{"id":3443,"date":"2017-04-20T21:59:38","date_gmt":"2017-04-20T17:59:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rakhesh.com\/?p=3443"},"modified":"2017-04-20T22:22:32","modified_gmt":"2017-04-20T18:22:32","slug":"notes-on-mcs-disks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rakhesh.com\/virtualization\/notes-on-mcs-disks\/","title":{"rendered":"Notes on MCS disks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.citrix.com\/blogs\/2011\/06\/28\/machine-creation-services-primer-part-1\/\">Primer 1<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.citrix.com\/blogs\/2011\/08\/05\/machine-creation-services-primer-%E2%80%93-part-2\/\">Primer 2<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.citrix.com\/blogs\/2016\/04\/04\/machine-creation-service-image-preparation-overview-and-fault-finding\/\">MCS Prep overview<\/a>\u00a0(good post, I don&#8217;t refer to all its points below).\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>MCS creates a snapshot of the master VM you specify, but if you specify a snapshot it will not create another one.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>This snapshot is used to create to create a <em>full<\/em> clone. A full snapshot, so to say.\u00a0\n<ul>\n<li>This way the image used by the catalog is independent of the master VM.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>During the preparation of this full snapshot an &#8220;instruction disk&#8221; is attached to the VM that is temporarily created using the full snapshot. This disk enables DHCP on all interfaces of the full snapshot; does some KMS related tasks; and runs vDisk inventory collection if required.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>This full snapshot is stored <em>on each<\/em> storage repository that is used by Desktop Studio.\u00a0\n<ul>\n<li>This full snapshot is shared by all VMs on that storage repository.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Each storage repository will also have an identity disk (16 MB) per VM.<\/li>\n<li>Each storage repository will also have a delta\/ difference disk per VM.\n<ul>\n<li>This is thin provisioned if the storage supports it.<\/li>\n<li>Can increase up to the maximum size of the VM.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Remember <a href=\"https:\/\/rakhesh.com\/citrix\/mcs-choices-ram-cache-disk-cache\/\">my previous post<\/a> on the types:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Random.\n<ul>\n<li>Delta disk is deleted during reboot.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Static + Save changes.\n<ul>\n<li>Changes are saved to a vDisk.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Delta disk not used?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Static + Dedicated VM.\n<ul>\n<li>Delta disk is not deleted during reboot.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Important to keep in mind: if the master image in the catalog is updated, existing VMs do not automatically start using it upon next reboot. Only newly created dedicated VMs use the new image.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>The delta disk is deleted when the master image is updated and existing VMs are made to use the new image (basically, new VMs are created and the delta disk starts from scratch; user customizations are lost).\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Better to use desktop management tools (of the OS) to keep dedicated VMs up to date coz of the above issue.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Static + Discard changes.\n<ul>\n<li>Delta disk is deleted during reboot.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.citrix.com\/blogs\/2015\/11\/16\/sealing-steps-after-updating-a-vdisk\/\">post on sealing the vDisk<\/a> after changes. Didn&#8217;t realize there&#8217;s so many steps to be done.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Primer 1. Primer 2. MCS Prep overview\u00a0(good post, I don&#8217;t refer to all its points below).\u00a0 MCS creates a snapshot of the master VM you specify, but if you specify a snapshot it will not create another one.\u00a0 This snapshot is used to create to create a full clone. A full snapshot, so to say.\u00a0 &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/rakhesh.com\/virtualization\/notes-on-mcs-disks\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Notes on MCS disks<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[657,183],"tags":[710,714],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rakhesh.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3443"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rakhesh.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rakhesh.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rakhesh.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rakhesh.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rakhesh.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3443\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rakhesh.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rakhesh.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rakhesh.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}