Upgrade to View Agent 6 without recompose of persistent pool

[mobinqasim786]

Hi Guys,

I'm planning to upgrade Horizon View 5.x to 6.x. I'm running linked clone VDI pool and I'd like to upgrade View agent 6 on the VDI without recompose, so that I can keep the same softwares etc.

Is it possible to upgrade View agent 6 on the VDI which are running View agent 5.3 without recomposing the whole pool. If yes then what would be the disadvantages as VMware recommends to upgrade agent on Gold Image and recompose pool.

Regards,

Mobin

[vTimD]

You can do the upgrade any way that you want. While recomposing is the best-practice method, you can log in to each VDI 1 by 1 and do the upgrade. You could also try and script deployment with Powershell / PSexec, or use a software distribution platform like SCCM. The only thing you have to make sure is that you upgrade the agent on your gold image and point the pool at the new snap (without recomposing), so that all newly created linked-clones have the updated agent.

[dwigz]

     I would be careful with that approach.  If your plan is to recompose SOON, then you can maybe get away with the linked clones with the old agent for a short time.  DO NOT, DO NOT, just install the new agent on the Linked Clone Desktops.  I went to a customer site that did that for the same reason, it was VERY UGLY!  Linked Clone pools are not really designed to be used in the method you are describing.  I would suggest creating a application delivery approach with the specific applications you have that are creating the need to not recompose.  Especially in the case of a upgrade.  Linked Cones, persistent or not persistent are not meant to be permanent desktops. If that is what you are trying to do and cannot deliver the applications via hosted remote applications and/or virtual applications, then I would suggest creating a Full VM pool for those desktops and getting rid of Linked Clones.  Good luck..

[mobinqasim786]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the replies. vTimD‌ I'll try to upgrade agent on test linked clone VDI and see how it goes.

dwigz Could you please elaborate what kind of issues you had to come across when you followed the agent upgrade approach? Also please recommend some application delivery tool I could use. I've used Thinapp but I didn't like it. Is there any application delivery product recommended for the linked clones VDI environment? So it can support MS Office deployment along with other applications i.e. Adobe Reader, Java, WinSCP, FileZille and any other third party vendors apps.

Regards,

Mobin 

[dwigz]

     So, much like snapshots, Linked Clones are not intended to be permanent.  One customer had horrible OS performance and log on times after never refreshing desktops over their entire life, a refresh fixed all the performance problems.  Another forgot to uninstall VMWare Tools and the VMware Tools\View Agent part of the registry became a dumpster fire when they tried to update the agent.

     ThinApp can be a pain but if you need to isolate applications, it is the best thing out there.  If you have Horizon Enterprise, you can look into App Volumes.  It is much easier and faster performance wise, you will need to use it in conjunction with ThinApp for any applications that require being isolated.  If you do not have enterprise and it is too pricey, you can look at LiquidWare Labs ProfileUnity with FlexApp.  It is very similar to App Volumes in it's approach.