pattern you specify is used as a prefix in all the machine names, followed by a unique number to identify each machine.

For details, see “Using a Naming Pattern for

Automated Desktop Pools,” on page 112.

Maximum number of machines If you use a naming pattern, specify the total

number of machines in the pool.

You can also specify a minimum number of machines to provision when you first create the pool.

Number of spare (powered on) machines

If you specify names manually or use a naming pattern, specify a number of machines to keep available and powered on for new users. For details, see “Naming Machines Manually or

Providing a Naming Pattern,” on page 110.

When you specify names manually, this option is called # Unassigned machines kept powered on.

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Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View

Table 4‑1. Worksheet: Configuration Options for Creating an Automated Pool That Contains Full Virtual Machines (Continued)

Option Description Fill In Your Value Here

Minimum number of machines If you use a naming pattern and provision

Use vSphere Virtual SAN Specify whether to use Virtual SAN, if available.

Template Select the virtual machine template to use for

vCenter Server folder Select the folder in vCenter Server in which the

Host or cluster Select the ESXi host or cluster on which the

Resource pool Select the vCenter Server resource pool in which

Datastores Select one or more datastores on which to store

Use View Storage Accelerator Determine whether ESXi hosts cache common

machines on demand, specify a minimum number of machines in the pool.

The minimum number of machines is created when you create the pool.

If you provision machines on demand, additional machines are created as users connect to the pool for the first time or as you assign machines to users.

Virtual SAN is a software-defined storage tier that virtualizes the local physical storage disks available on a cluster of ESXi hosts. For more information, see “Using Virtual SAN for High-

Performance Storage and Policy-Based Management,” on page 199.

creating the pool.

desktop pool resides.

virtual machines run.

In vSphere 5.1 or later, you can select a cluster with up to 32 ESXi hosts.

the desktop pool resides.

the desktop pool.

For clusters, you can use shared or local datastores.

NOTE If you use Virtual SAN, select only one datastore.

virtual machine disk data. View Storage Accelerator can improve performance and reduce the need for extra storage I/O bandwidth to manage boot storms and anti-virus scanning I/O storms.

This feature is supported on vSphere 5.0 and later.

This feature is enabled by default.

For details, see “Configure View Storage

Accelerator for Desktop Pools,” on page 212.

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Chapter 4 Creating Automated Desktop Pools That Contain Full Virtual Machines

Table 4‑1. Worksheet: Configuration Options for Creating an Automated Pool That Contains Full Virtual Machines (Continued)

Option Description Fill In Your Value Here

Transparent Page Sharing Scope Select the level at which to allow transparent

page sharing (TPS). The choices are Virtual Machine (the default), Pool, Pod, or Global. If you turn on TPS for all the machines in the pool, pod, or globally, the ESXi host eliminates redundant copies of memory pages that result if the machines use the same guest operating system or applications.

Page sharing happens on the ESXi host. For example, if you enable TPS at the pool level but the pool is spread across multiple ESXi hosts, only virtual machines on the same host and within the same pool will share pages. At the global level, all machines managed by View on the same ESXi host can share memory pages, regardless of which pool the machines reside in.

NOTE The default setting is not to share memory pages among machines because TPS can pose a security risk. Research indicates that TPS could possibly be abused to gain unauthorized access to data in very limited configuration scenarios.

Guest customization Select a customization specification (SYSPREP)

from the list to configure licensing, domain attachment, DHCP settings, and other properties on the machines.

Alternatively, you can customize the machines manually after they are created.

Create an Automated Pool That Contains Full Virtual Machines

You can create an automated desktop pool based on a virtual machine template that you select. View dynamically deploys the desktops, creating a new virtual machine in vCenter Server for each desktop.

To create a linked-clone pool, see “Linked-Clone Desktop Pools,” on page 63.

Prerequisites

Prepare a virtual machine template that View will use to create the machines. View Agent must be

installed on the template. See Chapter 3, “Creating and Preparing Virtual Machines,” on page 19.

If you intend to use a customization specification, make sure that the specifications are accurate. In

vSphere Client, deploy and customize a virtual machine from your template using the customization specification. Fully test the resulting virtual machine, including DHCP and authentication.

Verify that you have a sufficient number of ports on the ESXi virtual switch that is used for the virtual

machines that are used as remote desktops. The default value might not be sufficient if you create large desktop pools. The number of virtual switch ports on the ESXI host must equal or exceed the number of virtual machines multiplied by the number of virtual NICs per virtual machine.

Gather the configuration information you must provide to create the pool. See “Worksheet for Creating

an Automated Pool That Contains Full Virtual Machines,” on page 55.

Decide how to configure power settings, display protocol, Adobe Flash quality, and other settings. See

“Desktop Pool Settings for All Desktop Pool Types,” on page 117.

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Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View

If you intend to provide access to your desktops and applications through Workspace Portal, verify that

you create the desktop and application pools as a user who has the Administrators role on the root access group in View Administrator. If you give the user the Administrators role on an access group other than the root access group, Workspace Portal will not recognize the SAML authenticator you configure in View, and you cannot configure the pool in Workspace Portal.

Procedure

1 In View Administrator, select Catalog > Desktop Pools.

2 Click Add.

3 Select Automated Desktop Pool.

4 On the vCenter Server page, choose Full virtual machines.

5 Follow the prompts in the wizard to create the pool.

Use the configuration information that you gathered in the worksheet. You can go directly back to any wizard page that you completed by clicking the page name in the navigation panel.

In View Administrator, you can view the machines as they are added to the pool by selecting Catalog > Desktop Pools.

What to do next

Entitle users to access the pool. See “Add Entitlements to a Desktop or Application Pool,” on page 137.

Desktop Settings for Automated Pools That Contain Full Virtual Machines

You must specify desktop pool settings when you configure automated pools that contain full virtual machines. Different settings apply to pools with dedicated user assignments and floating user assignments.

Table 4-2 lists the settings that apply to automated pools with dedicated assignments and floating

assignments.

For descriptions of each desktop pool setting, see “Desktop Pool Settings for All Desktop Pool Types,” on page 117.

Table 4‑2. Settings for Automated Pools That Contain Full Virtual Machines

Automated Pool, Dedicated

Setting

State Yes Yes

Connection Server restrictions Yes Yes

Remote machine power policy Yes Yes

Automatic logoff after disconnect Yes Yes

Allow users to reset their machines Yes Yes

Allow user to initiate separate sessions from different client devices

Delete machine after logoff Yes

Default display protocol Yes Yes

Allow users to choose protocol Yes Yes

3D Renderer Yes Yes

Max number of monitors Yes Yes

Max resolution of any one monitor Yes Yes

Assignment

Automated Pool, Floating Assignment

Yes

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Chapter 4 Creating Automated Desktop Pools That Contain Full Virtual Machines

Table 4‑2. Settings for Automated Pools That Contain Full Virtual Machines (Continued)

Setting

Automated Pool, Dedicated Assignment

Automated Pool, Floating Assignment

Adobe Flash quality Yes Yes

Adobe Flash throttling Yes Yes

Override global Mirage settings Yes Yes

Mirage Server configuration Yes Yes

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Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View

62 VMware, Inc.

Creating Linked-Clone Desktop Pools 5

With a linked-clone desktop pool, View creates a desktop pool based on a parent virtual machine that you select. The View Composer service dynamically creates a new linked-clone virtual machine in vCenter Server for each desktop.

This chapter includes the following topics:

“Linked-Clone Desktop Pools,” on page 63

“Worksheet for Creating a Linked-Clone Desktop Pool,” on page 63

“Create a Linked-Clone Desktop Pool,” on page 71

“Desktop Pool Settings for Linked-Clone Desktop Pools,” on page 73

“View Composer Support for Linked-Clone SIDs and Third-Party Applications,” on page 74

“Keeping Linked-Clone Machines Provisioned and Ready During View Composer Operations,” on

page 78

“Use Existing Active Directory Computer Accounts for Linked Clones,” on page 79

Linked-Clone Desktop Pools

To create a linked-clone desktop pool, View Composer generates linked-clone virtual machines from a snapshot of a parent virtual machine. View dynamically provisions the linked-clone desktops based on settings that you apply to the pool.

Because linked-clone desktops share a base system-disk image, they use less storage than full virtual machines.

Worksheet for Creating a Linked-Clone Desktop Pool

When you create a linked-clone desktop pool, the View Administrator Add Desktop Pool wizard prompts you to configure certain options. Use this worksheet to prepare your configuration options before you create the pool.

You can print this worksheet and write down the values you want to specify when you run the Add Desktop Pool wizard.

Before you create a linked-clone pool, you must use vCenter Server to take a snapshot of the parent virtual machine that you prepare for the pool. You must shut down the parent virtual machine before you take the snapshot. View Composer uses the snapshot as the base image from which the clones are created.

NOTE You cannot create a linked-clone pool from a virtual machine template.

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Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View

Table 5‑1. Worksheet: Configuration Options for Creating a Linked-Clone Desktop Pool

Option Description Fill In Your Value Here

User assignment Choose the type of user assignment:

Enable automatic assignment In a dedicated-assignment pool, a machine is assigned

vCenter Server Select the vCenter Server that manages the virtual

Desktop Pool ID The unique name that identifies the pool in View

Display name The pool name that users see when they log in from a

Access group Select an access group in which to place the pool or

Delete or refresh machine on logoff

Desktop Pool Settings Settings that determine the machine state, power status

In a dedicated-assignment pool, each user is

assigned to a machine. Users receive the same machine each time they log in.

In a floating-assignment pool, users receive

different machines each time they log in.

For details, see “User Assignment in Desktop Pools,” on page 109.

to a user when the user first logs in to the pool. You can also explicitly assign machines to users.

If you do not enable automatic assignment, you must explicitly assign a machine to each user.

machines in the pool.

Administrator.

If multiple View Connection Server configurations are running in your environment, make sure that another View Connection Server configuration is not using the same pool ID.

A View Connection Server configuration can be a standalone View Connection Server instance or a pod of replicated instances that share a common View LDAP configuration.

client device. If you do not specify a display name, the pool ID is displayed to users.

leave the pool in the default root access group.

