View 7 upgrade

[bjohn]

We are currently running the following:

vCenter Server 5.5.0, 3142196
ESXi, 5.5.0, 3116895
View 6.1.0 build-2509221
View Composer 6.1.0.2506641

We would like to upgrade to the following:
vCenter Server 6.0.0, 3634793
ESXi, 6.0.0, 3620759
View 7.0.2 build-4356666
View Composer 7.0.2.4350300


What are the upgrade steps we should follow?
In our test environment, we upgraded vCenter and ESXi, to the versions mentioned above, but ran into an issue with recomposing machines with view 6.1. So we upgraded View composer and upgraded the broker and security which seemed to help with the recompose issue. Once we upgraded, we could no longer connect to the VM's (remote display protocol error). We had to upgrade the View agent on the VM's in order to reconnect.

We would like to upgrade our production environment, but obviously we cant upgrade everything in one day. What steps do we need to take to ensure minimal impact on our users and downtime?

[TDJB3]

Vmware does provide a document on the steps Documentation for VMware Horizon 7 version 7.0.

We updated our Composer server and one pairing of Connection and Security servers.  We came back a week or two later and updated the other Connection and Security server pairings.  The same night we upgraded vCenter and the View agent on our virtual machines.  The ESXi servers were upgraded weeks later.

Two words of warning.  Follow the backup instructions.  We had problems with the vCenter upgrade and lost permissions that we established before the upgrade.  We had to re-establish them.  We also had issues with the new agent on our 32bit machines, mouse problems and assorted other things.  We had to back down to agent 6.2.2.

vCenter is the last thing you want to upgrade in the process.  I think that once upgrade vCenter, you have to upgrade the agents.

[bjohn]

Thanks, I'll look at the documentation. As far as VMtools go, the newer tools can work with older ESXi?

[TDJB3]

You won't get the newer VMware Tools until you upgrade ESXi.  The older tools will work with the new upgrade.  Once you upgrade your ESXi servers, you will have to upgrade VMware Tools and possibly the hardware version.

[Cdog8251]

We had the exact same scenario.

This is the process I followed:

I updated .Net framework to 4.6.1 as stated in the upgrade document on the composer server.  This is required before you update composer or the update will fail.

Then I followed the update sequence below:

Composer

View Connection server(s) in my case I have 4

View Security Server(s) in my case I have 2

I used the following process and it worked very well:

Upgrading VMware Horizon View with Zero Downtime - VMware Consulting Blog - VMware Blogs

I did run into a similar issue where we had to upgrade all our using that used the Client for remote access to the agent 7.0.2 before they could connect. I remember reading something about if you had the 6.2 agent or above installed you wouldn't have any connection issues.

I would recommend updating all your agents to 6.2 or better before you upgrade your view servers.  I tested and updating to the 7.0.2 agent worked fine with view servers being on 6.1.1.

I then came back and updated vCenter to 6.0 U2 and then the hosts to ESXI 6.0 U2 this is required before you can use the instant clone feature.

I am now troubleshooting an issue with the agent 7.0.2.  I have about a third of my users using this agent.  I have had several reports of the mouse pointer turning to and hour glass and then it doesn't go away.  The user can still work, but the mouse point is either a circle spinning or an hour glass. I am experimenting with downgrading the agent to 6.2, 7.0, and 7.1 to see if they experience the same issues.

I would be happy to discuss if you are still having issues.

Thanks

Ryan

[TDJB3]

Cdog8251,

We had the same problem with the mouse on 32bit machines.  We had to downgrade the agent to 6.2.2 and it cleared up our problem.

Dave