When you create an automated desktop pool, you can configure certain options. Use this worksheet to prepare your configuration options before you create the pool.
| Option | Description | Fill In Your Value Here |
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| User assignment | Choose the type of user assignment:
For details, see User Assignment in Desktop Pools. |
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| Enable automatic assignment | In a dedicated-assignment pool, a machine is assigned to a user when the user first logs in to the pool. You can also explicitly assign machines to users. If you do not enable automatic assignment, you must explicitly assign a machine to each user. You can assign machines manually even when automatic assignment is enabled. |
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| vCenter Server | Select the vCenter Server that manages the virtual machines in the pool. | |
| Desktop Pool ID | The unique name that identifies the pool in Horizon Administrator. If multiple vCenter Servers are running in your environment, make sure that another vCenter Server is not using the same pool ID. A Connection Server configuration can be a standalone Connection Server instance or a pod of replicated instances that share a common View LDAP configuration. |
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| Display name | The pool name that users see when they log in from a client device. If you do not specify a display name, the pool ID is displayed to users. | |
| Access group | Select an access group in which to place the pool or leave the pool in the default root access group. If you use an access group, you can delegate managing the pool to an administrator who has a specific role. For details, see the role-based delegated administration chapter in the Horizon 7 Administration document.
Note: Access groups are different from vCenter Server folders that store desktop virtual machines. You select a vCenter Server folder later in the wizard with other vCenter Server settings.
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| Delete machine after logoff | If you select floating user assignment, choose whether to delete machines after users log off.
Note: You set this option on the Desktop Pool Settings page.
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| Desktop Pool Settings | Settings that determine the desktop state, power status when a virtual machine is not in use, display protocol, and so on. For descriptions, see Desktop Pool Settings for All Desktop Pool Types. For a list of the settings that apply to automated pools, see Desktop Settings for Automated Pools That Contain Full Virtual Machines. For more information about power policies and automated pools, see Setting Power Policies for Desktop Pools. |
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| Stop provisioning on error | You can direct Horizon 7 to stop provisioning or continue to provision virtual machines in a desktop pool after an error occurs during the provisioning of a virtual machine. If you leave this setting selected, you can prevent a provisioning error from recurring on multiple virtual machines. | |
| Virtual Machine Naming | Choose whether to provision machines by manually specifying a list of machine names or by providing a naming pattern and the total number of machines. For details, see Naming Machines Manually or Providing a Naming Pattern. |
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| Specify names manually | If you specify names manually, prepare a list of machine names and, optionally, the associated user names. | |
| Naming Pattern | If you use this naming method, provide the pattern. The pattern you specify is used as a prefix in all the machine names, followed by a unique number to identify each machine. For details, see Using a Naming Pattern for Automated Desktop Pools. |
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| Maximum number of machines | If you use a naming pattern, specify the total number of machines in the pool. You can also specify a minimum number of machines to provision when you first create the pool. |
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| Number of spare (powered on) machines | If you specify names manually or use a naming pattern, specify a number of machines to keep available and powered on for new users. For details, see Naming Machines Manually or Providing a Naming Pattern. When you specify names manually, this option is called # Unassigned machines kept powered on. |
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| Minimum number of machines | If you use a naming pattern and provision machines on demand, specify a minimum number of machines in the pool. The minimum number of machines is created when you create the pool. If you provision machines on demand, additional machines are created as users connect to the pool for the first time or as you assign machines to users. |
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| Add a Trusted Platform Module (vTPM) device to the VMs | If you use a virtual machine enabled with VBS, you can add a vTPM device to the virtual machine for enhanced security. After you add a vTPM device, you can select a customization specification that contains the script to turn on BitLocker encryption. In vSphere Client, verify the following prerequisites are met before you add a vTPM device to the automated pool that contains full virtual machines:
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| Use VMware vSAN | Specify whether to use vSAN, if available. vSAN is a software-defined storage tier that virtualizes the local physical storage disks available on a cluster of ESXi hosts. For more information, see Using VMware vSAN for High-Performance Storage and Policy-Based Management. | |
| Template | Select the virtual machine template to use for creating the pool. | |
| vCenter Server folder | Select the folder in vCenter Server in which the desktop pool resides. | |
| Host or cluster | Select the ESXi host or cluster on which the virtual machines run. In vSphere 5.1 or later, you can select a cluster with up to 32 ESXi hosts. |
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| Resource pool | Select the vCenter Server resource pool in which the desktop pool resides. | |
| Datastores | Choose the type of data store:
Note: If you use
vSAN, select only one data store.
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| Use View Storage Accelerator | Determine whether ESXi hosts cache common virtual machine disk data. View Storage Accelerator can improve performance and reduce the need for extra storage I/O bandwidth to manage boot storms and anti-virus scanning I/O storms. This feature is supported on vSphere 5.0 and later. This feature is enabled by default. For details, see Configure View Storage Accelerator for Linked Clones. |
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| Transparent Page Sharing Scope | Select the level at which to allow transparent page sharing (TPS). The choices are Virtual Machine (the default), Pool, Pod, or Global. If you turn on TPS for all the machines in the pool, pod, or globally, the ESXi host eliminates redundant copies of memory pages that result if the machines use the same guest operating system or applications. Page sharing happens on the ESXi host. For example, if you enable TPS at the pool level but the pool is spread across multiple ESXi hosts, only virtual machines on the same host and within the same pool will share pages. At the global level, all machines managed by Horizon 7 on the same ESXi host can share memory pages, regardless of which pool the machines reside in.
Note: The default setting is not to share memory pages among machines because TPS can pose a security risk. Research indicates that TPS could possibly be abused to gain unauthorized access to data in very limited configuration scenarios.
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| Guest customization | Select a customization specification (SYSPREP) from the list to configure licensing, domain attachment, DHCP settings, and other properties on the machines. Alternatively, you can customize the machines manually after they are created.
Note: If you added a vTPM device in the desktop pool settings, you can create a guest customization specification in vSphere Client that contains the script to turn on BitLocker on the virtual machine. When you create the customization specification, you must also select
Automatically logon as Administrator to verify that the administrator can log on at least once to the virtual machine. Then, you can add a command to run the BitLocker script the first time the user logs on.
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