Knowledge
- Identify floating vs. dedicated assignments
- Identify pool settings
- Identify provisioning settings
- Identify template
- Identify vCenter Server resource settings
- Identify guest customization settings
In my previous blog post VMware View – Objective 3.1 Configure Automated Pools Using Linked Clones, we covered pretty much all of the above points.
However, what’s the difference between a Linked Clone and a Full Clone? Well a Full Clone is exactly the same as when we use a virtual machine as template. vSphere creates a Full Clone of the VM, and then we run Sys Prep against it too change the GUID, join it too the domain etc.
So I think we will run through the process of creating an Automated Full Clone Pool, however, I won’t explain all the knowledge points again, only the differences.
Back into View Administrator > Inventory > Pools > Add
Select Automated Pool and hit Next
We get the same question about Dedicated or Floating Assignment, a quick recap below.
Dedicated – This means when a Users logs in, a desktop is assigned to them and this is the desktop they will always continue to use.
Floating – This means the User is not assigned a desktop and is used in environments such as call centers where desktop personalisation is not a requirement.
This is the point where we choose ‘Full Virtual Machines’ and hit Next
Enter in your ID, Display Name and View Folder
We get the same choices for the Pool Settings
Again we get the same Provisioning Settings
This part is slightly different as we need to use a Template for our Automated Full Clones. The rest however is the same.
I have enabled Host Caching which is in View Configuration > Servers vCenter Servers > Edit > Host Caching
Essentially Host Caching gives up some of the memory on the ESXi Hosts to help out with View Desktops during boot storms.
In Guest Customization select a Sys Prep which you know works correctly e.g. it joins Desktops to the domain.
There we go jobs ‘a good un’ our Automated Manual Pool is done. All is left to do, is Entitle Users
VMFocus 