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How-to: Update Citrix Workspace Environment Manager (WEM) from 4.x to 4.7 (v4.07.00.00)

by Marco Hofmann, CTA

On July 18th 2018, Citrix released version 4.7 of Workspace Environment Management (WEM). This is an update guide. Customer Success Services / Software Maintenance eligibility date: May 18, 2018

Download Citrix WEM 4.7 (v4.07.00.00) here:
https://www.citrix.com/downloads/xenapp-and-xendesktop/components/workspace-environment-management-47.html

What’s new:
https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/workspace-environment-management/current-release/whats-new.html

Fixed issues:
https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/workspace-environment-management/current-release/fixed-issues.html

Infrastructure Service Update

  1. If you load balance your WEM Infrastructure Services Broker, consider disabling the broker you update. Otherwise, it’s no big problem, the agents cache the configuration.
  1. Check your WEM Infrastructure Service Configuration and write it down. Especially the passwords. The database upgrade drops the entire configuration. Better stay safe!
  1. Update your existing Broker through: Citrix Workspace Environment Management Infrastructure Services Setup.exe The setup is straightforward, no details from me here.
  1. Update your existing Administration Console: Citrix Workspace Environment Management Console Setup.exe The setup is straight forward, no details from me here.
  1. Start the WEM Database Management Utility from the Start Menu, choose Upgrade Database. Make sure you have a current backup of your database! I needed it once in the past!
  1. Keep caution, the following Citrix Document states, that the SQL vuemUser needs temporary SQL sysadmin permissions. Otherwise, the upgrade will fail. If your upgrade fails, you find the log file in -> “C:\Program Files (x86)\Norskale\Norskale Infrastructure Services\Citrix WEM Database Management Utility Debug Log.log”
  2. Enter all the information you wrote down during step 2, if the fields aren’t filled in -> Press Upgrade.

Remember, you only have to do this once, not on all your brokers.

  1. After you upgrade the Infrastructure Services, you must reconfigure the Infrastructure Services using the WEM Infrastructure Service Configuration utility. Check WEM Infrastructure Service Configuration, if your connections details were dropped. If your settings vanished, enter them again and click Save configuration.
  1. You should now be able to open the WEM Administration Console once again!
  1. If you have multiple WEM Brokers, it’s time to switch the active Service Group Members and repeat Steps 3, 4 & 8.
    If not, it’s time to update the agents.

Agent Update

  1. Either you deploy them manually on each server. The setup is straight forward, no details from me here. Or you deploy the agent silent with your favorite software distribution tool (click image to enlarge):

    Citrix Workspace Environment Management Agent Setup.exe /s /v"/qn /norestart"
  1. After the Agent upgrade, you have to execute the following commands according to the official upgrade guide:
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\ngen.exe update
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\ngen.exe eqi 3

or for 32bit operating systems:

C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\ngen.exe
  1. With WEM 4.3 & 4.4, step 12 worked for me without issues. I skipped WEM 4.5 as I had no time, and WEM 4.6 had a few issues, so I waited for WEM 4.7. This time I tried the steps, as the official Guide suggests, but it generated many errors. I don’t know yet how to interpret them.
  1. When updating from a WEM version lower than 4.5, you might receive the following error:

There is already a very detailed guide by Srinivasan Shanmugam in the CUGC blogs, which describes a possible cause for this issue: WEM Agent v4.5 Upgrade Issues

Example command line steps to push and automate stuff:

net stop "Norskale Agent Host Service" /y

del "C:\Program Files (x86)\Norskale\Norskale Agent Host\Local Databases\LocalAgentCache.sdf" /F

del "C:\Program Files (x86)\Norskale\Norskale Agent Host\Local Databases\LocalAgentDatabase.sdf" /F

net start "Norskale Agent Host Service" /y

net start "NetLogon" /y

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Norskale\Norskale Agent Host\AgentCacheUtility.exe" -refreshcache

  1. You can verify your Agent <-> Broker connection through the following command. The Brokername has to be a FQDN:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Norskale\Norskale Agent Host\AgentCacheUtility.exe" -refreshcache
  1. And, last but not least, you have to replace the ADMX definition files in your central store. If there are any older ADMX oder ADML files, delete them.
  1. Congratulations, your Citrix Workspace Environment Management is now on version 4.7!

If you should encounter further errors, check the Windows Eventlogs and consider enabling the WEM Agent Debug Log:
CTX219839: How to Enable Debug Logging on Workspace Environment Management Agent manually, if no connectivity to Broker exists

Source: Official Citrix Workspace Environment Management Upgrade Guide:
https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/workspace-environment-management/current-release/upgrade.html

That’s it! Feel free to leave me a comment if you have any questions.

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