Support Tips: Gold Master Images for Scale HC3

[ghoward]

Hello all, This week we are going to cover "golden master images". A brief description of a golden image it's a template for a virtual machine (VM). A golden image may also be referred to as a clone image, master image or base image.

Given the nature of VSDs and thin provisioning and snapshotting it is recommended to utilize a “Gold Master” image or clone when creating VMs. This is also beneficial when utilizing VMs as targets for migrations using HC3 Move. The Gold Master should contain any OS updates and critical applications that will be shared among all the machines. It is also recommended to utilize a sysprep to change the local SID to prevent issues down the road. There is a knowledge document that outlines this process called “Using Sysprep to Generate a new SID”.

There are also some virtualization best practices for VMs that would be beneficial in most instances when creating a Gold MasterBest practices for performance for Gold Master Image list item:

• Disable Fast Startup (if applicable to Windows version):
  - Fast Startup is a feature introduced with Windows 8 that can improve boot times on physical PCs
  - However, as a VM, this can cause problems when initializing hardware after shut down (this can especially be true if you are assigning physical devices to virtual machines)

• Disable Hiberfil.sys:
  - Hibernation suspends the Windows OS to RAM so that on resume, the entire system state returns as it was
  - Hiberfil.sys will be created on the root of your C:\ drive that can take up a massive amount of space and generate lots of disk IO activity for a feature that likely never be leveraged

• Disable Windows Indexing:
  - The Windows indexing service (aka Windows Search) can cause unnecessary disk IO inside your VM
  - To improve overall VM performance, it is recommended to disable this service from running in Windows if it is not planned to be used

• Disable Automatic Disk Defragmentation:
  - If Windows disk defragmenter is set to automatically run on a schedule, you should disable it, this serves no function in a virtual environment

• Enable High Performance Power Mode:
  - In a virtual environment there is little to no benefit in leveraging power management features