VMware Horizon uses desktop pools as its basis of centralized management. In Horizon, you create pools of virtual machines and select settings that give all the machines in a pool a common desktop definition. Horizon can then deliver the desktops to end users via Horizon Clients. Horizon can deliver desktops from single-user virtual desktop machines, which can be virtual machines that are managed by vCenter Server, virtual machines that run on another virtualization platform, or physical computers.
You create a desktop pool from one of the following sources:
- A virtual machine that runs on a virtualization platform other than vCenter Serverthat supportsHorizon Agent.
- Physical desktop PC.
- A virtual machine that is hosted on an ESXi host and managed by vCenter Server.
- A session-based desktop on an RDS host. For more information about creating desktop pools from an RDS host, see the Setting Up Published Desktops and Applications in Horizon document.
Types of Desktop Pools
Dedicated-assignment pools
Each user is assigned a particular remote desktop and returns to the same desktop at each login. Dedicated assignment pools require a one-to-one desktop-to-user relationship. For example, a pool of 100 desktops are needed for a group of 100 users.
Floating-assignment pools
Using floating-assignment pools also allows you to create a pool of desktops that can be used by shifts of users. For example, a pool of 100 desktops could be used by 300 users if they worked in shifts of 100 users at a time. The remote desktop is optionally deleted and re-created after each use, offering a highly controlled environment.
Desktop Pools
With single-user desktops, each virtual machine allows a single end-user connection at a time. In contrast, with session-based desktops, one RDSH server can accommodate many concurrent user connections.
We will walk through the process of creating an Instant Clone Desktop Pool. A clone is a copy of a parent VM with a unique identity of its own, including a MAC address, UUID, and other system information. The VMware Instant Clone Technology improves and accelerates the process of creating cloned VMs over the previous View Composer linked-clone technology. In addition, instant clones require less storage and less expense to manage and update because the desktop is deleted when the user logs out, and a new desktop is created using the latest parent VM image.