The following pod-associated VMs all have VMware agent-related software installed in them at some point in their life cycles: the base VMs, published images, farm host VMs, and VDI desktop VMs. VMware makes available updates of the agent-related software periodically to include new features and bug fixes. As appropriate for your environment, use the steps in the topics below to update the agent-related software that is installed in the base VMs, published image VMs, farm host VMs, and VDI desktop VMs.

Important: The system's update-manager job runs once a day to evaluate whether an image or assignment is a candidate for updating its agent-related software. If the agent-related software changes for that image or assignment in between the times the daily job is run, the status in the Horizon Cloud administrative console can be out of sync until the next time the daily job is run. This situation primarily occurs when you do a manual update to the latest agent software, either by running the Horizon Agents Installer manually on the virtual machine to update the agent software or by using a GPO. As an example:
  1. The update-manager job runs at its daily scheduled time and indicates in the console that an agent update is available on an image.
  2. You manually update the desktop instances in a VDI desktop assignment to the latest agent using a GPO.

Even though the agent-related software on the desktop instances are running the latest software, the console will still show the blue dot on the image, indicating an agent update is available until the next scheduled run of the update-manager job.

About the VMware Dynamic Environment Manager Agent Software

Starting with the July 2019 Horizon Cloud release, installation of the VMware Dynamic Environment Manager agent is incorporated into the Horizon Agents Installer. The Horizon Agents Installer is the software package that:

  • Installs the agent-related software in a new image VM, when you run the Import Virtual Machine workflow or manually create and import an image VM. When you run the Import Virtual Machine from Marketplace workflow, the Horizon Agents Installer runs behind the scenes to install the agents. When you follow the steps to manually create and import an image VM, you download and run the Horizon Agents Installer as part of those steps.
  • Updates the agent-related software in existing image VMs, and in dedicated VDI desktop assignments, when you run the Update Agent workflow. The Horizon Agents Installer runs behind the scenes to update the installed agents.

After you run the Update Agent workflow on an image VM or on the desktop VMs in a dedicated VDI desktop assignment, the install path of the VMware Dynamic Environment Manager files in the updated VMs depends on whether the original agent installation into the VM was at version 19.2 or later prior to running the Update Agent workflow.

When the base image VM was originally created using the Import Desktop workflow
In this case, the VMware Dynamic Environment Manager agent was installed automatically by default. The specific install file path depends on whether the base image VM was created starting with the 19.2 version of the agent software:
  • If the image VM was created new in a pod of manifest 1493 or later, the VMware Dynamic Environment Manager install file path is C:\Program Files\VMware\Horizon Agents\User Environment. When you subsequently run the Update Agent workflow on that VM, the file path remains as C:\Program Files\VMware\Horizon Agents\User Environment.
  • If the image VM was created in a pod of manifest earlier than 1493, the VMware Dynamic Environment Manager install file path is C:\Program Files\Immidio\Flex Profiles. When you subsequently run the Update Agent workflow on that VM, the file path remains as C:\Program Files\Immidio\Flex Profiles.
When the base image VM was originally created manually in Microsoft Azure
The VMware Dynamic Environment Manager install file path depends on how you installed the VMware Dynamic Environment Manager agent in that manually created VM:
  • If you installed the VMware Dynamic Environment Manager agent using the Horizon Agents Installer version 19.2, the VMware Dynamic Environment Manager install file path is C:\Program Files\VMware\Horizon Agents\User Environment. When you subsequently run the Update Agent workflow on that VM, the file path remains as C:\Program Files\VMware\Horizon Agents\User Environment.
  • If you installed the VMware Dynamic Environment Manager agent using the separate stand-alone VMware Dynamic Environment Manager installer, the VMware Dynamic Environment Manager install file path is C:\Program Files\Immidio\Flex Profiles. When you subsequently run the Update Agent workflow on that VM, the file path remains as C:\Program Files\Immidio\Flex Profiles.

Also, when the base image VM was originally created manually in Microsoft Azure and you did not install the VMware Dynamic Environment Manager agent at that time, if you want to subsequently install the agent during the Update Agent workflow, use the command-line argument ADDLOCAL=UEM in the Agent Update wizard's Command Line step.