App-V Scheduler 2.4 released

26/04/201626/04/2016 / Bram Wolfs / Leave a comment

If you are reading about App-V Scheduler for the first time: App-V Scheduler is a purpose build App-V 5 deployment tool specially designed for virtual workloads like RDS\XenApp and VDI environments. The power of App-V Scheduler is the amount of fine grained control, instant package delivery and real-time visibility over your App-V 5 deployment. To name some advantages of App-V Scheduler :

Support for both persistent and non-persistent environments (Citrix PVS\MCS integration)
Advanced cache management (Cleanup, auto balance cache with source and selectively pre-cache packages)
Improve application launch time with virtual registry pre-staging and application pre-launch feature
Packages and Connection groups available at machine startup and ongoing through deploy cycle
Complete application life cycle management; from instantly deploying packages to draining and retire applications
Update packages while they are in use without rebooting the machine and while users are logged on
Real-Time (portable) remote management console (inventory, manage and central configuration)
No App-V full infra components needed (dramatically simplify your deployment)

For more information about the 2.4 release and about previous released versions, please visit the App-V Scheduler website and read the latest release blogpost.

What’s new in App-V Scheduler 2.3

22/03/2015 / Bram Wolfs / Leave a comment

Introduction
It’s exactly a year ago that App-V Scheduler 2.0 was released in its current form and today we are very excited to announce the latest release of App-V Scheduler, version 2.3.
If you are reading about App-V Scheduler for the first time: App-V Scheduler is a purpose build App-V 5 deployment tool specially designed for virtual workloads like RDS\XenApp and VDI environments. The power of App-V Scheduler is the amount of fine grained control, instant package delivery and real-time visibility over your App-V 5 deployment. To name some advantages of App-V Scheduler :

Support for both persistent and non-persistent environments (Citrix PVS\MCS integration)
Advanced cache management (Cleanup, auto balance cache with source and selectively pre-cache packages)
Improve application launch time with virtual registry pre-staging and application pre-launch feature
Packages and Connection groups available at machine startup and ongoing through deploy cycle
Complete application life cycle management; from instantly deploying packages to draining and retire applications without touching your image
Real-Time (portable) remote management console (inventory, manage and central configuration)
No App-V full infra components needed (dramatically simplify your deployment)

In this blog post we will walk through the most important new features in App-V Scheduler 2.3, to read more about existing features click here.

What’s new in the App-V Scheduler agent
Let’s start with the new managed publishing mode which can be configured in the App-V Scheduler agent configuration window :

When managed mode is enabled you can use App-V Scheduler Central View to create publishing tasks (see screenshots later on in this post). Both global and user publishing tasks are supported. Global publishing tasks are executed when the deploy cycle runs and user publishing tasks are executed when a user logs in to the machine, this is done directly by the App-V Scheduler agent service so no need to execute anything in the user context. Optionally user publishing tasks can also be refreshed when the deploy cycle runs allowing you to publish new applications while users are logged on to the machine. Multi domain environments are supported and there is also an option to enable nested group support.

In unmanaged mode, App-V Scheduler will publish all packages globally by default so you can use User Environment Management (UEM) tools for example to control access to the applications.

A new feature called pre-stage virtual registry is now added to the deploy cycle :

This option can invoke the staging of the virtual registry right after the package is added, normally this is done when the application is launched by the user for the first time causing launch delays and unnecessary CPU utilization. App-V Scheduler already logs the amount of time it took to add and publish a package and this is now also done for the registry pre-stage feature:

What’s new in App-V Scheduler Central View
Packages and connection groups are now displayed in the same overview making it easier to navigate and manage them. The per machine options are now all displayed in the group view :

The Central View console is now multi-threaded, this means if you inventory multiple machines at the same time or remove packages on multiple machines at the same time this will go much quicker. All tasks and their status is shown in the background tasks window :

The package options window is now extended with the new publishing task options (used when App-V Scheduler agent is running in managed mode). You can create new or show existing publishing tasks of the selected package directly from here :

When you create a new publishing task you can select the publishing type :

User groups can easily be selected with the active directory object picker :

You can also show and manage all publishing tasks at once when clicking on the Show Publishing Tasks button in the Central View main window :

The create new connection group option is extended with the latest App-V 5 SP3 enhancements like the any version wildcard and possibility to set a package as optional :

Availability
App-V Scheduler 2.3 is now available on the App-V Scheduler website.
Thanks for reading! If you have any questions do not hesitate to contact us.

What’s new in App-V Scheduler 2.2

20/10/201420/10/2014 / Bram Wolfs / Leave a comment

About App-V Scheduler
In short: the vision of App-V Scheduler is to reduce complexity and give you visibility and control over your App-V 5 deployment. If you want to learn more about the history of App-V Scheduler, please read more about the previous releases here and here.