NOTE Access groups are different from vCenter Server folders that store virtual machines that are used as desktops. You select a vCenter Server folder later in the wizard with other vCenter Server settings.

If you select floating user assignment, choose whether to refresh machines, delete machines, or do nothing after users log off.

NOTE You set this option on the Desktop Pool Settings page.

when a virtual machine is not in use, display protocol, Adobe Flash quality, and so on.

For descriptions, see “Desktop Pool Settings for All

Desktop Pool Types,” on page 117.

For a list of the settings that apply to linked-clone pools, see “Desktop Pool Settings for Linked-Clone

Desktop Pools,” on page 73.

For more information about power policies and automated pools, see “Setting Power Policies for

Desktop Pools,” on page 121.

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Chapter 5 Creating Linked-Clone Desktop Pools

Table 5‑1. Worksheet: Configuration Options for Creating a Linked-Clone Desktop Pool (Continued)

Option Description Fill In Your Value Here

Stop provisioning on error You can direct View to stop provisioning or continue

Virtual machine naming Choose whether to provision machines by manually

Specify names manually If you specify names manually, prepare a list of

Naming pattern If you use this naming method, provide the pattern.

Max number of machines If you use a naming pattern, specify the total number

Number of spare (powered on) machines

Minimum number of ready (provisioned) machines during View Composer maintenance operations

to provision virtual machines in a desktop pool after an error occurs during the provisioning of a virtual machine. If you leave this setting selected, you can prevent a provisioning error from recurring on multiple virtual machines.

specifying a list of machine names or by providing a naming pattern and the total number of machines.

For details, see “Naming Machines Manually or

Providing a Naming Pattern,” on page 110.

machine names and, optionally, the associated user names.

The pattern you specify is used as a prefix in all the machine names, followed by a unique number to identify each machine.

For details, see “Using a Naming Pattern for

Automated Desktop Pools,” on page 112.

of machines in the pool.

You can also specify a minimum number of machines to provision when you first create the pool.

If you specify names manually or use a naming pattern, specify a number of machines to keep available and powered on for new users. For details, see “Naming Machines Manually or Providing a

Naming Pattern,” on page 110.

When you specify names manually, this option is called # Unassigned machines kept powered on.

If you specify names manually or use a naming pattern, specify a minimum number of machines that are ready and provisioned while View Composer operations take place.

This setting lets you keep machines provisioned and ready to accept connection requests from users while View Composer refreshes, recomposes, or rebalances the machines in the pool.

This value must be smaller than the Min number of machines, which you specify if you provision machines on demand.

See “Keeping Linked-Clone Machines Provisioned and

Ready During View Composer Operations,” on

page 78.

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Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View

Table 5‑1. Worksheet: Configuration Options for Creating a Linked-Clone Desktop Pool (Continued)

Option Description Fill In Your Value Here

Provision machines on demand

Provision all machines up front

Min number of machines If you use a naming pattern and provision desktops on

Redirect Windows profile to a persistent disk

Disk size and drive letter for persistent disk

Disposable File Redirection Choose whether to redirect the guest OS's paging and

If you use a naming pattern, choose whether to provision all machines when the pool is created or provision machines as they are needed.

Provision all machines up front. When the pool is

created, the system provisions the number of machines you specify in Max number of

machines.

Provision machines on demand. When the pool is

created, the system creates the number of machines that you specify in Min number of machines. Additional machines are created as users connect to the pool for the first time or as you assign machines to users.

demand, specify a minimum number of machines in the pool.

The system creates the minimum number of machines when you create the pool. This number is maintained even when other settings such as Delete or refresh machine on logoff cause machines to be deleted.

If you select dedicated user assignments, choose whether to store Windows user-profile data on a separate View Composer persistent disk or the same disk as the OS data.

Separate persistent disks let you preserve user data and settings. View Composer refresh, recompose, and rebalance operations do not affect persistent disks. You can detach a persistent disk from a linked clone and recreate the linked-clone virtual machine from the detached disk. For example, when a machine or pool is deleted, you can detach the persistent disk and recreate the desktop, preserving the original user data and settings.

If you store the Windows profile in the OS disk, user data and settings are removed during refresh, recompose, and rebalance operations.

If you store user profile data on a separate View Composer persistent disk, provide the disk size in megabytes and the drive letter.

NOTE Do not select a drive letter that already exists on the parent virtual machine or that conflicts with a drive letter that is used for a network-mounted drive.

temp files to a separate, nonpersistent disk. If you do, provide the disk size in megabytes.

With this configuration, when a linked clone is powered off, the disposable-file disk is replaced with a copy of the original disk that was created with the linked-clone pool. Linked clones can increase in size as users interact with their desktops. Disposable file redirection can save storage space by slowing the growth of linked clones.

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Table 5‑1. Worksheet: Configuration Options for Creating a Linked-Clone Desktop Pool (Continued)

Option Description Fill In Your Value Here

Disk size and drive letter for disposable file disk

Use vSphere Virtual SAN Specify whether to use VMware Virtual SAN, if

Select separate datastores for persistent and OS disks

Select separate datastores for replica and OS disks

Parent VM Select the parent virtual machine for the pool.

Snapshot (default image) Select the snapshot of the parent virtual machine to use

VM folder location Select the folder in vCenter Server in which the

If you redirect disposable files to a nonpersistent disk, provide the disk size in megabytes and the drive letter.

The disk size should be larger than page-file size of the guest OS. To determine the page-file size, see “Keep a

Record of the Parent Virtual Machine's Paging-File Size,” on page 51.

When you configure the disposable file disk size, consider that the actual size of a formatted disk partition is slightly smaller than the value you provide in View Administrator.

You can select a drive letter for the disposable file disk. The default value, Auto, directs View to assign the drive letter.

NOTE Do not select a drive letter that already exists on the parent virtual machine or that conflicts with a drive letter that is used for a network-mounted drive.

available. Virtual SAN is a software-defined storage tier that virtualizes the local physical storage disks available on a cluster of ESXi hosts. For more information, see “Using Virtual SAN for High-

Performance Storage and Policy-Based Management,”

on page 199.

(Available only if you do not use Virtual SAN) If you redirect user profiles to separate persistent disks, you can store the persistent disks and OS disks on different datastores.

(Available only if you do not use Virtual SAN or Virtual Volumes) You can store the replica (master) virtual machine disk on a high performance datastore and the linked clones on separate datastores.

For details, see “Storing View Composer Replicas and

Linked Clones on Separate Datastores,” on page 211.

If you store replicas and OS disks on separate datastores, native NFS snapshots cannot be used. Native cloning on a NAS device can only take place if the replica and OS disks are stored on the same datastores.

as the base image for the pool.

Do not delete the snapshot and parent virtual machine from vCenter Server, unless no linked clones in the pool use the default image, and no more linked clones will be created from this default image. The system requires the parent virtual machine and snapshot to provision new linked clones in the pool, according to pool policies. The parent virtual machine and snapshot are also required for View Composer maintenance operations.

desktop pool resides.

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Table 5‑1. Worksheet: Configuration Options for Creating a Linked-Clone Desktop Pool (Continued)

Option Description Fill In Your Value Here

Host or cluster Select the ESXi host or cluster on which the desktop

Resource pool Select the vCenter Server resource pool in which the

Datastores Select one or more datastores on which to store the

virtual machines run.

With Virtual SAN datastores (a vSphere 5.5 Update 1 feature), you can select a cluster with up to 20 ESXi hosts. With Virtual Volumes datastores (a vSphere 6.0 feature), you can select a cluster with up to 32 ESXi hosts.

In vSphere 5.1 or later, you can select a cluster with up to 32 ESXi hosts if the replicas are stored on VMFS5 or later datastores or NFS datastores. If you store replicas on a VMFS version earlier than VMFS5, a cluster can have at most eight hosts.

In vSphere 5.0, you can select a cluster with more than eight ESXi hosts if the replicas are stored on NFS datastores. If you store replicas on VMFS datastores, a cluster can have at most eight hosts. See “Configuring

Desktop Pools on Clusters With More Than Eight Hosts,” on page 134.

desktop pool resides.

desktop pool.

A table on the Select Linked Clone Datastores page of the Add Desktop Pool wizard provides high-level guidelines for estimating the pool's storage requirements. These guidelines can help you determine which datastores are large enough to store the linked-clone disks. For details, see “Storage Sizing

for Linked-Clone Desktop Pools,” on page 203.

You can use shared or local datastores for an individual ESXi host or for ESXi clusters. If you use local datastores in an ESXi cluster, you must consider the vSphere infrastructure constraints that are imposed on your desktop deployment. See “Storing Linked

Clones on Local Datastores,” on page 210.

In vSphere 5.1 or later, a cluster can have more than eight ESXi hosts if the replicas are stored on datastores that are VMFS5 or later or NFS. In vSphere 5.0, a cluster can have more than eight ESXi hosts only if the replicas are stored on NFS datastores. See

“Configuring Desktop Pools on Clusters With More Than Eight Hosts,” on page 134.

For more information about the disks that are created for linked clones, see “Linked-Clone Data Disks,” on page 209.

NOTE If you use Virtual SAN, select only one datastore.

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Table 5‑1. Worksheet: Configuration Options for Creating a Linked-Clone Desktop Pool (Continued)

Option Description Fill In Your Value Here

Storage Overcommit Determine the storage-overcommit level at which

Use View Storage Accelerator Determine whether to use View Storage Accelerator,

Use native NFS snapshots (VAAI)

Reclaim VM disk space (Available only if you do not use Virtual SAN or

linked-clones are created on each datastore.

As the level increases, more linked clones fit on the datastore and less space is reserved to let individual clones grow. A high storage-overcommit level lets you create linked clones that have a total logical size larger than the physical storage limit of the datastore. For details, see “Set the Storage Overcommit Level for

Linked-Clone Virtual Machines,” on page 208.

NOTE This setting has no effect if you use Virtual SAN.

which allows ESXi hosts to cache common virtual machine disk data. View Storage Accelerator can improve performance and reduce the need for extra storage I/O bandwidth to manage boot storms and anti-virus scanning I/O storms.

