Explaining Machine Creation Services

Machine Creation Services (MCS) is a concept that started in the days of XenDesktop 5 and is now fully utilized as a machine provisioning technology in XenApp and XenDesktop 7.6. MCS uses the notion of cloning virtual machines from a master image, which can be a server OS, such as Windows 2012, or a desktop OS, such as Windows 8. An administrator will typically install applications that users need locally, such as Word, Excel, Outlook, QuickBooks, and so on. MCS, which is run on the Delivery Controller, will then use a snapshot of this master image to create a specified number of cloned VMs on a hypervisor and add them to the XenApp site as a machine catalog (a pool of desktops). After the machine catalog is created, the administrator creates a Delivery Group to publish the applications and desktops to users. During the creation of the Delivery Group, the controller reads the applications available on the Windows 2012 server VMs created by MCS and presents...