32-Node VMFS Clusters and Sparse Virtual Disks for View? Not just yet.

I was doing a little research for a customer yesterday and they asked a great question: “Now that View 5.1 supports vSphere 5.1, can we use 32-node clusters with View 5.1?”

First a little background.  Today you can only create 8-Node Clusters in vSphere if you are using iSCSI or Fiber Channel storage.  The reason is because the number of hosts that can share a file on VMFS in vSphere 5.0 and prior is limited to 8.  If you are using NFS with View 5.1 and vSphere 5.0 or higher, you can have 32-node clusters for your View desktops.  vSphere 5.1 changed this limitation by changing the file locking mechanism and now allows for 32-node clusters to share a read-only file.  Secondly, vSPhere 5.1 introduced Sparse Virtual Disks.  These Sparse Disks are virtual disks presented to the desktops that can shrink as easily as they expand.  This is a real benefit and may rival linked clones one day to most efficently deliver a pool of desktops on storage.  You can read more about these two technologies from Cormac Hogan, Sr. Technical Marketing Architect at VMware.

As I’m sure you know by now, as of last week, View 5.1 and 5.1.1 are now supported with vSphere 5.1.0a.  So the question was asked: now that they are supported together, do we get those cool new features that Cormac was referring to?  Unfortunately, the answer is no, not yet.  I searched for a long time trying to find an answer.  When I came up empty, I just emailed Cormac directly.  He responded this morning, “…both features are waiting on a future release of View.”

Bummer.  Hopefully we’ll get the chance to get these two great features very soon.

Have a great and safe Halloween.