This feature is supported on vSphere 5.0 and later.

This feature is enabled by default.

For details, see “Configure View Storage Accelerator

for Desktop Pools,” on page 212.

(Available only if you do not use Virtual SAN) If your deployment includes NAS devices that support the vStorage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI), you can use native snapshot technology to clone virtual machines.

You can use this feature only if you select datastores that reside on NAS devices that support native cloning operations through VAAI.

You cannot use this feature if you store replicas and OS disks on separate datastores. You cannot use this feature on virtual machines with space-efficient disks. VAAI is not supported on machines that are virtual hardware version 9 or later, because the OS disks are always space-efficient, even when you disable the space reclamation operation.

This feature is supported on vSphere 5.0 and later.

For details, see “Using View Composer Array

Integration with Native NFS Snapshot Technology (VAAI),” on page 215.

Virtual Volumes) Determine whether to allow ESXi hosts to reclaim unused disk space on linked clones that are created in space-efficient disk format. The space reclamation feature reduces the total storage space required for linked-clone desktops.

This feature is supported on vSphere 5.1 and later. The linked-clone virtual machines must be virtual hardware version 9 or later.

For details, see “Reclaim Disk Space on Linked-Clone

Virtual Machines,” on page 213.

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Table 5‑1. Worksheet: Configuration Options for Creating a Linked-Clone Desktop Pool (Continued)

Option Description Fill In Your Value Here

Initiate reclamation when unused space on VM exceeds:

Blackout Times Configure days and times during which View Storage

Transparent Page Sharing Scope

Domain Select the Active Directory domain and user name.

(Available only if you do not use Virtual SAN or Virtual Volumes) Type the minimum amount of unused disk space, in gigabytes, that must accumulate on a linked-clone OS disk to trigger space reclamation. When the unused disk space exceeds this threshold, View initiates the operation that directs the ESXi host to reclaim space on the OS disk.

This value is measured per virtual machine. The unused disk space must exceed the specified threshold on an individual virtual machine before View starts the space reclamation process on that machine.

For example: 2 GB.

The default value is 1 GB.

Accelerator regeneration and the reclamation of virtual machine disk space do not take place.

To ensure that ESXi resources are dedicated to foreground tasks when necessary, you can prevent the ESXi hosts from performing these operations during specified periods of time on specified days.

For details, see “Set Blackout Times for ESXi

Operations on View Virtual Machines,” on page 216.

Select the level at which to allow transparent page sharing (TPS). The choices are Virtual Machine (the default), Pool, Pod, or Global. If you turn on TPS for all the machines in the pool, pod, or globally, the ESXi host eliminates redundant copies of memory pages that result if the machines use the same guest operating system or applications.

View Composer requires certain user privileges to create a linked-clone pool. The domain and user account are used by QuickPrep or Sysprep to customize the linked-clone machines.

You specify this user when you configure View Composer settings for vCenter Server. You can specify multiple domains and users when you configure View Composer settings. When you use the Add Desktop Pool wizard to create a pool, you must select one domain and user from the list.

For information about configuring View Composer, see the View Administration document.

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Table 5‑1. Worksheet: Configuration Options for Creating a Linked-Clone Desktop Pool (Continued)

Option Description Fill In Your Value Here

AD container Provide the Active Directory container relative

distinguished name. For example: CN=Computers

When you run the Add Desktop Pool wizard, you can browse your Active Directory tree for the container.

Allow reuse of pre-existing computer accounts

Use QuickPrep or a customization specification (Sysprep)

Power-off script QuickPrep can run a customization script on linked-

Post-synchronization script QuickPrep can run a customization script on linked-

Select this option to use existing computer accounts in Active Directory for linked clones that are provisioned by View Composer. This option lets you control the computer accounts that are created in Active Directory.

When a linked clone is provisioned, if an existing AD computer account name matches the linked clone machine name, View Composer uses the existing computer account. Otherwise, a new computer account is created.

The existing computer accounts must be located in the Active Directory container that you specify with the Active Directory container setting.

When this option is disabled, a new AD computer account is created when View Composer provisions a linked clone. This option is disabled by default.

For details, see “Use Existing Active Directory

Computer Accounts for Linked Clones,” on page 79.

Choose whether to use QuickPrep or select a customization specification (Sysprep) to configure licensing, domain attachment, DHCP settings, and other properties on the machines.

Sysprep is supported for linked clones only on vSphere

4.1 or later software.

After you use QuickPrep or Sysprep when you create a pool, you cannot switch to the other customization method later on, when you create or recompose machines in the pool.

For details, see “Choosing QuickPrep or Sysprep to

Customize Linked-Clone Machines,” on page 75.

clone machines before they are powered off.

Provide the path to the script on the parent virtual machine and the script parameters.

clone machines after they are created, recomposed, and refreshed.

Provide the path to the script on the parent virtual machine and the script parameters.

Create a Linked-Clone Desktop Pool

You can create an automated, linked-clone desktop pool based on a parent virtual machine that you select. The View Composer service dynamically creates a new linked-clone virtual machine in vCenter Server for each desktop.

To create an automated pool that contains full virtual machines, see “Automated Pools That Contain Full

Virtual Machines,” on page 55.

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Prerequisites

Verify that the View Composer service is installed, either on the same host as vCenter Server or on a

separate host, and that a View Composer database is configured. See the View Installation document.

Verify that View Composer settings for vCenter Server are configured in View Administrator. See the

View Administration document.

Verify that you have a sufficient number of ports on the ESXi virtual switch that is used for the virtual

Verify that you prepared a parent virtual machine. View Agent must be installed on the parent virtual

machine. See Chapter 3, “Creating and Preparing Virtual Machines,” on page 19.

Take a snapshot of the parent virtual machine in vCenter Server. You must shut down the parent

virtual machine before you take the snapshot. View Composer uses the snapshot as the base image from which the clones are created.

NOTE You cannot create a linked-clone pool from a virtual machine template.

Gather the configuration information you must provide to create the pool. See “Worksheet for Creating

a Linked-Clone Desktop Pool,” on page 63.

Decide how to configure power settings, display protocol, Adobe Flash quality, and other settings. See

“Desktop Pool Settings for All Desktop Pool Types,” on page 117.

If you intend to provide access to your desktops and applications through Workspace Portal, verify that

IMPORTANT While a linked-clone pool is created, do not modify the parent virtual machine in vCenter Server. For example, do not convert the parent virtual machine to a template. The View Composer service requires that the parent virtual machine remain in a static, unaltered state during pool creation.

Procedure

1 In View Administrator, select Catalog > Desktop Pools.

2 Click Add.

3 Select Automated Desktop Pool.

4 On the vCenter Server page, choose View Composer linked clones.

5 Follow the prompts in the wizard to create the pool.

Use the configuration information you gathered in the worksheet. You can go directly back to any wizard page you completed by clicking the page name in the navigation panel.

On the vCenter Settings page, you must click Browse and select the vCenter Server settings in sequence. You cannot skip a vCenter Server setting:

a Parent VM

b Snapshot

c VM folder location

d Host or cluster

e Resource pool

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Chapter 5 Creating Linked-Clone Desktop Pools

f Datastores

In View Administrator, you can view the machines as they are added to the pool by selecting Catalog > Desktop Pools.

The linked clones might restart one or more times while they are provisioned. If a linked clone is in an error state, the View automatic recovery mechanism attempts to power on, or shut down and restart, the linked clone. If repeated recovery attempts fail, the linked clone is deleted.

View Composer also creates a replica virtual machine that serves as the master image for provisioning the linked clones. To reduce space consumption, the replica is created as a thin disk. If all the virtual machines are recomposed or deleted, and no clones are linked to the replica, the replica virtual machine is deleted from vCenter Server.

If you do not store the replica on a separate datastore, View Composer creates a replica on each datastore on which linked clones are created.

If you store the replica on a separate datastore, one replica is created for the entire pool, even when linked clones are created on multiple datastores.

What to do next

Entitle users to access the pool. See “Add Entitlements to a Desktop or Application Pool,” on page 137.

Desktop Pool Settings for Linked-Clone Desktop Pools

You must specify machine and desktop pool settings when you configure automated pools that contain linked clones created by View Composer. Different settings apply to pools with dedicated user assignments and floating user assignments.

Table 5-2 lists the settings that apply to linked-clone pools with dedicated assignments and floating

assignments.

For descriptions of each setting, see “Desktop Pool Settings for All Desktop Pool Types,” on page 117.

Table 5‑2. Settings for Automated, Linked-Clone Desktop Pools

Linked-Clone Pool, Dedicated

Setting

State Yes Yes

Connection Server restrictions Yes Yes

Remote machine power policy Yes Yes

Automatically logoff after disconnect Yes Yes

Allow users to reset their machines Yes Yes

Allow user to initiate separate sessions from different client devices

Delete or refresh machine on logoff Yes

Refresh OS disk after logoff Yes

Default display protocol Yes Yes

Allow users to choose protocol Yes Yes

3D Renderer Yes Yes

Max number of monitors Yes Yes

Max resolution of any one monitor Yes Yes

Adobe Flash quality Yes Yes

Adobe Flash throttling Yes Yes

Assignment

Linked-Clone Pool, Floating Assignment

Yes

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Table 5‑2. Settings for Automated, Linked-Clone Desktop Pools (Continued)

Linked-Clone Pool, Dedicated

Setting

Override global Mirage settings Yes Yes

Mirage Server configuration Yes Yes

Assignment

Linked-Clone Pool, Floating Assignment

View Composer Support for Linked-Clone SIDs and Third-Party Applications

View Composer can generate and preserve local computer security identifiers (SIDs) for linked-clone virtual machines in some situations. View Composer can preserve globally unique identifiers (GUIDs) of thirdparty applications, depending on the way that the applications generate GUIDs.

To understand how View Composer operations affect SIDs and application GUIDs, you should understand how linked-clone machines are created and provisioned:

1 View Composer creates a linked clone by taking these actions:

a Creates the replica by cloning the parent virtual-machine snapshot.

b Creates the linked clone to refer to the replica as its parent disk.

