How to: Upgrade to VMware View 4.5

With the release of VMware View 4.5 comes the challenge to upgrade your existing installation to this new version.

The upgrade is not that difficult but because I promised you all a ‘How to upgrade to VMware View 4.5’ I will provide this service anyway.

Before you start first a few pointers: 1. make a back-up of the VMware View systems that you’re going to upgrade; 2. If some of your end users are using the Client with Offline Desktop, ask them to check in their View desktops; 3. when you have multiple connection servers and you are upgrading from 4.0 to 4.5, you need to disable the VMware View Connection Server service on all Connection servers. (Thanks Sven) 4. If you are using vSphere, you must have vSphere 4.0 Update 2 or vSphere 4.1. If you are using VMware Infrastructure, you must have VMware Infrastructure 3.5 Update 5 and VirtualCenter Server 2.5 Update 6.

Also check the official VMware View Upgrade Guide.

View Connection server upgrade

Let’s start with the upgrade of the VMware View Connection server. Start the appropriate, 32 or 64 bit, installer to start the upgrade process.

Accept the license agreement and continue.

Check the installation path and continue. Make sure you select path of the current View installation.

The upgrade process will start and upgrades the ADAM Directory Services schema.

And that is all. Installer complete, VMware View Connection server upgrade finished.

When you are using more than one Connection server or you are using a Security server, follow the exact same ‘upgrade process’.

Next, check the Connection server configuration.

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Page 1 - View Connection server upgrade Page 2 - Check the configuration Page 3 - Upgrade VMware View agent Page 4 - Upgrade VMware View client

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Check the configuration

To check if the ‘old’ View configuration made it to the new View Connection server, start the VMware View Administrator console at ‘https://[View Connection server name or IP]/admin’.

When you start the VMware View Administration console on the View Connection server, the first thing you will see is that the new console is based on Flash instead of Java.

As I opened the View Administration console on the View Connection server, this was the hardest part of the installation/upgrade process. Because the Flash installation is ActiveX based I had to tweak the Internet Explorer options until the Flash installation succeeded.

Now login to the VMware View Administrator console

Now enjoy the new and responsive Admin Console, check if the configuration is correct and configure the new features like the ThinApp integration and Event database.

Next, install the VMware View Agent.

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Page 1 - View Connection server upgrade Page 2 - Check the configuration Page 3 - Upgrade VMware View agent Page 4 - Upgrade VMware View client

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Upgrade VMware View agent.

Next up, the VMware View agent. This is a straight forward as it get, just install the agent in your VMware View templates.

Install the VMware View agent at the same location as the previous agent and select the appropriate install options.

When the installer completes, convert the virtual machine to a template and recompose when using Linked clones. When using full disk images, you can skip this last step.

Next, install the VMware View Client.

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Page 1 - View Connection server upgrade Page 2 - Check the configuration Page 3 - Upgrade VMware View agent Page 4 - Upgrade VMware View client

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Upgrade VMware View Client.

Last action is the VMware View Client upgrade. Again, no rocket science.

Accept the license agreement and continue.

Select the appropriate installation options.

Set the default Connection server.

Set the default behavior for ‘Log in as current user’.

Choose where to create VMware View Client shortcuts.

Install the VMware View client at the same location as the previous agent.

Finish the installer, reboot the PC/laptop/server and enjoy the VMware View 4.5 experience.

As you can see, the upgrade of VMware View is as simple as an initial installation. Besides that, it is much much easier than other VDI products from other non-specified vendors ;-).

Next, install the VMware View Client.

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Page 1 - View Connection server upgrade Page 2 - Check the configuration Page 3 - Upgrade VMware View agent Page 4 - Upgrade VMware View client

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