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nealus
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VM name increment in Automated Pool

Hi,

I'm configuring a Horizon Windows 7 automated pool and want to achieve something which i am not sure can be achieved.

The pool is configured as automated, dedicated and automatic assignment is enabled.  All twenty machines are to be provisioned up front, full clones, and assigned to specific users as required.

My question comes from the recovery of one of the VMs if, for some reason, that VM fails.  My plan was simply to delete the offending VM from the View Admin GUI, and watch as the provisioning task kicks in and provisions a replacement VM from the template. 

This happens, so all good, however the flaw is that View increments the machine name as per my Virtual Machine Naming settings, so I end up with VM-021, instead of recreating the virtual machine I deleted, say VM-013.

I've tried to remove the computer accounts in AD prior to deletion, but the View GUI just wants to create the replacement VM with a later machine number.  My requirement is that the client will want to keep a very specific set of machine names for VDI and if we end up re-provisioning VMs, the numbers will increase accordingly.  Is there a way to get around this and replace my VMs if they get removed or deleted?

Thanks

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PCTechStream
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VMware View appends a number such that you cannot specify the next number. View will always continue from the last number.

EXAMPLE:

If you have VMs numbered 1-10 and you delete anything other than the last VM (delete 1-9) it will continue from the last number, i.e. next one provisioned is numbered 11.

If you have VMs numbered 1-10 and you delete VMs including the last one (delete 5-10) as long as you do not use the option to “remove from View only” it should start at the lowest number present, i.e. next one provisioned is numbered 5.

So it's not a good idea to assign VM to users by name, because when it comes to remove them users will get different VM's name, or optionally you just might wipe out all VMs in the pool & after the recreation complete, re-assign the same VM name to the same user, which I wouldn't do that!

Raul.

VMware VDI Administrator

http://ITCloudStream.com/

www.ITSA.Cloud
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nealus
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Thanks for your reply

"If you have VMs numbered 1-10 and you delete VMs including the last one (delete 5-10) as long as you do not use the option to “remove from View only” it should start at the lowest number present, i.e. next one provisioned is numbered 5"

I've checked the above statement out and you are correct, if I remove the last few VMs it provisions replacements with the same name.

This is strange, as clearly the system is able to provision VMs with the same computer account, but not if you delete with certain conditions.  My use case is due to the clients naming conventions and how they aim to use the full clones.  The clones will all of course be identical with the user profile on top of them, but from a management\administrative perspective we wish to allocate users to virtual desktops and unless there is an issue with that VM, the user retains that VM continuously.  Do you see a problem with this approach?

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PCTechStream
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As long as you enable UEM or Persona, the users will get the same profile settings no matter what VM name they get when logging in. About “Clients Naming Conventions“, yes! It’s possible but you are taking the risk of getting the names all messed up when error or repeated record occur on the database, remember they will skip & you will not always get the names in order. You can try "Manual Pools" NOT a "linked-clone desktop pool". Manual Pools are created from existing desktops. Each desktop in a manual pool is generated from a separate source, whether a VM in vCenter or a physical computer. This pool type enables Horizon management of existing desktops that have the Desktop Agent installed.

Create a Manual Pool That Contains One Desktop

LINK: https://pubs.vmware.com/view-50/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.view.administration.doc%2FGUID-6185B3E...

Raul.

VMware VDI Administrator

http://ITCloudStream.com/

www.ITSA.Cloud
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nealus
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Great - thank you.  This solves the immediate issue.  It is still unclear whether I will need to delete the computer account prior to recreation of the VM but I can do some testing of my own to establish if this is a viable way to proceed.

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nealus
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I note this a GUI feature of 7.2 Horizon and above so no requirement to access ADAM

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