VMware VIEW 4.5 Installation and operation manual

VMware View Upgrade Guide
View 4.5
View Manager 4.5
View Composer 2.5
This document supports the version of each product listed and
supports all subsequent versions until the document is replaced
by a new edition. To check for more recent editions of this
document, see http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs.
EN-000349-00

VMware View Upgrade Guide
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Contents
About This Book 5
1VMware View Component Compatibility Matrix 7
2VMware View Upgrade Overview 9
3System Requirements for Upgrades 11
View Connection Server Requirements 11
Hardware Requirements for View Connection Server 11
Supported Operating Systems for View Connection Server 12
Upgrade Requirements for View Connection Server 12
Virtualization Software Requirements for View Connection Server 12
View Composer Requirements 12
Supported Operating Systems for View Composer 12
Database Requirements for View Composer 13
View Administrator Requirements 14
Supported Operating Systems for View Client and View Client with Local Mode 14
Client Browser Requirements for View Portal 15
Supported Operating Systems for View Agent 16
4Preparing for a VMware View Upgrade 17
Preparing View Connection Server for an Upgrade 17
Preparing vCenter Server and View Composer for an Upgrade 18
5Upgrading VMware View Components 21
Upgrade View Connection Servers in a Replicated Group 21
Upgrade to View Connection Server 4.5 on a Different Machine 23
Create a Replicated Group After Reverting View Connection Server to a Snapshot 24
Upgrade View Composer Only 25
Manually Upgrading the View Composer Database 27
Run SviConfig to Manually Upgrade the Database 27
Result Codes for a Manual Database Schema Update 28
Troubleshooting a View Composer Database Upgrade Failure 29
Upgrade to View Composer 2.5 and vCenter Server 4.1 on a Different Machine 30
Prepare the Source Machine for View Composer Migration 30
Use the Data Migration Tool to Migrate to the New Machine 32
Migrate View Composer to the New Machine 33
Upgrade ESX Hosts and Virtual Machines 35
Upgrade ESX 3.5 Hosts and Their Virtual Machines 35
Upgrade ESX 4.0 Hosts and Their Virtual Machines 36
Upgrade View Agent 38
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Upgrade View Composer Desktop Pools 39
Upgrade View Clients 40
Upgrade Offline Desktop Clients to View Client with Local Mode 41
6Upgrading vSphere Components Separately 43
Index 45
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About This Book
The VMware View Upgrade Guide provides instructions for upgrading from VMware View™ 3.1.x or View 4.0.x
to View 4.5. You can also use this guide when you upgrade to View 4.5 patch releases.
If you also upgrade from VMware Infrastructure 3.5 or vSphere 4.0 to vSphere 4.1, this guide tells you which
steps of that upgrade to do at various stages of the VMware View upgrade.
For VMware View 4.5 patch releases, use the sections of this document that are specific to View Manager,
View Composer, View Agent, and View Client.
Intended Audience
This guide is intended for anyone who needs to upgrade from VMware View 3.1.x or View 4.0.x to View 4.5.
The information in this guide is written for experienced Microsoft Windows or Linux system administrators
who are familiar with virtual machine technology and datacenter operations.
VMware Technical Publications Glossary
VMware® Technical Publications provides a glossary of terms that might be unfamiliar to you. For definitions
of terms as they are used in VMware technical documentation, go to
http://www.vmware.com/pdf/master_glossary.pdf.
Document Feedback
VMware welcomes your suggestions for improving our documentation. If you have comments, send your
feedback to [email protected].
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Technical Support and Education Resources
The following technical support resources are available to you. To access the current version of this book and
other books, go to http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs.
Online and Telephone
Support
To use online support to submit technical support requests, view your product
and contract information, and register your products, go to
http://www.vmware.com/support.
Customers with appropriate support contracts should use telephone support
for the fastest response on priority 1 issues. Go to
http://www.vmware.com/support/phone_support.html.
Support Offerings To find out how VMware support offerings can help meet your business needs,
go to http://www.vmware.com/support/services.
VMware Professional
Services
VMware Education Services courses offer extensive hands-on labs, case study
examples, and course materials designed to be used as on-the-job reference
tools. Courses are available onsite, in the classroom, and live online. For onsite
pilot programs and implementation best practices, VMware Consulting
Services provides offerings to help you assess, plan, build, and manage your
virtual environment. To access information about education classes,
certification programs, and consulting services, go to
http://www.vmware.com/services.
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VMware View Component
Compatibility Matrix 1
Because large enterprises must often perform phased upgrades, VMware View components are designed to
be forward and backward compatible. VMware View 4.5 components are compatible with most
VMware View 4.0.x or later and 3.1.x or later components.
Although components are forward and backward compatible, View Connection Server compatibility with
View Agents is limited to interoperability during a View Connection Server upgrade or downgrade. You must
upgrade View Agents as soon as possible to match the version of the View Connection Server that manages
them.
Table 1-1 lists the components of VMware View and shows whether they are compatible with other components
whose version is different. For information about compatibility with VMware Infrastructure and vSphere, see
“Virtualization Software Requirements for View Connection Server,” on page 12.
