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brainshark9350
Contributor
Contributor

How many linked clones can run from a single master?

IS anyone using Linked Clones in Vcenter or anywhere else? We are creating them via powerCLI scripts (found on the net), essentially we take a snapshot of a 'master' template VM and then spin off X number of linked clones from that. I was wondering what the most LCs anyone may be running against a single master? Has anyone seen performance issues?

Thanks

Dave

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JLackman
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Are you talking about virtual servers, or VMware Workstation?  What versions?  My initial response is that there is some risk to this, as if the master is unavailable, none of the linked clones will boot.

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brainshark9350
Contributor
Contributor

yes these are not 1 off servers, these are "worker bee" type servers, so there's lots of them. Therefore if lets say 25 of them are tied to a single master and the master is deleted or corrupted or whatever, and those 25 go down, there are still a couple hundred other of this same server doing its job.

This is in vcenter/vsphere not workstation. these are virtual servers created via a snapshot of the master vm via powercli script.

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JLackman
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I have not done anything like that, but I am not aware of any design limitations on the server side. I cannot find anything conclusive. On the vSphere 5.x maximums document there is no mention of Linked Clones www.vmware.com/pdf/.../r51/vsphere-51-configuration-maximums.pdf. 
Here is an interesting document more related to View; Ray Heffer posting on linked clones
I also glanced through Performance Best Practices for 5.1 and found nothing on the topic.
JL
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