Submit a User Solution : Linked Clones implementation for VMware VDI environment at UC Santa Barbara, ResNet : Comments

RE: Linked Clones implementation for VMware VDI environment at UC Santa Barbara, ResNet

lamw — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 16:59:16 GMT

Forgot to mention, you can also find more scripts/resources located at:

http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/

RE: Linked Clones implementation for VMware VDI environment at UC Santa Barbara, ResNet

miji2 — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 20:43:56 GMT

In Step 6, would you not have to sysprep all child VMs? Or would you recommend sysprep'ping the parent VM before "sealing" it?

RE: Linked Clones implementation for VMware VDI environment at UC Santa Barbara, ResNet

duonglt — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 03:17:12 GMT

Hi, sorry for the late reply. We do not employ sysprep here but have read a bit about how to implement it in an environment with physical PCs. The parent VM (the image that the link clones are based off of) is the one that should be sysprepp'd before running the linked clone script in step 3. Hope this helps.

RE: Linked Clones implementation for VMware VDI environment at UC Santa Barbara, ResNet

cookieme — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:41:09 GMT

Hi don't you run into networking and security issues if you don't use sysprep? I mean aren't all the child VMs identical following your procedure above? You say that you don't employ sysprep, so are you using some other tool or just leaving the child VMs as they are after they've been created?

Thanks

RE: Linked Clones implementation for VMware VDI environment at UC Santa Barbara, ResNet

lamw — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:44:33 GMT

We're using some scripts/tools we've developed in house to do the 'magic' to customize all Linked Clones VM(s) so they're unique ... else they would cause conflicts and we would not be able to add them to AD.

=========================================================================
William Lam
VMware vExpert 2009
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/
vGhetto Script Repository
VMware Code Central - Scripts/Sample code for Developers and Administrators
VMware Developer Comuunity
Twitter: @lamw

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RE: Linked Clones implementation for VMware VDI environment at UC Santa Barbara, ResNet

duonglt — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 17:16:28 GMT

And to add to this, when any system is joined to the domain, a new SID is generated for it.

VMware ESX 3.x and ESXi Scripts & Resources:
http://www.engr.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware

RE: Linked Clones implementation for VMware VDI environment at UC Santa Barbara, ResNet

cookieme — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 17:25:34 GMT

Thank you both for you replies! If I'm going to do this in a workgroup environment (<5 virtual desktops) what is the recommended way to do the "magic"? To use sysprep? Do you perform the magic on the parent VM before making linked clones or after clones are created?

Also, in your lab environment you have setup the linked clones to be non-persistent by running a cronjob to revert any changes. I'm curious but how do you prevent the logged in users making any changes before this refresh? Do you somehow lock down the linked clones, so that all a user can do is access certain apps and their documents? Are you using anything fancy for this like Faronics Deep Freeze or something else?

RE: Linked Clones implementation for VMware VDI environment at UC Santa Barbara, ResNet

cookieme — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:26:50 GMT

Hi another question about your linked clones implementation.

I had a look through the ghetto-esx-linked-clones.sh to try and understand what it does to create the linked clones. Does it simply create new virtual machines without creating new disks and then point to the mastervm.vmdk? Or is the script doing something more complicated? The reason I'm asking is that I'm trying to understand how the child VMs are "linked clones". Are they "clones" because their .vmx files are the same (but different MAC and UUID)?
Are they "linked" because they use an existing vmdk of another vm?

RE: Linked Clones implementation for VMware VDI environment at UC Santa Barbara, ResNet

lamw — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:26:58 GMT

This doc is definitely out of date but the concepts/definitions between a thick and linked clones still hold true and should help you understand the differences: http://www.vmware.com/support/ws5/doc/ws_clone_overview.html

Here's another great article on how Linked Clones work (this is how LC's work in VMware View VDI solution ) http://rodos.haywood.org/2008/12/storage-analysis-of-vmware-view.html