Architecture Planning

Pools for Kiosk Users
Kiosk users might include customers at airline check-in stations, students in classrooms or libraries, medical
personnel at medical data entry workstations, or customers at self-service points. Accounts associated with
client devices rather than users are entitled to use these desktop pools because users do not need to log in to
use the client device or the remote desktop. Users can still be required to provide authentication credentials
for some applications.
Virtual machine desktops that are set to run in kiosk mode use stateless desktop images because user data
does not need to be preserved in the operating system disk. Kiosk mode desktops are used with thin client
devices or locked-down PCs. You must ensure that the desktop application implements authentication
mechanisms for secure transactions, that the physical network is secure against tampering and snooping,
and that all devices connected to the network are trusted.
As a best practice, use dedicated View Connection Server instances to handle clients in kiosk mode, and
create dedicated organizational units and groups in Active Directory for the accounts of these clients. This
practice not only partitions these systems against unwarranted intrusion, but also makes it easier to
configure and administer the clients.
To set up kiosk mode, you must use the vdmadmin command-line interface and perform several procedures
documented in the topics about kiosk mode in the View Administration document. As part of this setup, you
can use the following pool settings.
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Create an automated pool so that desktops can be created when the pool is created or can be generated
on demand based on pool usage.
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Use floating assignment so that users can access any available desktop in the pool.
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Create View Composer linked-clone desktops so that desktops share the same base image and use less
storage space in the datacenter than full virtual machines.
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Institute a refresh policy so that the desktop is refreshed frequently, such as at every user logoff.
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If applicable, consider storing desktops on local ESXi datastores. This strategy can offer advantages
such as inexpensive hardware, fast virtual-machine provisioning, high-performance power operations,
and simple management. For a list of the limitations, see “Local Datastores for Floating, Stateless
Desktops,” on page 38.
NOTE For information about other types of storage options, see “Reducing and Managing Storage
Requirements,” on page 33.
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Use an Active Directory GPO (group policy object) to configure location-based printing, so that the
desktop uses the nearest printer. For a complete list and description of the settings available through
Group Policy administrative (ADM) templates, see Setting Up Desktop and Application Pools in View.
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Use a GPO if you want to override the default policy that enables connecting local USB devices to the
desktop when the desktop is launched or when USB devices are plugged in to the client computer.
Desktop Virtual Machine Configuration
The example settings for items such as memory, number of virtual processors, and disk space are View-
specific.
The amount of system disk space required depends on the number of applications required in the base
image. VMware has validated a setup that included 8GB of disk space. Applications included Microsoft
Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Adobe Reader, Internet Explorer, McAfee Antivirus, and PKZIP.
The amount of disk space required for user data depends on the role of the end user and organizational
policies for data storage. If you use View Composer, this data is kept on a persistent disk.
The guidelines listed in the following table are for a standard Windows 7 or later virtual machine desktop.
View Architecture Planning
52 VMware, Inc.