Administration

Table Of Contents
2 Select the desktop pool to refresh by double-clicking the pool ID in the left column.
3 Choose whether to refresh multiple virtual machines or a single virtual machine.
Option Action
To refresh all virtual machines in
the desktop pool
a In View Administrator, select Catalog > Desktop Pools.
b Select the desktop pool to refresh by double-clicking the pool ID in the
left column.
c On the Inventory tab, click Machines.
d Use the Ctrl or Shift key to select all the machine IDs in the left
column.
e Select Refresh from the View Composer drop-down menu.
To refresh a single virtual machine
a In View Administrator, select Resources > Machines.
b Select the machine to refresh by double-clicking the machine ID in the
left column.
c On the Summary tab, select Refresh from the View Composer drop-
down menu.
4 Follow the wizard instructions.
The OS disks are reduced to their original size.
In vCenter Server, you can monitor the progress of the refresh operation on the linked-clone virtual
machines.
In View Administrator, you can monitor the operation by selecting Catalog > Desktop Pools, double-
clicking the pool ID, and clicking the Tasks tab. You can click Cancel task, Pause task, or Resume task to
terminate a task, suspend a task, or resume a suspended task.
Machine Refresh Operations
As users interact with linked clones, the clones' OS disks grow. A machine refresh operation restores the OS
disks to their original state and size, reducing storage costs.
A refresh operation does not affect View Composer persistent disks.
A linked clone uses less storage space than the parent virtual machine, which contains the complete OS
data. However, a clone's OS disk expands each time data is written to it from within the guest operating
system.
When View Composer creates a linked clone, it takes a snapshot of the clone's OS disk. The snapshot
uniquely identifies the linked-clone virtual machine. A refresh operation reverts the OS disk to the snapshot.
View Composer can refresh a linked clone in as little as half the time it takes to delete and recreate the clone.
Apply these guidelines to refresh operations:
n
You can refresh a desktop pool on demand, as a scheduled event, or when the OS data reaches a
specified size.
You can schedule only one refresh operation at a time for a given set of linked clones. If you start a
refresh operation immediately, the operation overwrites any previously scheduled task.
You can schedule multiple refresh operations if they affect different linked clones.
Before you schedule a new refresh operation, you must cancel any previously scheduled task.
n
You can refresh dedicated-assignment and floating-assignment pools.
n
A refresh can only occur when users are disconnected from their linked-clone desktops.
View Administration
126 VMware, Inc.