best practices for creating vmware view golden master images
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© 2009 VMware Inc. All rights reserved
“Golden Master” Best Practices with View
Matthew Honigford – Technical Account Manager, VMware
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Best Practices for creating “Golden” images
Can be broken up into two main parts:
•Optimizing the VM within ESX
•Optimizing the Windows OS
Best Practices for creating “Golden” images
Optimizing the VM within ESX
Optimizing the VM within ESX
•Use Hardware Version 7
•Use as few vCPU’s as possible while still maintaining good user
experience
• Ensure average CPU usage is less than 70%
• Ensure %RDY counter is less than 10%
•Change the default SCSI controller
• Default for Windows XP is BusLogic
• Change to LSI Logic Parallel
• Download LSI_U320_W2003_IT_MID1011438.zip from www.lsi.com
• Create .flp file using WinImage or other disk imaging tool to create virtual floppy
Optimizing the VM within ESX
Disable Virtual Machine Logging
• Change Parameter through GUI (shown below) or modify .vmx file to reflect
logging = “FALSE”
Optimizing the VM within ESX
Disable Serial and Parallel Ports
• Edit Boot Options to boot into BIOS
• In BIOS, go to Advanced I/O Device Configuration and disable serial and
parallel ports. Press F10 to save changes and Exit
Optimizing the VM within ESX
•Align .VMDK to 64K block
• Use mbralign, fdisk in ESX service console, diskpart, or vOptimizer
• Since the ―free‖ option is diskpart…
• Once VM is created, mount .VMDK on another Windows System (Don’t format it or do
anything crazy to it)
• Open a command prompt and run
• diskpart select disk 1 (assuming you only have 1 .VMDK file already)
• diskpart create partition align=64
• Exit the command prompt and shut the VM down
• Remove the .VMDK (don’t delete it)
• Install Windows using standard method
• Press F6 to install driver from floppy, mount floppy image and load LSI logic
Driver (not required for Windows 7)
Best Practices for creating “Golden” images
Optimizing the Windows OS
Windows OS Optimizations
• Install VMware Tools
• Install Windows Patches, then turn OFF Automatic Update
•Disable Serial and Parallel ports in Device Manager (if they exist)
•Set Screensaver to “None” or “Blank”
•Disable System Sounds (Set Sound scheme to “None”)
• (Windows 7) Uninstall Tablet PC Components
Windows OS Optimizations
•Disable Windows Error Reporting
•Remove unnecessary boot applications (Quicktime, Real, Adobe
Acrobat Updater, etc.
•Remove unneeded Windows components (Outlook Express,
Messenger, Games, etc.)
•Disable unnecessary services
File System
•Disable NTFS “Last Accessed” option
• fsutil behavior set disablelastaccess 1 (Requires reboot)
•Disable Windows Prefetcher
• [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session
Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters\EnablePrefetcher];
• Set the value to 0 (Disable)
•Disable System Restore
• Right Click ―My Computer‖ Properties, ―System Restore‖ tab and select
―Turn off System Restore‖
•Disable Indexing
• Double Click ―My Computer, Right click on C:\ Properties Click ―General‖
tab and clear ―Allow Indexing Service to Index…‖
More File System
•Disable Offline Files
•Disable scheduled or background Defrag
•Disable Windows Search
•Disable Windows Disk Optimizer
•Adjust the disk timeout value
• [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Disk]
• ―TimeOutValue‖=REG_DWORD:0×000000be(190)
•Use User Profile Hive Cleanup Service to help prevent profile
corruption
Power Settings
•Disable hibernation
•Change power settings to “High Performance” and disable sleep
timer
•Set HDD’s to “Never” turn off
• Open Control Panel Power Options Change Plan Settings Click
Change Advanced power settings set "Turn off hard disks after" setting to
Never
•Disable the Logon Screen Saver
• HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop
• Edit ScreenSaverActive and change value to 0
Disable Notifications
•Disable logging of informational Printing events
• Open ―Printers and Faxes‖, Click File Server Properties Advanced and
clear ―Log spooler informational events‖
•Disable Success Logging (login attempts, etc.)
