App-V together with CM12 Integrated

The good, the bad and the ugly

Kenny Buntinx

@KennyBuntinx

Kbu@Coretech.be

Roy Essers

@RoyEssers

Roy.Essers@Skynet.be

#MMSMOA

@KennyBuntinxBrussels, Belgium

Kenny Buntinx

Enterprise MobilityHttp://www.scug.be

#MMSMOA

@Royessers

Application Repackaging

Engineer

- MS App-V Forum

- Appvirtguru.com

5 years

Product experience

Brussels, Belgium

Roy Essers

Assumptions

Assumptions

• You have been to our previous session called “Sequencing like a

king , because winter is in Minnesota” or not for this MMS

• You’re a ITPro understanding the Configmgr application delivery

concepts

• If still using packages and programs to deliver software, we are so

sorry for you

Key takeaways

Key takeaways

• One solution to rule them all ? No – At the end of this session you

will know its limitations.

• This session is not intended to discuss license technical sequence

points. You need to deal with it case by case.

Deployment Options ?

Deployment Options

In the OS Image

*For Datacenter Scenarios (RDS and VDI) always enable the Shared Content

Store (CSC) Feature.

“Benefits” of Integration ?

The Good

The Good

• No additional infrastructure

needed

• High availability by a single

management infrastructure

• Scalability (multiple DP’s)

• Bandwidth and throttling support

• Client status / management (in-

console monitoring)

• Deployment of more then App-V

applications through Application

Modeling

• Explicit targeting and scheduling (ae

optional deployments)

• Inventory & usage of your Virtual

applications

• Built-in reports

Machine based targeting works

as expected !

The Bad

Publishing times

Test Cold Boot Time to First Application Install

User Targeted and Required (CM Client Serv delayed start) Yes 2m 46s

User Targeted and Required (CM Client Serv delayed start) No 15s – 25s

User Targeted and Required (CM Client Service Automatic) Yes 48s – 54s

Machine Targeted (CM Client Serv delayed start) Yes 8m – 16m

Machine Targeted (CM Client Service Set to Automatic) Yes 1m 49s – 6m 39s

Machine Targeted (CM Client Service Set to Automatic and

forced policy refresh on logon)

Yes 22s

Policy Processing Times

Slow Publishing times (to slow for PVS/VDI environments)

** Publishing times reference table tested by and used from Kevin Kaminski & Nicke Kallen **

• Make an application that should only include these types of deployment types :

App-V 4 deployment type(s) with fast network content set to streaming

App-V 5 deployment type(s) with fast network content set to streaming

Web App deployment type(s)

• Must be deployed to a user collection for required installation, with a deadline prior

to when the user will log on.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/configmgrteam/archive/2015/08/20/faster-virtual-

app-publishing-at-first-logon-for-np-vdi-environment-in-configmgr-sp2-and-

r2sp1.aspx

Faster publishing for Non-Persistent VDI

Faster publishing for Non-Persistent

Applications that use 2 App-V deployment

types do NOT work :

• DT1 : Streaming

• DT2 : Download & Execute

Communicate your pain: Configuration

Manager User Voice Site

configurationmanager.uservoice.com

Performance Measurements

• The average time that it takes from logon until 10 App-V

applications are installed and published for the first user.

Recommendations

• If the VDI solution allows, have VMs in your VDI pool pre-booted for several

minutes before the user logs in. This allows any machine policy to be pre-

evaluated before the user logs in, reducing resource contention at logon time.

• Have the App-V 5 client installed in the base image

• Where possible, have the App-V applications installed but not published in the

base image for even better performance

• Do not configure the client to auto-load the package content (stream on

demand)

• VDI sessions to use the Shared Content Store Mode with SMB 3.0

Application Delivery

Application Delivery

• Extra attention when removing apps

By default “No uninstall” -> instant removal (unpublish) Uninstall deployment for specified collection needed Dependencies must be removed separately if needed

Supersedence downloads the whole content again (no delta)

• Supersedence with uninstall option, if application being in use, the uninstall operation

will fail causing the deployment to fail.

When this occurs, the ConfigMgr client will reattempt the deployment every 2 hours, a maximum

of 10 times, and then every 7 days.

• If being upgraded (no uninstall) and in use, the new version is published after the

users closes and reopens the application.

DEMOSupersedence

Application Delivery

• Connection group GUID’s are generated on-the-fly (new GUID on every

machine) More difficult to script around.

• Manual setup of metering rules

• CM12 takes more time if you do not automate ! Get your self a good friend like

Kaido Jarvemets (MVP)

Application Publishing Example Workflow

AD Groups

User Deployment Collections

Applications

DEMOAutomatic Uninstall

The ugly (Wookie)

Machine vs User Publishing with App-V 5

• CM processes the DeploymentConfig.xml but does not globally

publish all extensions (i.e. no –global switch)

• UserConfig.xml always overrides the DeploymentConfig.xml

Virtual Extensions

Virtual Extension OS (*) Global

ActiveX Object Yes Yes

Browser Helper Object Yes Yes

Application Capabilities Yes Yes

Shell Extensions Yes No

Column Handler Yes No

Infotip Handler Yes No

Property Sheet Handler Yes No

Data Object Handler Yes No

Virtual Extension OS (*) Global

Context Menu Handler Yes No

URL Protocols Yes No

Software Client Yes No

AppPaths Yes No

Drag-and-drop Handler Yes No

COM Mode No No

File Type Association No No

Shortcut No No

All should need global publishing ?

Potential Applications Affected :

Adobe Reader (Active X)

WinRAR (Context Menu, Application Capabilities)

Office 2013 (Application Capabilities, Browser Helper Object, Active X)

Global Publishing

And a potential workaround…

• Use the task scheduler to globally publish the application after being published per-user.

• Looks for App-V client publishing event in the event logs as a trigger

DEMOHow we think we can solve it today

Machine vs User Publishing with App-V 5

• Once machine published the application cannot be published again

as the user with a custom user configuration

App-V Integration Issue

• No support for advanced App-V 5.x SP3 and above for connection groups (=Virtual Environments!)

• Connection group GUID is unique on each client making the scripting of the connection group and managing its user settings more difficult

• As soon as one App-V application is published to the machine the management server integration is lost

Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting

• AppEnforce.Log

Details all the PowerShell commands that are run to either Publish or Unpublish

and Mount an App-V application or Virtual Environment from a system.

Commands for creating virtual environments are also included in this log.

• VirtualApp.Log

Details information specific to the evaluation of App-V deployment types. Also

outlines streaming configurations.

Conclusion

Conclusion

• CM publishing delays would force the implementation of the App-V management server for VDI scenarios

• App-V applications with newer App-V extensions need global publishing

• User targeting of applications doesn’t necessarily mean simplification

• User device affinity makes sense for persistent environments

How to cope with it

• Learn to live with the limitations.

• The Product team is aware of it.

• Communicate your pain: configurationmanager.uservoice.com

How to cope with it

• Communicate your pain: configurationmanager.uservoice.com

VDI - Support fast channel even when non fast channel DT’s exist in the App-V application

Unable to target a User with an App-V 5.x App and have the middleware installed Globally so I can use plugins to IE

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