Upgrading a Horizon 7.7 Workload Domain to 7.9 in VMware Cloud Foundation
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Upgrading a Horizon 7.7 Workload Domain to 7.9 in VMware Cloud Foundation

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Article ID: 306168

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Updated On:

Products

VMware Cloud Foundation

Issue/Introduction

This article provides the steps necessary required to upgrade a VMware Cloud Foundation Horizon Workload Domain from Horizon 7.7 to 7.9. 
 

Versioning:

VCFPSC / vCenterHorizonApp VolumesUAGUEM
3.7.x and 3.8.06.7 U17.72.143.49.5
3.8.16.7.U37.92.173.69.8


Upgrade order:

The recommended way is Horizon Client to be upgraded before the infrastructure. 

  1. Horizon Client
  2. Horizon Infrastructure
  3. vSphere Infrastructure
  4. Agents

Horizon Infrastructure
The following is the general recommended order. User Environment Manager Console and App Volumes can completed earlier or later.

  1. Composer Server
  2. Connection Servers
  3. Unified Access Gateways
  4. User Environment Manager Console
  5. App Volumes Managers


Environment

VMware Cloud Foundation 3.8.x

Resolution

Upgrade Resource vCenters
For upgrading Workload Domain vCenters, use LCM within SDDC Manager UI to upgrade VI domains.

Upgrade Composer servers

Important: During an upgrade, Horizon 7 does not support View Composer provisioning and maintenance operations. Operations such as provisioning and recomposing linked-clone desktops are not supported during the transitional period when any Horizon 7 servers are still running the earlier version. Perform these operations only when all instances of Horizon Connection Server and View Composer have been upgraded

Before proceeding, please ensure to take a backup of the SQL database and take a snapshot of the VM. TO prepare for the Compose Server upgrade, pleas see https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Horizon-7/7.9/horizon-upgrades/GUID-25246C90-5DF0-474B-A7B8-259765EAD5D9.html

  1. Ensure a snapshot of the Composer Server VM(s) are taken before upgrading.
  2. On the virtual or physical machines where View Composer is installed, download and run the installer for View Composer. The installer can be downloaded from the VMware web site. Step-by-step instructions for running the installer appear in the Horizon 7 Installation document.
  3. Specify whether to upgrade the database schema, if a schema upgrade is required.
  4. If a dialog box appears with the message "Database upgrade completed with warnings", safely ignore the message and click OK.
  5. When the wizard prompts for the View Composer port number, verify that the port number is set to 18443.

Note: For details about upgrading Composer servers use the approved by EUC guidance here


Upgrade Connection Servers
In place upgrade of the Connection servers is supported.

Optionally, export the ldap database using vdmexport.exe tool on the server. For detailed instructions on how to use the tool check the official documentation.

  1. Ensure a snapshot of the Connection Server VM(s) are taken before upgrading.
  2. Log on Connection Servers Edge Load Balancer and disable the server that hosts the Connection Server instance that is about to upgraded:
    • Log on Management vCenter Web Client.
    • Go to Menu->Network and Security->NSX Edges. 
    • Select the Edge used for Connection servers load balancer and go to Load Balancer
    • Go to Pools, select the existing pool and click Edit.
    • Go to Members, select the member you want to disable, click Edit and change its state to Disable.
  3. Log in to Horizon Administrator UI.
  4. Go to View Configuration > Servers and click the Connection Servers tab.
  5. Select the Connection Server instance in the list and click the Disable button above the table.
  6. Click OK to confirm disabling the server.
  7. On the host of the Connection Server instance, download and run the installer for the new version of Connection Server.
  8. Enable the server from the Horizon Administrator and load balancer.
  9. Repeat the points above for all Connection servers.

Note: For details about upgrading Connection servers use the EUC guidance here

Upgrade Unified Access Gateway (UAG)
UAG does not support in-place upgrade. 

