In this blog i will guide you the process of upgrading VMware View 6.x to Horizon 7.0.1 and best practices.

Before you start upgrading the view environment make sure you follow below steps.

• Disable provisioning
• Backup SQL Database for Composer
• Backup ADAM database
• Backup security server config files
• Take snapshots of all Connection server, Security server, Composer and vCenter server

KB for end-to-end backup: kb.vmware.com/kb/1008046

The following earlier versions of View components are supported for upgrading to Horizon 7: (Compatibility Matrix)

• Latest maintenance release of Horizon View 5.3
• Latest maintenance release of VMware Horizon 6.0 (with View)
• Latest maintenance release of VMware Horizon 6 version 6.1
• Latest maintenance release of VMware Horizon 6 version 6.2

Upgrade Process:

Login to Composer server and start upgrading.

Right Click on the installer and click on Run as administrator (Image) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click Next

Accept the VMware EULA and Click Next

Select installation directory and Click Next

Enter you database information and click Next

Select “Use an Exsisting SSL certificate” and click on Choose

Select the appropriate certificate and click OK

Click Install

Click Finish and Reboot the server. You are done with Composer Upgrade!

Now check Composer service and Programs & Features for Horizon 7 Composer

Note: Horizon 7 and later components have the TLSv1.0 security protocol disabled by default. If your deployment includes an older version of vCenter Server that supports only TLSv1.0, you might need to enable TLSv1.0 for View Composer connections after installing or upgrading to View Composer 7.0 or a later release.

vCenter Server 5.0, 5.1, and 5.5 support only TLSv1.0, Plase enable TLSv1.0 manually for View Composer connections

Procedure:

1. On the machine that hosts View Composer, open the Windows Registry Editor (regedit.exe).
2. Navigate to HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.0\Client
   If this key does not already exist, create this key.
3. Delete the value Enabled if it exists.
4. Create or edit the DWORD value DisabledByDefault and set it to 0.
5. Restart the VMware Horizon View Composer service.
   TLSv1.0 connections from View Composer to vCenter are now enabled.
6. In the Windows Registry on the View Composer machine, navigate to HKLM\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc.\VMware View Composer.
7. Create or edit the String value EnableTLS1.0 and set it to 1.
8. If the View Composer host is a 64-bit machine, navigate to HKLM\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\VMware, Inc\VMware View Composer.
9. Create or edit the String value EnableTLS1.0 and set it to 1.
10. Restart the VMware Horizon View Composer service.
    TLSv1.0 connections from View Composer to ESXi hosts are now enabled.

Reference: Enable TLSv1.0 on vCenter and ESXi Connections from View Composer

Connection server upgrade Procedure:

Login to Connection server and start upgrading

Right Click on the installer and click on Run as administrator

Click Next

Accept the VMware EULA and Click Next

Click On Install and then Finish.

No you have successfully completed Connection server Upgrade. Please click on Yes to reboot the server.

Once restarted check the services are started then access the Admin console to check upgrade status.

Add new License to View environment after upgrade.

Once you open Admin page you will be redirected to “Product Licensing and Usage” page, Please click on Edit License and enter License serial Number then click Ok.

Note:Horizon 7 and later components have the TLSv1.0 security protocol disabled by default. If your deployment includes an older version of vCenter Server (5.0, 5.1, and 5.5) that supports only TLSv1.0, you might need to enable TLSv1.0 manually for View Connection Server connections after installing or upgrading to View Connection Server 7.0 or a later release.

Procedure:

1. Start the ADSI Edit utility on your View Connection Server host.
2. In the console tree, select Connect to
3. In the Select or type a Distinguished Name or Naming Context text box, type the distinguished name DC=vdi, DC=vmware, DC=int.
4. In the Computer pane, select or type localhost:389 or the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the View Connection Server host followed by port 389.
   For example: localhost:389 or mycomputer.example.com:389
5. Expand the ADSI Edit tree, expand OU=Properties, select OU=Global, and double-click CN=Common in the right pane.
   If you are unable to view Global OU after Expanding Properties, Please change the Max number of Items per container to larger number. (Images)
6. In the Properties dialog box, edit the pae-ClientSSLSecureProtocols attribute to add the following value
   \LIST:TLSv1.2,TLSv1.1,TLSv1
   Be sure to include the back slash at the beginning of the line. and click OK
7. If this is a fresh installation, to apply the configuration change, restart the VMware Horizon View Connection Server service on each connection server instance.
   If you plan to perform an upgrade, you do not need to restart the service because the process of upgrading automatically restarts the service.

Reference: Enable TLSv1.0 on vCenter Connections from Connection Server

Security server upgrade Procedure:

Before upgrading the security server, you have to specify a pairing password for each connection server. Please follow the steps below

Login to Admin page and navigate to View Configuration – Servers – Connection Servers

Right Click on Connection server that is already paired with Security server and Click on “Specify Security  Server Pairing Password”

Enter the Pairing password and Confirm Password, then Click on Ok

Now Start upgrading the Security server.

Right-Click on Installed and Click on “Run as Administrator”

Click Next

Accept VMware EULA and Click Next

Enter the Connection server that we need to Pair with and Click Next

Enter Pairing password that created previously and then Click next

Click Ok

Verify the Auto populated External URL, PCoIP External URL and Blast External URL then click Next

Click Install to proceed

If you have enabled Windows Firewall, Select Configure Windows Firewall Automatically then Click Next

Once installation completed, Click on Finish

Restart the Security server after the installation.

If you have multiple Security server, Please follow the same procedure to upgrade.

Known Issues:

Horizon 7 Administrator page is not loading or displays blank error page window:

Solution: Turn off Origin checking using locked.properties file in connection server.

1. For each connection server create a text file named locked.properties in C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware View\Server\sslgateway\conf.
2. Open the locked.properties file in a plain text editor.
3. Add checkOrigin=false
4. Save and close the file.
5. Restart the VMware Horizon View Connection Server service.

The vCenter server certificate is invalid, make sure you have a CA signed certificate or accept the self signed  in the dashboard

Solution: TLSv1 has to be enabled on Connection server and composer.

Reference: Enable TLSv1.0 on vCenter Connections from Connection Server

Reference: Enable TLSv1.0 on vCenter and ESXi Connections from View Composer

“Failed to connect to the Connection Server” when loading HTML access with External VIP, but only from Chrome

Solution: Allow HTML Access Through a Load Balancer

1. Create or edit the locked.properties file in the SSL gateway configuration folder on the View Connection Server or security server host.
   For example: install_directory\VMware\VMware View\Server\sslgateway\conf\locked.properties
2. Add the portalHost property and set it to the address of the gateway.
   For example, if https://view-gateway.example.com is the address that browsers use to access View through the gateway, add portalHost=view-gateway.example.com to the locked.properties file. If the View Connection Server instance or security server is behind multiple gateways, you can specify each gateway by adding a number to the portalHost property, for example:
   portalHost.1=view-gateway-1.example.com
   portalHost.2=view-gateway-2.example.com
   You must also specify multiple portalHost properties if a single gateway machine is known by more than one name.
3. Save the locked.properties file.
4. Restart the View Connection Server service or security server service to make your changes take effect.

Hope you find this useful. Thanks for reading, Keep sharing.