White Papers

This document recommends initial deployments and provides deployment profiles for the vCloud Automation Center 6.0 components, including vCloud Application Director 6.0 and IT Business Management 1.0. It also addresses scalability and high availability considerations.


Download: VMware vCloud Automation Center 6.0 Reference Architecture

Large numbers of organizations throughout the world use VMware ThinApp to deliver virtualized applications to end users in centralized virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and RDSH-based environments.


CloudVolumes ThinApp Edition complements ThinApp by enhancing the ease of management, speed of deployment, and responsiveness of applications, all while leveraging existing storage infrastructure.

With CloudVolumes ThinApp Edition, you can utilize any VMware vSphere datastore and make individual ThinApp packages instantly available to users logging in to their virtual desktops, in real time or on demand.

Download the white paper: Enhanced Management and Performance of VMware ThinApp Virtual Applications with CloudVolumes Shared VMDKs

This technical white paper provides best practice guidelines for deploying AD DS on vSphere. The recommendations in this guide are not specific to a particular set of hardware or to the size and scope of a specific AD DS implementation.The examples and considerations in this document provide guidance, but do not represent strict design requirements.

 As the prominent directory service and authentication store, Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) is in the majority of network infrastructures. In some environments AD DS is viewed as another required service, but it does not attract much attention. In other environments AD DS is treated as the business critical application (BCA) that it is.

Considering that the ability to access network resources and the Internet, look up user information, and use email often requires AD DS, it is worth understanding the importance of this service and the stability of its underlying infrastructure. In much the same way that the criticality of AD DS differs from organization to organization, so does the acceptance of virtualizing this service.

More conservative organizations choose to virtualize a portion of the AD DS environment and retain a portion on physical hardware. The cause is typically misinformation, lack of experience in virtualization, or fear of the unknown. With the release of Windows Server 2012, new features alleviate many of the legitimate concerns that administrators have about virtualizing AD DS. These new features, the latest versions of VMware® vSphere® , and recommended practices help achieve 100 percent virtualization of AD DS.

Download: Virtualizing Active Directory Domain Services On VMware vSphere 

In the early days of virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), it was important to run an antivirus (AV) software agent on every virtual machine because each and all were subject to the same threats as physical PCs. These agents performed a useful function, but they consumed CPU, memory, and storage resources to the point where AV scans could interfere with users' ability to work.

The performance problems caused by AV software are compounded in large implementations. When many people log in around the same time, waking up dormant virtual machines and triggering simultaneous antivirus signature updates, the resulting I/O problems—login and AV storms—become time-consuming and inconvenient, to say the least.

Even with improved scheduling and other techniques designed to mitigate their effects, these I/O problems downgrade the typical user experience and precipitate expensive service calls. They are capable of bringing VDI performance to a grinding halt.


VMware vShield Endpoint addresses the problems of antivirus scanning in a large-scale virtual desktop implementation with a better solution: It consolidates and offloads all antivirus and associated operations into a centralized security virtual appliance (SVA), supplied by a VMware partner.

The SVA runs and manages antivirus software as a dedicated virtual machine on the hypervisor, with very small desktop drivers. This replaces dozens or hundreds or thousands of large AV agents on individual virtual desktops.

New technical white paper: Enabling VMware vShield Endpoint  in a VMware Horizon View Environment

The purpose of the hardened virtual appliance operations guide is to address the remaining technical requirements that are site-specific decision required to meet the STIG. This document is intended for advanced level administrators, and should be read before deploying hardened virtual appliances in a production environment.

Hardened Virtual Appliance Operations Guide - Securing the Appliance Base Platform to Meet High Governance Requirements