When you delete a desktop pool, users can no longer launch new remote desktops in the pool.

Depending on the type of desktop pool, you have various options regarding how Horizon 7 handles persistent disks, vCenter Server full virtual machines, and users' active sessions.

By default, you can delete a desktop pool even if desktop machines exist in the pool. Horizon 7 does not give you a warning. You can configure Horizon 7 to not allow the deletion of a pool that contains desktop machines. For details, see Configure Horizon 7 to Disallow the Deletion of a Desktop Pool That Contains Desktop Machines. If you configure the setting, you must delete all the machines in a desktop pool before you can delete the pool.

With an automated desktop pool of instant clones or View Composer linked clones, Horizon 7 always deletes the virtual machines from disk.

Important: Do not delete the virtual machines in vCenter Server before you delete a desktop pool with Horizon Administrator. This action could put Horizon 7 components into an inconsistent state.

Procedure

  1. In Horizon Administrator, select Catalog > Desktop Pools.
  2. Select a desktop pool and click Delete.
  3. Choose how to delete the desktop pool.
    Pool Options
    Automated desktop pool of instant clones or linked clones without persistent disks. No available options. Horizon 7 deletes all virtual machines from disk. Users' sessions to their remote desktops are terminated.
    Automated desktop pool of linked clones with persistent disks. Choose whether to detach or delete the persistent disks when the linked-clone virtual machines are deleted.

    In both cases, Horizon 7 deletes all virtual machines from disk, and users' sessions to their remote desktops are terminated.

    If you detach a persistent disk, the linked-clone virtual machine that contained the persistent disk can be recreated, or the persistent disk can be attached to another virtual machine. You can store detached persistent disks in the same datastore or a different one. If you select a different datastore, you cannot store detached persistent disks on a local datastore. You must use a shared datastore.

    You can only detach persistent disks that were created in Horizon 7 4.5 or later releases.

    Automated desktop pool of full virtual machines.

    Manual desktop pool of vCenter Server virtual machines.

    		Choose whether to keep or delete the virtual machines in vCenter Server.
    RDS desktop pool.

    Automated desktop pool of full virtual machines.

    Manual desktop pool.

    		If there are users who are connected to their remote desktops, choose whether to keep users' sessions active or terminate them. Note that Connection Server does not keep track of sessions that are kept active.

Results

When you delete a desktop pool, linked-clone virtual machines' computer accounts are removed from Active Directory. Full virtual machines' computer accounts remain in Active Directory. To remove these accounts, you must manually delete them from Active Directory.

If you delete an instant-clone desktop pool, it can take some time for Horizon 7 to delete the internal VMs from vCenter Server. Do not remove vCenter Server from Horizon Administrator until you verify that all the internal VMs are deleted.