1. The Citrix official procedure: XenDesktop 7 upgrade components (CHECK BELOW FOR DETAILED PROCEDURE)

Updated: 2014-04-28 (Copyright Citrix)

When you run the installer AutoSelect, the wizard checks whether certain Site components (such as the Delivery Controllers, Director, and VDAs), need to be upgraded. If you opt not to upgrade some components during this process, when you run Studio, it performs a component check and notifies you when components need to be upgraded. You cannot proceed to manage your Site until you upgrade these components.

Important: Back up your Databases as described in How to backup and Restore your XenDesktop Database before performing any upgrade procedures.

Upgrade Site with components deployed on different machines

The following figure shows the high-level processes involved when upgrading a XenDesktop 7 to XenDesktop 7.x in which Studio components are deployed on different machines.

Perform the upgrade procedures in the following order.

Check the licenses

Make sure that your Subscription Advantage date for licenses is no earlier than 2013.0522.

Upgrade StoreFront

If StoreFront is deployed on a separate machine, follow the steps described in Upgrade StoreFront.

Upgrade Director

If Director is deployed on a separate machine, follow the steps described in Upgrade core components.

Upgrade Provisioning Services

If you are using Provisioning Services, follow the procedures described in Upgrading Provisioning Services.

Manual upgrade for VDAs on physical machines

When upgrading version 7 or version 7.1 VDA that are installed on a physical machine (including Remote PC Access) to version 7.5 VDAs, you must start the upgrade from the command line using the following parameter:

/EXCLUDE “Personal vDisk”,”Machine Identity Service”

The following example shows a physical VDA manual upgrade.

1. If you are using physical installation media, insert it into the DVD drive. If you are using a network share, mount the media as a network drive. This example assumes that the installation media is in the D drive.
2. Open a command prompt window.
3. Enter:

4.              D:\x64\XenDesktop Setup\XenDesktopVdaSetup.exe /EXCLUDE

5.              “Personal vDisk”,”Machine Identity Service”

Your VDA upgrade will now launch and complete as described in Upgrade the Virtual Delivery Agent.

Upgrade the Virtual Delivery Agent

For Remote PC Access deployments, Citrix recommends that you upgrade a VDA in a remote PC using a command-line method. For detailed information, see Install using the command line.

1. Log on to the server using a local administrator account and run the installer by inserting the media or mounting the ISO drive for this release, and double-clicking AutoSelect.
2. On the Welcome page, click Start. The wizard detects what components need to be upgraded and displays the Upgrade options-page, activating the components you can upgrade.
3. On the Upgrade options page, select:
   • Virtual Delivery Agent for Windows Desktop OS for Desktop OS, and earlier XenDesktop versions
   • Virtual Delivery Agent for Windows Server OS for Server OS
4. On the Firewall page review the default ports and configure firewall rules.
5. On the Summary review the prerequisites to be installed and the components to be upgraded then click Upgrade.
6. On the Finish Upgrade page one of the following messages appears upon completion:
   • Success — Upgrade successful appears when the upgrade completes without errors.
   • Failed — The Upgrade failed appears with a list of failed components. Click Why did this fail to review what you must do to fix the problem. Other components that installed successfully are retained; you do not need to reinstall them.
7. Click Finish to complete the upgrade.

Upgrade Delivery Controllers

Citrix recommends that you upgrade Delivery Controllers as follows:

1. Upgrade half of your Site’s Delivery Controllers.
2. Use the upgraded version of Studio to perform the Site upgrade as described in Upgrade core components.
3. Upgrade your remaining Delivery Controllers.

Upgrade Databases using Studio

Use Studio to upgrade the Database.

Automatically upgrade Databases

1. Start Studio. The wizard detects what components need to be upgraded and displays the Mandatory upgrade page.
2. Select Start the Site upgrade automatically.
3. At the prompt, select I am ready to upgrade.

The wizard displays the upgrade progress. After the upgrade completes, the wizard performs tests. This takes several minutes.

4. At the Site Upgrade Complete window, you can optionally view a data migration report and then click Finish.
5. At the Upgrade successful page, click Finish upgrade and return to the Site overview.

Manually upgrade Databases

To minimize Site down time when performing a manual upgrade, it is important that the XenDesktop Administrator closely coordinates with the Database Administrator. This process requires that you run a script that temporarily disables Xendesktop Services while the manual upgrade scripts are run by the Database Administrator using a preferred tool (for example, SQL Server Management Studio). Ideally, immediately after these scripts complete, the XenDesktop Administrator should enable XenDesktop Services and complete the upgrade using Studio.

