By Ting Liu, End-User Computing Solution Engineer, VMware
View 5.3.1 and later provide support for VMware Virtual SAN 5.5, a component of VMware vSphere 5.5U1. Using View with Virtual SAN 5.5 reduces the total CapEx of storage by up to 50%, which is a huge plus for businesses big and small.
In this blog post, we discuss how to configure storage policies in Virtual SAN for View 5.3.1 desktops. (View desktops in Horizon 6 operate differently.) We already know how to deploy a View pool on Virtual SAN storage. (See the Using a Virtual SAN Datastore in Horizon View section of Horizon View 5.3.1 on VMware Virtual SAN – Quick Start Guide for more.) This blog, on the other hand, shows you how to create a new virtual machine storage policy in Virtual SAN and assign it to the virtual machine template. This can help you keep part of the linked-clone pool’s replica desktop in the SSD storage, which may improve the performance of your linked-clone pool. (For more details on Virtual SAN policies, consult the About Virtual Machine Storage Policies and Working with Virtual SAN chapters in the vSphere Storage guide.)
This blog is split into two parts:
- How to create a new virtual machine storage policy
- How to assign this new policy to the virtual machine template
How to Create a New Virtual Machine Storage Policy
To create a new virtual machine storage policy:
1. Open the VMware vSphere Web Client. The Getting Started pane appears.
Figure 1: VMware vSphere Web Client Getting Started Pane
2. Click Home. The Home pane appears.
Figure 2: Home Pane of vSphere Web Client
3. In the Home pane, under Monitoring, click VM Storage Policies. The VM Storage Policies pane appears.
Figure 3: VM Storage Policies Pane
4. Click the Create a new VM storage policy button to create a new virtual machine storage policy. The Create New VM Storage Policy pane appears.
Figure 4: Create New VM Storage Policy Pane
5. Select your vCenter Server, type a Name and Description (optional), then click Next.
Figure 5: Named VM Storage Policy
The Rule-Sets pane appears.
Figure 6: Rule-Sets Pane
6. Click Next in the Rule-Sets pane. The Rule-Set 1 pane appears.
7. In the Rule-Set 1 pane, select VSAN in the Rules based on vendor-specific capabilities drop-down menu.
Figure 7: Rule-Set 1 Pane
8. Open the <Add capability> drop-down menu. There are five kinds of capabilities. You can find descriptions of the five capabilities in the Virtual SAN and Storage Policy-Based Management section of the Working with Virtual SAN chapter in the vSphere Storage guide.
Figure 8: Rule-Set 1 Pane with Five Capabilities
9. I suggest you add only two capabilities: Flash read cache reservation (%) and Number of failures to tolerate. Flash read cache reservation (%) helps you keep part of the linked-clone pool’s replica desktop in the SSD storage, which may improve the performance of your linked-clone pool. Number of failures to tolerate helps you tolerate more failures, which may improve the reliability of your linked-clone pool. Select Flash read cache reservation (%), type 10, select Number of failures to tolerate, and type 1.
Figure 9: Rule-Set 1 Pane, with Flash Read Cache Reservation (%) Capability Added
10. Click Next. The Matching resources pane appears.
Figure 10: Matching Resources Pane
11. Click Next. The Ready to complete pane appears.
Figure 11: Ready to Complete Pane
12. Click Finish to complete creating the new virtual machine storage policy. The VM Storage Policies pane reappears. The new policy appears in the Objects pane.
Figure 12: Objects Pane
How to Assign This Policy to the Virtual Machine Template
To assign this policy to the virtual machine template:
1. In the vSphere Web Client, select the virtual machine that will be the template of the linked-clone pool (in this case 425GolDes will be the template) and then click the Manage tab. The Settings pane appears. We want to assign the new storage policy to this virtual machine.
Figure 13: Settings Pane
2. Click VM Storage Policies. The VM Storage Policies pane appears. By default there is no VM storage policy assigned.
Figure 14: VM Storage Policies Pane
3. Click the Manage VM Storage Policies button in the upper right of the VM Storage Policies pane (see Figure 14). The Manage VM Storage Policies pane appears.
Figure 15: Manage VM Storage Policies Pane
4. For Home VM storage policy, select the new policy you just created (see Figure 15), and click the Apply to disks button. All disks are assigned the new policy.
Figure 16: All Disks Are Assigned the New Policy
5. Click OK. The VM home is also assigned the new policy. When all the disks of a virtual machine are assigned one policy, the VM home will automatically be assigned the policy. (VM home is the virtual machine configuration files, such as .vmx, .vmsd, and .nvram.)
Figure 17: All the Virtual Machine Storage Policies Change to the New Policy
After you complete these steps, the virtual machine is ready to be the template for your linked-clone pool. When you create your linked-clone pool in the vCenter Settings pane of the Add Desktop Pool wizard, select this virtual machine as your template (see Figure 18).
Figure 18: Creating the Linked-Clone Template in vCenter Settings
Want More?
For more on View 5.3.1 and Virtual SAN 5.5, see Horizon View 5.3.1 Is Here and Supports VMware Virtual SAN and Horizon View 5.3.1 on VMware Virtual SAN – Quick Start Guide.
