Managing the VDI Gold Image

Often overlooked is the managing of the gold image during a VDI implementation. You do all of this hard work to get it running exactly how you want it and everyone is happy.  Then a request comes in to move to the next OS or create a new pool and nothing works!  You forgot about some little tweak or registry key or script but you can't remember what.

The simplest method for handling this is treating your gold image like a standard desktop.  Use your choice of OS Deployment and package management utilities to deploy your gold image and only use this.  You will be tempted to make a few changes afterward and not put it in the base but don't.  One of the true tests of this is deploying an image from scratch using your tool and doing the recompose.  If it works as intended you now have a completely documented and repeatable process for creating new VDI pools.  It takes a while to get to this point but it really is worth it in the end.

We use a combination of Kace and Chocolaty to handle this.  Automating this process is really important to a mature VDI environment and in the long run will make your life so much easier.