INSTANT CLONE PROVISIONING IN VMWARE HORIZON

INSTANT CLONE PROVISIONING IN VMWARE HORIZON

CREATING MASTER IMAGE

A master Image also known as a base image or a golden image is the most important part of the VDI deployment scenarios.

Create one VM as a master image, and Horizon 7 can generate a pool of virtual desktops from that image.

Below diagram depicts the process of creating an optimized master VM 

You can Use VMware optimization tool to optimize the golden image. If the image is not optimized, you will run into performance issues.The VMware OS Optimization Tool helps in preparing and optimizing Windows 10/8/7 and Windows Server 2019/2016/2012/2008 systems for use with VMware Horizon

The OS Optimization Tool includes customizable templates to enable or disable Windows system services and features, per VMware recommendations and best practices.

Now that the optimized Golden Image is ready, take a snapshot of the optimized Golden Image.  We will use that snapshot while creating Desktop Pools.

For more information about creating and managing snapshots in vSphere Web Client, please refer to this link: https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2032907

CREATING DESKTOP POOL

A desktop pool is a collection of desktops that users select when they log in using the View client

There are two main types of virtual desktop pools: automated and manual.

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 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

For more information on creating Instant-Clone Desktop Pools visit: https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Horizon-7/7.9/horizon-console-administration/GUID-C450DD3D-AB0B-4B24-8981-ED6C4D1B9148.html

As soon as we create the desktop pools and enable provisioning, the process of creating the template from the associated snapshot starts.  Once the template is created, it remains in the powered off state and resides in the same cluster as the Golden VM. The nomenclature of the Template is defined and the name of the template will be cp-template*followed by digits*

The next step after the creation of template is creation of a Replica VM. Replica VM also remains in power off state. Each replica is created per Datastore basis that means there will be one replica VM per Datastore. Similar to Template, the nomenclature of the Replica VM is defined and the name of the template will be cp-replica*followed by digits*

The last part of the PRIMING stage is marked by the creation of parent VM starts. It is important to remember that the parent VM is in powered ON state and single parent VM is created per ESXI host per Datastore.

Parents VM loads the OS in the memory and sets up the shared area. Since the parent is powered ON, it will create a shared memory location. Immediately after that if forks off itself to create Instant Clone.

This ends the PRIMING stage in the instant clone provisioning process. The PRMING stage starts with the template creation up to the point when the Parent forks off itself to create the Instant Clone. Priming is the most time consuming part. It takes around 20-30 minutes.

The instant clone will then read from the shared memory and replica VM. Instant clone becomes a unique memory location with unique identity of its own, including a MAC address, UUID, and other system information.

Instant clones require less storage and less expense to manage and update because the desktop is deleted when the user logs out, and a new desktop is created using the latest master image.