Patching and Linked Clones View Composer 4.6

[cprawitz]

Can someone please help me understand the process of patching the Gold "Parent Image" and then Recomposing the linked clones.

This is my understanding:

Gold Image  ->

          Snap Shot 1. ->

               Linked Clone Desktop Pool.

To apply software patches, I patch the Gold Image and then Create a new snap shot:

Gold Image ->

          Snap Shot 1. ->

               Linked Clone Desktop Pool ->

                    Snap Shot 2. -> Re-compose pool from this snap shot to give:

Gold Image ->

          Snap Shot 1. ->

                    Snap Shot 2 ->

                         Linked Clone Desktops.

Can I then just delete or remove the Snap Shot 1?

[eeg3]

When you put the snapshot into use, it copies the snapshot to a replica. The actual snapshot itself is then only needed if the replica needs to be created on new datastores.

If you're comfortable you won't need to create any more desktops from the snapshot then you can delete it, even if you have desktops based on it currently since those desktops already have their replica files created. It's usually best to wait to delete the snapshot until all of your desktops are moved off of it, just in case you need to create more desktops from it.

[cprawitz]

So if I have re-composed my desktops from Snapshot 2, Snapshot 1 is no longer needed then and can be deleted, correct? Just want to make sure that I understand completely.

Thanks

[eeg3 · Accepted solution]

Correct. If it's no longer in use, and you don't think you'll need to fall back to the old image, you can delete the snapshot.