When you create an automated desktop pool of full clones, you can configure certain options. Use this worksheet to prepare your configuration options before you create the pool.

Table 1. Worksheet: Configuration Options for Creating an Automated Pool That Contains Full Virtual Machines
Category Option Description
Type Select Automated Desktop Pool.
vCenter Server Select Full Virtual Machines and select the vCenter Server that manages the virtual machines in the pool.
User assignment The following settings determine how end users are assigned to the desktops in this pool.
Select Floating or Dedicated. Choose the type of user assignment:
  • With a floating-assignment full clone, users get a random desktop every time they log in. When a user logs off, the desktop is returned to the pool and another user can log into that desktop.
  • With a dedicated-assignment full clone, each desktop is assigned to a specific user. Once a user is assigned a desktop, no other user can use the desktop. Users receive the same machine each time they log in.
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. See Assign a Machine to a User in a Dedicated-Assignment Pool.
Enable Multi-User Assignment In a dedicated-assignment pool, you can assign multiple users to each machine in the pool.

Multi-user assignment is not supported for automatic user assignment desktop pools.

If an assigned user has a connected or disconnected session on a multi-user assignment machine, other assigned users will be unable to launch a session on that machine. See Assign a Machine to a User in a Dedicated-Assignment Pool.
Storage Optimization Storage Policy Management:
  • Use VMware Virtual SAN
  • Do not use VMware Virtual SAN
 Specify whether to use VMware vSAN, if available. vSAN is a software-defined storage tier that virtualizes the local physical storage disks available on a cluster of ESXi hosts.
Desktop Pool Identification The following settings allow you to identify and describe the pool you are creating.
ID The unique name that identifies the pool in Horizon Console.

If multiple vCenter Servers are running in your environment, make sure that another vCenter Server is not using the same pool ID.

You cannot edit or change the Desktop Pool ID after you create the desktop pool.
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.

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.
Provisioning Settings The following settings allow you to provide details on how the pool is provisioned.
Enable Provisioning You can enable or disable virtual machine provisioning in the desktop pool. When you disable provisioning in the desktop pool, Horizon 8 stops provisioning new virtual machines for the desktop pool. After you disable provisioning, you can enable provisioning again.

Before you change a desktop pool's configuration, you can disable provisioning to ensure that no new machines are created with the old configuration. You can also disable provisioning to prevent Horizon 8 from using additional storage when a pool is close to filling up the available space.

When you first create a desktop pool and disable this option, Horizon 8 creates a desktop pool without any virtual machines. If you edit a desktop pool and disable provisioning, Horizon 8 does not allow any new virtual machines to be provisioned in this desktop pool. End users can still connect to existing virtual machines.
Stop Provisioning on Error You can direct Horizon 8 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.
Specify Names Manually If you specify names manually, prepare a list of machine names and, optionally, the associated user names.
Start machines in maintenance mode
# Unassigned Machines Kept Powered On The number must be a valid integer greater than 0 and less than or equal to the maximum number of names specified. The default is 1.
Use a 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.

Provision Machines:
  • Machines on Demand
  • All Machines Up-Front
 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.

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.

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.

When you specify names manually, this option is called # Unassigned machines kept powered on.

Virtual Device: Add vTPM Device to VMs Select the checkbox to add a Virtual Trusted Platform Module (vTPM) device to VMs.
vCenter Settings The following settings describe vCenter attributes for the pool of desktops.
Virtual Machine Template Select the virtual machine template to use for creating the pool.
VM Folder Location 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.
Resource pool Select the vCenter Server resource pool in which the desktop pool resides.
Datastores Choose the type of datastore:
  • Individual datastore. Select individual datastores on which to store the desktop pool.
  • Storage DRS. Select the Storage Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) cluster that contains shared or local datastores. Storage DRS is a load balancing utility that assigns and moves storage workloads to available datastores.
Note: If you use vSAN, there is only one datastore.
Network Select the network to use for this pool or use the same network as the golden image.
Desktop Pool Settings The following settings determine the desktop state, power status, and display protocol when a virtual machine is not in use.
State
  • Enabled. After being created, the desktop pool is enabled and ready for immediate use.
  • Disabled. After being created, the pool is disabled and not available for use, and provisioning is stopped for the pool. Select this setting if you want to conduct post deployment activities such as testing or other forms of baseline maintenance.
When this state is in effect, remote desktops are unavailable for use.
Connection Server Restrictions
  • No Restrictions. The desktop pool can be accessed by any Connection Server instance.
  • Restrictions to these Tags. Select one or more Connection Server tags to make the desktop pool accessible only to Connection Server instances that have those tags. You can use the check boxes to select multiple tags.

