Manually Update the Horizon Cloud Connector Virtual Appliance

To get the latest features for your cloud-connected Horizon pods, update those pods' Horizon Cloud Connector virtual appliance to the latest version. This article describes the steps to manually update the virtual appliance within the environment in which it is deployed.

Overview of the Horizon Cloud Connector Update Process

You do not need to perform a manual update if your Horizon Cloud tenant account is configured for automated updates of the Horizon Cloud Connector. With the automated update feature, the appliance is automatically updated from the cloud plane when the VMware Operations team makes a new version available to your tenant account. For details, see Configure Automated Updates of the Horizon Cloud Connector Virtual Appliance.

An existing version can be updated to one or two later versions. That is, version N can be updated to either N+1 or N+2.

Note: Proxy SSL configuration is not supported during an update of the Horizon Cloud Connector virtual appliance.

When you plan to upgrade both Horizon Cloud Connector and Connection Server for a cloud-connected Horizon pod, make sure to monitor and verify the health of the pod during the upgrade process. Monitoring the pod's health can help with troubleshooting any issues that might arise. Upgrading the Connection Server on a cloud-connected Horizon pod can sometimes result in problems with the health of that pod. If you then subsequently try to upgrade the Horizon Cloud Connector paired with that unhealthy pod, the upgrade of Horizon Cloud Connector might fail. Follow this best practice:

After upgrading the cloud-connected Horizon pod's Connection Server, verify that the pod is in good health.
To view the pod's health status, first log in to the Horizon Universal Console and perform an Active Directory domain bind. That step allows you to access the console's Capacity page where you can verify that the pod shows a health status of Online or Ready.
If the pod shows an unhealthy status, contact VMware Support to get help with resolving any connectivity issues involving the pod before you attempt the Horizon Cloud Connector upgrade.

Manual Update Workflow for Horizon Cloud Connector 1.10 or Earlier

For an existing Horizon Cloud Connector appliance running version 1.10 or earlier, follow the procedure described in this article to perform the manual update.

Manual Update Workflow for Horizon Cloud Connector 2.0 or Later

For an existing Horizon Cloud Connector appliance running version 2.0 or later, the manual update workflow differs based on whether you have deployed a single-node or multi-node cluster.

If you have deployed a single-node cluster consisting of a primary node only, follow the procedure described in this article to perform the manual update.
If you have deployed a multi-node cluster consisting of a primary node and one or more worker nodes, use the following workflow to perform the manual update.
1. Follow the procedure described in this article to perform the manual update of the primary node.
2. Follow the procedure described in Horizon Cloud Connector 2.0 and Later - Add a Worker Node to a Horizon Cloud Connector Cluster to add the updated version of the worker node to the cluster.
3. Power off the old versions of the primary node and worker node, and remove them from your pod's environment.

Prerequisites

Download the most recent version of the Horizon Cloud Connector virtual appliance that is supported for the current cloud control plane release. For the current version and release information, see the Release Notes at the Horizon Cloud documentation page.
Verify that the new Horizon Cloud Connector virtual appliance and the existing Horizon Cloud Connector virtual appliance that needs the update are in the same network so that the new virtual appliance can establish an SSH communication with the existing virtual appliance.
Verify that the virtual appliance is powered on. It would be unusual if the appliance was powered off, because the Horizon Cloud Connector must maintain a connection with the cloud control plane to ensure that your Horizon subscription license remains active for the cloud-connected pod.
(On-premises and all-in SDDC Horizon pods) Use vSphere Client to take a snapshot of the existing Horizon Cloud Connector virtual appliance.
(Horizon pods in Azure VMware Solution with federated architecture) Use one of the following methods to take a snapshot of the existing Horizon Cloud Connector virtual appliance.
- For instructions on how to use the Azure portal or PowerShell to take a snapshot of the appliance, see https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/snapshot-copy-managed-disk.
- For instructions on how to create a VM backup of the appliance, see https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/backup/backup-azure-vms-introduction.
Gather the static IP address, DNS address, gateway address, and subnet mask for the Horizon Cloud Connector virtual appliance.
Verify that you have the My VMware account credentials that are valid to log in to your cloud-plane tenant account. As described in the onboarding information in the Deployment Guide, you use a My VMware account to log in to the Horizon Cloud Connector onboarding and management portal. If the pod's associated Active Directory domain is already registered in your Horizon Cloud tenant to which the connector is paired, a second login screen will appear after you log in with your My VMware credentials. This second login screen requests the Active Directory credentials of an administrator that has the Super Administrators role in your Horizon Cloud tenant environment. If you see that second login screen, you will need the credentials for an Active Directory account in that domain that has access permissions. For a description of this login process, see Log In to the Horizon Universal Console to Perform Management Tasks on Your Horizon Cloud Environment.
(On-premises and all-in SDDC Horizon pods) Add the FQDN of the vCenter Server to the /etc/hosts file on the Horizon Cloud Connector virtual appliance. This FQDN is needed for these manual update steps to work.
For Cloud Connector version 1.10 or earlier, after editing the /etc/hosts file, you must restart the hze-core and csms services. Use the following commands:
```
systemctl restart hze-core
systemctl restart csms
```
For Cloud Connector version 2.0 or later, after editing the /etc/hosts file, you must restart Kubernetes services. Run the following script:
```
/opt/vmware/bin/configure-adapter.py  --updateHostAlias
```