Manual upgrade requires:

• Backing up the databases
• Running the generated scripts in the following order:

1. DisableServices.ps1 — PowerShell script to be run by the XenDesktop administrator on an XenDesktop Controller.
2. UpgradeSiteDatabase.sql — SQL script run where the Site databases resides
3. UpgradeMonitorDatabase.sql — SQL script run where the Monitor databases resides.
4. UpgradeLoggingDatabase.sql — SQL script run where the Logging database resides.

Note: You should only run this script if the Logging database changes. For example, run it after applying a hotfix.

5. EnableServices.ps1 — PowerShell script to be run by the XenDesktop administrator on an XenDesktop Controller.

To upgrade manually

1. Start Studio. The wizard detects what components need to be upgraded and displays the Mandatory upgrade page.
2. Select Manually upgrade this site.
3. The wizard checks for License Server compatibility. Make sure your License Server and license files are compatible with your version of XenDesktop 7.x. Select the confirmation check box and click Continue.
4. The wizard prompts you to backup the Database. When you have done so, select the confirmation check box and click Continue.
   • The wizard generates the manual upgrade scripts that you must run and displays them in a window
   • The Mandatory Upgrade page changes to display a checklist of the manual upgrade steps
5. Make sure you have completed the checklist tasks and click Finish upgrade and return to Common Tasks.

Upgrade core components

The installer automatically upgrades core components such as Delivery Controllers, Studio, and Director if they were previously installed.

1. Log on to the server using a local administrator account and run the installer by inserting the media or mounting the ISO drive for this release, and double-clicking AutoSelect.
2. On the Welcome page, click Start. The wizard detects what components need to be upgraded and displays the Upgrade options-page, activating the components you can upgrade.
3. Click Delivery Controller.
4. Accept the license agreement.
5. Review the upgrade steps, click I’m ready to continue and click Next.
6. On the Core Components page review the components available for upgrade.
7. On the Firewall page review the default ports and configure firewall rules.
8. On the Upgrade page review the prerequisites to be installed and the components to be upgraded and then click Upgrade.
9. On the Finish Upgrade page one of the following messages appears upon completion:
   • Success — Upgrade successful appears when the upgrade completes without errors.
   • Failed — The Upgrade failed appears with a list of failed components. Click Why did this fail to review what you must do to fix the problem. Other components that installed successfully are retained; you do not need to reinstall them.
10. Click Finish to complete the upgrade.
11. After completing the XenDesktop upgrade, upgrade machine catalogs as described in Upgrade a machine catalog and Delivery Groups as described in Upgrade a Delivery Group.

Upgrade a Site with components deployed on the same machine

The following figure shows the high-level processes involved when upgrading a Site in which all components are deployed on the same machine.

Perform the upgrade procedures in the following order:

1. Make sure that your Subscription Advantage date for licenses is no earlier than 2013.0522.
2. Back up the Controller databases as described in How to backup and Restore your XenDesktop Database.
3. Optionally back up templates and upgrade Hypervisor.
4. Upgrade PVS servers and agents as described in Upgrade Provisioning Services.
5. Upgrade the core components as described in Upgrade core components.
6. Upgrade VDAs as described in Upgrade the Virtual Delivery Agent.
7. Upgrade the Database using Studio as described in Upgrade Databases using Studio.
8. Upgrade the remaining Delivery Controllers.
9. After completing the XenDesktop upgrade, upgrade machine catalogs as described in Upgrade a machine catalog and Delivery Groups as described in Upgrade a Delivery Group.

Post upgrade processes

After the upgrade and data migration is complete, you can run environment and configuration tests to make sure that the Site is in functional order.

To test the upgraded site, select Test Site in the Site Configuration pane of the Studio Common Tasks page.

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To obtain we need need to download the XenDesktop 7.5. Login to your account, or your client’s account at citrix.com

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If you are not logging in with an account of a customer who has already acquired XenDesktop licenses, the download will be locked. See in the next steps for alternatives.

Should the account have sufficient right to download the ISO, click on the version you want. Basically it should download the same ISO file.

The version you need, you select during installation.

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If you have sufficient rights, download the XenApp_and_XenDesktop7_5.iso

From here.

Note there are links to the Admin Guide, Upgrade guide and Build a new environment Guide, which should be useful for late night reading.

