After publishing one or more versions of a virtual machine (VM), you may want to re-use a previous version. In the event that the published version does not perform favorably on computers, perhaps due to a bad patch or any other issue, the Deploy action allows you to quickly roll back to a previous version of the VM.

Use the Deploy action to change which version of a VM is distributed to assigned users (version with a green bar). The version you select need not be the most recent version, but must be a deployable version (with a blue bar). You can deploy to all assigned users or to selected users (see Staged Deployment).

Notes:

• If used, the deployed version is sent to each assigned user when their NxTop Engine next contacts NxTop Center.
• Changing the deployed version of a custom VM only affects new users of that VM. Existing users are unaffected by the change.

For more information about published and deployable versions of a NxTop, see Publish Advanced Details.

Staged Deployment

You can also deploy a VM version in stages, that is, assign only a select number of users or groups to deploy at a given time. For example, if you create a new published version without deploying it to users, you can use staged deployment to assign a selection of test users or groups. Only the selected users receive the new version. You can also used staged deployment to limit the number of users who can download the new version at any given time.

Staged deployment can be used to revert a limited number of users to a previous version. For example, if only two or three of one hundred users have a problem with an updated version of a VM, these two or three users can revert to a previous version using staged deployment - while the other 97 users can use the updated version.

Reasons for staged deployment:

• Deliver a new version to a limited number of users for testing (can be done on Publish)
• Stage deployment of a new version of a VM to limit the number of downloads at any given time to avoid overwhelming I/O capacity. (for example, deploy to one quarter of your user population every six hours over the course of a day).
• If a new deployment is causing issues for a minority of users, stage the users to a previous version. The users without problems can continue to use the updated version.

To deploy a Virtual Machine version:

Step One

Open the NxTops navigation panel and locate the NxTop you want.

Expand the NxTop to list its versions.

Step Two

Highlight the Version you want to deploy, and click Deploy.

The Deployment wizard pop-up appears.

Step Three

Select whether to deploy staged to selected users or to all users.

If there is a staged version and you select "Deploy to all," a checkbox appears, allowing you the option to move the staged users to this newly deployed version.

Step Four

Click Finish. The selected version is sent to the assigned users.

If you selected the Staged deployment, you are prompted to select which users will receive the staged version. Select among users and groups who are already assigned that VM.

The selected version becomes the deployed version, marked with a green bar. The selected version is downloaded to assigned users when their NxTop Engine contacts NxTop Center.

Previous

Next

Start

1

2

3

Finish

Reverting from Staged Deployment

After a staged deployment, you can cancel the staged state; assigned users revert to the current version of the VM. For example, if the test period is complete, or the issues were resolved for users that were staged back, you can end the staged deployment. You do this either by

• Selecting the staged version as the main version (all users then receive this version; it becomes listed as current in the list of versions)
• Undeploying the staged version (the staged users then receive the main version)

To revert from staged deployment:

Basic/print version