If you upgrade vSphere components separately from VMware Horizon 8 components, you must back up some Horizon 8 data and reinstall some Horizon 8 software.

Instead of performing an integrated upgrade of Horizon 8 and vSphere components, you can choose to first upgrade all Horizon 8 components and then upgrade vSphere components, or the reverse. You might also upgrade only vSphere components when a new version or update of vSphere is released.

When you upgrade vSphere components separately from Horizon 8 components, you must perform the following additional tasks:

  1. Before you upgrade vCenter Server, back up the vCenter Server database.
  2. Before you upgrade vCenter Server, back up the Horizon Directory database from a Horizon Connection Server instance by using the vdmexport.exe utility.

    For instructions, see the Horizon 8 Administration document. If you have multiple instances of Connection Server in a replicated group, you need to export the data from only one instance.