View Composer 2.7 on 64 bit Operating System

[ttfmtripp]

We are looking at upgrading to View 5.0 and currently have vCentre and Composer running on Windows 2003 (64bit) server. The documentation for Composer 2.7 says that it requires specifly Windows 2008 R2. vCentre 5.0 will run on any 64bit operating system, so is it possible to run Composer 2.7 on any Windows 64bit operating system?

If not then we are going to have to build a new 2008 R2 server to host vCentre and Composer and perform a migration instead of just upgrading the existing platform.

[ebernard]

You're true, you can read everywhere (View 5.0 install and upgrade guides) : "supported on 64 bits operating system", and later in docs "Windows 2008 R2..."

but since vCenter Server 5.0 supports all 64 bits version of Windows as per this kb : http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=200386...

So, I can say you can install it on your 2008, I ran it on W2K3 x64 on VMware View Training.

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Don't forget to give points if it answered to your issue

[mittim12]

Welcome to the forums.  The View Composer 2.7 product will work fine on a X64 OS.   As a matter of fact starting with vCenter 4.1 vCenter was only supported on X64 so Composer has to work on the machine. 

[ttfmtripp]

I wonder if the documentation is saying that VMWare only support the product on Windows 2008 R2, although it works on Windows 2003 (64bit).

If this is the case then would VMWare support us?

[kgsivan]

My suggession is to use supported OS . Though i am sure that it will work on any 64bit

but later when there is an upgrade case arises, this may lead to trouble and will impat the support.

Composer installation, upgrade and and entire service health etc are tested extensively on Windows 2008 R2 64bit platform. So VMware will not qualify any operating sytem other than R2 for composer 2.7

[gunnarb · Accepted solution]

+1 on skg.

Go with 2008 R2, as soon as you need to call Vmware for support you are going to find them lacking if you aren't following their guidelines.  Could you do it?  Probably, but should you do it? No.

Gunnar

[ttfmtripp]

Just for information, VMWare suport have said that Composer 2.7 must be on Windows 2008 R2, to be supported. Although there is documentation on migrating to new hardware while upgrading to version 5.0, their suggested upgrade path is to build a new vCentre server with the current View 4.5 we have installed and migrate the DBs across for vCentre and Composer.

Once vCentre and Composer are working on the current software version then perform an in-place upgrade. It appears an in-place upgrade is easier than upgrading while migrating to another machine.