NOTE The View Portal component of VMware View 3.1.x and 4.0.x has been changed so that in
VMware View 4.5, View Portal serves only as a web page for downloading the full Windows-based View Client
and the full Mac-based View Client. For this reason, View Portal does not appear in the compatibility table.
The Mac-based View Client is compatible only with View 4.5 components.
Table 1-1. Compatibility Matrix for VMware View Components
View 4.5
View 3 or View 4 Components
Connection
Server 4.0.x or
3.1.x
View Agent
4.0.x or 3.1.x
View Client
4.0.x or 3.1.x
Thin Client
4.0.x or 3.1.x
View Composer 1.0
or 2.0
Connection Server
4.5
N/A Yes Yes Yes Limitations
View Agent 4.5 Yes N/A Yes Yes Yes
View Client
(Windows) 4.5
Yes Yes N/A N/A Yes
View Client (Mac)
4.5
No No N/A N/A No
View Client with
Local Mode 4.5
No No No No No
Thin Client 4.5 Yes Yes N/A N/A Yes
View Composer
2.5
Limitations No N/A N/A N/A
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Until both View Connection Server and View Composer are upgraded, View Composer operations do not
work. If you have View Connection Server 4.5 and View Composer 1.0 or 2.0, users can connect to their
desktops, but no new linked-clone desktops can be created, and recompose, rebalance, and refresh operations
do not work. Also, you cannot edit settings for linked-clone pools.
IMPORTANT As the table shows, View Agent 3.1.x and 4.0.x are not compatible with View Composer 2.5. This
limitation means that you must not use a View 4.0.x or 3.1.x master image, or snapshot, when creating,
recomposing, or refreshing a pool that uses features specific to View 4.5. These View 4.5 features include using
a system-disposable disk (SDD), using a Sysprep customization specification, and attaching a previously
archived user-data disk (UDD) to an existing desktop.
Although View Composer 2.5 can work with View Connection Server 4.0.x or 3.1.x in a limited fashion, this
setup is available only for cases where upgrading all View Connection Server instances during the same
maintenance window is not feasible. Specifically, new View Composer 2.5 features, such as the ability to use
SysPrep customization, are not available until you update to View Agent 4.5.
Because View Client with Local Mode is a View 4.5 feature, and its predecessor, Offline Desktop, was an
experimental feature, View Client with Local Mode is not backward compatible with View 4.0.x and 3.1.x
components.
NOTE The instructions in this document are also applicable to patch releases of VMware View 4.5 and to
upgrading from the release candidate (RC) version of View 4.5 to the general availability (GA) version.
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VMware View Upgrade Overview 2
Upgrading an enterprise VMware View deployment involves several high-level tasks. Upgrading is a
multistage process in which procedures must be performed in a particular order.
You must complete the upgrade process in a specific order. If you do not complete each upgrade stage before
moving on, you can lose data and server access. Order is also important within each upgrade stage.
How many of the following tasks you need to complete depends on which components of VMware View you
use in your deployment. Because VMware View 4.5 includes components that were not available in earlier
releases, some of the tasks are installation rather than upgrade tasks.
1 On the physical or virtual machines that host View Connection Server instances, make backups and record
various configuration and system settings. See “Preparing View Connection Server for an Upgrade,” on
page 17.
2 On the physical or virtual machines that host View Composer and vCenter Server, make backups and
temporarily halt certain scheduled tasks. See “Preparing vCenter Server and View Composer for an
Upgrade,” on page 18.
3 If some of your end users are using View 3.1.x or 4.0.x Client with Offline Desktop, ask them to check in
their View desktops.
4 Upgrade View Connection Server on the existing host or migrate to a new machine. See “Upgrade View
Connection Servers in a Replicated Group,” on page 21.
5 Install and configure an event database that View Administrator 4.5 uses for displaying some of the
View Connection Server events that were previously recorded only in logs. See the VMware View 4.5
Installation Guide.
6 For the View Client with Local Mode component, install and configure one or more View Transfer Server
instances. This server transfers data that end users need to check out and run View desktops locally on
their client systems. See the VMware View 4.5 Installation Guide.
View Client with Local Mode is the fully supported feature that in earlier releases was an experimental
feature called View Offline Desktop.
7 Upgrade View Composer on the existing host or, if you are also upgrading to vSphere 4.1, migrate to a
new machine. See “Upgrade to View Composer 2.5 and vCenter Server 4.1 on a Different Machine,” on
page 30.
8 Upgrade the VMware View software that runs on the physical or virtual machines that are used as desktop
sources, as full-clone desktops in a pool, and as individual desktops in a manual pool. See “Upgrade View
Agent,” on page 38.
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9 Use the newly upgraded virtual desktop sources to create upgraded pools of View desktops. See “Upgrade
View Composer Desktop Pools,” on page 39.
10 Upgrade the VMware View software that runs on end users' client devices. See “Upgrade View Clients,”
on page 40 and “Upgrade Offline Desktop Clients to View Client with Local Mode,” on page 41.
Because certain commands can simultaneously upgrade more than one stage, VMware recommends that you
thoroughly understand the irreversible changes at each stage before you upgrade your production
environments.
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