What’s new in App-V Scheduler 2.2
Today we are excited to announce the latest version of App-V Scheduler which adds a lot of new features and improvements, in this post we will walk through the new features in version 2.2.
Lets start with the updated service configuration window:

As you can see the configuration is now grouped which makes it much more transparent and easier to understand how the service works. The configuration is split in 2 main events:

Machine boot event
Here you can configure what should happen when the machine (re)boots, for example if the App-V cache should be cleared to always start with a fresh cache or if App-V Scheduler should detect the image state to see if the image is in read-only or read\write mode. The deploy cycle will always be triggered directly when the machine boots to make sure all packages are present when the users log in to the system. The application pre-launch functionality allows you to start selected (virtual) applications to improve the initial launch time of applications for the first users logging in to the system.

Deploy cycle event
One of the main tasks of the deploy cycle is to handle the deployment of new packages and connection groups by comparing which ones are already present in the cache with the ones on the source share. The deploy cycle can be triggered in three ways:

Through a configurable timer
Manually on the machine through the App-V Scheduler GUI
Remotely by the App-V Scheduler Central View console

Lets summarize the new features that are now part of the deploy cycle:

Exclude configured directories on the source share
You can now select certain directories from the content share which should be excluded by the deploy cycle, for example this allows you to archive your old package versions in a directory called archive. But this option is also very useful when you use multiple machine groups looking at the same content share. For example they can share the same folders with common packages and you can configure Machine group A to exclude Folder B and configure Machine group B to exclude Folder A. This allows you to create a very flexible App-V deployment structure. You can configure excluded directories in the general settings of App-V Scheduler (see the above service configuration screenshot).

Timing information
An important part of your App-V 5 deployment is a good understanding on how much time it takes to deploy packages so you can plan accordingly. For example if you use a non-persistent image technology like Citrix MCS\PVS and want to load all packages when the machine boots in read-only mode, it is important to know how much time this process takes. App-V Scheduler 2.2 will exactly tell you how long the deploy cycle took to finish, but will now also show you the timing information per package. For example you can see how long it took to deploy a package:

And if you configured the package to mount (pre-cache) inside the cache, it will also show you the time this process took per package:

Besides timing information, App-V Scheduler logs every action in it’s own event log source in a very readable manner, this will not only make troubleshooting easy but also gives you a good understanding on how your App-V deployment is operating.

Support for deployment configuration files
After you created (sequenced) the package and want to make certain modifications to the package configuration when it gets deployed, you can make use of the deployment configuration file. We recommend to use the ACE utility from Virtual Engine which makes it very easy and transparent to modify the deployment configuration file. After you modified the file save it in the same folder as the package with the “Save as App-V Scheduler configuration file” option in ACE. This will save the file with the .appd extension and App-V Scheduler will process the configuration automatically for you when the package is added to the machine.

Remove packages and connection groups from the cache that are no longer on the source share
The deploy cycle can now automatically remove packages and connection groups from the App-V cache that are no longer on the source share. For example when you remove or archive older versions of a package, App-V Scheduler makes sure it also gets removed from the cache on the App-V client. This feature will make sure your cache is always in balance with the content on the source and is especially useful in persistent use cases where you don’t flush the whole cache when the machine boots but want to keep control of the cache size. This feature also allows you to drain a package :

Drain and exclude package option
Maybe this sounds familiar: You want to remove a package from the source share but the moment you try to move or remove the .appv file you receive the message that the action cannot be completed because the file is currently in use. There are different reasons why this happens, for example you use SCS mode where the App-V client on the machine keeps the appv file on the share open because it directly reads data from it. But this can also happen when you use the default stream option in App-V 5 where the package is streamed to the client on-demand. This can be very annoying when you want to remove or archive old packages but it won’t allow you. With this new option you can now select a package and simply select the drain and exclude package option. When this option is selected 2 things will happen when the deploy cycle runs:

The deploy cycle will skip the package to prevent it from deploying again
The “remove packages that are no longer on the source share” feature will believe the package is no longer on the share and remove it from all the machines in the group

Now that the package is drained you can easily archive or move the package to another location, all by using only one click.
This feature also allows integration with other products like AmberReef, which can automate the whole packaging, test and release workflow for you. For more information about this integration check out the better2gether video.

New features in the App-V Scheduler Central View console
If you don’t know App-V Scheduler Central View yet, it’s the center piece of your App-V Scheduler deployment. Central View is a lightweight management console which gives you real-time insight and control in your App-V 5 deployment. Central View doesn’t need a dedicated server and can be very easily deployed as App-V package along side the rest of your management tool set. Lets run down the new features in Central View:

It’s now possible to create and manage connection groups directly from Central View :

Deploying a connection group is very easy : Select 2 or more packages and click on new connection group then optionally change the priority and the name and click on save. It will now be saved automatically to your content share where the deploy cycle will pick it up and deploy it for you. Below a screenshot of the new connection group window :
Central View allows you to control all machines in a machine group at once or on individual machines by clicking on the icons in the machine header. It’s for example very easy to invoke a deploy cycle on all machines at once or only a selected machine. This is also the case for connection groups, you can view the deployed connection groups on all machines in a single view or only the connection groups on a selected machine:

You can also select and remove connection groups directly from here.