2 View Composer and View customize the linked clone with QuickPrep or a Sysprep customization

specification, depending on which customization tool you select when you create the pool.

If you use Sysprep, a unique SID is generated for each clone.

If you use QuickPrep, no new SID is generated. The parent virtual machine's SID is replicated on

all provisioned linked-clone machines in the pool.

Some applications generate a GUID during customization.

3 View creates a snapshot of the linked clone.

The snapshot contains the unique SID generated with Sysprep or common SID generated with QuickPrep.

4 View powers on the machine according to the settings you select when you create the pool.

Some applications generate a GUID the first time the machine is powered on.

For a comparison of QuickPrep and Sysprep customization, see “Choosing QuickPrep or Sysprep to

Customize Linked-Clone Machines,” on page 75.

When you refresh the linked clone, View Composer uses the snapshot to restore the clone to its initial state. Its SID is preserved.

If you use QuickPrep, when you recompose the linked clone, the parent virtual machine's SID is preserved on the linked clone as long as you select the same parent virtual machine for the recompose operation. If you select a different parent virtual machine for the recomposition, the new parent's SID is replicated on the clone.

If you use Sysprep, a new SID is always generated on the clone. For details, see “Recomposing Linked

Clones Customized with Sysprep,” on page 78.

Table 5-3 shows the effect of View Composer operations on linked-clone SIDs and third-party application

GUIDs.

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Table 5‑3. View Composer Operations, Linked-Clone SIDs, and Application GUIDs

Support for SIDs or GUIDs Clone Creation Refresh Recompose

Sysprep: Unique SIDs for linked clones

QuickPrep: Common SIDs for linked clones

Third-party application GUIDs

With Sysprep customization, unique SIDs are generated for linked clones.

With QuickPrep customization, a common SID is generated for all clones in a pool.

Each application behaves differently.

NOTE Sysprep and QuickPrep have the same effect on GUID preservation.

Unique SIDs are preserved. Unique SIDS are not

preserved.

Common SID is preserved. Common SID is preserved.

The GUID is preserved if an application generates the GUID before the initial snapshot is taken.

The GUID is not preserved if an application generates the GUID after the initial snapshot is taken.

Recompose operations do not preserve an application GUID unless the application writes the GUID on the drive specified as a View Composer persistent disk.

Choosing QuickPrep or Sysprep to Customize Linked-Clone Machines

QuickPrep and Microsoft Sysprep provide different approaches to customizing linked-clone machines. QuickPrep is designed to work efficiently with View Composer. Microsoft Sysprep offers standard customization tools.

When you create linked-clone machines, you must modify each virtual machine so that it can function as a unique computer on the network. View and View Composer provide two methods for personalizing linkedclone machines.

Table 5-4 compares QuickPrep with customization specifications that are created with Microsoft Sysprep.

Table 5‑4. Comparing QuickPrep and Microsoft Sysprep

QuickPrep Customization Specification (Sysprep)

Designed to work with View Composer.

For details, see “Customizing Linked-Clone Machines with

QuickPrep,” on page 76.

Uses the same local computer security identifier (SID) for all linked clones in the pool.

Can run additional customization scripts before linked clones are powered off and after linked clones are created, refreshed, or recomposed.

Joins the linked clone computer to the Active Directory domain.

For each linked clone, adds a unique ID to the Active Directory domain account.

Does not generate a new SID after linked clones are refreshed. The common SID is preserved.

Can be created with the standard Microsoft Sysprep tools.

Generates a unique local computer SID for each linked clone in the pool.

Can run an additional script when the user first logs in.

Joins the linked-clone computer to the Active Directory domain.

The domain and administrator information in the Sysprep customization specification is not used. The virtual machine is joined to the domain using the guest customization information that you enter in View Administrator when you create the pool.

For each linked clone, adds a unique ID to the Active Directory domain account.

Generates a new SID when each linked clone is customized. Preserves the unique SIDs during a refresh operation, but not during a recompose or rebalance operation.

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Table 5‑4. Comparing QuickPrep and Microsoft Sysprep (Continued)

QuickPrep Customization Specification (Sysprep)

Does not generate a new SID after linked clones are recomposed. The common SID is preserved.

Runs faster than Sysprep. Can take longer than QuickPrep.

After you customize a linked-clone pool with QuickPrep or Sysprep, you cannot switch to the other customization method when you create or recompose machines in the pool.

Customizing Linked-Clone Machines with QuickPrep

You can personalize the linked-clone machines that are created from a parent virtual machine by using the QuickPrep system tool. View Composer executes QuickPrep when a linked-clone machine is created or recomposed.

QuickPrep customizes a linked-clone machine in several ways:

Gives the computer a name that you specify when you create the linked-clone pool.

Creates a computer account in Active Directory, joining the computer to the appropriate domain.

Runs again after linked clones are recomposed, generating new SIDs for the virtual machines.

For details, see “Recomposing Linked Clones Customized

with Sysprep,” on page 78.

Mounts the View Composer persistent disk. The Windows user profile is redirected to this disk.

Redirects temp and paging files to a separate disk.

These steps might require the linked clones to restart one or more times.

QuickPrep uses KMS volume license keys to activate Windows 7 and Windows 8 linked-clone machines. For details, see the View Administration document.

You can create your own scripts to further customize the linked clones. QuickPrep can run two types of scripts at predefined times:

After linked clones are created or recomposed

Immediately before linked clones are powered off

For guidelines and rules for using QuickPrep customization scripts, see “Running QuickPrep Customization

Scripts,” on page 76.

NOTE View Composer requires domain user credentials to join linked-clone machines to an Active Directory domain. For details, see the View Administration document.

Running QuickPrep Customization Scripts

With the QuickPrep tool, you can create scripts to customize the linked-clone machines in a pool. You can configure QuickPrep to run customization scripts at two predefined times.

When QuickPrep Scripts Run

The post-synchronization script runs after linked clones are created, recomposed, or rebalanced, and the clones' status is Ready. The power-off script runs before linked clones are powered off. The scripts run in the guest operating systems of the linked clones.

How QuickPrep Executes Scripts

The QuickPrep process uses the Windows CreateProcess API call to execute scripts. Your script can invoke any process that can be created with the CreateProcess API. For example, cmd, vbscript, exe, and batch-file processes work with the API.

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In particular, QuickPrep passes the path that is specified for the script as the second parameter to the

CreateProcess API and sets the first parameter to NULL.

For example, if the script path is c:\myscript.cmd, the path appears as the second parameter in the function in the View Composer log file: CreateProcess(NULL,c:\myscript.cmd,...).

Providing Paths to QuickPrep Scripts

You provide paths to the QuickPrep customization scripts when you create a linked-clone machine pool or when you edit a pool's guest customization settings. The scripts must reside on the parent virtual machine. You cannot use a UNC path to a network share.

If you use a scripting language that needs an interpreter to execute the script, the script path must start with the interpreter binary.

For example, if you specify the path C:\script\myvb.vbs as a QuickPrep customization script, View Composer Agent cannot execute the script. You must specify a path that starts with the interpreter binary path:

C:\windows\system32\cscript.exe c:\script\myvb.vbs

IMPORTANT Protect QuickPrep customization scripts from access by ordinary users. Place the scripts in a secure folder.

QuickPrep Script Timeout Limit

View Composer terminates a post-synchronization or power-off script that takes longer than 20 seconds. If your script takes longer than 20 seconds, you can increase the timeout limit. For details, see “Increase the

Timeout Limit of QuickPrep Customization Scripts,” on page 51.

Alternatively, you can use your script to launch another script or process that performs the long-running task.

QuickPrep Script Account

QuickPrep runs the scripts under the account under which the VMware View Composer Guest Agent Server service is configured to run. By default, this account is Local System.

Do not change this log on account. If you do, the linked clones do not start.

QuickPrep Process Privileges

For security reasons, certain Windows operating system privileges are removed from the View Composer Guest Agent process that invokes QuickPrep customization scripts.

A QuickPrep customization script cannot perform any action that requires a privilege that is removed from the View Composer Guest Agent process.

The following privileges are removed from the process that invokes QuickPrep scripts:

SeCreateTokenPrivilege SeTakeOwnershipPrivilege SeSecurityPrivilege SeSystemEnvironmentPrivilege SeLoadDriverPrivilege SeSystemtimePrivilege SeUndockPrivilege SeManageVolumePrivilege SeLockMemoryPrivilege

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SeIncreaseBasePriorityPrivilege SeCreatePermanentPrivilege SeDebugPrivilege SeAuditPrivilege

QuickPrep Script Logs

View Composer logs contain information about QuickPrep script execution. The log records the start and end of execution and logs output or error messages. The log is located in the Windows temp directory:

C:\Windows\Temp\vmware-viewcomposer-ga-new.log

Recomposing Linked Clones Customized with Sysprep

If you recompose a linked-clone machine that was customized with Sysprep, View runs the Sysprep customization specification again after the OS disk is recomposed. This operation generates a new SID for the linked-clone virtual machine.

If a new SID is generated, the recomposed linked clone functions as a new computer on the network. Some software programs such as system-management tools depend on the SID to identify the computers under their management. These programs might not be able to identify or locate the linked-clone virtual machine.

Also, if third-party software is installed on the system disk, the customization specification might regenerate the GUIDs for that software after the recomposition.

A recomposition restores the linked clone to its original state, before the customization specification was run the first time. In this state, the linked clone does not have a local computer SID or the GUID of any thirdparty software installed in the system drive. View must run the Sysprep customization specification after the linked clone is recomposed.

Keeping Linked-Clone Machines Provisioned and Ready During View Composer Operations

If your users must be able to access remote desktops at all times, you must maintain a certain number of machines that stay provisioned and ready to accept connection requests from your users even when View Composer maintenance operations take place. You can set a minimum number of provisioned, ready machines while View Composer refreshes, recomposes, or rebalances the linked-clone virtual machines in a pool.

When you specify a Minimum number of ready (provisioned) machines during View Composer maintenance operations, View ensures that the specified number of machines stays provisioned and ready while View Composer proceeds through the operation. You can specify the minimum number of ready machines when you create or edit a linked-clone pool.

