Update Citrix Workspace Environment Management (WEM) to 2106 (2106.1.0.1)

On June 16, 2021 Citrix released version 2106 of Workspace Environment Management (WEM). This is an update guide.
Customer Success Services / Software Maintenance eligibility date: May 15, 2021

Download Citrix WEM 2106 (2106.1.0.1) here:
https://www.citrix.com/de-de/downloads/citrix-virtual-apps-and-desktops/components/workspace-environment-management-2106.html

What’s new:
https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/workspace-environment-management/current-release/whats-new.html

Fixed issues:
https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/workspace-environment-management/current-release/fixed-issues.html

Changelog

• 17 September 2021: Update Citrix Workspace Environment Management to 2106
• 24 February 2021: Update Citrix Workspace Environment Management to 2012
• 08 December 2020: Update Citrix Workspace Environment Management to 2009
• 26 February 2020: Update Citrix Workspace Environment Management to 1912
• 4 March 2019:
  • Rearranged blog post to prevent Google duplicates
  • Redirected (301) old versions of the post to the latest version
  • Update Citrix Workspace Environment Management (WEM) to 1811 (v1811.0.1.1)
• 3 August 2018: Update Citrix Workspace Environment Management (WEM) to 4.7 (v4.07.00.00)
• 18 September 2017: Update Citrix Workspace Environment Management to 4.4
• 26 Februrary 2017: Update Citrix Workspace Environment Management to 4.2

Infrastructure Service Update

1. If you load balance your WEM Infrastructure Services Broker, consider disabling the broker you update. Otherwise it’s no big problem, the agents cache the configuration.

   

2. Check your WEM Infrastructure Service Configuration and write it down. Especially the passwords. The database upgrade dropped the entire configuration in past versions. Better stay safe!

   

3. Update your existing Broker through: Citrix Workspace Environment Management Infrastructure Services Setup.exe
   The setup is straight forward, no details from me here.
   

   

4. Update your existing Administration Console: Citrix Workspace Environment Management Console Setup.exe
   The setup is straight forward, no details from me here.
   

   

5. Start the WEM Database Management Utility from the Start Menu, choose Upgrade Database.
   Make sure you have a current backup of your database! There have definitively been cases where I needed a WEM database restores.
   

   

6. Keep caution, the following Citrix Document states, that the SQL vuemUser needs temporary SQL sysadmin permissions. Otherwise the upgrade will fail. If your upgrade fails, you find the log file in -> “C:\Program Files (x86)\Norskale\Norskale Infrastructure Services\Citrix WEM Database Management Utility Debug Log.log”
   

   

7. Enter all the information you wrote down during step 2, if the fields aren’t filled in -> Press Upgrade.

   

   Remember, you only have to do this once, not on all your brokers.

   

8. After you upgrade the Infrastructure Services, you must reconfigure the Infrastructure Services using the WEM Infrastructure Service Configuration utility. Check WEM Infrastructure Service Configuration, if your connections details were dropped.
   If your settings vanished, enter them again.
   Click Save configuration to restart the Services.
   

   

9. You should now be able to open the WEM Administration Console once again!
   

   

10. If you have multiple WEM Broker, it’s time to switch the active Service Group Members and repeat Steps 3 & 4.
    If not, it’s time to update the agents.

Agent Update

1. Either you deploy them manually on each server. The setup is straight forward, no details from me here.
   Or you deploy the agent silent with your favorite software distribution tool:

   Citrix Workspace Environment Management Agent Setup.exe /quiet Cloud=0

   

2. The following step has been removed from the WEM 2009 upgrade docs, seems like it’s no longer necessary.
   1. After the Agent upgrade, you have to execute the following commands according to the official upgrade guide:

      C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\ngen.exe update
      C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\ngen.exe eqi 3

      or for 32bit operating systems:

      C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\ngen.exe

      

3. When updating from a WEM version lower than 4.5, you might receive the following error:

   

    

   

   There is already a very detailed guide by Srinivasan Shanmugam at the mycugc Blogs, which describes a possible cause to this issue: WEM Agent v4.5 Upgrade Issues

   1. Example command line steps to push and automate stuff:

      net stop "Citrix WEM Agent Host Service" /y
      del "C:\Program Files (x86)\Norskale\Norskale Agent Host\Local Databases\LocalAgentCache.sdf" /F
      del "C:\Program Files (x86)\Norskale\Norskale Agent Host\Local Databases\LocalAgentDatabase.sdf" /F
      net start "Citrix WEM Agent Host Service" /y
      net start "NetLogon" /y
      "C:\Program Files (x86)\Citrix\Workspace Environment Management Agent\AgentCacheUtility.exe" -refreshcache

4. You can verify your Agent <-> Broker connection through the following command. The Brokername has to be a FQDN:

   "C:\Program Files (x86)\Citrix\Workspace Environment Management Agent\AgentCacheUtility.exe" -refreshcache -brokername:wem.domain.local

   

    

    

5. And last but not least you have to replace the ADMX definition files in your central store. If there are any older ADMX oder ADML files, delete them.
   

   

6. Congratulations, your Citrix Workspace Environment Management is now on the latest version!

   

Additional Notes

If you should encounter further errors, check the Windows Eventlogs and consider enabling the WEM Agent Debug Log:
CTX219839: How to Enable Debug Logging on Workspace Environment Management Agent manually, if no connectivity to Broker exists

Source: Official Citrix Workspace Environment Management Upgrade Guide
https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/workspace-environment-management/current-release/upgrade.html

That’s it! Feel free to leave me a comment if you have any questions.

This blog article was previously published on mycugc.org:
https://www.mycugc.org/blogs/cugc-blogs/2018/07/20/how-to-update-citrix-workspace-environment-managem