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Should you not be able to login to the client’s account, or don’t have any direct contacts to anyone who can provide you with the ISO, and you desperately want to do a POC, you might also find the ISO on some public FTPs.

In GB and bytes:

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Of course, any downloading from any other source than citrix.com is most likely illegal in your country. If it is, you shouldn’t do it and check with your colleagues who support Citrix if they have the ISO.

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Running files from a corrupt ISO file is a drag, and a waste of time. So we will check that the ISO is OK. If you got the ISO from an unknown source, this step is a must.

Use your own md5 hash check tool, or download the MD5 hash check tool to verify the validity of the download of the ISO.

You can use the standalone and free WinMD5.exe  from www.winmd5.com

Run WinMD5.exe  on the
the downloaded ISO
XenApp_and_XenDesktop7_5.iso

The MD5 hash of the XenApp_and_XenDesktop7_5.iso is  047bc9c9cd81035a5c7b88013fd8e69e

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If you are upgrading a multiple server StoreFront deployment, disable access to the deployment through the load balancing environment.

Disabling the load-balanced URL prevents users from connecting to the deployment during the upgrade. All servers in a multiple server deployment must be updated concurrently. (note: 1 after the other!)

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Open de StoreFront console on the first server, and choose the option Propagate changes, to ensure the servers are in sync.

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Restart all StoreFront servers.

Restarting the server ensures that any file locks are cleared and that there are no Windows updates pending.

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We are ready to upgrade the servers.
Create a VMware snapshot of all Storefront servers.

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Log in with the admin account with which you will do the installation.

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Check connectivity: Ping from all servers  the server itself and the other Storefront servers. Verify that all IPs are correct to exclude connectivity issues.

Ping Storefrontservername1
Ping Storefrontservername2
Etc

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For multiple server StoreFront deployments, on each server in the deployment, open Event Viewer and, in the left pane, navigate to Applications and Services Logs > Citrix Delivery Services. Search for events logged by the Citrix Subscriptions Store Service with an Event ID of 3 and a Task Category of 2901.

Ensure that an entry is logged for each store on every server in the deployment before continuing.

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Read the article and follow the request changes to improve StoreFront use/installation. Not all are MANDATORY, but some can prevent installation issues.

http://xendesktopguy.com/2013/05/31/winning-with-storefront/

A)    Disable Netbios over TCP

B)     Set-ExecutionPolicy -scope LocalMachine by-pass

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Right-click the ISO to mount the contents

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You can upgrade Storefront via the Citrix Installation manager, or directly via the Storefront executable.

First we will show you how to run the process via via the normal setup.

If you want to run the upgrade via the storefront setup exe, go to point X

Run the setup program in the root of the DVD.

Run Studio and Server components (this will do the upgrade)

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Click Next

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Select I’m ready

Click Next

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Select Let me continue

Click Next

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Verify the installation components. This should be correct, according to the installed components. In this case, just StoreFront.

Click next

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Click Upgrade

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Select Open the StoreFront Management Console (we will open it briefly and close it again)

And click Finish

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VIA DIRECT INSTALL: Follow these steps if you want to upgrade via the Storefront executable.

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Run the StoreFront installation file as an administrator:

CitrixStoreFront-x64.exe

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Enable the selection box I accept .

Click Next

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Click Install

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StoreFront is being upgraded

Please wait, this can take upto 10-15 mins

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 More technical details:

The CitrixStoreFront-x64.exe

calls the DeliveryServicesRoleManager to coordinate the installation.

“C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Temp\2\CitrixStoreFrontSelfExtractor0\
Trolley\DeliveryServicesRoleManager.exe” /install:All /logfile:”C:\Windows\Temp
\StoreFront\Citrix-DeliveryServicesRoleManager-2014-08-12 11-03-57.log”

In Task manager you will see some activity from the MSI installer:

Then one of the MSIs will call rundll32.exe

C:\Windows\System32\rundll32.exe “C:\Windows\Installer\MSIE9B0.tmp”,
zzzzInvokeManagedCustomActionOutOfProc SfxCA_80996781 74360 Citrix.DeliveryServices.InstallControllerCustomAction!Citrix.DeliveryServices.
InstallControllerCustomAction.CustomActions.ConfigureInstallation

Next several changes will be made on IIS level.

You can follow this process more or less when looking at process Explorer (procexp.exe)

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Finished!
StoreFront 2.5.0.29 installed successfully on your first server .

Click Finish

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Open the StoreFront console

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The StoreFront console will open

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By design, The StoreFront console notices your other StoreFront servers are in a lower version.

