The NDA for VMware View 4.5 has been lifted and we talk a little bit about an important new storage feature released with View 4.5 – Tiered Storage. Tiered Storage allow administrators to select the most adequate Datastore for a given type of disk (.vmdk) and/or workload.
VMware View Composer works with base images as follows:
- Master Replica – The Master Replica is a one off for each SOE used as template. Unless the homework has not been properly done there shouldn’t be many Master Replicas.
- Replica – The replica is a thin provisioned clone of the Master Replica. It is created for each new desktop pool in each datastore and it’s based on the snapshot in use at any given desktop pool.
- Linked Clone – is composed of Delta Footprint + Log + User Data Disk.
VMware View 4.5 introduces the following new disks:
- Persistent Disk – This is the old User Data Disk that has been renamed. It is still possible to store the persistent disk within the Guest OS disk, or in a separate disk.
- Disposable Disk – A separate disk for the guest OS paging and temp files, View Manager deletes these disposable files when the linked clone is powered off.
The Linked Clone virtual desktops are now composed of Delta Footprint + Log + Persistent Disk + Disposable Disk, therefore the new storage calculation formula has also changed to:
Total Storage = (n° VMs * (Delta Footprint + Log + Persistent Disk + Disposable Disk) + Replica + Master Replica + Overhead)
Linked Clones with disposable disks can slow the growth of linked clones. Be aware that you will now be assigning a Disposable fixed size disk upfront and this should be included in the calculations. When you configure a linked-clone pool from a parent virtual machine, make sure you configure a disposable-file disk that is larger than the paging-file size.
As I mentioned, VMware View 4.5 allow administrators to select different Datastores, where different types of virtual disks (linked clone, persistent and disposable) can be stored on fast, high-I/O storage, e.g., enterprise solid state disk drives (ESSDD) or Fibre Channel, and less accessed data onto less-expensive drives such as SAS or SATA. High-I/O storage will provide better performance for View Composer replicas that are constantly accessed (read-only) by all virtual desktops in the pool.
Administrators are able to choose these options during the initial setup of the desktop pool. Datastores can be changed and/or re-assigned after the initial setup, but be aware that the selection to use Persistent Disks and Disposable disks can only be done during the initial setup of the desktop pool.
The ability to designate a Datastore dedicated to replica disks is IMHO one of the most important storage improvements in VMware View 4.5 and will allow for much greater I/O performance.
VMware View 4.5 yet presents some additional new features:
- Windows 7 Support 32/64-Bit
- Smart Card Support for PCoIP
- Local Mode Desktop
- A native Mac Client
- Kiosk Mode
- Automated USB Redirection
- Location based printing
- Client localisation (German, Japanese, French, Simple Chinese)
- Adobe Flex UI Administrator interface
- Higher broker scalability
- Role based delegation
- SysPrep support for Linked Clone desktop pools
- Persistent disk management
- Refresh, Recompose and storage rebalance for non-persistent pools
- Semi-automatic pools
- Extensibility with Powershell, SCOM and SDK’s, Event database
- System Dashboard, User diagnostics and troubleshooting
- ThinApp entitlement
- Smart Card revocation
- Support for vSphere and vCenter version 4.1