An administrator is asked to configure storage to support four pools of 250 persistent full clone desktops, and an additional five pools of 200 non-persistent desktops. What is the optimal configuration for this?

The optimal configuration separates workloads with different storage characteristics to apply the most effective data reduction techniques. Non-persistent desktops, which are all based on a common master image, benefit greatly from both compression and inline deduplication. Persistent full clone desktops have less common data between them, making deduplication less effective. Therefore, placing them in a separate container with only compression enabled is more efficient. This two-container approach aligns with Nutanix best practices for mixed VDI environments, maximizing space savings and performance for each workload type.

A. Five containers with compression and deduplication and four with compression only: This creates unnecessary complexity. Nutanix best practice is to use as few containers as possible.
B. Nine containers with Compression Only: This is overly complex and misses the significant space-saving benefits of deduplication for the non-persistent desktop pools.
C. One container with Compression, Deduplication, and Erasure Coding: Erasure Coding is not recommended for active VDI workloads as it can add write latency, impacting user experience.

1. Nutanix University. (2023). Nutanix End-User Computing (EUC) Administration. Section: VDI Storage Design. "For non-persistent desktops, which share a common base image, inline deduplication and compression are highly recommended... For persistent desktops, compression is recommended, but the benefits of deduplication are often minimal."

2. Nutanix. (2023). Prism Web Console Guide v6.7. Section: Creating a Storage Container. "For VDI workloads, consider separating persistent and non-persistent desktops into different containers to apply optimal data reduction settings."

3. Nutanix. (2023). Nutanix EUC Solutions Tech Note. Section: Storage Configuration for VDI. "A common design pattern is to use one container for non-persistent desktops with performance-tier deduplication enabled and another container for persistent desktops with only compression enabled."