By Dale Carter
One of the challenges when deploying VMware Horizon across multiple sites or data centers is how to keep your Gold/Master images in sync and how to get them from one site to another.
In this blog I will show you how you can utilize the new Content Library that is part of vSphere 6 to help manage this challenge.
There is a caveat to using the content library – it does not currently manage VM Snapshots. This blog will also show how you can work around this caveat to make the solution work for your deployments.
The following steps will show you how to create a Content Library and then use the Content Library to move your Gold/Master images between sites.
Create Your Content Library
- Connect to the vCenter Web Client on your home site
- From the home menu select Content Libraries
- Click Create new content library
- Give the library a Name, select the vCenter Server and click Next
- Select Local content library and check the box for Publish content library externally then click Next
- Select the datastore you want to save the content library in and click Next
- Click Finish
- Right-click the new Home library and click Edit Settings
- Click Copy Link and then OK
- Now connect to the web client of the remote vCenter
- From the home menu select Content Libraries
- Click Create new content library
- Give the library a Name, select the vCenter Server and click Next
- Select Subscribed content library. Then paste the link into the first library in the box and click Next
- Select the datastore to save the content library and click Next
- Click Finish
The Content Libraries are now created at each site and are ready to have content published to the library.
The next steps are to publish the Gold/Master image to the home library and then deploy that image in the remote data center.
Publishing the Gold/Master Image
The following steps will show you how to publish the Gold/Master image with the latest Snapshot to the content library.
- Connect to the vCenter Web Client on your home site
- Under VMs and Templates right-click the Gold/Master image and click Clone – Clone to Template in Library
- Give the new template a name, select the correct Library and click Next
The template will now be published to the Content Library and then synced to the remote library. You can speed up the sync by connecting to the remote library, clicking Actions and Synchronize Library.
Publish Template to Remote Site
The following steps will show you how to deploy the new Gold/Master image with the latest Snapshot to the remote site from the content library.
- Connect to the vCenter Web Client on your remote site
- From the home menu select Content Libraries
- Select the Library and click Related Objects
- Right-click the correct template and click New VM from This Template
- Confirm the name of the new VM and the location and click Next
- Select the correct resource and click Next
- Confirm and click Next
- Select the disk format and the datastore location and click Next
- Select the required Network to deploy the VM to and click Next
- Click Finish
The VM will now be deployed to the remote data center. However, there is one last step required before you can use Horizon to deploy new desktops – create a Snapshot for the composer to use.
- Right-click the newly created VM and click Snapshots – Take Snapshot
- Give the Snapshot a name and click OK
The VM is now ready to be used by Horizon to deploy desktops with the latest Gold/Master image.
Dale is a Senior Solutions Architect and member of the CTO Ambassadors. Dale focuses in the End User Compute space, where Dale has become a subject matter expert in a number of the VMware products. Dale has more than 20 years experience working in IT having started his career in Northern England before moving the Spain and finally the USA. Dale currently hold a number of certifications including VCP-DV, VCP-DT, VCAP-DTD and VCAP-DTA.
For updates you can follow Dale on twitter @vDelboy
