Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View

You can configure disk space reclamation on linked clones when you create a new pool or edit an existing
pool. For an existing pool, see "Tasks for Upgrading Pools to Use Space Reclamation" in the View Upgrades
document.
NOTE This feature is not available for virtual machines stored on a Virtual SAN datastore or a Virtual
Volumes datastore.
If a View Composer is refreshing, recomposing, or rebalancing linked clones, disk space reclamation does
not take place on those linked clones.
Disk space reclamation operates only on OS disks in linked clones. The feature does not affect View
Composer persistent disks and does not operate on full-clone virtual machines.
Native NFS snapshot technology (VAAI) is not supported in pools that contain virtual machines with space-
efficient disks.
Prerequisites
n
Verify that your vCenter Server and ESXi hosts, including all ESXi hosts in a cluster, are version 5.1
with ESXi 5.1 download patch ESXi510-201212001 or later.
n
Verify that VMware Tools that are provided with vSphere version 5.1 or later are installed on all the
linked-clone virtual machines in the pool.
n
Verify that all the linked-clone virtual machines in the pool are virtual hardware version 9 or later.
n
Verify that the virtual machines use SCSI controllers. Disk space reclamation is not supported on virtual
machines with IDE controllers.
n
For Windows 8 or 8.1 virtual machines, verify that the machines are running in vSphere 5.5 or later.
Disk space reclamation is supported on Windows 8 or 8.1 virtual machines in vSphere 5.5 or later.
n
For Windows 7 virtual machines, verify that the machines are running in vSphere 5.1 or later.
n
Verify that disk space reclamation is enabled in vCenter Server. This option ensures that the virtual
machines in the pool are created in the efficient disk format that is required to reclaim disk space. See
the View Administration document.
Procedure
1 In View Administrator, display the Advanced Storage page.
Option Description
New desktop pool
Start the Add Desktop Pool wizard to begin creating an automated
desktop pool. Follow the wizard configuration prompts until you reach the
Advanced Storage page.
Existing desktop pool
Select the existing pool, click Edit, and click the Advanced Storage tab. To
upgrade a pool to support space reclamation, see "Upgrade Desktop Pools
for Space Reclamation" in the View Upgrades document.
2 Select the Reclaim VM disk space check box.
3 In the Initiate reclamation when unused space on VM exceeds text box, type the minimum amount of
unused disk space, in gigabytes, that must accumulate on a linked-clone OS disk before ESXi starts
reclaiming space on that disk.
For example: 2 GB.
The default value is 1 GB.
Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View
214 VMware, Inc.