First-Gen IMS - Managing Images and Versions

You can perform certain administrative tasks on images and versions in the first-gen IMS image catalog. You can edit, delete, deactivate, and enable images and versions.

Edit the Details of an Image

You can edit the description of an image that is registered in the image catalog. You perform these steps using the Horizon Universal Console.

Procedure

1. In the console, select Inventory > Images - Multi-Pod.

   The console displays all the images registered in the image catalog.

2. Click the selection button to the far left of the image that you want to edit, and then click Edit.

3. In the Edit Image dialog box, enter the new description for the image, and click Save.

   The console displays the image with the new description.

Deactivate an Image or Version

To prevent use of an image or version in new assignments, you use the Horizon Universal Console to put that image or version into an inactive, or deactivated, state.

Note: This IMS feature is only available for the Horizon pod type.

When you deactivate an image version, the console prevents that version from selection when creating a new assignment. Deactivating an entire image results in deactivating all of the versions under that image.

Deactivating an image version does not affect existing assignments based on that image version. If an existing assignment uses an image version that is later deactivated, that assignment can continue to use the same image version even in the deactivated state.

Note: You cannot change the marker associations for a deactivated image version. For example, you cannot create a marker or associate any additional markers with a deactivated image version.

Procedure

1. In the Horizon Universal Console, select Inventory > Images - Multi-Pod.

   The console displays all the images registered in the image catalog.

2. Choose to deactivate an entire image or a specific image version.

   • To deactivate an entire image, click the selection button to the far left of the image, and then click Disable.
   • To deactivate a specific image version, first click the name of the image containing that version. In the image details page, click the selection button to the far left of the image version. Then click Disable.

Enable an Image or Version

You can use the Enable command to return a deactivated image or version to an available state. Enabling an image or version makes it available again for use by new assignments that you create in the console.

Enabling an entire image enables all the versions of that image.

Note: This IMS feature is only available for the Horizon pod type.

Procedure

1. In the Horizon Universal Console, select Inventory > Images - Multi-Pod.

   The console displays all the images registered in the image catalog.

2. Choose to enable an entire image or a specific image version.

   • To enable an entire image, click the selection button to the far left of the image. Then click the more (...) button and select Enable.
   • To enable a specific image version, first click the name of the image containing that version. In the image details page, click the selection button to the far left of the version. Then click the more (...) button and select Enable.

Delete an Image or Image Version

Using the Horizon Universal Console, you can delete an image version from Horizon Image Management Service (IMS) when that image version is not being used by an assignment. To delete an entire image, you must first delete all the versions under that image.

When you apply the delete operation to an image version, Horizon Image Management Service deletes that version from the image catalog. For images that IMS is using from Horizon pods, IMS also deletes the image assets underlying the version from the source vCenter Server instance.

If you only want to remove the published copies of an image version from the pods to which those copies were published, use the Unpublish option instead. See Unpublish an Image Version.

Note: You cannot delete an image version that is being used by an assignment.

Procedure

1. In the Horizon Universal Console, select Inventory > Images - Multi-Pod.

   The console displays all the images registered in the image catalog.

2. Click the name of the image containing the version that you want to delete.

   The image details page appears, listing all its versions.

3. On the image details page, select the version that you want to delete. Click the more ( ... ) button and select Delete from the menu.

   A confirmation dialog box appears.

4. Click Continue.

   Horizon Image Management Service deletes the image version. The image version is no longer visible to the service, and you can no longer perform image management on it.

5. To delete an entire image, repeat steps 2 through 4 to delete every version under the image. The system automatically deletes the entire image when you have deleted the last remaining version.

Republish an Image Version Using the Horizon Universal Console

If an attempt to publish an image version fails, either partially or completely, you can use the console's Republish workflow to retry publishing.

• If an image version is published successfully on some pods but fails on other pods, its status shows as Partially Available. If it fails to publish on all pods, it status shows as Failed. In both of these cases, you can use the Republish option to retry the process.

  Attention: Normally publishing fails on a pod for environmental reasons within the pod. The Republish process does not repair any environmental issues on your pod. You must fix the environmental issues yourself before attempting to republish to that pod. This includes ensuring that the pod is online and in a healthy state, without issues such as breached quotas or connection issues (for example, too many requests or socket exception). It also includes resolving any undesirable state the VM might be in because of manual user actions that were performed on the VM, such as:

  • Attempting to power on a VM that is already powered off for the purpose of publishing.
  • Attempting to remove the VM from the Microsoft Azure Portal or vCenter Server. Note: If the image version you attempted to publish is based on a custom VM that you created, you might see an error in one of the intermediate steps of the publishing process, such as agent pairing or Sysprep. In these cases you can attempt the Republish action as described below.

• When you republish an image version, you are not able to make any changes to the parameters you selected when you first published it. The Republish option simply retries publishing with all the settings you made originally.

Procedure

1. In the console, navigate to Inventory > Images - Multi-Pod.

   The console displays all the images registered in the image catalog.

2. Click the name of the image containing the version that you want to republish.

   The image details page appears, listing all its versions.

3. On the image details page, select the version that you want to republish.

   Important: You can only republish a version that has a status of Partially Available (publishing failed on some pods and succeeded on others) or Failed (publishing failed on all pods). The failure must have taken place during the publishing process. If the failure occurred during the VM creation process, the Republish option is not available.

4. Click the more ( ... ) button and select Republish from the menu.

   A message appears at the top of the page indicating that the republishing process has started. Horizon Image Management Service Attempts to publish the image version with the parameters you originally selected when you first attempted to publish it. For more details about the publishing process, see First-Gen Horizon Cloud - IMS - Publishing the Image Version.

   Note: If the Republish action fails, review the information at the top of this topic, correct issues as necessary, and republish again. For images in Azure pods, if republishing still fails, follow the steps in Unpublish an Image Version to unpublish the image version and then republish it again.

   Attention: Due to a known issue in this release, publishing occasionally fails with message stating that an AGENT_PAIRING or SYSPREP error occurred. If this happens, try republishing again as described in this topic.

Unpublish an Image Version

You can remove all copies of an image version from your pods using the Republish option in the Horizon Universal Console.

• Unpublishing an image version leaves that image version in the catalog with status Deployment Complete. If you wish to remove the image version or the entire image from the catalog, use the Delete option instead. See Delete an Image or Image Version.
• You cannot unpublish an image version if a copy of that version is being used by an assignment.

CAUTION:

Use the Unpublish action sparingly. Repeated use of this action on the same image version can result in unexpected results and failure to seal the image when attempting to publish the image version later. As an example, if you create a new image version, then run Publish on it and it reaches Published status, then you run Unpublish on that image version, then run Publish again, the Sysprep process that happens in the publishing workflow can fail. If you again unpublish the image version, from that point on, the image might always fail the publishing workflow. At that point, it is prudent to start fresh and make a new base image.

Procedure

1. In the console, select Inventory > Images - Multi-Pod.

   The console displays all the images registered in the image catalog.

2. Click the name of the image containing the version that you want to unpublish.

   The image details page appears, listing all its versions.

3. On the image details page, select the version that you want to unpublish.

   Note: You can only unpublish a version that has a status of Available or Partially Available.

4. Click the more ( ... ) button and select Unpublish from the menu.

   A confirmation dialog box appears.

5. Click Continue.

   Horizon Image Management Service removes all copies of this image version from your pods. The image version is now listed with status Deployment Complete.