First of all, let me emphasize how cool the VMware Flings portal is. Most of you will probably know it already. But to whom that don’t know it yet, please check it.
Basically, VMware developers get the chance to work on side projects to create “Flings” that they think is cool or a great addition to current products.
Some of the flings, I have used before and still use them as they make life more easy. Horizon Toolbox (previously know as View Auditing Portal) is one of them. It is a web portal that serves as an extension to the View Admin portal. For instance, extended information on a per-session basis or extended usage information can be displayed in it. A must-have for admins that don’t use vRealize Operations to check in-depth statistics in View. The tool can be found here.
Time to talk about my favorite fling, the Operating System optimization tool.
View admins know it: the biggest challenge in creating a smooth and highly scalable View environment is building the right template or golden image for the job.
When a template or golden image is build and configured in the right way, provisioning clones is easy. In just a couple of minutes, multiple clones are provisioned, customized and ready to be delivered to the end user. Unfortunately, achieving this can be a challenge.
Of course, VMware has an optimization guide that has the commands batch file attached that will do a lot of optimizing for you.
The document is updated as new Windows Operating Systems as released, but it doesn’t deliver you any flexibility or insight regarding the optimization of your source virtual machine. That’s where the awesome Operating System optimization tools comes in.
The OS optimization tool is a single .exe file that needs to be run inside the source VM. It analyzes the VM to check which of the optimization settings can be set on the source VM. It displays the optimization settings in different categories and shows extended information per setting.
As this tool only manages the optimization settings like disabling services or change registry keys, it is still needed to perform the rest of the deployment as usual like windows updates. The tool has been released in 2014 and has been updated to support Windows 8. I also use it on Windows 8.1, which works like a charm.
Take note that the OSOT tool will help you building the right optimal template or golden image, but you still need to know which settings are best for your situation.
A special thanks to Jack McMichael @jackwmc4 for creating the fling.
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