App Layering 2409 released - major updates, including an ELM OS switch from CentOS to Oracle Linux 8: https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-app-layering/4/whats-new

Sigh, "Direct upgrades from previous releases to version 2409 are not supported," I knew that was coming but, doh!

Honestly. I wouldn't want to upgrade for this

fair, but standing up a new ELM, especially in Azure will be a pain for us.

We'll be standing up our first one in Azure with this

The migration part if very easy. Everything gets copied and for me it took about 3 hours to transfer 500 GB

...I'm sure once you have the new ELM stood up. just a bunch of corporate red tape before we have new ELMs stood up.

ah yea sorry

not your fault, it is what it is.

You all beat me to the release announcement.. but yes, App Layering 2409 has released to the web! Of course we could have preferred to support an in-place upgrade, but this was not possible. We put a lot of effort into making the migration feature as simple-to-use as possible (it will remain in the product as a core feature which can be used to move appliance configurations going forward). If you experience any troubles with it, please don't hesitate to let us know.

How does the migration handle Azure ELM managed identities?

If you used a service principal that would still work I think but if you used a machine identity you would have to apply the same permission to the new vm

@Rob Zylowski is correct, the ELM itself has no permission to assign identities so it must be done separately after the new appliance is deployed.

Will be doing a migration this afternoon in the lab on Nutanix AHV and doing some Nutanix Files testing.

We migrated yesterday, on-prem, no problems so far. It's been running smoothly so far.

I’ve only seen an issue with connectors not migrating so far. The reference points are there but they aren’t showing in the connectors section.

which option did you choose Jarian the move or copy. Ill ask the devekopers about that

I did a move. They aren’t there in connectors. I do see them when I am doing layering options in the drop downs. Doesn’t appear to be client side issue either. Cleared cache and tried machines I haven’t logged onto old or new elm as well.

ok let me ask about that

In Azure, should we use the original resource group that has all the template specs, image definitions etc? Or, should we create a new resource group and let the script do its thing?

Presume you mean when you do a Move migration, will the target ELM Azure connector migrate with all of the configured templates? It will, and if the resource group is the same, you shouldn't have any problems creating jobs on the new ELM. From that standpoint using the same resource group would be easiest.

Happy to report that we’ve completed our ELM migrations and everything went smoothly. All our automations with @Ryan Butler’s PowerShell modules are still working.

What automations do you have in place for AL?

Glad to hear the migrations worked for you @Brandon Mitchell. We are still working on an in-house solution for end-to-end automation. At the moment, we are looking at developing a Packer plugin for App Layering which could automate a lot of the core workflows (like creating and updating app layers). If you would like a roadmap update around that let me know.

I would be interested in that roadmap update....

maybe we are past due to have one for the group on AL/IPS.... cc @Allen Furmanski

@Nick Panaccio, I've Frankenstein'd Ryan's App Layering PowerShell module, Arron Parker's Evergreen, and Eric Trond's Automation Framework app install scripts to create Evergreen App Layers. I wish it was 100% hands off but each month things move around/change so it still needs some babysitting. @Daniel Lazar, I'll reach out via email to coordinate something.