If you intend to provide access to desktops through VMware Identity Manager, and you configure Connection Server restrictions, the VMware Identity Manager app might display desktops to users when those desktops are actually restricted. VMware Identity Manager users will be unable to launch these desktops.

Category Folder Specifies the name of the category folder that contains a Start menu shortcut for the desktop pool entitlement on Windows client devices. For more information, see "Configuring Start Menu Shortcuts for Desktop and Application Pools," in the Setting Up Published Desktops and Applications in Horizon document
Client Restrictions Select whether to restrict access to entitled desktop pools from certain client computers. You must add the names of the computers that are allowed to access the desktop pool in an Active Directory security group. You can select this security group when you add users or groups to the desktop pool entitlement.
Session Type You can enable the VM Hosted Applications feature by selecting the supported session type for the desktop pool:
  • Desktop. Select this option to use the pool as a regular desktop pool. All the virtual machines in the pool can only be used to host desktops.
  • Application. Select this option to use all the virtual machines in the pool to host applications.
  • Desktop and Application. When this option is selected, the virtual machine in the pool can either host a regular desktop session or host an application session. The first connection to the particular virtual machine will determine the session type of the virtual machine.

For more information about the VM Hosted Applications feature, see the technical marketing white paper "Best Practices for Published Applications and Desktops in VMware Horizon and VMware Horizon Apps" available at https://techzone.vmware.com.
Remote Machine Power Policy Determines how a virtual machine behaves when the user logs off of the associated desktop.

For descriptions of the power-policy options, see Power Policies for Desktop Pools.

For more information about how power policies affect automated pools, see How Power Policies Affect Automated Desktop Pools.
Log Off After Disconnect
  • Immediately. Users are logged off when they disconnect.
  • Never. Users are never logged off.
  • After. The time after which users are logged off when they disconnect. Type the duration in minutes.

    The logoff time applies to future disconnections. If a desktop session is already disconnected when you set a logoff time, the logoff duration for that user starts when you set the logoff time, not when the session was originally disconnected. For example, if you set this value to 5 minutes, and a session was disconnected 10 minutes earlier, Horizon 8 will log off that session 5 minutes after you set the value.

Bypass Session Timeout (Application and Desktop and Application session types) Enable this setting to allow application sessions to run forever. When enabled, all the application sessions belonging to the desktop pool will never be disconnected automatically, neither when reaching the max session timeout nor when reaching the global idle timeout.

This setting is available when you select session types Application and Desktop or Application.

Application sessions that run forever are supported on Windows and Linux clients.

You cannot enable this setting if any of the applications belonging to the desktop pool is part of Global Application Entitlement as local pools.

This setting is not available for application pools in a cloud pod architecture environment.

Application sessions that run forever are not supported for unauthenticated users.

Do not enable this setting if the max session timeout value is set to Never.

When you restart Connection Server, existing forever running application sessions no longer run indefinitely.
Allow Users to Restart Machines Allow users to reset or restart their own desktops.
Empty session timeout (Applications only) Determines the amount of time that an empty application session is kept open. An application session is empty when all the applications that run in the session are closed. While the session is open, users can open applications faster. You can save system resources if you disconnect or log off empty application sessions. Select Never, Immediate, or set the number of minutes as the timeout value. The default is After 1 minute. If you select Immediate, the session logs off or disconnects within 30 seconds. You can further reduce the time the session logs off or disconnects by editing a registry key on the RDS Host on which Horizon Agent is installed. Navigate to 
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc.\VMware VDM\Plugins\wssm\applaunchmgr\Params
and set a value for WindowCheckInterval. The default value is 20000. This means that the poll for the empty session check is every 20 seconds, which sets the maximum time between the last application session close and session log off to 40 seconds. You can change this value to 2500. This means that the poll for the empty session check is every 2.5 seconds, which sets the maximum time between the last application close and session log off to 5 seconds.
Pre-launch session timeout (Applications only) Determines the timeout for the application session before the session is disconnected or logged off.
When timeout occurs (Applications only) Determines whether an empty application session is disconnected or logged off after the Empty session timeout limit is reached. Select Disconnect or Log off. A session that is logged off frees up resources, but opening an application takes longer. The default is Disconnect.
Show Assigned Machine Name Displays the host name of the assigned machine instead of the desktop pool display name when you log in to Horizon Client.

If no machine is assigned to the user, then Display Name (No Machine Assigned) appears for the desktop pool when you log in to Horizon Client.
Show Machine Alias Name Displays the machine alias name set for the assigned users of the machine instead of the desktop display name for the desktop pool in Horizon Client. Applies only to dedicated desktop entitlements.

