Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View

When to Choose the Automatic Option
The Automatic option is the best choice for many View deployments that require 3D rendering. vSGA
(Virtual Shared Graphics Acceleration)-enabled virtual machines can dynamically switch between software
and hardware 3D rendering, without your having to reconfigure. This option ensures that some type of 3D
rendering takes place even when GPU resources are completely reserved. In a mixed cluster of ESXi 5.1 and
ESXi 5.0 hosts, this option ensures that a virtual machine is powered on successfully and uses 3D rendering
even if, for example, vMotion moved the virtual machine to an ESXi 5.0 host.
The only drawback with the Automatic option is that you cannot easily tell whether a virtual machine is
using hardware or software 3D rendering.
When to Choose the Hardware Option
The Hardware option guarantees that every virtual machine in the pool uses hardware 3D rendering,
provided that GPU resources are available on the ESXi hosts. This option might be the best choice when all
your users run graphically intensive applications. You can use this option when configuring vSGA (Virtual
Shared Graphics Acceleration).
With the Hardware option, you must strictly control your vSphere environment. All ESXi hosts must be
version 5.1 or later and must have GPU graphics cards installed.
When all GPU resources on an ESXi host are reserved, View cannot power on a virtual machine for the next
user who tries to log in to a desktop. You must manage the allocation of GPU resources and the use of
vMotion to ensure that resources are available for your desktops.
When to Choose the Option to Manage Using vSphere Client
When you select the Manage using vSphere Client option, you can use vSphere Web Client to configure
individual virtual machines with different options and VRAM values.
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For vSGA (Virtual Shared Graphics Acceleration), you can support a mixed configuration of 3D
rendering and VRAM sizes for virtual machines in a pool.
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For vDGA (Virtual Dedicated Graphics Acceleration), each virtual machine must be individually
configured to share a specific PCI device with the ESXi host and all memory must be reserved.
All ESXi hosts must be version 5.5 or later and must have GPU graphics cards installed.
You might also choose this option if you want to explicitly manage graphics settings of clones and linked
clones by having the clones inherit settings from the parent virtual machine.
When to Choose the NVIDIA GRID vGPU Option
With the NVIDIA GRID vGPU option, you can achieve a higher consolidation ratio of virtual machines on
an NVIDIA GRID vGPU-enabled ESXi host than is possible by using vSGA or vDGA, while maintaining the
same performance level. As with vDGA (Dedicated Virtual Graphics), the ESXi and virtual machine also use
GPU pass-through for NVIDIA GRID vGPU.
NOTE To improve virtual machine consolidation ratios, you can set the ESXi host to use consolidation
mode. Edit the /etc/vmware/config file on the ESXi host and add the following entry:
vGPU.consolidation = "true"
By default, the ESXi host assigns virtual machines to the physical GPU with the fewest virtual machines
already assigned. This is called performance mode. If you would rather have the ESXi host assign virtual
machines to the same physical GPU until the maximum number of virtual machines is reached before
placing virtual machines on the next physical GPU, you can use consolidation mode.
Chapter 11 Provisioning Desktop Pools
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