Persistent disk alternative on Horizon 8

[ReinaldoJDamiao]

Hi All,

does anyone know any good alternative solution for persistent disks on Horizon 8 using Instant Clones? I would like to avoid the usage of any file share infrastructure to store user profiles.

Thanks,

Reinaldo Damiao

[sjesse]

Appvolumnes writeable volumes is the only thing I can think of currently, that stores vmdk files in datastores instead of fileshare.

[Najtsob]

But writeable volumes were discouraged for profile management the last time I was talking with some VDI experts. DEM is pushed as the best solution, but I am not really convinced. 

Persistent disks were overall the best solution for user profiles in my opinion. 

[Emilian]

Hi,

You can use Microsoft FSLogix:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/fslogix/install-ht

There is an article on TechZone describing: "Integrating FSLogix Profile Containers with VMware Horizon"

https://techzone.vmware.com/resource/integrating-fslogix-profile-containers-vmware-horizon

[ReinaldoJDamiao]

thanks for the tip sjesse, I will look further into it (appvolumes with vmdk support for profiles). Do you have any additional information that could point me in the right direction, like any white paper, or a demo?

@Najtsob do you know why appvolumes were discouraged?

I believe that FSLogix and DEM uses a file share infrastructure as a requirement, which is what I am trying to avoid.

[Najtsob]

@ReinaldoJDamiao 
There wasn't single definitve answer why not appvolumes. 

It was more along the lines that writable volumes were afterthought and never fully developed/finnished. 
And I can confirm that they indeed have a big set of issues at least in version 3.x. I have yet to test version 4. They work fine in smal deployment but there are quite few issues when you have 1000+ desktops with all kind of weird applications.

Basically I can compare two quite simillar environments, one with linked clones and persistend disks and another with instant clones and writable volumes and I can say that linked clones with data disks overall works more reliable. 

[sjesse]

They can be issues at small deployments too. The requirement for no file shares is pretty restricting which is why I recommended app volumes. Almost anything else needs a file share in one way or another. 

[sjesse]

I would recommend fslogix profile containers more, they work better and most people are recommending them, but you put the vhd disks on a file share.