If no machine alias name is set but the Show Assigned Machine Name is set, then the machine host name appears for the desktop pool in Horizon Client. Otherwise, the desktop display name appears for the desktop pool in Horizon Client.
Delete machine on Logoff Select whether to delete floating-assignment, full clone virtual machines.
  • No. Virtual machines remain in the desktop pool after users log off.
  • Yes. Virtual machines are powered off and deleted as soon as users log off.

This option is not applicable for dedicated-assignment, full clone virtual machines.
Remote Display Settings The following settings describe how the desktops will be displayed to the end-users.
Default Display Protocol VMware Blast. The VMware Blast Extreme protocol is built on the H.264 protocol and supports the broadest range of client devices, including smart phones, tablets, ultra-low-cost PCs, and Macs, across any network.

PCoIP. PCoIP is supported as the display protocol for virtual and physical machines that have Teradici hardware. PCoIP provides an optimized PC experience for the delivery of images, audio, and video content for a wide range of users on the LAN or across the WAN.

Microsoft RDP. Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) uses RDP to transmit data. RDP is a multichannel protocol that allows a user to connect to a computer remotely.
Allow Users to Choose Protocol Allow users to override the default display protocol for their desktops in Horizon Client.
3D Renderer You can configure the 3D Renderer to use software rendering or hardware rendering based on physical GPU graphics cards installed on hosts.

If you select RDP as the Default Display Protocol, you must enable the Allow users to choose protocol setting (select Yes) to enable 3D rendering. If the default display protocol is RDP and you disable the Allow users to choose protocol setting (select No), the 3D rendering option is disabled.

With the hardware-based 3D Renderer options, users can take advantage of graphics applications for design, modeling, and multimedia. With the software 3D Renderer option, users can take advantage of graphics enhancements in less demanding applications such as AERO, Microsoft Office, and Google Earth. For more details, see Configuring 3D Rendering for Full-Clone Virtual Machine Pools.

When you edit this setting, you must power off existing virtual machines, verify that the machines are reconfigured in vCenter Server, and power on the machines to cause the new setting to take effect. Restarting a virtual machine does not cause the new setting to take effect.
VRAM Size The amount of 3D VRAM allocated to each desktop.
Maximum Number of Monitors If you select PCoIP or VMware Blast as the display protocol, you can select the maximum number of monitors on which users can display the desktop.

You can select up to four monitors.

When the 3DRenderer setting is not selected, the Max number of monitors setting affects the amount of VRAM that is assigned to machines in the pool. When you increase the number of monitors, more memory is consumed on the associated ESXi hosts.

Multiple monitors are best supported at a lower resolution. Select fewer monitors if you select a higher resolution.

When you edit the pool, you must power off and on existing virtual machines for this setting to take effect. Restarting a virtual machine does not cause the setting to take effect.
Maximum Resolution of Any One Monitor If you select PCoIP or VMware Blast as the display protocol, you should specify the maximum resolution of any one monitor.

The maximum resolution of any one monitor is set to 1920 x 1200 pixels by default, but you can configure this value.

When the 3D Renderer setting is not selected, the Max resolution of any one monitor setting affects the amount of VRAM that is assigned to machines in the pool. When you increase the resolution, more memory is consumed on the associated ESXi hosts.

Multiple monitors are best supported at a lower resolution. Select fewer monitors if you select a higher resolution.

When you edit the pool, you must power off and on existing virtual machines for this setting to take effect. Restarting a virtual machine does not cause the setting to take effect.
Allow Session Collaboration Select Enabled to allow users of the desktop pool to invite other users to join their remote desktop sessions. Session owners and session collaborators must use the VMware Blast protocol.
Advanced Storage Options The following settings are for advanced storage options.
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 enabled by default.
Note: Horizon Console does not save the blackout times if you add or delete blackout times and then disable View Storage Accelerator.
Regenerate Storage Accelerator After Select the number of days to regenerate the Storage Accelerator. Add blackout days and times in the Set Blackout Days window.
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 VMware Horizon 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.
Guest Customization Guest customization Select a customization specification (SYSPREP) from the list to configure licensing, domain attachment, DHCP settings, and other properties on the machines. You can only select a customization specification that matches the guest operating system of the template.

Alternatively, you can customize the machines manually after they are created.

Allow Reuse of Existing Computer Accounts Select this option to use existing computer accounts in Active Directory when the virtual machine names of new instant clones match the existing computer account names. See Allow Reuse of Existing Computer Accounts.