App Volumes Migration Utility

After I upgraded my App Volumes environment to version 4, I decided to test out the VMware fling that was released at the same time as the product. 

The App Volumes Migration Utility allows you to migrate your AppStacks created by App Volumes 2.18 to the new AppStack format of App Volumes 4. Because VMware has changed the format of AppStacks to improve the login performance you can use this utility so you don’t have to provision every applications again after upgrading to App Volumes 4.

In the steps below I’ll describe how to use the utility.

  1. Download the utility here and install it on a VM that has access to the datastore you configured in the App Volumes Manager.
  2. When you first start the utility, you need to configure an output location. I this example I use C:\Temp.


  3. Log into the utility by entering the Manager URL and credentials.


  4. The utility automatically detects the existing AppStacks created with App Volumes 2.18. Select the AppStack you want to migrate and click on the migrate button.


  5. During the migration there are 2 disks added to your system to migrate the files from the old to the new AppStack format. 


  6. When the migration is completed, both disks are detached and the utility shows you it’s done.


  7. Open a windows explorer and browse to the output location. I my case C:\Temp. Here you can see the new App Volumes format, which is a .JSON and a .VDMK file.


  8. On the local disk of your App Volumes Manager, open a Windows Explorer and browse to the install location. In my case C:\Program Files(x86)\CloudVolumes\Manager\ppv.
  9. Create a new folder named “packages” and copy the .JSON and a .VDMK files off the migrated AppStack to this location.


  10. Start your App Volumes Management Console, log in and browse to Configuration -> Storage. Here you will see your new App Volumes package as shown in the screenshot below.
  11. Select the new AppStack(s) and click the Upload button.


  12. Click Upload again to start the upload.


  13. You can check the status of the upload by clicking on the Activity tab.


  14. When you upload is completed, click the Inventory tab and the new AppStack is available for you to work with.

As you can see the migration utility works is simple in use and the migration of AppStacks is pretty straight forward. If you are planning to migrate from App Volumes version 2.18 to version 4, use this utility!