Click OK and close the console.

Screenshot when having 2 StoreFront servers:

Screenshot when having 3 StoreFront servers:

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Restart the StoreFront server and check that all the StoreFront services are running.

Restarting the server ensures that all caches are cleared and the StoreFrontservices are restarted.

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Verify is the services are started. The disabled service is OK.

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After reboot, check for any problems in the eventviewer: Eventviewer > Application and Services log > Citrix Delivery Services.

The following events are to be considered normal/OK.

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Repeat installation for server 2

If you are upgrading a multiple server StoreFront deployment, repeat Steps x to x for each of the remaining servers in your deployment until you have upgraded them all.

Important: Ensure you finish upgrading the current server before starting to upgrade the next. In multiple server StoreFront deployments, servers must be upgraded sequentially. Upgrading multiple servers in parallel is not supported and can cause configuration mismatches that lead to stores, sites, and services becoming unusable.

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Our second  StoreFront server has been successfully upgraded.

Click Finish to open the StoreFront console

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If all went well, and you only have 2 servers, the last storefront server will have already synced with all other servers.

When the upgrade process is complete on the final server in your deployment, StoreFront automatically updates the configuration of the other servers in the deployment to match that of the final server.

Or

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Close the console and reboot

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After reboot, check for any problems in the eventviewer: Eventviewer > Application and Services log > Citrix Delivery Services.

The following events are to be considered normal/OK.

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Verify is all services are running. The disabled service is normal.

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Upgrade the 3^rd and in this case last StoreFront server, follow steps x to x

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After install has finished open the console again

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The adding snap-in will take more time, this is where StoreFront is synchronising. Please wait.

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Also the third StoreFront server was synchronized.

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Restart the server

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Reopen Storefront console on the LAST StoreFront server you upgraded.

Note: If you want to perform a Propagate Chages from another Storefront server you will receive this message:

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The same message appeared when opening the console on the Last server as well. Let’s ignore this for now.

Click OK, the propagation will start automatically

If you don’t get this, go to the next step

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If you don’t get this message, click on Propagate Changes

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Propagate Changes in progress

Screenshot when syncing a 2 StoreFront Server Group :

Screenshot when syncing a 3 StoreFront Server Group :

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Propagation completed.

The configuration states Last propagation from <Last StoreFront servername>

And the success state and time of sync.

Screenshot when syncing a 2 StoreFront Server Group :

Screenshot when syncing a 2 StoreFront Server Group :

Screenshot when syncing a 2 StoreFront Server Group :

Screenshot when syncing a 3 StoreFront Server Group :

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StoreFront has been upgraded to 2.5.0.29.

Add/Remove programs

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If you are upgrading a multiple server StoreFront deployment, restore access to your deployment through the load-balanced URL.

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Perform the compatibility tests, especially if you have Pass-trough(SSON) enabled.

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Perhaps keep the VMware snapshots for a while, in case of a rollback.

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Check the current version in Add/Remove programs via appwiz.cpl

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Reboot both Delivery Controllers

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Make a VMware snapshot of both Delivery Controllers

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Make a full backup of the Site database, and other databases if they are separate

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Put the vdisk in maintenance mode, and the Master VM as well if this is not yet the case. Boot the vdisk into WRITE mode (private mode)

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Log in to the console via your hypervisor.

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Check the Virtual Disk status to see if you are in Write mode

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Right-click the ISO to mount the contents

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Run the AutoSelect.exe with admin rights

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Loading

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Select Virtual Delivery Agent for Windows Server OS

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Click Next

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Click Upgrade

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Being installed

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The installation will run  files from the folders:

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The XenDesktopVdaSetup.exe runs several MSis. Note I may not have not captured all files, this is just to give you na idea.

“<CDROMDRIVELETTER>:\x64\XenDesktop Setup\XenDesktopVdaSetup.exe”  /NOSPLASHSCREEN /XENDESKTOP

“msiexec” /i “G:\x64\Virtual Desktop Components\MachineIdentityServiceAgent_x64.msi” /lv “C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Temp\2\Citrix\XenDesktop Installer\MSI Log Files\MachineIdentityServiceAgent_x64199030719.txt” /quiet INSTALLLOCATION=”C:\Program Files\Citrix” ARPSYSTEMCOMPONENT=”1″ MSIFASTINSTALL=”1″ REBOOT=ReallySuppress

“msiexec” /i “G:\x64\Virtual Desktop Components\VdaMonitorPlugin_x64.Msi” /lv “C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Temp\2\Citrix\XenDesktop Installer\MSI Log Files\VdaMonitorPlugin_x64956661311.txt” /quiet INSTALLLOCATION=”C:\Program Files\Citrix” ARPSYSTEMCOMPONENT=”1″ Install all hotfixes MSIFASTINSTALL=”1″ REBOOT=ReallySuppress

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Update completed.

