Instance, Pool, Customer….. It’s all Greek to me

deskMate Training desktops are amazingly easy to use, but the special terms can confuse newcomers a bit. Therefore, here is a short explanation for you.

Instance:
We at deskMate now run several deskMate installations on different continents. Such an installation is called an instance.

Customer/Classroom
deskMate is a multi-tenant cloud solution. A customer environment is called a customer. In the training use case, this is also called classroom. Customer/Classrooms are completely separated from each other and have no connection to each other. For example, you can give one classroom access to the internet and not the other. All desktops of a customer are connected via a virtual network. A customer can have an infinite number of desktops and/or pools.

Master_Desktop
This is a persistent desktop. I.e., you can save data and shut down the desktop. After restarting the data is there again. This desktop holds the training master. This looks exactly as the participants should see the desktop when the training starts.

Pool
If you think of a swimming pool, you are wrong. A pool holds the desktops of the participants. All desktops of a pool access the same read-only virtual hard disk. A pool has an active HDD and an inactive HDD. So you can create a new pool image while participants are still working on the pool.

Pool Desktop
Is the training desktop of each participant. Each participant has his own pool desktop. All pool desktops of a pool boots from the active read-only virtual hard disk of the pool. If the operating system, the participant, or a program wants to write back data, this data is written to a delta file. Each pool desktop has its own delta file. If the pool desktop is shut down, its delta file is irrevocably deleted. This means that all data created while the system is running is lost. A pool desktop should therefore only be shut down at the end of the training session. Important! A reboot does not delete the delta file.

If a shutdown pool desktop is restarted, it boots new from the active pool hard disk. Therefore, a pool desktop does not have to be dedeployed after the training. A shutdown is sufficient.

Templates
If a backup is made of the Master_Desktop, which is used to deploy or restore other desktops or pools, this backup is called a template. A Master_Desktop can also be restored with one or its template.

Media/Images
Admins can upload files and mount them to the desktops as CD. See also https://deskmate.cloud/de/upload-files-for-installation/ These files are called media or images.