A stretched cluster is a configuration that allows two or more HPE SimpliVity clusters to span across different physical locations, while maintaining a single logical cluster and asingle management interface. A stretched cluster provides high availability, disaster recovery, and workload mobility for the virtual machines (VMs) running on the HPE SimpliVity platform12.

A VDI infrastructure is a virtualization solution that delivers desktops and applications to end users from a centralized data center. VDI infrastructure can use different types of VMs, such as linked clones or full clones, to provide the desktops and applications to the end users. Linked clones are VMs that share a common base image and consume less storage space, while full clones are VMs that have their own independent copies of the base image and consume more storage space34.

According to the HPE Reference Architecture for VMware Horizon on HPE SimpliVity document, both linked clones and full clones are supported on a stretched cluster. The document states that "HPE SimpliVity supports both linked clones and full clones on a stretched cluster. Linked clones are recommended for better storage efficiency and performance. Full clones can be used for persistent desktops that require more customization and personalization."5 The document also provides the design considerations and best practices for deploying VDI infrastructure on HPE SimpliVity stretched cluster, such as the network requirements, the VM placement, the backup and restore policies, and the failover and failback scenarios.

References:

1: HPE SimpliVity Stretched Cluster Guide 2: HPE SimpliVity Stretched Cluster 3: What is VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure)? - VMware 4: What is a Linked Clone? - Definition from Techopedia 5: HPE Reference Architecture for VMware Horizon on HPE SimpliVity : [HPE SimpliVity Data Virtualization Platform] : [HPE SimpliVity Intelligent Workload Optimizer] : [HPE SimpliVity Federation Design and Scaling Guide]