• Only do this if security policy allows it
•Disable Toolbar Notifications
•Disable the Windows XP Tour Notifier
•Disable Balloon Tips
•Shrink Event Logs and enable circular logging (registry keys)
•Disable Desktop Cleanup Wizard
Internet Explorer
•Disable “Use Suggested Sites”
•Set home page to Intranet site, or blank, or something lightweight
•Change IE to prevent programs from suggesting a change of the
search provider
•Remove Webslice gallery and suggested sites from Toolbars on IE
•Add “trusted sites” as necessary
•Shrink the IE Temp File size
Common Applications
• Install Adobe Flash Player (turning off automatic updates)
• Install Adobe Reader and set to “Do not download or install updates
automatically”
•Turn Java Updater off
•Remove MS OneNote tray service (if installed)
•Turn off Outlook Cached Mode
•Remove the Language Bar
• Regsvr32.exe /u msutb.dll
General OS Environment
•Set Pagefile to static size
•Change the default Windows Theme to “Basic”
•Adjust visual effects for “Best Performance”
•Enable ClearType Fonts
•Turn off Windows Security Center
•Turn off Automatic Computer Maintenance
•Disable “Allow users to browse for troubleshooters”
•Disable “Allow troubleshooting to begin immediately when started”
Network Optimizations
•Disable NetBIOS over TCP/IP
•Disable IPv6
•Join Master Image to Domain (if using View Composer)
•Add any necessary DNS suffixes
•Add any necessary HOSTS entries for “custom” applications
•Disable Automatic Searching of Network Printers and Shares
When it’s all said and done, a few last steps
•Optimize the Registry
• RegScrub.exe – Registry Cleaner
• NTRegOpt.exe – Registry Optimizer, removing ―white‖ space in registry
•Run disk cleanup
•Defrag the HDD
•Delete all event logs
•Make the User profile the Default Profile
•Windows 7, ensure KMS server is enabled
•Make sure Floppy and CD-ROM drives are set to “Client Device” and
not set to “Connect at Power On”
View 4.0 Design Considerations
General View Best Practices
Validate size of User Data Disk
• Provisioning too little disk for UDD can be detrimental
• Outlook .OST will likely end up on UDD in Outlook cached mode (and UDDs are
difficult to resize)
Validate the cost and performance tradeoffs of Cached Outlook mode for VDI
• Adjust browser cache size to lowest useful setting
Exclude Java Message Bus folder from AV scanner
• C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware View\Server\MessageBus
Avoid running concurrent AV scans
• Full systems scans cause major performance impacts
• Stagger full systems scans (when full system scans are a corporate standard)
Pool Design: View VM Memory Considerations
VM Swap size and storage
VM Density
Windows pagefile
Memory for Apps
Balance between paging and
VM Swap file size
VM
Memory
Size
•VM Swap size = VM RAM
•Local vs. shared datastore
•Size of delta disk
•IOPS
•TPS Optimization
•Disk consumption
Pool Design: Pool Type Considerations
User installed
apps
• Will users need to install apps?
User initiated machine changes
• Are users modifying registry keys or environment variables?
Available disk
space
• Is disk space inexpensive or plentiful?
Pool Type
Common Pool Types:
•Persistent/non-persistent
•Linked clone/non-linked clone
VI Design: View Block—vCenter and Clusters
vCenter Servers
Cluster Hosts
Cluster Settings
• One VC per 2,000 (VI4.x)
desktops
• Max Eight ESX hosts per
cluster serving linked clones
• Leave room for failover and
maintenance
• Keep within DRS limits (1280)
• 100 (160 ESX 4 U1) VMs per
host for HA
vCenter and
Cluster
Design
Example View Block and Pod Architecture
VI Design: ESX Server Considerations
RAM• Density and
cost
pNICs
• VMs/pNIC/VLANs
• 1GBE vs. 10GBE
• Storage network (NFS/iSCSI)
Storage• Type/protocol
• Size and Quantity
• Performance
ESX Server
Considerations
Higher density DIMMs
increase price
10GBE cost dropping
NFS—Best performance
with jumbo frames
Local disk—good storage
location for vSwp files
iSCSI vendors
optimizing performance
Balance CPU and
memory needs
Blades have
emerged as ideal
platform for hosting
virtual desktops
1 Port group per VLAN ID
Storage Design: Sizing Considerations
Linked Clone Pool datastore size=
Replica VM VMDK size
+ (Desktop VM Memory Provisioned * 2)
+ (Parent VM VMDK * 25%)
+ Log File storage size
* Number of VMs per Datastore
+ Datastore free space allocation
10GB (Same as
Parent VM)
VM Swap and
Windows PF
Growth for delta
files
~100 MB
Max per LUN: 64
15% overheadConservative
Conservative
Operational Best Practices
Operations Common Sense
• Don’t reboot all VMs during operational hours
• Perform Refresh and Recompose operations on a schedule, during off-peak
times
• Track or limit user initiated changes, or plan on increasing cluster capacity over
time
User Application Virtualization to save on application licensing
costs
• Don’t include licensed apps in the base image whenever possible
Use an image build tool (i.e., MDT)
• Structured build process and predefined modules drives consistency, fewer
untracked changes
Keep master image metadata outside of View/VI
• Create and enforce strong naming conventions for Parent VMs and snapshots
Operational Best Practices
DHCP
• Adjust default lease time (MS DHCP) from 8 days to 1 hour
• Release DHCP script for floating pools that refresh on logoff
VLAN Usage
• Avoid ―overloading‖ VLANs used for View desktops to avoid running out of IP
addresses
This situation is difficult to troubleshoot
vCenter Management
• Do not allow a vCenter VM to manage the ESX host it’s running on
Recommendations
User Data and Persona Management
• Use folder redirection for My Documents
Easier to use existing file archival system, maintain multiple file versions
• Evaluate Profile Management Applications
Turn off Outlook Cached Mode
• VMs on same high speed network don’t benefit as much from cached mode
• Save on disk space and conserve storage IOPS
Never P2V a physical machine for a View master image
• It would be more efficient to build a VM from scratch
References
• http://www.emc.com/collateral/software/white-papers/h7168-performance-
optimization-windows-xp-vdi-wp.pdf
EMC Document on optimizing Windows XP
• http://www.creedtek.com/?p=37
Some Best Practices for tuning Windows 7
• www.VDI.COM
Independent online gathering of VDI gurus
• www.vmware.com
• VMware corporate web site. Collection of Best Practices guides, sizing guides,
and white papers
Q & A
Thank You!