RAS Template Maintenance

In addition to viewing and modifying template configuration properties, you can perform a number of maintenance tasks on a template. These tasks are described below.

Viewing guest VMs created from a template

To view the list of guest VMs created from a template, select a template in the list and click Tasks > Show guest VMs. The Template Guest VMs List dialog lists the guest VMs and their relevant information. You can also see the remaining licenses info at the bottom of the screen.

Updating RAS Guest VM Agent inside a template

A RAS template should have the latest version of RAS Guest VM Agent installed in it. The agent is installed when you create a template. When a new version of RAS Guest VM Agent becomes available, it should be updated.

To check the RAS Guest VM Agent status inside a template, click Tasks > Check agent. If the agent is up to date, a message box will be displayed confirming this. If a newer version of RAS Guest VM Agent is available, you'll see a dialog asking if you want to update it. Click Yes to update the agent. If you click No, you can check the status again later and update the agent at that time.

Template Maintenance Mode

Maintenance mode is used to update Windows inside a RAS Template. For instance, if you want to install a server pack or a software update, you need to use the maintenance mode.

To install updates in Windows in a RAS Template:

1. Select a RAS Template and click Tasks > Maintenance. The template becomes disabled (grayed out), so all operations on it (including creating new guest VMs) are suspended.
2. Using native tools of the corresponding hypervisor, start the template as a normal virtual machine.
3. Install Windows updates or software as necessary.
4. When done, shut down the virtual machine.
5. Back in the RAS Console, select the template and click Tasks > Maintenance again to switch the maintenance mode off.

Please note that any updates applied to a template in the maintenance mode will only affect future clones. Existing guest VMs that were created from this template will not be affected, so if you want them to include these updates, you will have to delete them and create new VMs.

When you are done configuring a RAS Template, click the Apply button on the main RAS Console window to commit the changes to Parallels Remote Application Server.