Upgrading RAS agents

When you add Parallels RAS components to a Farm, you install a corresponding RAS Agent on them. This includes RAS Publishing Agent, RD Session Host Agent, VDI Agent, Guest Agent, Remote PC Agent. In addition to the functionality that allows you to check agent status, and update it if necessary, you can do a bulk agent update or upgrade.

There are two ways you can find out if agents need to be updated. You can be notified by Parallels RAS or you can check the status and initiate the update procedure manually.

When the Parallels RAS Console starts, you may see a message box saying that Agents need to be installed or updated. You can start the update procedure by clicking Yes in this dialog. You will then see a list of all servers on which an Agent needs to be updated where you can decide whether to included a server in the bulk update procedure or exclude it. Once you've made your selection, follow the onscreen instructions and update the Agents.

To initiate the procedure manually, click the Task > Upgrade all Agents in the RAS Console where this menu is available (most of the views where it makes sense). You can also right-click inside the view and choose Upgrade all Agents. Follow the onscreen instructions and select the servers on which an Agent requires an update or upgrade. Please note that if all Agents on all servers displayed on a given pane are up to date, the menu option will be disabled.

For example, to upgrade all primary Publishing Agents in all sites, select Farm > Farm and then click Tasks > Upgrade all Agents (or right-click inside the pane and choose Upgrade all Agents). To upgrade all Agents on all servers in a Site, select Farm > <Site> and click Tasks > Upgrade all Agents. Similarly, to upgrade Agents on all RAS Secure Client Gateways, select Farm > <Site> > Gateways and use the same Tasks > Upgrade all Agents menu item. For other components, do exactly the same. Note that if you use the same credentials on all servers, you will have to enter them only once. The update procedure will remember the last entered credentials and will try to use them on all servers. If the credentials don't work on a server, you'll be asked to enter them again.

Please note that after you click the Tasks > Upgrade all Agents menu, the dialog that opens will contain the hosts on which an Agent needs updating or upgrading. The Status column in the list will indicate that and the host will be preselected for the upgrade. Unverified Agents will also be included in the list but will not be preselected. You can select them if you believe that an Agent has to be upgraded on them too.

Note: When updating an agent in a template (VDI), full and linked clone templates are updated differently. For important information, please read the Template maintenance section.