The system provides low-performance, medium-performance, and high-performance VDI image source VMs by default. Additionally, the system also allows you to select the VDI configuration customized in Flavor configuration.
From the navigation pane, select Images > Desktop Images.
Click the Image Source VMs tab. Click Create.
On the page that opens, select image type VDI, configure the image source VM parameters, and click OK.
Host: Select the host where the image source VM resides.
Image Type: Specify the desktop architecture type that the image applies to. Available options include VDI, IDV, and VOI.
Type: Specify a disk type for the image source VM. Available options include File, Create RBD, and Block. Options for the File type include New File or Existing File. When an active RBD storage pool exists on the host, the default is Create RBD. In the other cases, the default is New File.
New File: For the VM, a file is a disk based on a virtual disk file. This disk type is more manageable than the block device disk type. If you select this option, an empty storage file is created as the disk of the VM.
Create RBD: If you select this option, create an RBD as the disk of the VM in an RBD storage pool.
Existing File: Specify an existing storage volume that is not used by other VMs. You can select a volume from the local file directory, shared file system, or network file system storage pool as the disk of the VM.
Block: A block device is also called a raw device that does not have a file system, for example, a storage LUN on an IP SAN or FC SAN. Block devices are typically used in a virtualization environment that requires high performance, for example, databases and high-performance I/O compute. Select this option to an existing storage volume that is not used by other VMs as the disk for the VM. You can select a volume from the RBD, iSCSI, FC, or LVM logic storage pool as the disk of the VM.
Path: The path acts as the storage path for the image source VM file rather than the final desktop image. The /vms/images and /vms/isos paths are local paths. As a best practice, select another path in case that the local directory space is insufficient.
Automatic Driver Upgrade: With this feature enabled, when the version of the agent installed in the VM operating system is earlier than the version provided by Space Console, the agent is automatically upgraded. With this feature disabled, the agent cannot be automatically upgraded. By default, the system upgrades the agent for VMs with the Automatic Driver Upgrade feature enabled at 1:00 AM every day. The upgrade time is determined by the local time of each VM. To upgrade the agent at the same time for all VMs, enable time synchronization. ARM hosts do not support automatic driver upgrade in the current software version.
Flavor: Specify the configuration of the image source VM. You can select the system-default VDI configuration or a self-defined VDI configuration defined in Flavor configuration. Flavor configuration specifies the CPU, memory, and system disk size for the image source VM. When creating a new VDI desktop, you cannot modify the flavor-related parameters, including CPU, memory, and system disk size. To do that, create a VDI-type flavor in the flavor configuration or modify the system-default low-performance, medium-performance, or high-performance flavor.
Operating Mode: Set the CPU operating mode. Options include Compatible, Host Matching, and Passthrough. By default, the CPU operating mode is Compatible.
Compatible: Virtualizes physical CPUs of different models into vCPUs of the same model. This mode feature high migration compatibility.
Host Matching: Virtualizes physical CPUs of different models into vCPUs of different models. This mode features low migration compatibility but provides better performance for VM operating systems than the Compatible mode.
Passthrough: Directly passes physical CPUs to VMs. This mode features low migration compatibility but provides better performance for VM operating systems than the Compatible mode and Host Matching mode. VMs using the passthrough CPU operating mode can be migrated only between hosts with the same CPU model. ARM hosts support only the passthrough mode.
Simulate Physical Host: With this feature enabled, the application software considers a VM as a physical host. This parameter is available only when the CPU operating mode is Host Matching. ARM hosts do not support this parameter.
Network: Select the vSwitch for the image source VM network communication.
System Image: Pure ISO image for the operating system used by the image source VM.
File Name: Enter the file name of the disk if a new file is used as the disk. Select a disk formatting mode, which can be High Speed and Intelligent. The default mode is intelligent.
Intelligent: Specify qcow2 disk format.
High Speed: Specify raw disk format. This format has a better I/O performance with a simple structure.
Provision: Select a storage volume provision mode. Options include Thin (the default), Lazy Zeroed, and Eager Zeroed. This field is required when the disk type is New File.
Thin: Allocates only as much storage space as the storage volume needs for its initial operations when the storage volume is created. If the storage volume needs more storage space later, the system allocates as much storage space as the volume would require based on the specified maximum storage size.
Lazy Zeroed: Allocates the specified maximum storage size to the storage volume when the storage volume is created. Data remaining on the physical device is not erased during creation, but is zeroed out on first write from the VM.
Eager Zeroed: Allocates the specified maximum storage size to the storage volume when the storage volume is created. Data remaining on the physical device is zeroed out during creation. It might take a longer time to create storage volumes in this format than to create storage volumes of other formats.
Disk Cluster Size: Set the smallest amount of disk space that can be used to store a file. The default is 256 KB. If a file is larger than a disk cluster, it is stored in multiple disk clusters. If a file is smaller than a disk cluster, it is stored in a dedicated disk cluster. A shared file system is mainly used to store VM image files. As a best practice, set the value of this parameter as large as possible to enhance disk read performance and save disk space. You must configure this parameter when you add an intelligent disk.
Bus Type: Select a bus type. Options include IDE, USB, High-Speed (the default), and High-Speed SCSI. ARM hosts support only the High-Speed SCSI options.
Cache Mode: Select a cache mode for VM storage files. Options include Directsync, Writethrough, Writeback, and None. The default cache mode for intelligent disk format is Directsync. For raw or block (including RBD) device disk format, the default cache mode is None.
Directsync: The system reads data from the physical disk.
Writethrough: The system writes data to the host cache, and then to the physical disk.
Writeback: The system writes data to the VM cache, then to the host cache, and finally to the physical disk.
None: The system writes data to the VM cache, and then to the physical disk.
Attach Hardware: You can attach hardware devices to the image source VM as needed, for example, NIC, disk, CD-ROM, floppy disk, GPU device, and watchdog.
Network
Network: Select the vSwitch for the image source VM network communication.
Disk
Disk Capacity: Capacity of a newly created disk.
Path: Storage path of a newly created disk.
CD-ROM: CD drive of the image source VM. You can mount a CD to the CD drive.
CD-ROM: Select the file to mount.
Floppy Disk: Floppy drive of the image source VM. You can mount a floppy disk to the floppy drive.
Floppy Disk: Select the file to mount.
Watchdog: Add a watchdog to the image source VM.