VM View 4.0 -> 4.6 -> 5.0

[herrokitty]

Hi all,

I'll try to keep this as succinct as possible.

I have recently “inherited” our View environment at my work. I have fairly limited vm experience so bear with me.

We are half way through a View 4.0 -> 4.6 migration, and now one of our overseas sites is due for a total hardware refresh.

The View infrastructure for this overseas site consists on one cluster with 8 esx hosts, all running esx4.0.0. The View version on this cluster is 4.0.

Now the question I have been asked by management is, is it worth upgrading to View 5 during the hardware refresh?

From what I understand, View 5 offers a bevy of performance benefits, and is a logical upgrade. What is involved in upgrading from View 4.0 to View 5. Is it a direct upgrade or do I need to go to 4.6 first?

I’m still getting my head around the admin side of things and have never setup a View implementation from scratch so any help appreciated.

(Yes I am madly googling, but these forums seem very helpful)

Thanks!

[uday_s]

There's an Upgrade guide available http://pubs.vmware.com/view-50/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/view-50-upgrades.pdf

Thanks,

Uday

[gunnarb]

How many pools, replics, master VMs are you dealing with in your environment?  I normally recommend a "swing" migration whereby you leave your current Ifrastructure alone and build a new infrastructure.  The nice thing about this is that all your users will have to do is log off and back on and now they will be on View 5.  The negative is that it takes more hardware resources, but normally its doable.

I would definately go to View 5.  There are countless bug fixes in this version plus some very nice new features like Persona management.

Also, I would encourage you to call in a thrid party as you "have limited vm experience".  I know when I'm onsite I spend 75% of my time educating, the actual upgrade isn't that difficult.  Making sure the client understands View and feels comfortable when I leave is the most important thing.  Just food for though, I'm not pushing my wares or anything. 

Gunnar

[herrokitty]

Hello,

In that particular VM view deployment, we have 1 pool.....

Currently with one master VDI....spread across 11 datastores, so 11 replicas.

Not sure if the company is willing to pay for a third party to handle this, so i am preparing for the worse....

Gunnar, would you be able to provide a high level list of what is required?

I am reading through the upgrade pdf provided by Uday but a high level list would help a lot....

Thanks guys....

[gunnarb · Accepted solution]

First I would install a new 5.0 vCenter as 5.0 can manage both the 4.x ESX/i hosts and the new 5.0 hosts.

     Install vComposer 2.7 on vCenter 5.0

Next I would take one or two of my current 4.x hosts and remove them from the cluster.  Hopefully your cluster can handle at least 2 host failures (if it can handle 3 then take two out of service).  Upgrade those hosts to 5.0.

Form a new 5.0 cluster with these hosts.  Make sure the hosts have access to all the datastores they need.

Setup a new 5.0 View Connection Server.  Point it to your 5.0 vCenter.

Copy/Import/Clone/Whatever your original Master Image to the new cluster, update its Hardware and Vmware Tools.  OR  Build a new clean Master VM.  Hopefully you have solid documentation on the exact process you go through to create the Master Image (and all updates).  If this is the case, I normally use a View refresh as an opportunities to start a clean Master Image.

Update the Agent on the Master Image.

Use the View Admin on the new VCS to create a pool using the updated Master Image.  (Pick a pool that isn't huge and if possible is full of users that will give you good feedback).

On the client side, change the VCS URL for those clients that are going to use this pool.  You can do this using Group Policy so they don't even realize you've done anything.

Continue this process.  As you free up space on the old system continue to remove ESX hosts and add them to the new system.

Before you know it everyone gets migrated over and they shouldn't even be aware.

And the best part, if you screw up at any point in time, just point them back to the orginal VCS URL and they can go back to the pool they are currently using.  THIS is why I like this type of migration, there is a great punt stratigy.  I'm all about CYA when doing something this important.  A straight upgrade doesn't CYA as well as a swing.

Gunnar

[herrokitty]

Wow Gunnar, thankyou very muchly for that.....makes alot of sense....

This has made the whole process a lot less daunting....

[gunnarb]

Glad I could help... and save you $$$ for someone like me to do it.