Home > Storage > PowerStore > Virtualization and Cloud > PowerStore: 3,600 VMware Horizon VDI Users > Guests
Windows 10 build 1809 was used for this test. The processor requirements for Windows 10 change based on the build number and patch level. The image was optimized using the VMware OS Optimization Tool. There were two processor cores and 3 GB of RAM assigned to each VM.
One of the best ways to reduce CPU and disk load from a Windows virtual machine is to use the VMware OS Optimization Tool. This tool is a consolidated interface that can be used to change the behavior of virtual machines to reduce their hardware requirements. Be careful if choosing the most-restrictive configurations, which can cause applications or even Windows features to stop working. This tool is designed to reduce the effort of optimizing Windows, but it requires testing of the configuration for all user applications.
Another tool that was mentioned previously in this paper is VMware DEM. This tool redirects user data to one or more file shares that are based on certain conditions. This capability allows directing different types of data to different locations. User-profile data and documents can be pointed to home directories that are replicated with the temporary data of applications that are placed on volumes with no data protection. This approach reduces replication traffic and the overall storage load.
All user profiles were redirected to the unified file shares to capture all user load. The ability of the PowerStore array to host file shares consolidates management and reduces backup complexity. A single storage appliance can host all end-user data.
The applications can be layered using VMware AppVolumes. This greatly improves application management and updating by removing the applications from the base image and managing them independently. For this architecture Adobe Reader was presented using AppVolumes. When an update is required the layered application is updated externally and the updated version is applied to the environment.
Layering applications enables rapid application provision and updating. The individual applications are managed independently with the ability to present groups of applications to user groups. This greatly speeds application deployments to new users or additional applications to existing users.