The following guidelines apply to this setting:

If you use a naming pattern to provision machines and provision machines on demand, set the number

of ready machines during View Composer operations to a smaller value than the specified Max number of machines. If the maximum number were smaller, your pool could end up with fewer total

machines than the minimum number you want to keep provisioned and ready during View Composer operations. In this case, View Composer maintenance operations could not take place.

If you provision machines by manually specifying a list of machine names, do not reduce the total pool

size (by removing machine names) to a lower number than the minimum number of ready machines. In this case, View Composer maintenance operations could not take place.

If you set a large minimum number of ready machines in relation to the pool size, View Composer

maintenance operations might take longer to complete. While View maintains the minimum number of ready machines during a maintenance operation, the operation might not reach the concurrency limit that is specified in the Max concurrent View Composer maintenance operations setting.

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Chapter 5 Creating Linked-Clone Desktop Pools

For example, if a pool contains 20 machines and the minimum number of ready machines is 15, View Composer can operate on at most five machines at a time. If the concurrency limit for View Composer maintenance operations is 12, the concurrency limit is never reached.

The term "ready" applies to the state of the linked-clone virtual machine, not the machine status that is

displayed in View Administrator. A virtual machine is ready when it is provisioned and ready to be powered on. The machine status reflects the View-managed condition of the machine. For example, a machine can have a status of Connected, Disconnected, Agent Unreachable, Deleting, and so on.

Use Existing Active Directory Computer Accounts for Linked Clones

When you create or edit a desktop pool, you can configure View Composer to use existing computer accounts in Active Directory for newly provisioned linked clones.

By default, View Composer generates a new Active Directory computer account for each linked clone that it provisions. The Allow reuse of pre-existing computer accounts option lets you control the computer accounts that are created in Active Directory by ensuring that View Composer uses existing AD computer accounts.

With this option enabled, when a linked clone is provisioned, View Composer checks if an existing AD computer account name matches the linked clone machine name. If a match exists, View Composer uses the existing AD computer account. If View Composer does not find a matching AD computer account name, View Composer generates a new AD computer account for the linked clone.

You can set the Allow reuse of pre-existing computer accounts option when you create a new desktop pool or edit an existing pool. If you edit a pool and set this option, the setting affects linked-clone machines that are provisioned in the future. Linked clones that are already provisioned are not affected.

When you set the Allow reuse of pre-existing computer accounts option, you can limit the Active Directory permissions assigned to the View Composer user account that generates the desktop pool. Only the following Active Directory permissions are required:

List Contents

Read All Properties

Read Permissions

Reset Password

You can only limit the Active Directory permissions if you are sure that all machines you intend to provision have existing computer accounts allocated in Active Directory. View Composer generates a new AD computer account if no matching name is found. Additional permissions such as Create Computer Objects are required to create new computer accounts. For a complete list of permissions required for the View Composer user account, see the View Administration document.

This option cannot be disabled if View Composer is currently using at least one existing AD computer account.

Prerequisites

Verify that the existing computer accounts are located in the Active Directory container that you specify with the Active Directory container setting. If the existing accounts are located in a different container, provisioning fails for linked clones with those account names, and an error message states that the existing computer accounts already exist in Active Directory.

For example, if you select the Allow reuse of pre-existing computer accounts option and specify that the Active Directory container is the default value, CN=Computers, and the existing computer accounts are located in OU=mydesktops, provisioning fails for those accounts.

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Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View

Procedure

1 In Active Directory, create the computer accounts to use for the linked-clone machines.

For example: machine1, machine2, machine3

The computer account names must use consecutive integers so that they match the names that are generated during machine provisioning in View.

2 In View Administrator, create a pool by using the Add Desktop Pool wizard or edit the pool in the Edit

dialog box.

3 On the Provisioning Settings page or tab, select Use a naming pattern.

4 In the Naming Pattern text box, type a machine name that matches the Active Directory computer

account name.

For example: machine

View appends unique numbers to the pattern to provide a unique name for each machine.

For example: machine1, machine2, machine3

5 On the Guest Customization page or tab, select the Allow reuse of pre-existing computer accounts

option.

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Creating Manual Desktop Pools 6

In a manual desktop pool, each remote desktop that is accessed by an end user is a separate machine. When you create a manual desktop pool, you select existing machines. You can create a pool that contains a single desktop by creating a manual desktop pool and selecting a single machine.

This chapter includes the following topics:

“Manual Desktop Pools,” on page 81

“Worksheet for Creating a Manual Desktop Pool,” on page 81

“Create a Manual Desktop Pool,” on page 83

“Create a Manual Pool That Contains One Machine,” on page 84

“Desktop Pool Settings for Manual Pools,” on page 85

Manual Desktop Pools

To create a manual desktop pool, View provisions desktops from existing machines. You select a separate machine for each desktop in the pool.

View can use several types of machines in manual pools:

Virtual machines that are managed by vCenter Server

Virtual machines that run on a virtualization platform other than vCenter Server

Physical computers

For information about creating a manual desktop pool that uses Linux virtual machines, see the Setting Up Horizon 6 for Linux Desktops guide.

Worksheet for Creating a Manual Desktop Pool

When you create a manual desktop pool, the View Administrator Add Desktop Pool wizard prompts you to configure certain options. Use this worksheet to prepare your configuration options before you create the pool.

You can print this worksheet and write down the values you want to specify when you run the Add Desktop Pool wizard.

NOTE In a manual pool, you must prepare each machine to deliver remote desktop access. View Agent must be installed and running on each machine.

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Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View

Table 6‑1. Worksheet: Configuration Options for Creating a Manual Desktop Pool

Option Description Fill In Your Value Here

User assignment Choose the type of user assignment:

vCenter Server The vCenter Server that manages the machines.

Machine Source The virtual machines or physical computers that

Desktop Pool ID The pool name that users see when they log in

In a dedicated-assignment pool, each user is

assigned to a machine. Users receive the same machine each time they log in.

In a floating-assignment pool, users receive

different machines each time they log in.

For details, see “User Assignment in Desktop

Pools,” on page 109.

This option appears only if the machines are virtual machines that are managed by vCenter Server.

you want to include in the desktop pool.

1 Decide which type of machine you want to

use. You can use either virtual machines that are managed by vCenter Server or unmanaged virtual machines and physical computers.

2 Prepare a list of the vCenter Server virtual

machines or unmanaged virtual machines and physical computers that you want to include in the desktop pool.

3 Install View Agent on each machine that you

want to include in the desktop pool.

To use PCoIP with machines that are unmanaged virtual machines or physical computers, you must use Teradici hardware.

NOTE When you enable Windows Server desktops in View Administrator, View Administrator displays all available Windows Server machines, including machines on which View Connection Server and other View servers are installed, as potential machine sources.

You cannot select machines for the desktop pool if View server software is installed on the machines. View Agent cannot coexist on the same virtual or physical machine with any other View software component, including View Connection Server, security server, View Composer, or Horizon Client.

and that identifies the pool in View Administrator.

If multiple vCenter Servers are running in your environment, make sure that another vCenter Server is not using the same pool ID.

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Chapter 6 Creating Manual Desktop Pools

Table 6‑1. Worksheet: Configuration Options for Creating a Manual Desktop Pool (Continued)

Option Description Fill In Your Value Here

Desktop Pool Settings Settings that determine the machine state, power

status when a virtual machine is not in use, display protocol, Adobe Flash quality, and so on.

For details, see “Desktop Pool Settings for All

Desktop Pool Types,” on page 117.

For a list of the settings that apply to manual pools, see “Desktop Pool Settings for Manual

Pools,” on page 85.

Transparent Page Sharing Scope Select the level at which to allow transparent

Create a Manual Desktop Pool

You can create a manual desktop pool that provisions desktops from existing virtual machines or physical computers. You must select the machines that will be included in the desktop pool.

For manual pools with virtual machines that are managed by vCenter Server, View ensures that a spare machine is powered on so that users can connect to it. The spare machine is powered on no matter which power policy is in effect.

Prerequisites

Prepare the machines to deliver remote desktop access. In a manual pool, you must prepare each

machine individually. View Agent must be installed and running on each machine.

To prepare virtual machines managed by vCenter Server, see Chapter 3, “Creating and Preparing

Virtual Machines,” on page 19.

To prepare unmanaged virtual machines and physical computers, see Chapter 2, “Preparing

Unmanaged Machines,” on page 15.

Gather the configuration information that you must provide to create the pool. See “Worksheet for

Creating a Manual Desktop Pool,” on page 81.

Decide how to configure power settings, display protocol, Adobe Flash quality, and other settings. See

“Desktop Pool Settings for All Desktop Pool Types,” on page 117.

Procedure

1 In View Administrator, select Catalog > Desktop Pools.

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2 Click Add.

3 Select Manual Desktop Pool.

4 Follow the prompts in the wizard to create the pool.

Use the configuration information that you gathered in the worksheet. You can go directly back to any wizard page that you completed by clicking the page name in the navigation panel.

In View Administrator, you can view the machines as they are added to the pool by selecting Catalog > Desktop Pools.

What to do next

Entitle users to access the pool. See “Add Entitlements to a Desktop or Application Pool,” on page 137.

Create a Manual Pool That Contains One Machine

You can create a pool that contains a single machine when a user requires a unique, dedicated desktop, or when, at different times, multiple users must access a costly application with a single-host license.

You can provision an individual machine in its own pool by creating a manual desktop pool and selecting a single machine.

To mimic a physical computer that can be shared by multiple users, specify a floating assignment for the users entitled to access the pool.

Whether you configure the single-machine pool with dedicated or floating assignment, power operations are initiated by session management. The virtual machine is powered on when a user requests the desktop and powered off or suspended when the user logs off.

If you configure the Ensure machines are always powered on policy, the virtual machine remains powered on. If the user shuts down the virtual machine, it immediately restarts.

Prerequisites

Prepare the machine to deliver remote desktop access. View Agent must be installed and running on

the machine.

To prepare a virtual machine managed by vCenter Server, see Chapter 3, “Creating and Preparing

Virtual Machines,” on page 19.