Important: Version 1.0 of the connector appliance is no longer supported. If you are updating from version 1.0, you must log in to the appliance's operating system and run the chage -E -1 -M -1 tomcat8 command in the Horizon Cloud Connector virtual appliance after you have taken its snapshot.

root@example.com [ ~ ]# chage -E -1 -M -1 tomcat8

This command is required only when updating from Horizon Cloud Connector version 1.0, and not for updating from later versions.

Procedure

In a Web browser, to log in to the Horizon Cloud Connector onboarding and management portal, enter either the Horizon Cloud Connector virtual appliance IP address or, if you mapped that IP to an FQDN in your DNS, enter that FQDN in the browser.
Use your My VMware account credentials to log in. This step logs you in to your Horizon Cloud tenant account, as described in the onboarding process in the Deployment Guide. A successful login verifies that the existing Horizon Cloud connection was successfully configured with the cloud-connected pod's Connection Server. If your Horizon Cloud tenant has a registered Active Directory domain, a second login screen will appear. If that happens, enter the appropriate Active Directory credentials, as described in Log In to the Horizon Universal Console to Perform Management Tasks on Your Horizon Cloud Environment.
Deploy the latest version of the Horizon Cloud Connector virtual appliance as described in steps 1 through 8 of Connect Horizon Cloud Service with an Existing Horizon Pod to Use Horizon Subscription Licenses or Cloud-Hosted Services or Both.

Note: If the previous instance of the Horizon Cloud Connector virtual appliance used an HTTP proxy, reconfigure the proxy settings by following the prompts in the deployment wizard. Proxy settings are not transferred from the previous virtual appliance to the new virtual appliance during a manual update.
Log in to the onboarding portal for the Horizon Cloud Connector appliance that you just deployed in step 2 using its IP address in your browser.
Log in with your My VMware credentials as described in step 1 above. If your Horizon Cloud tenant account has a registered Active Directory domain, the Active Directory login window appears and you must log in with the appropriate Active Directory credentials.
Connect the latest version of the Horizon Cloud Connector appliance that you just deployed with the appropriate Connection Server instance.
The previous version of the Horizon Cloud Connector is connected to the cloud-connected pod's Connection Server instance. In the Connect to Horizon Connection Server box, enter the FQDN of the Connection Server, and click Connect.
If the display requests verification of the thumbprint certificate, click the check box to verify the thumbprint certificate for the Connection Server.

Note: This verification is skipped if the Connection Server has a valid Root CA certificate.
Enter the domain name, user name, and password for the Connection Server and click Connect.

Note: For better auditing of Horizon Cloud Connector actions, use a unique user name and password for the Connection Server.
When updating to Horizon Cloud Connector version 1.5, enable the Enable SSH on Cloud Connector toggle.
Enabling SSH provides for the new connector appliance to communicate over SSH with the existing one for the update process. When the update is complete, you can switch off this toggle.
Click Upgrade in the dialog box.
In the Old Cloud Connector address text box, enter the IP address of the earlier Horizon Cloud Connector virtual appliance and then click Connect.
Click the check box to verify the thumbprint for the SSH connection.
Click Upgrade.
The new Horizon Cloud Connector is now managing the cloud connection between the Horizon pod and the cloud control plane.

What to do next

If the previous instance of the Horizon Cloud Connector virtual appliance used custom CA-signed certificates, configure a new CA-signed certificate for the updated virtual appliance. Certificates are not transferred from the previous virtual appliance to the new virtual appliance during a manual update. For more information, see Configure a CA-Signed Certificate for the Horizon Cloud Connector Virtual Appliance.

Remove the old version of the appliance from your pod's environment.

For future updates, if you want to enable automated updates of the Horizon Cloud Connector virtual appliance, instead of using these manual steps, see the information in Configure Automated Updates of the Horizon Cloud Connector Virtual Appliance.