After upgrading from VMware vSphere 5.5 Update 1 to vSphere 6.0 or a later release, you must also upgrade the Virtual SAN disk format.

VMware recommends that you upgrade to vSphere 6.0 or later because the Virtual SAN feature available with vSphere 6.0 and later releases contains many performance improvements over the feature that was available with vSphere 5.5 Update 1. With vSphere 6.0 this feature also has broader HCL (hardware compatibility) support.

Important: This procedure describes an upgrade process for Virtual SAN if you currently have desktop pools on Virtual SAN datastores available with vSphere 5.5 Update 1 or a later update release. If your desktop pools do not currently use Virtual SAN datastores, see Upgrade from a Non-Virtual SAN Datastore to a Virtual SAN Datastore.

Upgrading a VMware Virtual SAN datastore is a multi-phase process that includes upgrading the vSphere software on each ESXi host, and then upgrading the disk format, one disk group at a time. An entire chapter of the vSphere 6 document Administering VMware Virtual SAN is devoted to the upgrade process. The steps in the following procedure outline the order of tasks to do at the ESXi host level, in vCenter Server, and at the desktop pool level, in View Administrator.

Prerequisites

  • Verify that your desktop pools are using View Agent 6.0 or a later version. If your virtual machines use View Agent 5.3.x on Virtual SAN datastores, see Upgrade from Horizon View 5.3.1 on a Virtual SAN Datastore.
  • In vCenter Server, verify that the following privileges are added to the Composer role: 
    Profile-Driven Storage: All
Folder: Create Folder & Delete Folder
Host: Configuration: Advanced settings
  • Familiarize yourself with the Virtual SAN upgrade process. See the chapter about upgrading Virtual SAN in the Administering VMware Virtual SAN document, available at https://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/virtual-san-pubs.html.

Procedure

  1. Upgrade vCenter Server and your ESXi hosts to vSphere 6 or later, as described in the chapter about upgrading the Virtual SAN cluster in the Administering VMware Virtual SAN document, available in the vSphere 6.0 documentation center.
    At this point, the desktop pool is still using Virtual SAN disk format 1, and the virtual machines and VMware Tools have not yet been upgraded to vSphere 6.0 virtual hardware version 11.
  2. Upgrade the desktop pool to the latest version, as described in Upgrade View Agent and Upgrade View Composer Desktop Pools.
    This process includes installing the latest version of View Agent on the parent virtual machine, virtual machine template, or full-clone virtual machines in the pool. For linked-clone pools, the process also includes taking a snapshot and recomposing the pool.
    The virtual machines in the desktop pool now have View Agent 6.1 or later installed, and the virtual machines still reside on Virtual SAN datastores available with vSphere 5.5 Update 1. At this point, the desktop pool is using Virtual SAN disk format 1.
  3. Upgrade the Virtual SAN disk format version from version 1 to version 2.
    For complete instructions, see the topic "Upgrading the Virtual SAN Disk Format," in the upgrade chapter of the Administering VMware Virtual SAN document, available at https://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/virtual-san-pubs.html.

    You can use the command-line RVC tool for this upgrade, or, if you have vSphere 6 Update 1, you can use vSphere Web Client. Ruby vSphere Console (RVC) is a Ruby-based command-line console for VMware ESXi hosts and vCenter Server. RVC is included in both the Windows and Linux versions of vCenter Server. For detailed information about using the RVC commands, see the RVC Command-line Reference Guide.

  4. After the disks are upgraded for all the ESXi hosts in the cluster, on the parent virtual machine, virtual machine template, or full-clone virtual machines in the pool, complete the following tasks in the following order.
    1. If the parent virtual machine is on a Virtual SAN datastore, delete all snapshots.
      The virtual machine cannot start using the new snapshot format available with Virtual SAN disk format 2 until all previous redolog-based snapshots are deleted. If the virtual machine is not on a Virtual SAN datastore, you are not required to delete the snapshots.
    2. Upgrade the virtual machine hardware to version 11 and upgrade VMware Tools.
  5. For linked-clone pools, take a new snapshot and recompose the desktop pool using the new snapshot.

Results

The desktop pool is now using Virtual SAN disk format 2.