To prepare an unmanaged virtual machine or physical computer, see Chapter 2, “Preparing

Unmanaged Machines,” on page 15.

Gather the configuration information you must provide to create the manual pool. See “Worksheet for

Creating a Manual Desktop Pool,” on page 81.

Decide how to configure power settings, display protocol, Adobe Flash quality, and other settings. See

“Desktop Pool Settings for All Desktop Pool Types,” on page 117.

Procedure

1 In View Administrator, select Catalog > Desktop Pools.

2 Click Add.

3 Select Manual Desktop Pool.

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Chapter 6 Creating Manual Desktop Pools

4 Select the type of user assignment.

Option Description

Dedicated

Floating

The machine is assigned to one user. Only that user can log in to the desktop.

The machine is shared by all users who are entitled to the pool. Any entitled user can log in to the desktop as long as another user is not logged in.

5 On the Machine Source page, select the machine to be included in the desktop pool.

6 Follow the prompts in the wizard to create the pool.

Use the configuration information you gathered in the worksheet. You can go directly back to any wizard page you completed by clicking the page name in the navigation panel.

In View Administrator, you can view the machine being added to the pool by selecting Catalog > Desktop Pools.

What to do next

Entitle users to access the pool. See “Add Entitlements to a Desktop or Application Pool,” on page 137.

Desktop Pool Settings for Manual Pools

You must specify machine and pool settings when you configure manual desktop pools. Not all settings apply to all types of manual pools.

Table 6-2 lists the settings that apply to manual desktop pools that are configured with these properties:

Dedicated user assignments

Floating user assignments

Managed machines (vCenter Server virtual machines)

Unmanaged machines

These settings also apply to a manual pool that contains a single machine.

For descriptions of each desktop pool setting, see “Desktop Pool Settings for All Desktop Pool Types,” on page 117.

Table 6‑2. Settings for Manual Desktop Pools

Manual Managed Pool, Dedicated

Setting

State Yes Yes Yes Yes

Connection Server restrictions

Remote machine power policy

Automatically logoff after disconnect

Allow users to reset their machines

Assignment

Yes Yes Yes Yes

Yes Yes

Yes Yes Yes Yes

Yes Yes

Manual Managed Pool, Floating Assignment

Manual Unmanaged Pool, Dedicated Assignment

Manual Unmanaged Pool, Floating Assignment

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Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View

Table 6‑2. Settings for Manual Desktop Pools (Continued)

Manual Managed Pool, Dedicated

Setting

Allow user to initiate separate sessions from different client devices

Default display protocol

Allow users to choose protocol

3D Renderer Yes Yes

Max number of monitors

Max resolution of any one monitor

Adobe Flash quality

Adobe Flash throttling

Override global Mirage settings

Mirage Server configuration

Assignment

Yes Yes Yes

Yes Yes Yes Yes

Yes Yes

Yes Yes Yes Yes

Manual Managed Pool, Floating Assignment

Manual Unmanaged Pool, Dedicated Assignment

Manual Unmanaged Pool, Floating Assignment

Yes Yes

Yes

To use PCoIP with a machine that is not managed by vCenter Server, you must install Teradici hardware on the machine.

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Setting Up Remote Desktop Services

Hosts 7

Microsoft Remote Desktop Services (RDS) hosts provide desktop sessions and applications that users can access from client devices. If you plan to create RDS desktop pools or application pools, you must first set up RDS hosts.

This chapter includes the following topics:

“Remote Desktop Services Hosts,” on page 87

“Install Remote Desktop Services on Windows Server 2008 R2,” on page 89

“Install Remote Desktop Services on Windows Server 2012 or 2012 R2,” on page 89

“Install Desktop Experience on Windows Server 2008 R2,” on page 90

“Install Desktop Experience on Windows Server 2012 or 2012 R2,” on page 90

“Restrict Users to a Single Session,” on page 91

“Install View Agent on a Remote Desktop Services Host,” on page 91

“Enable Time Zone Redirection for RDS Desktop and Application Sessions,” on page 94

“Enable Windows Basic Theme for Applications,” on page 94

“Configure Group Policy to Start Runonce.exe,” on page 95

“RDS Host Performance Options,” on page 95

Remote Desktop Services Hosts

An RDS host is a server computer that hosts applications and desktop sessions for remote access. An RDS host can be a virtual machine or a physical server.

In View, an RDS host is a server that has the Microsoft Remote Desktop Services role, the Microsoft Remote Desktop Session Host service, and View Agent installed. Remote Desktop Services was previously known as Terminal Services. The Remote Desktop Session Host service allows a server to host applications and remote desktop sessions. With View Agent installed on an RDS host, users can connect to applications and desktop sessions by using the display protocol PCoIP. PCoIP provides an optimized user experience for the delivery of remote content, including images, audio and video.

The performance of an RDS host depends on many factors. For information on how to tune the performance of different versions of Windows Server, see

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/windows/hardware/gg463392.aspx.

View supports at most one desktop session and one application session per user on an RDS host.

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Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View

When users submit print jobs concurrently from RDS desktops or applications that are hosted on the same RDS host, the ThinPrint server on the RDS host processes the print requests serially rather than in parallel. This can cause a delay for some users. Note that the print server does not wait for a print job to complete before processing the next one. Print jobs that are sent to different printers will print in parallel.

If a user launches an application and also an RDS desktop, and both are hosted on the same RDS host, they share the same user profile. If the user launches an application from the desktop, conflicts may result if both applications try to access or modify the same parts of the user profile, and one of the applications may fail to run properly.

The process of setting up applications or RDS desktops for remote access involves the following tasks:

1 Set up RDS hosts.

2 Create a farm. See Chapter 8, “Creating Farms,” on page 97.

3 Create an application pool or an RDS desktop pool. See Chapter 9, “Creating Application Pools,” on

page 101 or Chapter 10, “Creating RDS Desktop Pools,” on page 105.

4 Entitle users and groups. See Chapter 12, “Entitling Users and Groups,” on page 137.

5 (Optional) Enable time zone redirection for RDS desktop and application sessions. See “Enable Time

Zone Redirection for RDS Desktop and Application Sessions,” on page 94.

NOTE If smart card authentication is enabled, make sure that the Smart Card service is disabled on RDS hosts. Otherwise, authentication might fail. By default, this service is disabled.

CAUTION When a user launches an application, for example, a Web browser, it is possible for a user to gain access to the local drives on the RDS host that is hosting the application. This can happen if the application provides functions that cause Windows Explorer to run. To prevent this type of access to the RDS host, follow the procedure that is described in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/179221 to prevent an application from running Windows Explorer.

Because the procedure described in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/179221 affects both desktop and application sessions, it is recommended that you do not create RDS desktop pools and application pools on the same farm if you plan to follow the procedure in the Microsoft KB article, so that desktop sessions are not affected.

Installing Applications

If you plan to create application pools, you must install the applications on the RDS hosts. If you want View to automatically display the list of installed applications, you must install the applications so that they are available to all users from the Start menu. You can install an application at any time before you create the application pool. If you plan to manually specify an application, you can install the application at any time, either before or after creating an application pool.

IMPORTANT When you install an application, you must install it on all the RDS hosts in a farm and in the same location on each RDS host. If you do not, a health warning will appear on the View Administrator dashboard. In such a situation, if you create an application pool, users might encounter an error when they try to run the application.

When you create an application pool, View automatically displays the applications that are available to all users rather than individual users from the Start menu on all of the RDS hosts in a farm. You can choose any applications from that list. In addition, you can manually specify an application that is not available to all users from the Start menu. There is no limit on the number of applications that you can install on an RDS host.

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Chapter 7 Setting Up Remote Desktop Services Hosts

Install Remote Desktop Services on Windows Server 2008 R2

Remote Desktop Services (RDS) is one of the roles that a Windows Server can have. You must install this role to set up an RDS host that runs Windows Server 2008 R2.

Prerequisites

Verify that the RDS host is running Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1).

Verify that the RDS host is part of the Active Directory domain for the View deployment.

Install the Microsoft hotfix rollup that is documented in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2775511.

Procedure

1 Log in to the RDS host as an administrator.

2 Start Server Manager.

3 Select Roles in the navigation tree.

4 Click Add Roles to start the Add Role wizard.

5 Select the role Remote Desktop Services.

6 On the Select Role Services page, select Remote Desktop Session Host.

7 On the Specify Authentication Method page, select either Require Network Level Authentication or

Do not require Network Level Authentication, whichever is appropriate.

8 On the Configure Client Experience page, select the functionality that you want to provide to users.

9 Follow the prompts and finish the installation.

What to do next

If you plan to use HTML Access or scanner redirection, install the Desktop Experience feature. The steps for installing Desktop Experience differ on Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2012 or 2012 R2.

Restrict users to a single desktop session. See “Restrict Users to a Single Session,” on page 91.

Install Remote Desktop Services on Windows Server 2012 or 2012 R2

Remote Desktop Services is one of the roles that a Windows Server 2012 or 2012 R2 can have. You must install this role to set up an RDS host.

Prerequisites

Verify that the RDS host is running Windows Server 2012 or Windows Server 2012 R2.

Verify that the RDS host is part of the Active Directory domain for the View deployment.

Procedure

1 Log in to the RDS host as an administrator.

2 Start Server Manager.

3 Select Add roles and features.

4 On the Select Installation Type page, select Role-based or feature-based installation.

5 On the Select Destination Server page, select a server.

6 On the Select Server Roles page, select Remote Desktop Services.

7 On the Select Features page, accept the defaults.

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8 On the Select Role Services page, select Remote Desktop Session Host.

9 Follow the prompts and finish the installation.

What to do next

Restrict users to a single desktop session. See “Restrict Users to a Single Session,” on page 91.

Install Desktop Experience on Windows Server 2008 R2

Procedure

1 Log in as an administrator.

2 Start Server Manager.

3 Click Features.

4 Click Add Features.

5 On the Select Features page, select the Desktop Experience checkbox.

6 Review the information about other features that are required by the Desktop Experience feature, and

click Add Required Features.

