Recompose Linked-Clone Virtual Machines in Horizon Console

Machine recomposition simultaneously updates all the linked-clone virtual machines anchored to a golden image virtual machine.

If possible, schedule recompositions during off-peak hours.

Prerequisites

• Verify that you have a snapshot of the golden image virtual machine. See Prepare a Golden Image Virtual Machine to Recompose Linked Clones.
• Familiarize yourself with the recomposition guidelines. See Updating Linked Clones with Recomposition.
• Decide when to schedule the recomposition. By default, View Composer starts the recomposition immediately.

  You can schedule only one recomposition at a time for a given set of linked clones. You can schedule multiple recompositions if they affect different linked clones.

• Decide whether to force all users to log off as soon as the recomposition begins or wait for each user to log off before recomposing that user's linked-clone desktop.

  If you force users to log off, Horizon 7 notifies users before they are disconnected and allows them to close their applications and log off.

• Decide whether to stop provisioning at first error. If you select this option and an error occurs when View Composer provisions a linked clone, provisioning stops for all clones in the desktop pool. You can select this option to ensure that resources such as storage are not consumed unnecessarily.

  Selecting the Stop at first error option does not affect customization. If a customization error occurs on a linked clone, other clones continue to be provisioned and customized.

• Verify that provisioning for the desktop pool is enabled. When desktop pool provisioning is disabled, Horizon 7 stops the desktops from being customized after they are recomposed.
• If your deployment includes replicated Horizon Connection Server instances, verify that all instances are the same version.

Procedure

1. Choose whether to recompose the whole desktop pool or a single machine.

   Option	Action
   Recompose all virtual machines in the desktop pool	In Horizon Console, select Inventory > Desktops. Select the desktop pool to recompose by clicking the pool ID. On the Inventory tab, click Machines. Select all the machine IDs in the left column. Select Recompose from the View Composer drop-down menu.
   Recompose selected virtual machines	In Horizon Console, select Inventory > Machines. Select the machine to recompose by clicking the machine ID in the left column. On the Summary tab, select Recompose from the View Composer drop-down menu.

2. Follow the wizard instructions.
   You can select a new virtual machine to be used as the golden image virtual machine for the desktop pool.

   On the Ready to Complete page, you can click Show Details to display the recomposed linked-clone desktops.

Results

The linked-clone virtual machines are refreshed and updated. The OS disks are reduced to their original size.

In a dedicated-assignment pool, unassigned linked clones are deleted and recreated. The specified number of spare virtual machines is maintained.

In a floating-assignment pool, all selected linked clones are recomposed.

In vCenter Server, you can monitor the progress of the recomposition on the linked-clone virtual machines.

In Horizon Console, you can monitor the operation by selecting Inventory > Desktops, clicking the pool ID, and clicking the Tasks tab. Only administrators with privileges to schedule the task can cancel, pause, or resume the suspended task.

Note: If you used a Sysprep customization specification to customize the linked clones when you created the desktop pool, new SIDs might be generated for the recomposed virtual machines.