Upgrading from View 4.6 32 bit to View 5.1 64 bit on a new server

[Wasisnt]

Is there anything I need to watch out for when it comes to upgrading from View 4.6 on a 32 bit Windows 2003 server to View 5.1 on a Windows 2008 R2 64 bit server? Im reading through the upgrade guide but figured I would get some insight on the forum as well.

What's involved in transferring the VMs and any security\certificate information to the new server? We are not using Composer or anything like that.

[Wasisnt]

I read some guides where it says you need to backup the vCenter database as well but is that only if it is going on a new server or had issues? I just want to backup the View Connection server and restore it to a different server.

I also read how you can schedule automatic View backups but I cant seem to find where to do that.

[mikebarnett · Accepted solution]

There shouldn't be any issues when going from 32-bit to 64-bit for an upgrade here.

My best recommendation would be simply to create a new 64-bit 2008 R2 server and install a replica 4.6 Connection Server there pointing to one of the 32-bit Connection Servers. Then uninstall the 4.6 Connection Server on the 32-bit server. Once you have only the 64-bit server left you can upgrade it to View 5.1. Then, if you need to have the old hostnames or you want additional servers you can spin up 64-bit versions with the correct hostname and install them as replicas of the server you upgraded.

Backing up all of the components involved in a View cluster is always a good idea in case you need to restore at any point. With backups taken around the same time you know you will be restoring to a consistent data set.

Automatic backups of the View Connection Server information should be occurring automatically each day at 12am if you haven't changed any default settings. You can check this under View Configuration>Servers in the Connection Servers section. There should be a Backup field which should show the timestamp of the last successful backup. I believe you can edit these settings by selecting the Connection Server you want to edit and clicking the Edit button.

-Mike

[Wasisnt]

I actually opened a case with support and they basically told me the same thing. One question I have though is do I need to uninstall View off the old server before upgrading to 5.1 on the new server? And when Im done can I just shut the old server down rather than uninstall View?

[mikebarnett]

Yes, you will have to uninstall View off the old server. This is the cleanest way to remove all reference to the old server to prevent problems.

If you don't want to uninstall the old server and just shut it down you will need to run the command in part 2 of the following KB:

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1010153

The problem is that there is another reference in ADAM to the server that will cause errors to show up in the Windows Event Viewer if it's not removed. Uninstalling is the cleanest way to make sure that nothing interferes with your View cluster.

-Mike

[Wasisnt]

We cant connect to the new View server with out WYSE thin clients so Im hoping a firmware update will fix that. We will have to leave the old 4.6 server running in the meantime until we figure that part out.

Once we get everything working I will uninstall the old server and carry on. Thanks for the help!

[mikebarnett]

I wanted to follow up and make sure that you weren't going to run into any issues.

Once you have upgraded any of your servers to 5.1 you must upgrade the rest in the cluster. Running two Connection Servers of differing versions will cause connection issues with your users.

What model of Thin Client are you running?

[Wasisnt]

Since we cant use the new 5.1 server until we get the thin clients to work can I shut down the new server and have them continue to use the old 4.6 server or will it complain because it cant find the replica?

We have WYSE P20 thin clients.

[mikebarnett]

You could do that but it's possible that the ADAM schema could cause some issues. I wouldn't expect anything drastic but if something goes wrong it could be related to that.

For the Wyse P20s have you gone through the steps on Teradici's site to add the root certificate to Firmware 4.0? Version 4.0 supports 5.1 but you do have to follow some instructions in the KB listed at the top of their support site when you log in:

http://techsupport.teradici.com

[Virtually_Jim]

We were able to get the thin clients upgraded and everyone is on the new View server. I uninstalled View from the old 4.6 server so it looks like we are set.

I just noticed I replied to this with my other account but its the same person!