Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View

Table Of Contents
Introduction to Desktop and
Application Pools 1
With VMware Horizon 6, you can create desktop pools that include one or hundreds or thousands of virtual
desktops. You can deploy desktops that run on virtual machines, physical machines, and Windows Remote
Desktop Services (RDS) hosts. Create one virtual machine as a base image, and View can generate a pool of
virtual desktops from that image. You can also create application pools that give users remote access to
applications.
This chapter includes the following topics:
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“Farms, RDS Hosts, and Desktop and Application Pools,” on page 9
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“Advantages of Desktop Pools,” on page 10
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“Desktop Pools for Specific Types of Workers,” on page 11
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“Advantages of Application Pools,” on page 14
Farms, RDS Hosts, and Desktop and Application Pools
With View, you can create desktop and application pools to give users remote access to virtual machine-
based desktops, session-based desktops, physical computers, and applications. View takes advantage of
Microsoft Remote Desktop Services (RDS) and VMware PC-over-IP (PCoIP) technologies to provide high-
quality remote access to users.
RDS Hosts
RDS hosts are server computers that have Windows Remote Desktop Services and View Agent installed.
These servers host applications and desktop sessions that users can access remotely. To use RDS desktop
pools or applications, your end users must have access to Horizon Client 3.0 or later software.
Desktop Pools
There are three types of desktop pools: automated, manual, and RDS. Automated desktop pools use a
vCenter Server virtual machine template or snapshot to create a pool of identical virtual machines. Manual
desktop pools are a collection of existing vCenter Server virtual machines, physical computers, or third-
party virtual machines. In automated or manual pools, each machine is available for one user to access
remotely at a time. RDS desktop pools are not a collection of machines, but instead, provide users with
desktop sessions on RDS hosts. Multiple users can have desktop sessions on an RDS host simultaneously.
Application Pools
Application pools let you deliver applications to many users. The applications in application pools run on a
farm of RDS hosts.
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