Horizon Agent updates can include new features and bug fixes. Use this procedure to update the Horizon Agent software installed on your dedicated desktop VMs.
Note: When your Horizon Cloud environment contains a first-gen migration that is not finalized yet, the system will prevent running this update agent procedure, even on pool groups that were created directly in the Horizon Cloud environment. In that scenario, after your click Update Agent, the console displays a guidance message about the need to finalize the migration.
To update the Horizon Agent software installed on your dedicated desktop VMs, you use the Horizon Universal Console. You start the agent-update process on the Pool Groups page and the process focus moves from pool groups to pools. You then activate the agent update at the pool level and the system updates the Horizon agent software on your dedicated desktop VMs to the latest available version.
Note:
- While the update agent operation is in progress, ensure that you have no other planned activities that might cause any of the pool group's desktop VMs to experience a power change operation. For example, notify your other administrators to avoid manually powering off or on one of these desktop VMs, and ensure that any power management schedules configured in this pool group will not cause the desktops to power on or off while the update agent tasks are running. If a desktop VM experiences a power-change operation while the system is running its agent update tasks on the VM, unexpected results can occur and leave that desktop VM in a state that requires manual recovery.
- Agent update and reinstall operations use the proxy server configured at the pool level. For information on setting the proxy server at the pool level, refer to Edit a Pool.
A best practice is to edit the pool group and remove any configured power management schedules to eliminate the chance a power-change operation will occur while the agent update tasks are running.
Procedure
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In the Horizon Universal Console, navigate to the Pool Groups page and note the Need Agent Update button in the upper right corner of the page.
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To ensure the latest agent update is available for the Need Agent Update filter, scan pool groups for agent updates.
Note: A scan for updates can take a few minutes depending on the number of pool groups and pools.
Horizon Cloud automatically scans desktops across pool groups daily for the agent update. The Scan for Updates action label displays the last-scanned time. If you want to scan agents immediately for pool groups, use the Scan for Updates action as follows.
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Click Agent > Scan for Updates.
This process runs in the background. The status is shown on the Activity Log page.
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To view the progress, go to the Activity Log page.
See Monitoring Administrator and End User Activity from the Activity Log Page for information about the activity log.
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To filter the list so that it consists solely of pool groups that contain desktop VMs eligible for agent update, click Need Agent Update.
If you scanned for updates in the preceding step, the data in this list includes updates discovered during the scan. Otherwise, the list consists of data computed from previous scans, such as from the automated daily scans or for specific events.
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Select one or more pool groups.
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Select Agent > Update Agent.
The Update Agent wizard starts and presents a page that divides the selected pool groups into a list of corresponding pools, each of which contains one or more VMs eligible for agent update.
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Select the pools in the list that contain the VMs you want to update and click Next.
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Complete the Details form and click Save.
Option Description Skip VMs with Active Users Select to skip the Horizon Agent update for active or disconnected sessions. If this option is not selected, users logged in to VMs when the update begins will receive a warning and then be forcibly logged off. Job Timeout Set the time period over which you want the system to continue trying automatically to update agents. If you want to run updates only during a specific period, you can set a short time period even if you select multiple templates and VMs. One batch of VMs can take 20-60 minutes depending on the VM state and any other wait time and retries in process. For example, if you have more than 600 VMs to update with 30 VMs as concurrency, then you would calculate the time period as follows: - Number of batches: 600/30 = 20 batches
- Job timeout: 20*60 = 1200 minutes
Concurrency Set a limit to the number of VMs that the system attempts the agent update on simultaneously. This setting works in parallel with the Failure Threshold setting. Ideally, keep the Concurrency setting lower or equal to the Failure Threshold setting. Failure Threshold The number of VMs for which the agent update is allowed to fail before the update process is stopped. Setting this threshold prevents mass failures from occurring. When the update process stops due to failed VM agent updates, you might observe a number of failed VMs that is higher than the set Failure Threshold value. If you need to ensure that there will be fewer failures than the number specified for the Failure Threshold setting, then set the Concurrency value to 1. This also means that the agent update process will take a long time as it will be updating one VM at a time. It is recommended to set Concurrency and Failure Threshold appropriately for optimal results. Command Line Arguments In the Command Line Arguments text box, add any command line options that might be relevant for this update.
What to do next
The Agent Update process runs in the background and the status is shown on the Activity Log page. Go to the Activity Log page to view the progress. For information about the activity log, see Monitoring Administrator and End User Activity on the Activity Log Page.
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