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Install hotfixes you can find on

Currently no important Public Hotfixes for Server OS.

For Desktop OS there are generally more hotfixes being released.

Note Post-VDA7.5 hotfixes for Windows Server OS 64-bit start with ICAWS750WX64  or BrokerAgent750WX64

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We will install 1 patch:

Run BrokerAgent750WX64001

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Click Update

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Hotfix install in progress 

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Click Finish

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Click ok to restart the server.

We need to reboot the image so there are no pending changes at boot time.

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Check if the services all start, check eventviewer as well for errors.

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Shut down the image

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Promote vdisk to test. Tests the image, then change to production.

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Check the current version in Add/Remove programs via appwiz.cpl

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Reboot both Delivery Controllers

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Shutdown all DCS. Make an offline VMware snapshot of all Delivery Controllers.

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Check your mirrored database. Are the 3 databases (or 1) Principal and Synchronized, indicating that changes are replicated to the mirror, on the principal server?

Otherwise you will receive the following error

Launch the Database Montiroing Monitoring

Verify the status and see if there are unsent logs. This should be 0 when the mirroring is up-to-date

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Verify Firewall status on all Delivery Controllers.

Verify the status of the firewall. Make sure they are off, even if they are usually on. Firewall rules will be created even if they are off.

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Shutdown all database servers. First the mirror, then the Principal, then the witness. Make an offline VMware snapshot of all database servers (mirroring)

This is of course more for a dedicated SQL server in a DEV enviroment than on a shared production SQL server. Decide how far you want to ensure to go back to the previous version in case of database errors.

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Open the Citrix Studio Console

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On the first page click test site

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Make sure you have solved all important issues. In my case for example, I had to reconfigure the Configuration Logging database, to ensure a successful upgrade. It showed as OK, but the configuration was not 100% ok.

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I suggest only to upgrade to 7.5 when you have 100% succesaful tests, or understand clearly why you have warnings or errors.

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Make a full backup of de Site database, and other databases if they are separate.

Note that restoring a mirrored database is not as easy as a normal database.

Consult your SQL database administrator before going ahead.

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Right-click the ISO to mount the contents

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Run the AutoSelect.exe with admin rights

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Select I’m ready to continue

Select Next

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Select Let me continue

Select Next

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Upgrade in progress

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Run the necessary hotfixes for Citrix Studio start with

DStudio750WX64

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Select I accept .

Select Install

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Select Finish

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Reboot the server, although this is not strictly necessary.

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If your SQL database is running on a mirror, make sure the database is running on the principal server

Principal and Synchronized, indicating that changes are replicated to the mirror.

Otherwise you will receive the following error

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Open the Citrix Studio Console

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Studio informs you that you need to continue with the upgrade.

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Select I am ready

Click Upgrade

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This will upgrade the database to XenDesktop 7.5.

If you are lucky J the upgrade will complete with no errors.

Click on Show Report

And the Click Finish

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The report opens in your browser.

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Next the information on your Xendesktop configuration is being displayed. This may take several minutes.

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Click ok

Close the Citrix Studio

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Log on to the next Delivery Controller.

Run the upgrade, and follow the wizard as described in the earlier steps.

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The Delivery Controller software and Citrix Studio are being upgraded to version 7.5

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Leave the box Launch Studio empty, and click finish

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Install the hotfixes

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Reboot the server, although this is not strictly necessary.

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Open the Citrix Studio console on the first server. Run the Site test again, and if all went well there should be no errors.

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IF you hadn’t upgraded your licences you will see this message:

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Open the Tool XenDesktop Site Diagnostics XDSiteDiag.exe.

Verify the version of both Delivery Controllers.

Note: to run this tool, you must have dotnet framework 3.5 installed.

You can do this via a cmd prompt

DISM /Online /Enable-Feature /FeatureName:NetFx3 /All /LimitAccess /Source:F:\sources\sxs

where F:\ is the mounted Windows DVD ISSO. Noreboot needed.

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Run the tool XDPing.exe as well to check for errors if you want.

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You have successfully upgraded to 7.5

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