Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View

When the linked clone is powered off, View replaces the disposable-data disk with a copy of the original
disk that View Composer created with the linked-clone pool. Linked clones can increase in size as users
interact with their desktops. Using disposable-data disks can save storage space by slowing the growth of
linked clones.
The disposable-data disk is stored on the same datastore as the OS disk.
Storing Linked Clones on Local Datastores
Linked-clone virtual machines can be stored on local datastores, which are internal spare disks on ESXi
hosts. Local storage offers advantages such as inexpensive hardware, fast virtual-machine provisioning,
high performance power operations, and simple management. However, using local storage limits the
vSphere infrastructure configuration options that are available to you. Using local storage is beneficial in
certain View environments but not appropriate in others.
NOTE The limitations described in this topic do not apply to Virtual SAN datastores, which also use local
storage disks but require specific hardware.
Using local datastores is most likely to work well if the View desktops in your environment are stateless. For
example, you might use local datastores if you deploy stateless kiosks or classroom and training stations.
Consider using local datastores if your virtual machines have floating assignments, are not dedicated to
individual end users, do not require persistent disks for user data, and can be deleted or refreshed at regular
intervals such as on user logoff. This approach lets you control the disk usage on each local datastore
without having to move or load-balance the virtual machines across datastores.
However, you must consider the restrictions that using local datastores imposes on your View desktop
deployment:
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You cannot use VMotion to manage volumes.
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You cannot load-balance virtual machines across a resource pool. For example, you cannot use the View
Composer rebalance operation with linked-clones that are stored on local datastores.
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You cannot use VMware High Availability.
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You cannot use the vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS).
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You cannot store a View Composer replica and linked clones on separate datastores if the replica is on a
local datastore.
When you store linked clones on local datastores, VMware strongly recommends that you store the
replica on the same volume as the linked clones. Although it is possible to store linked clones on local
datastores and the replica on a shared datastore if all ESXi hosts in the cluster can access the replica,
VMware does not recommend this configuration.
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If you select local spinning-disk drives, performance might not match that of a commercially available
storage array. Local spinning-disk drives and a storage array might have similar capacity, but local
spinning-disk drives do not have the same throughput as a storage array. Throughput increases as the
number of spindles grows.
If you select direct attached solid-state disks (SSDs), performance is likely to exceed that of many storage
arrays.
You can store linked clones on a local datastore without constraints if you configure the desktop pool on a
single ESXi host or a cluster that contains a single ESXi host. However, using a single ESXi host limits the
size of the desktop pool that you can configure.
To configure a large desktop pool, you must select a cluster that contains multiple ESXi hosts with the
collective capacity to support a large number of virtual machines.
Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View
210 VMware, Inc.