7 Follow the prompts and finish the installation.

Install Desktop Experience on Windows Server 2012 or 2012 R2

Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2 are supported on machines that are used as RDS hosts. Windows Server 2012 R2 is supported on single-user virtual machines.

Procedure

1 Log in as an administrator.

2 Start Server Manager.

3 Select Add roles and features.

4 On the Select Installation Type page, select Role-based or feature-based installation.

5 On the Select Destination Server page, select a server.

6 On the Select Server Roles page, accept the default selection and click Next.

7 On the Select Features page, under User Interfaces and Infrastructure, select Desktop Experience.

8 Follow the prompts and finish the installation.

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Restrict Users to a Single Session

View supports at most one desktop session and one application session per user on an RDS host. You must configure the RDS host to restrict users to a single session. For Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, and Windows Server 2012 R2, you can can restrict users to a single session by enabling the group policy setting Restrict Remote Desktop Services users to a single Remote Desktop Services session. This setting is located in the folder Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows

Components\Remote Desktop Services\Remote Desktop Session Host\Connections. For Windows Server

2008 R2, you can also use the following procedure to restrict users to a single session.

Prerequisites

Install the Remote Desktop Services role as described in “Install Remote Desktop Services on Windows

Server 2008 R2,” on page 89.

Procedure

1 Click Start > Administrative Tools > Remote Desktop Services > Remote Desktop Session Host

Configuration.

2 On the Edit Settings pane, under General, double-click Restrict each user to a single session.

Chapter 7 Setting Up Remote Desktop Services Hosts

3 In the Properties dialog box, on the General tab, select Restrict each user to a single session and click

OK.

What to do next

Install View Agent on the RDS host. See “Install View Agent on a Remote Desktop Services Host,” on page 91.

Install View Agent on a Remote Desktop Services Host

View Agent communicates with View Connection Server and supports the display protocol PCoIP. You must install View Agent on an RDS Host.

Prerequisites

Install the Remote Desktop Services role as described in “Install Remote Desktop Services on Windows

Server 2008 R2,” on page 89 or “Install Remote Desktop Services on Windows Server 2012 or 2012 R2,”

on page 89.

Restrict users to a single desktop session. See “Restrict Users to a Single Session,” on page 91.

Familiarize yourself with the View Agent custom setup options. See “View Agent Custom Setup

Options for an RDS Host,” on page 92.

If the machine has the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable package installed, verify that the version of

the package is 2005 SP1 or later. If the package version is 2005 or earlier, you can either upgrade or uninstall the package.

Download the View Agent installer file from the VMware product page at

http://www.vmware.com/go/downloadview.

Procedure

1 Log in as an administrator.

2 To start the View Agent installation program, double-click the installer file.

The installer filename is VMware-viewagent-x86_64-y.y.y-xxxxxx.exe, where y.y.y is the version number and xxxxxx is the build number.

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3 Select the Internet Protocol (IP) version, IPv4 or IPv6.

You must install all View components with the same IP version.

4 Select your custom setup options.

5 In the Server text box, type the host name or IP address of a View Connection Server host.

During installation, the installer registers the RDS host with this View Connection Server instance. After registration, the specified View Connection Server instance, and any additional instances in the same View Connection Server group, can communicate with the RDS host.

6 Select an authentication method to register the RDS host with the View Connection Server instance.

Option Description

Authenticate as the currently logged in user

Specify administrator credentials

The user account must be a domain user with access to View LDAP on the View Connection Server instance. A local user does not work.

7 Follow the prompts and finish the installation.

The Username and Password text boxes are disabled and you are logged in to the View Connection Server instance with your current username and password.

You must provide the username and password of a View Connection Server administrator in the Username and Password text boxes.

What to do next

Create a farm. See Chapter 8, “Creating Farms,” on page 97.

View Agent Custom Setup Options for an RDS Host

When you install View Agent on an RDS host, you can select custom setup options. In addition, View Agent installs certain features automatically on all guest operating systems on which they are supported. These features are not optional.

Table 7‑1. View Agent Custom Setup Options for an RDS Host in an IPv4 Environment

Option Description

USB Redirection Gives users access to locally connected USB storage devices.

Specifically, redirection of USB flash drives and hard disks is supported in RDS desktops and applications. Redirection of other types of USB devices, and other types of USB storage devices such as security storage drives and USB CD-ROM, is not supported in RDS desktops and applications.

This setup option is not selected by default. You must select the option to install it. This option is available on RDS hosts that run Windows Server 2012 or 2012 R2 but not Windows Server 2008 R2.

For guidance on using USB redirection securely, see the View Security guide. For example, you can use group policy settings to disable USB redirection for specific users.

HTML Access Allows users to connect to RDS desktops and applications by using

HTML Access. The HTML Access Agent is installed when this setup option is selected. This agent must be installed on RDS hosts to allow users to make connections with HTML Access

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Table 7‑1. View Agent Custom Setup Options for an RDS Host in an IPv4 Environment (Continued)

Option Description

Client Drive Redirection Allows Horizon Client users to share local drives with their RDS desktops and

applications.

This setup option is not selected by default. You must select the option to install it.

After this setup option is installed, no further configuration is required on the RDS host.

Client Drive Redirection is also supported on VDI desktops that run on singleuser virtual machines and unmanaged machines.

Virtual Printing Lets users print to any printer available on their client computers. Users do not

have to install additional drivers on their desktops.

In Horizon 6.0.1 and later, virtual printing is supported on the following remote desktops and applications:

Desktops that are deployed on single-user machines, including Windows

Desktop and Windows Server machines

Desktops that are deployed on RDS hosts, where the RDS hosts are virtual

machines

Hosted Apps

Hosted Apps that are launched from Horizon Client inside remote

desktops

In Horizon 6.0 and earlier, virtual printing is supported on desktops that are deployed on single-user, Windows Desktop machines.

The virtual printing feature is supported only when you install it from View Agent. It is not supported if you install it with VMware Tools.

vRealize Operations Desktop Agent Lets vRealize Operations Manager work with

vRealize Operations Manager for Horizon.

Scanner Redirection Redirects scanning devices that are connected to the client system so that they

can be used on the RDS desktop or application.

You must install the Desktop Experience feature in the Windows Server operating system on the RDS hosts to make this option available in the View Agent installer.

This setup option is not installed by default on Windows Server guest operating systems. You must select the option to install it.

Scanner redirection is available in Horizon 6.0.2 and later releases.

In an IPv6 environment, there are no optional features.

Table 7‑2. View Agent Features That Are Installed Automatically on an RDS Host

Option Description

PCoIP Agent Allows users to connect to applications and RDS desktops using the PCoIP

display protocol.

You must install this component if you plan to create application pools because users can only connect to applications using PCoIP.

Windows Media Multimedia Redirection (MMR)

Unity Touch Allows tablet and smart phone users to interact with Windows applications

PSG Agent Installs the PCoIP Secure Gateway on RDS hosts to implement the PCoIP

VMwareRDS Provides the VMware implementation of Remote Desktop Services

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Provides multimedia redirection for RDS desktops. This feature delivers a multimedia stream directly to the client computer, allowing the multimedia stream to be processed on the client hardware instead of the remote ESXi host.

that run on the remote desktop. Users can browse, search, and open Windows applications and files, choose favorite applications and files, and switch between running applications without using the Start menu or Taskbar.

display protocol for desktop and application sessions that run on RDS hosts.

functionality.

Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View

In an IPv6 environment, the automatically installed features are PCoIP Agent, PSG Agent, and VMwareRDS.

For additional features that are supported on RDS hosts, see "Feature Support Matrix for View Agent" in the View Architecture Planning document.

Enable Time Zone Redirection for RDS Desktop and Application Sessions

If an RDS host is in one time zone and a user is in another time zone, by default, when the user connects to an RDS desktop, the desktop displays time that is in the time zone of the RDS host. You can enable the Time Zone Redirection group policy setting to make the RDS desktop display time in the local time zone. This policy setting applies to application sessions as well.

Prerequisites

Verify that the Group Policy Management feature is available on your Active Directory server.

The steps for opening the Group Policy Management Console differ in the Windows 2012, Windows 2008, and Windows 2003 Active Directory versions. See “Create GPOs for View Group Policies,” on page 252.

Verify that the View RDS ADMX files are added to Active Directory. See “Add the Remote Desktop

Services ADMX Files to Active Directory,” on page 238.

Familiarize yourself with the group policy settings. See “RDS Device and Resource Redirection

Settings,” on page 240.

Procedure

1 On the Active Directory server, open the Group Policy Management Console.

2 Expand your domain and Group Policy Objects.

3 Right-click the GPO that you created for the group policy settings and select Edit.

4 In the Group Policy Management Editor, navigate to Computer Configuration > Policies >

Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Horizon View RDSH Services > Remote Desktop Session Host > Device and Resource Redirection.

5 Enable the setting Allow time zone redirection.

Enable Windows Basic Theme for Applications

If a user has never connected to a desktop on an RDS host, and the user launches an application that is hosted on the RDS host, the Windows basic theme is not applied to the application even if a GPO setting is configured to load the Aero-styled theme. View does not support the Aero-styled theme but supports the Windows basic theme. To make the Windows basic theme apply to the application, you must configure another GPO setting.

Prerequisites

Verify that the Group Policy Management feature is available on your Active Directory server.

Procedure

1 On the Active Directory server, open the Group Policy Management Console.

2 Expand your domain and Group Policy Objects.

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3 Right-click the GPO that you created for the group policy settings and select Edit.

4 In the Group Policy Management Editor, navigate to User Configuration > Policies > Administrative

Templates > Control Panel > Personalization.

5 Enable the setting Force a specific visual style file or force Windows classic and set the Path to Visual

Style as %windir%\resources\Themes\Aero\aero.msstyles.

Configure Group Policy to Start Runonce.exe

By default, some applications that rely on the Explorer.exe file may not run in an application session. To avoid this issue, you must configure a GPO setting to start runonce.exe.

Prerequisites

Verify that the Group Policy Management feature is available on your Active Directory server.

