Updating VMWare Horizon Workspace vApp

It’s fairly straight forward to update your Horizon Workspace vApp to the latest (this is an out-of-hours update due to downtime):

1. Back up your vApp
2. Ensure all VAs have connectivity to vapp-updates.vmware.com on port 80
3. Log into your configurator-va CLI with the root password you set up initially
4. Run the following command to check for update:

   /usr/local/horizon/lib/menu/updatemgr.hzn check
   

5. It should come back after checking all other appliances in the vApp with something like this:

   vdi-configurator:~ # /usr/local/horizon/lib/menu/updatemgr.hzn check
   
   Checking for updates, this can take up to 5 minutes.
   ..
   checking connector-va 192.168.xxx.xxx
   checking data-va 192.168.xxx.xxx
   checking gateway-va 192.168.xxx.xxx
   checking service-va 192.168.xxx.xxx
   
   Current version: 1.8.1.1810
   Update version available: none
   Individual VM versions:
       configurator-va:      1.8.1.1810  
       connector-va:         1.8.0.1800 (Needs update) 
       data-va:              1.8.0.1800 (Needs update) 
       gateway-va:           1.8.0.1800 (Needs update) 
       service-va:           1.8.0.1800 (Needs update) 
   Some VMs are out of date.
   Run update to bring them up to the current version.
   

6. Run the following to update your VAs:

   /usr/local/horizon/lib/menu/updatemgr.hzn update
   

7. It will run through and update all VAs:

   Checking for updates, this can take up to 5 minutes.
   ..
   checking connector-va 192.168.xxx.xxx
   checking data-va 192.168.xxx.xxx
   checking gateway-va 192.168.xxx.xxx
   checking service-va 192.168.xxx.xxx
   
   Updating out of date VMs to version: 1.8.1.1810
   Running preupdate -c
   Running preupdate -c connector-va CONNECTOR vdi-connector.xxxxx.xx 192.168.xxx.xxx
   Update connector-va to 1.8.1.1810
   
   Running postupdate -c connector-va CONNECTOR vdi-connector.xxxxx.xx 192.168.xxx.xxx
   postupdate.hzn rebuilding connector-va manifest file
   ssh -oBatchMode=yes -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -i /home/configurator/.ssh/id_rsa -q [email protected] sudo /usr/local/horizon/scripts/updfix.hzn /home/configurator/manifest-installed.save /opt/vmware/var/lib/vami/update/data/info/manifest-installed.xml 1.8.1.1810 1752346
   version=1.8.1.1810 fullversion=1.8.1.1810 Build 1752346
   Running preupdate -c data-va DATA vdi-data.xxxxx.xx 192.168.xxx.xxx
   Update data-va to 1.8.1.1810
   
   [continues until all VAs updated...]
   

   This takes some time, so just keep an eye on the ssh output and wait for this and you’ll be ready to go:

   Running postupdate -c
   updateMobilemoduleIfEnabled
   

8. Check your https://[configurator-va-address]/cfg/system to make sure all the software versions match the updated version you saw earlier in the CLI when you checked for updates.

That’s all there is to it, the update does take some time but is a straightforward procedure as long as you check the pre-requisites thoroughly.