We installed View 4.5 as a test to compare with another VDI app a few years ago. When doing so we installed vcenter, the composter and SQL express all on the same server. We decided we liked View and went with it. It was only going to be for 50 users so we didn't bother redoing anything, but turned our test into a pilot and the pilot into production. We then started to grow the production to about 150 concurrent users and have upgraded to View 5.1. About a year ago we crashed when the database hit 4GB and SQL Express crashed. I was able to clean out tasks and events older than 90 days and that cleared about 2GB so we were up and running againg. In talking with VMWare support I have been told that to convert to full SQL I need to (from memory)
- Shut down production for the process
- backup databases
- change an ODBC
- Reinstall the composer because the only way to redirect it's database is during install
- restore databases
- resintall security server
I see a ton of places where there could be issues. So I'm wondering if I might be better doing this (all pools are Win7 using persona managment - we connect with a DNS entry matching a certificate so server names can change):
- Create a new vcenter server, with composer pointing to new databases on SQL
- shutdown production
- delete all pools, but keep parent images, delete all snapshots
- Remove esxi hosts from current vcenter and put in new vcenter
- take new snapshots
- create new pools
Does anyone see why this would not work? Basically create a new View environment but reuse parent images. Am I missing something? Seems a lot cleaner and a lot less chance of missing a step and accidently having something still on SQL Express down the road.
Craig