Template Update / Manual Writable Update Process

[LibRick]

Hi!

I'm somewhat new to appvolumes and ready to do my first upgrade from 2.14 to 2.16. I am a bit unsure on the process with regards to template updates.

I have a zip file at present in the update writable volumes section. This zip files contains the config file from an existing template + a line to exclude 1 of our applications.

How is this impacted by the update? I'm assuming when we upgrade the new template will update a new config file for all existing templates with the new things like how to work with OneDrive so what happens to my custom update? Does it get lost or does it overwrite and mess up the new config? I'm a bit confused on how it works.

[Ray_handels]

This is how it works.

If you update the manager, templates are not automatically updated. You could do that using configuration --> storage and the select Upload prepackaged Volumes.

When you have a zip file that updates a writable it will always, regardless of the template you are using, install the zip file into the writable once. So if you would recreate your own writable regardless of template, it will import the zip file into that newly created writable

[LibRick]

That's really helpful.

I'm assuming the new template will have the config for handling OneDrive (which is why I'm upgrading). Will my zip file (created without any OneDrive config on 2.14) essentially make a 2.16 template act like a 2.14 or does it not work like that? Mostly I just want to know whether I should re-create my zip file or leave it as is.

Also, when I follow the storage > upload prepackaged templates option how does this upgrade all my existing volumes? Does it have a user impact?

[Ray_handels · Accepted solution]

I'm assuming the new template will have the config for handling OneDrive (which is why I'm upgrading). Will my zip file (created without any OneDrive config on 2.14) essentially make a 2.16 template act like a 2.14 or does it not work like that?

Yes it does work like that. If you, for example, update the snapvol.cfg using the zipfile and there is a different snapvol.cfg in the new template it will indeed overwrite it. You would need to recreate the snapvol.cfg to your liking and then update it using the zip file option.

Also, when I follow the storage > upload prepackaged templates option how does this upgrade all my existing volumes? Does it have a user impact?

No, it only updates the templates, not the current appstacks or writables. That's why the template you used to create an appstack or writable is shown in the manager.

[LibRick]

ok thanks that explains the first part. I will re-create my zip.

I need to add OneDrive support to all of my existing writable volumes and would ideally like to do this without re-creating them because that would cause everyone to lose their outlook OST. Will I need to update existing volumes to get OneDrive support? How would I go about doing this without impacting users?

[Ray_handels]

Not quite sure how that OneDrive support is taken care of by VMware. I would suggest asking GSS what you would need to do for that. It could well be that this support is not in the the template file but in the agent itself. Than you don't need to change anything in the snapvol.cfg but to be honest I don't have an answer for you there.

[LibRick]

Contacted support and answer is to upload the new templates then create a new writable volume and pull the snapvol.cfg from that then apply that (+ my custom changes) to my existing templates.