Now that I've had some time with App-V 5, I have a bit more feedback. There's been a number of quality posts on the App-V blog lately to provide a little more insight in to the changes. No matter how you look at it, Connection Groups are vexing beasts.
Here's the thing - I love the idea of Connection Groups and I really want it to work. The multi-component installs of desktop software that are so often the things nightmares are made of (especially in a heavily outdated Oracle shop) would be made considerably more convenient if you could maintain the components separately. I'm sure Citrix has an implementation of the same concept that's totally fantastic too. So far, however, it's just been a bit of a hassle.
It works, don't get me wrong - I have Office 2010 sequenced and two different Outlook plugins in separate packages all in one Connection Group and they work grand. Didn't take any effort at all. However, at one point I had forgotten to enable local COM interaction or something in one of the packages and published it and saw what a mess you can make if you don't thoroughly test (something I never do when I'm learning, I want the messes to show up). It's not super obvious what will and won't work though - if I put a separate Visio 2010 package in the same Connection Group, all of the applications cease to work. If I leave it separate, everything works dandy (including cut and paste of Visio objects to Word/Outlook/etc - well, it spits out a weird file save error before it pastes, but it works better than it did in App-V 4).
Other than the unpredictability of Connection Groups I've been very pleased. I'm running a Win7 x64 desktop with all virtualized apps now (with the exception of anything that has an IE plugin) and it works great. The server infrastructure has been very reliable and easy to teach to others. Startup times are the same or faster than locally installed apps. The powershell interface is super useful (especially with remote ps enabled on the desktops). Troubleshooting is considerably easier than it was.
By the way, I may have mentioned this previously but if you're doing cacheless streaming, turn on whatever compression mechanisms your web server employs. Trust me. My package servers are behind BigIPs. Without compression, it takes Outlook 30-40s to start every time. With compression on, 3-5s. Gigantic difference.
I've just released our first App-V 5 + Win7 x64 SCCM build for courageous testers/volunteers in the company who need new systems, so I expect as the usage expands I'll find more problems and I'll be sure to report them here.
Showing posts with label 5. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 5. Show all posts
Monday, December 10, 2012
Monday, November 5, 2012
App-V 5 Release Impressions - Part 1
It seems that it's not the most popular kid on the block, but I'm a sucker for App-V. We're a 50/50 shop (virtualized apps/installed apps) currently and it's been an excellent tool for us.
I've been looking forward to App-V 5 for a while and read through the various beta impressions but they've mostly been either very technical how-tos on things that may not be (strictly speaking) supported or a bland two paragraphs on the fact that it's 'different'. So, I thought I'd throw together some stuff here that might help fill things out for people.
Server Side - Install
I genuinely don't remember installing App-V 4.x server side, but I think it was vaguely uneventful. The App-V 5 server install is similarly uneventful as long as you're prepared. Pre-reqs that you likely won't have installed already but will need are .NET 4.x (4.5 is the Features option in Win2012 which seems to work fine), Powershell 3.0 (aka WMF 3.0 / KB2506143) and some random insecure library loading vuln patch (KB2533623). Roles and features you're primarily looking at IIS stuff, nothing too surprising - I think ASP.NET with registration to .NET 4.x is the only thing to watch out for. On Win2012 I didn't have to do any hoop jumping.
Server side is split in to multiple parts:
- Publishing, Management and Reporting Servers (each installable separately)
- Management and Reporting Server Databases (each installable separately, must be on SQL Standard or greater, no Express)
Installation is relatively straight forward, I installed the two DB roles on a SQL 2008R2 server and the three server roles on their own server (each utilizing a different IIS port). Did I mention the entirety of the management and configuration is really done via Powershell now? There's a web based console for the management server that'll make you wish you had spent more time using Powershell, but you're still welcome to use it. I think the only functions that are available in it are setting App-V admins and importing packages.
Client Side - Install
Same prereqs as the server side - .NET 4.x, WMF 3.0, and that one-off vuln patch. Other than that there's literally no configuration - I think the expectation is that you'll control all of your clients via GPO or (I'm guessing these are available) command line switches. Post-install all configuration options are only available via Powershell. Thought I'd toss in a screen of this thing too since I'd never seen one prior to install. I like the idea that it's much simplified and user friendlier.
Sequencer - Install
Also the same prereqs as the server side. You'll notice that the sequencer didn't get the big face lift that the other two components got, so you'll feel right at home if you sequenced in App-V 4.6. The Q: recommendation is gone as is RTSP (yay!) so for me the sequencing is much simplified when teaching it to other people (when folks are new to packaging in general adding in the weirdness of capturing to Q:\[8.3] and then post capture having to enter in the client-accessible package URL was always a nuisance to me).
More on this later - I've sequenced a couple quickie apps and setup the publishing behind a hardware load balancer and some other stuff that someone might be interested in. So far everything is working stellar, so I'll report back as I progress.
I've been looking forward to App-V 5 for a while and read through the various beta impressions but they've mostly been either very technical how-tos on things that may not be (strictly speaking) supported or a bland two paragraphs on the fact that it's 'different'. So, I thought I'd throw together some stuff here that might help fill things out for people.
Server Side - Install
I genuinely don't remember installing App-V 4.x server side, but I think it was vaguely uneventful. The App-V 5 server install is similarly uneventful as long as you're prepared. Pre-reqs that you likely won't have installed already but will need are .NET 4.x (4.5 is the Features option in Win2012 which seems to work fine), Powershell 3.0 (aka WMF 3.0 / KB2506143) and some random insecure library loading vuln patch (KB2533623). Roles and features you're primarily looking at IIS stuff, nothing too surprising - I think ASP.NET with registration to .NET 4.x is the only thing to watch out for. On Win2012 I didn't have to do any hoop jumping.
Server side is split in to multiple parts:
- Publishing, Management and Reporting Servers (each installable separately)
- Management and Reporting Server Databases (each installable separately, must be on SQL Standard or greater, no Express)
Installation is relatively straight forward, I installed the two DB roles on a SQL 2008R2 server and the three server roles on their own server (each utilizing a different IIS port). Did I mention the entirety of the management and configuration is really done via Powershell now? There's a web based console for the management server that'll make you wish you had spent more time using Powershell, but you're still welcome to use it. I think the only functions that are available in it are setting App-V admins and importing packages.
 |
| App-V 5 Management Server Web "Interface" |
Client Side - Install
Same prereqs as the server side - .NET 4.x, WMF 3.0, and that one-off vuln patch. Other than that there's literally no configuration - I think the expectation is that you'll control all of your clients via GPO or (I'm guessing these are available) command line switches. Post-install all configuration options are only available via Powershell. Thought I'd toss in a screen of this thing too since I'd never seen one prior to install. I like the idea that it's much simplified and user friendlier.
 |
| App-V 5 Client GUI |
Sequencer - Install
Also the same prereqs as the server side. You'll notice that the sequencer didn't get the big face lift that the other two components got, so you'll feel right at home if you sequenced in App-V 4.6. The Q: recommendation is gone as is RTSP (yay!) so for me the sequencing is much simplified when teaching it to other people (when folks are new to packaging in general adding in the weirdness of capturing to Q:\[8.3] and then post capture having to enter in the client-accessible package URL was always a nuisance to me).
More on this later - I've sequenced a couple quickie apps and setup the publishing behind a hardware load balancer and some other stuff that someone might be interested in. So far everything is working stellar, so I'll report back as I progress.
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