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CHAPTER 7 Deploying and Maintaining Packages
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Updating Virtual Machines
From time to time, you may need to update your end users’ virtual machines. In
general, there are two ways of providing updates.
• You may need to update the guest operating system or provide an update to a
program running in the guest operating system.
• You may need to update either the virtual machine itself or policies applied to
the virtual machine or add a new virtual machine to the package.
Distributing Software Updates
If you simply need to update the operating system or other software running inside
the virtual machine, in most cases you should use the same mechanisms you use to
distribute software updates to physical computers.
The advantage of distributing updates in this way is that end users’ data stored in their
virtual machines is not affected by the update.
If you are using virtual machine versions to ensure that your end users are running up-
to-date virtual machines, see Using nq-set to Update Network Quarantine Versions on
page 146 for information on how to update the version number when the user
updates software in the virtual machine.
If you plan to distribute additional copies of the virtual machine, you should also use
nq-set to update the version number in your local copy of the virtual machine and
create an updated package for future distribution.
Creating Update Packages
If you need to provide a completely new virtual machine to your end users — either
as a replacement to an existing virtual machine or in addition to any existing virtual
machines — or if you need to change the policies applied to the virtual machine, you
can create an update package for your users to install. You create the update package
using the same project you did to create the original package.
Note: If your users replace an existing virtual machine by installing the update
package, everything in the virtual machine is replaced. This means any user data and
settings stored in the original virtual machine are lost.
In general, when you create an update package, you follow the same steps you do to
create a new package.
1. Using VMware ACE Manager, make any needed changes to the virtual machines.
For example, you may want to update software installed in the virtual machines