Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View

Prerequisites
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Verify that the View Composer service is installed, either on the same host as vCenter Server or on a
separate host, and that a View Composer database is configured. See the View Installation document.
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Verify that View Composer settings for vCenter Server are configured in View Administrator. See the
View Administration document.
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Verify that you have a sufficient number of ports on the ESXi virtual switch that is used for the virtual
machines that are used as remote desktops. The default value might not be sufficient if you create large
desktop pools. The number of virtual switch ports on the ESXI host must equal or exceed the number of
virtual machines multiplied by the number of virtual NICs per virtual machine.
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Verify that you prepared a parent virtual machine. View Agent must be installed on the parent virtual
machine. See Chapter 3, “Creating and Preparing Virtual Machines,” on page 19.
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Take a snapshot of the parent virtual machine in vCenter Server. You must shut down the parent
virtual machine before you take the snapshot. View Composer uses the snapshot as the base image
from which the clones are created.
NOTE You cannot create a linked-clone pool from a virtual machine template.
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Gather the configuration information you must provide to create the pool. See “Worksheet for Creating
a Linked-Clone Desktop Pool,” on page 63.
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Decide how to configure power settings, display protocol, Adobe Flash quality, and other settings. See
“Desktop Pool Settings for All Desktop Pool Types,” on page 117.
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If you intend to provide access to your desktops and applications through Workspace Portal, verify that
you create the desktop and application pools as a user who has the Administrators role on the root
access group in View Administrator. If you give the user the Administrators role on an access group
other than the root access group, Workspace Portal will not recognize the SAML authenticator you
configure in View, and you cannot configure the pool in Workspace Portal.
IMPORTANT While a linked-clone pool is created, do not modify the parent virtual machine in vCenter
Server. For example, do not convert the parent virtual machine to a template. The View Composer service
requires that the parent virtual machine remain in a static, unaltered state during pool creation.
Procedure
1 In View Administrator, select Catalog > Desktop Pools.
2 Click Add.
3 Select Automated Desktop Pool.
4 On the vCenter Server page, choose View Composer linked clones.
5 Follow the prompts in the wizard to create the pool.
Use the configuration information you gathered in the worksheet. You can go directly back to any
wizard page you completed by clicking the page name in the navigation panel.
On the vCenter Settings page, you must click Browse and select the vCenter Server settings in
sequence. You cannot skip a vCenter Server setting:
a Parent VM
b Snapshot
c VM folder location
d Host or cluster
e Resource pool
Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View
72 VMware, Inc.