Procedure

1 On the Active Directory server, open the Group Policy Management Console.

Chapter 7 Setting Up Remote Desktop Services Hosts

2 Expand your domain and Group Policy Objects.

3 Right-click the GPO that you created for the group policy settings and select Edit.

4 In the Group Policy Management Editor, navigate to User Configuration > Policies > Windows

Settings > Scripts (Logon/Logoff).

5 Double-click Logon and click Add.

6 In the Script Name box, type runonce.exe.

7 In the Script Parameters box, type /AlternateShellStartup.

RDS Host Performance Options

You can optimize Windows for either foreground programs or background services by setting performance options. By default, View disables certain performance options for RDS hosts for all supported versions of Windows Server.

The following table shows the performance options that are disabled by View.

Table 7‑3. Performance Options Disabled by View

Performance Options Disabled by View

Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing

Show shadows under mouse pointer

Show shadows under windows

Use drop shadow for icon labels on the desktop

Show windows contents while dragging

The five performance options that are disabled by View correspond to four View settings in the registry. The following table shows the View settings and their default registry values. The registry values are all located in the registry subkey HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\VMware, Inc.\VMware VDM\Agent\Configuration. You can re-enable the performance options by setting one or more of the View registry values to false.

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Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View

Table 7‑4. View Settings Related to Windows Performance Options

View Setting Registry Value

Disable cursor shadow DisableMouseShadows

Disable full window drag DisableFullWindowDrag

Disable ListView shadow DisableListViewShadow

Disable Window Animation DisableWindowAnimation

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Creating Farms 8

A farm is a group of RDS hosts that provides a common set of applications or RDS desktops to users.

This chapter includes the following topics:

“Farms,” on page 97

“Worksheet for Creating a Farm,” on page 98

“Create a Farm,” on page 99

Farms

Farms simplify the task of managing RDS hosts, RDS desktops, and applications in an enterprise. You can create farms to serve groups of users that vary in size or have different desktop or application requirements.

When you create an application pool or an RDS desktop pool, you must specify one and only one farm. The RDS hosts in a farm can host RDS desktops, applications, or both. A farm can support at most one RDS desktop pool, but it can support multiple application pools. A farm can support both types of pools simultaneously.

Farms provide the following conveniences:

Load balancing

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By default, View balances the load of the RDS desktop sessions and the application sessions across all the RDS hosts in the farm.

Redundancy

If one RDS host in a farm is offline, the other RDS hosts in the farm continue to provide applications and desktops to users.

Scalability

A farm can have a variable number of RDS hosts. You can create farms with different numbers of RDS hosts to serve user groups of different sizes.

Farms have the following properties:

A View pod can have a maximum of 200 farms.

A farm can have a maximum of 200 RDS hosts.

Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View

The RDS hosts in a farm can run any supported version of Windows Server. See "System Requirements

for Guest Operating Systems" in the View Installation document.

IMPORTANT Microsoft recommends that you configure roaming profiles for users separately for each farm. The profiles should not be shared between farms or users' physical desktops since profile corruption and data loss may occur if a user is simultaneously logged in to two machines that load the same profile.

Worksheet for Creating a Farm

When you create a farm, the Add Farm wizard prompts you to configure certain options.

You can print this worksheet and write down the values you want to specify when you run the Add Farm wizard.

Table 8‑1. Worksheet: Configuration Options for Creating a Farm

Option Description Fill in Your Value Here

ID Unique name that identifies the farm

in View Administrator.

Description Description of this farm.

Access group Access group in which to place all the

pools in this farm.

Default display protocol Select PCoIP or RDP. This setting

applies to desktop pools only. The display protocol for application pools is always PCoIP. If you select RDP and you plan to use this farm to host application pools, you must set the

Allow users to choose protocol

option to Yes . The default is PCoIP.

Allow users to choose protocol Select Yes or No. This option applies

to RDS desktop pools only. If you select Yes, you allow users to choose the display protocol when they connect to an RDS desktop from Horizon Client. The default is Yes.

Empty session timeout (applications only)

Determines the amount of time that an empty application session is kept open. An application session is empty when all the applications that run in the session are closed. While the session is open, users can open applications faster. You can save system resources if you disconnect or log off empty application sessions. Select Never or set the number of minutes as the timeout value. The default is After 1 minute.

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Chapter 8 Creating Farms

Table 8‑1. Worksheet: Configuration Options for Creating a Farm (Continued)

Option Description Fill in Your Value Here

When timeout occurs Determines whether an empty

application session is disconnected or logged off after the Empty session

timeout limit is reached. Select Disconnect or Log off. A session that

is logged off frees up resources, but opening an application takes longer. The default is Disconnect.

Log off disconnected session Determines when a disconnected

session is logged off. This setting applies to both desktop and application sessions. Select Never, Immediate, or After ... minutes. Use caution when you select Immediate or After ... minutes. When a disconnected session is logged off, the session is lost. The default is Never.

Allow HTML Access to desktops and applications on this farm

Determines whether HTML Access to RDS desktops and applications is allowed. Check the Enabled box to allow HTML Access to RDS desktops and applications. When you edit this setting after a farm is created, the new value applies to existing desktops and applications as well as new ones.

Create a Farm

You create a farm as part of the process to give users access to applications or RDS desktops.

Prerequisites

Set up the RDS hosts that belong to the farm. See Chapter 7, “Setting Up Remote Desktop Services

Hosts,” on page 87.

Verify that all the RDS hosts have the Available status. In View Administrator, select View

Configuration > Registered Machines and check the status of each RDS host on the RDS Hosts tab.

Gather the configuration information you must provide to create the farm. See “Worksheet for Creating

a Farm,” on page 98.

Procedure

1 In View Administrator, click Resources > Farms.

2 Click Add to enter the configuration information that you gathered in the worksheet.

3 Specify settings for the farm and click Next.

4 Select the RDS hosts to add to the farm and click Next.

5 Click Finish.

In View Administrator, you can now view the farm by clicking Resources > Farms.

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Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View

What to do next

Create an application pool or an RDS desktop pool. See Chapter 9, “Creating Application Pools,” on page 101 or Chapter 10, “Creating RDS Desktop Pools,” on page 105.

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VMware Horizon 6.1.1, Horizon View - 6.1.1 User Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

Contents

Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View

Farms, RDS Hosts, and Desktop and Application Pools

Advantages of Desktop Pools

Desktop Pools for Specific Types of Workers

Pools for Task Workers

Pools for Knowledge Workers and Power Users

Pools for Kiosk Users

Advantages of Application Pools

Preparing Unmanaged Machines 2

Prepare an Unmanaged Machine for Remote Desktop Deployment

Install View Agent on an Unmanaged Machine

View Agent Custom Setup Options for Unmanaged Machines

Creating Virtual Machines for Remote Desktop Deployment

Create a Virtual Machine for Remote Desktop Deployment

Virtual Machine Custom Configuration Parameters

Install a Guest Operating System

Prepare a Guest Operating System for Remote Desktop Deployment

Prepare Windows Server Operating Systems for Desktop Use

Install Desktop Experience on Windows Server 2008 R2

Install Desktop Experience on Windows Server 2012 or 2012 R2

Configure the Windows Firewall Service to Restart After Failures

Install View Agent on a Virtual Machine

View Agent Custom Setup Options

Install View Agent Silently

Microsoft Windows Installer Command-Line Options

Silent Installation Properties for View Agent

Configure a Virtual Machine with Multiple NICs for View Agent

Optimize Guest Operating System Performance for All Windows Versions

Optimize Windows 7 and Windows 8 Guest Operating System Performance

Disable the Windows Customer Experience Improvement Program

Optimizing Windows 7 and Windows 8 for Linked-Clone Virtual Machines

Benefits of Disabling Windows 7 and Windows 8 Services and Tasks

Disable Scheduled Disk Defragmentation on Windows 7 and Windows 8 Parent Virtual Machines

Disable the Windows Update Service on Windows 7 and Windows 8 Virtual Machines

Disable the Diagnostic Policy Service on Windows 7 and Windows 8 Virtual Machines

Disable the Prefetch and Superfetch Features on Windows 7 and Windows 8 Virtual Machines

Disable Windows Registry Backup on Windows 7 and Windows 8 Virtual Machines

Disable the System Restore on Windows 7 and Windows 8 Virtual Machines

Disable Windows Defender on Windows 7 and Windows 8 Virtual Machines

Disable Microsoft Feeds Synchronization on Windows 7 and Windows 8 Virtual Machines

Preparing Virtual Machines for View Composer

Prepare a Parent Virtual Machine

Activating Windows on Linked-Clone Virtual Machines

Disable Windows Hibernation in the Parent Virtual Machine

Configure a Parent Virtual Machine to Use Local Storage

Keep a Record of the Parent Virtual Machine's Paging-File Size

Increase the Timeout Limit of QuickPrep Customization Scripts

Creating Virtual Machine Templates

Creating Customization Specifications

Automated Pools That Contain Full Virtual Machines

Worksheet for Creating an Automated Pool That Contains Full Virtual Machines

Create an Automated Pool That Contains Full Virtual Machines

Desktop Settings for Automated Pools That Contain Full Virtual Machines

Creating Linked-Clone Desktop Pools 5

Linked-Clone Desktop Pools

Worksheet for Creating a Linked-Clone Desktop Pool

Create a Linked-Clone Desktop Pool

Desktop Pool Settings for Linked-Clone Desktop Pools

View Composer Support for Linked-Clone SIDs and Third-Party Applications

Choosing QuickPrep or Sysprep to Customize Linked-Clone Machines

Customizing Linked-Clone Machines with QuickPrep

Running QuickPrep Customization Scripts

Recomposing Linked Clones Customized with Sysprep

Keeping Linked-Clone Machines Provisioned and Ready During View Composer Operations

Use Existing Active Directory Computer Accounts for Linked Clones

Creating Manual Desktop Pools 6

Manual Desktop Pools

Worksheet for Creating a Manual Desktop Pool

Create a Manual Desktop Pool

Create a Manual Pool That Contains One Machine

Desktop Pool Settings for Manual Pools

Remote Desktop Services Hosts

Install Remote Desktop Services on Windows Server 2008 R2

Install Remote Desktop Services on Windows Server 2012 or 2012 R2

Install Desktop Experience on Windows Server 2008 R2