Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View

Using this content-based read cache (CBRC) can reduce IOPS and improve performance during boot
storms, when many machines start up and run anti-virus scans at the same time. Instead of reading the
entire OS from the storage system over and over, a host can read common data blocks from cache.
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If remote desktops use the space-efficient disk format available with vSphere 5.1 and later, stale or
deleted data within a guest operating system is automatically reclaimed with a wipe and shrink
process.
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You can deploy a desktop pool on a cluster that contains up to 32 ESXi hosts, with certain restrictions.
Replica disks must be 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. OS disks and persistent disks
can be stored on NFS or VMFS datastores.
Compatible vSphere 5.5 Update 1 or Later Features
With vSphere 5.5 Update 1 or a later release, you can use Virtual SAN, which virtualizes the local physical
solid-state disks and hard disk drives available on ESXi hosts into a single datastore shared by all hosts in a
cluster. Virtual SAN provides high-performance storage with policy-based management, so that you specify
only one datastore when creating a desktop pool, and the various components, such as virtual machine files,
replicas, user data, and operating system files, are placed on the appropriate solid-state drive (SSD) disks or
direct-attached hard disks (HDDs).
Virtual SAN also lets you manage virtual machine storage and performance by using storage policy profiles.
If the policy becomes noncompliant because of a host, disk, or network failure, or workload changes, Virtual
SAN reconfigures the data of the affected virtual machines and optimizes the use of resources across the
cluster. You can deploy a desktop pool on a cluster that contains up to 20 ESXi hosts.
IMPORTANT The Virtual SAN feature available with vSphere 6.0 and later releases contains many
performance improvements over the feature that was available with vSphere 5.5 Update 1. With vSphere 6.0
this feature also has broader HCL (hardware compatibility) support. For more information about Virtual
SAN in vSphere 6 or later, see the Administering VMware Virtual SAN document.
NOTE Virtual SAN is compatible with the View storage accelerator feature but not with the space-efficient
disk format feature, which reclaims disk space by wiping and shrinking disks.
Compatible vSphere 6.0 or Later Features
With vSphere 6.0 or a later release, you can use Virtual Volumes (VVols). This feature maps virtual disks
and their derivatives, clones, snapshots, and replicas, directly to objects, called virtual volumes, on a storage
system. This mapping allows vSphere to offload intensive storage operations such as snapshoting, cloning,
and replication to the storage system.
Virtual Volumes also lets you manage virtual machine storage and performance by using storage policy
profiles in vSphere. These storage policy profiles dictate storage services on a per-virtual-machine basis.
This type of granular provisioning increases capacity utilization. You can deploy a desktop pool on a cluster
that contains up to 32 ESXi hosts.
NOTE Virtual Volumes is compatible with the View storage accelerator feature but not with the space-
efficient disk format feature, which reclaims disk space by wiping and shrinking disks.
Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View
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