Procedure

  1. Disable UAG that is going to be upgraded in the DMZ load balancer. Refer the Upgrade Connection servers section for details.
  2. Log on UAG appliance using URL: https://<management IP>:9443/admin, select Configure Manually and export the setting in a json format.
  3. Shutdown the old UAG. Optionally, rename the VM if the it needs to be retained.
  4. Import the new UAG appliance using the OVF template wizard. Use the same original UAG IP addresses for DMZ, Internal and Management interfaces.
  5. Log in to the new UAG appliance and import the exported settings.
  6. Re-enable UAG on the Load Balancer.
 

Upgrade View Clients

  1. For environments deploying instant clones or View Composer linked clones, upgrade the agent software on a parent virtual machine and create a desktop pool for testing purposes.
  2. Download and run the new version of the Horizon Agent installer on a parent virtual machine. The installer can be downloaded from the VMware website.
  3. Create a small desktop pool from this virtual machine.
  4. Test a virtual machine desktop from the desktop pool to verify that all the usage scenarios function properly. For example, create a desktop pool that contains one virtual machine desktop, and verify that you can use Horizon Client to log in to that desktop.
  5. Step-by-step instructions for running the Horizon Agent installer and creating desktop pools appear in Setting Up Virtual Desktops in Horizon 7, available by clicking the Help button in Horizon Administrator.


For details about upgrading View agents use the officially approved by EUC guidance here.

Upgrade User Environment Manager UEM
As EUM is a console, simply uninstall the old EUM and install the new version. 

Upgrade App Volumes Manager
An in-place upgrade is supported for App Volumes 2.14 to 2.17 upgrade. 

Prerequisites:

  • Detach all volumes.
  • In the Windows Start menu, open Control Panel and click Administrative Tools > ODBC data source. Note down the database and server name defined in the system ODBC source svmanager.
  • Back up the App Volumes database using SQL Server tools.
  • Create a full server back up or snapshot of the App Volumes Manager Server VM.


Procedure

  1. Disable App Volumes connection in the load balancer. Refer the Upgrade Connection Servers section for details.
  2. Log in as the administrator on the VM where App Volumes Manager is installed.
  3. Locate the App Volumes installer and double-click the setup.exe file.
  4. Select the App Volumes Manager component and click Install. A notification window with the upgrade process details is displayed.
  5. Click Next to confirm the upgrade.
  6. Click Install to begin the installation. A Status Bar shows the progress of the installation. The installation process takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. During this time, configuration information is first backed-up, new files are installed, and the configuration information is restored.
  7. Click Finish to complete the installation.
  8. Re-enable App Volumes connection in the load balancer.

For details about upgrading App Volumes Manager use the officially approved by EUC guidance here

Import Horizon 7.9 bundle
To import the new Horizon bundle use the LCM functionality within SDDC Manager to download the bundle. 

Change Horizon version of the binaries used for deployment in the VCF database

  1. Obtain the Horizon domain ID by logging into the SDDC Manager and navigate to Workload Domains then the Horizon Domain. In the browser URL note the ID as below:
https://sddc-manager.vcf.corp.local/ui/sddc-manager/inventory/domains/horizon-domains/{horizon-domain-id}/summary(monitoring-panel:monitor/tasks)
  1. Check current Horizon bundle version for domain with ID {horizon_id}:

curl -k -H 'Content-type: application/json' -H 'Accept: application/json' -X GET http://localhost/vdi-domains/bundle/{horizon-domain-id}

  1. Confirm the command returns: {"version":"7.7.0"}
  2. Upgrade Horizon bundle version to 7.9.0 for domain with the noted ID from Step 1.

curl -k -H 'Content-type: application/json' -H 'Accept: application/json' -X PUT http://localhost/vdi-domains/bundle/{horizon-domain-id} -d '{"version": "7.9.0"}'

  1. Verify the Horizon bundle version for domain:
curl -k -H 'Content-type: application/json' -H 'Accept: application/json' -X GET http://localhost/vdi-domains/bundle/{horizon_id}

Upgrade VM Agents

The Virtual Machine agents need to be installed and upgraded in a strict order. For upgrading any agent, the the agents should be uninstalled the reverse of the order below and then re-installed in the below order.

  1. VM Tools
  2. Horizon Agent
  3. User Environment Manager FlexEngine
  4. App Volumes Agent
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