Administration

Guidelines for Migrating View Composer
The steps you take to migrate the VMware Horizon View Composer service depend on whether you intend
to preserve existing linked-clone virtual machines.
To preserve the linked-clone virtual machines in your deployment, the VMware Horizon View Composer
service that you install on the new virtual or physical machine must continue to use the existing View
Composer database. The View Composer database contains data that is required to create, provision,
maintain, and delete the linked clones.
When you migrate the VMware Horizon View Composer service, you can also migrate the View Composer
database to a new machine.
Whether or not you migrate the View Composer database, the database must be configured on an available
machine in the same domain as the new machine on which you install the VMware Horizon View
Composer service, or on a trusted domain.
View Composer creates RSA key pairs to encrypt and decrypt authentication information stored in the View
Composer database. To make this data source compatible with the new VMware Horizon View Composer
service, you must migrate the RSA key container that was created by the original VMware Horizon View
Composer service. You must import the RSA key container to the machine on which you install the new
service.
If the current VMware Horizon View Composer service does not manage any linked-clone virtual machines,
you can migrate the service without using the existing View Composer database. You do not have to
migrate the RSA keys, whether or not you use the existing database.
NOTE Each instance of the VMware Horizon View Composer service must have its own View Composer
database. Multiple VMware Horizon View Composer services cannot share a View Composer database.
Migrate View Composer with an Existing Database
When you migrate View Composer to another physical or virtual machine, if you intend to preserve your
current linked-clone virtual machines, the new VMware Horizon View Composer service must continue to
use the existing View Composer database.
Follow the steps in this procedure when you migrate View Composer in any of the following directions:
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From a vCenter Server machine to a standalone machine
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From a standalone machine to a vCenter Server machine
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From a standalone machine to another standalone machine
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From a vCenter Server machine to another vCenter Server machine
When you migrate the VMware Horizon View Composer service, you can also migrate the View Composer
database to a new location. For example, you might need to migrate the View Composer database if the
current database is located on a vCenter Server machine that you are migrating as well.
When you install the VMware Horizon View Composer service on the new machine, you must configure the
service to connect to the View Composer database.
Prerequisites
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Familiarize yourself with the View Composer migration requirements. See “Guidelines for Migrating
View Composer,” on page 103.
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Familiarize yourself with the steps for migrating the RSA key container to the new VMware Horizon
View Composer service. See “Prepare a Microsoft .NET Framework for Migrating RSA Keys,”
on page 106 and “Migrate the RSA Key Container to the New View Composer Service,” on page 106.
Chapter 6 Maintaining View Components
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