This section details the best pratices to install third-party applications.
Many of the requirements for upgrades and patching of third-party applications that are hosted by VMware products will be driven by those vendors and their continued support of the virtual hardware. However, here are some high-level best practices to be considered beforehand:
- Read the application vendor's documentation to ensure the specific upgrade scenario is supported.
- Check the Compatibility Guide to attempt verification that the new version is supported as guest on the VMware product.
- If in-place upgrades are being attempted, keep in mind there are products that do not support this in a VM.
- Check the VM-assigned resources to ensure that it meets requirements to run the newer version. New applications may require greater hardware resources (memory, CPU, storage, etc.). Additional disk space may also be required during the upgrade, so ensure the VM has adequate storage for completion. Any necessary adjustments power off the VM to make some of these adjustments before starting the upgrade.
- For any embedded applications, verify they are supported on the new version of the operating system.
- Determine how the new software will be licensed, and whether or not it can operate without active, successful licensing at initialization. Procuring extra licenses ahead of time could save unnecessary downtime.
Checks to perform before the upgrade:
- Upgrade VMware Tools to the latest compatible version, if applicable.
- Test the upgrade on a cloned VM first to make sure the operation will go smoothly.
- Make sure there is a healthy backup of the VM before the upgrade. See the next section discussing failover techniques for more details and options.