The update connection groups option, allows you to update existing connection groups on the source share so you don’t need to manually edit or create new ones. It is especially useful if you update a package which is part of an existing connection group, the only thing you have to do is deploy the updated package, select it and click on the update groups button:

Central View now has real-time filters to quickly see all packages that are in use or to easily search for a package, for example if you type the first letter of a package the view is filtered in real-time:

The package options have been moved from the App-V Scheduler GUI on the machine itself to the Central View console to give a more central configuration experience. Simply select a package and click on package options :

Here you can configure if the package should be fully mounted inside the cache, or if you want to drain and exclude the package. Also you can select an application entry from the package to pre-launch to make sure the virtual environment is already loaded one time before your users log in to the system improving the user experience. It also gives you a quick overview of the package details and access to the command line hook switch which you can use as parameter for native applications to run inside the virtual environment of the package.

A few examples of validated App-V Scheduler deployments
The following examples can give you some insight into how App-V Scheduler can be configured. This configurations are validated to work, but they are only intended to give you an idea of the possibilities. They can be used as guide line but are not written down here to serve as best practice or recommended configuration.

Example of App-V Scheduler deployment in combination with non-persistent machines (like MCS\PVS)

Move the App-V Cache to a persistent drive (for example the same one as the write-cache)
Configure App-V Scheduler to detect the image state (don’t deploy packages when in read\write mode)
Configure App-V Scheduler to clean the cache after reboot (needed because drive is persistent)
Configure App-V Scheduler to remove packages that are no longer on source share (keep cache in balance during run-time and easily allows draining of packages)
Use SCS mode in combination with the mount specific packages option (mount packages that either perform better when fully cached or if you want them to be higher available) the combination gives you the best of both worlds
Set the deploy cycle timer to manual and use Central View to invoke the deploy cycle remotely. You can do this on a test machine first. After tests are performed and application functionality is verified invoke the deploy cycle on the production machines (by selecting the invoke deploy cycle on all machines in the group option)

Example of App-V Scheduler deployment in combination with persistent machines

Keep the App-V cache on the default location
Don’t clean the cache at machine reboot
Configure App-V Scheduler to remove packages that are no longer on source share (keep cache in balance with source)
Use SCS mode in combination with the mount specific packages option (mount packages that either perform better when fully cached or if you want them to be higher available) the combination gives you the best of both worlds
Set the deploy cycle timer to manual and use Central View to invoke the deploy cycle remotely. You can do this on a test machine first. After tests are performed and application functionality is verified invoke the deploy cycle on the production machines (by selecting the invoke deploy cycle on all machines in the group option)

For more information about supported App-V 5 cache combinations with App-V Scheduler, please read the Administrator guide which is part of the download.

What’s next for App-V Scheduler
New features are added frequently to App-V Scheduler and feature requests are always welcome!
For the next release we are also adding user publishing support in App-V Scheduler. The current versions of App-V Scheduler are based on global deployment, this means the package is published on a machine level. When you use global publishing you need to manage application access for example with GPO’s or UEM tools just like they where installed natively on the machine. User publishing is also often used to control application access by only publishing an application to a group of users, this is a good way to separate application access if you don’t use UEM tools for example. App-V Scheduler will also support user publishing in combination with global publishing so you can get the best of both worlds.

Availability
App-V Scheduler 2.2 is now available on the App-V Scheduler website.

App-V Scheduler now more powerful than ever

27/06/2014 / Bram Wolfs / 6 Comments

Introduction
This blogpost will highlight the new features in App-V Scheduler 2.1 and the new App-V Scheduler Central View management console. App-V Scheduler 2.1 is an update of the previously released App-V Scheduler 2.0 version, if you are reading about App-V Scheduler for the first time I would recommend to start with the previous blogpost.

What’s new in App-V Scheduler 2.1
App-V Scheduler 2.1 contains improvements and new enterprise features, let’s talk about the new features first:

Application Pre-Launch
Mount selected packages
App-V Scheduler Central View management console

Application Pre-launch
Application Pre-Launch allows you to start selected virtual applications one time after the machine is (re)booted, this feature will improve application launch time for the first users logging in to the machine. Especially when used in combination with Shared Content Store mode and bigger packages this feature can optimize the user experience. Application Pre-Launch can be used for virtual applications and natively installed applications.

This is how it works :
You select the application which you want to Pre-Launch in the package details window in App-V Scheduler :

App-V Scheduler will store this application in a XML file on the package source location. There is no need to configure this on every machine or inside your image. You can also directly edit the XML file if you like. When the machine boots the App-V Scheduler service will deploy all packages to your machine and after that read the XML file for applications to pre-launch. If there are applications found, App-V Scheduler will launch them all together and keep them open for 60 seconds. After that the applications are closed. When the first users log in to the machine and launch the application, it will open much quicker because application assets are already present in memory.

Mount selected packages
Besides the option to mount all packages, App-V Scheduler can also mount only selected packages. This means you can use Shared Content Store mode for all your packages but select specific packages which should be fully mounted inside the cache so they are always available or to reduce network load to the content share.

This mechanism works much in the same way as the application Pre-Launch feature, when you open the package details window you only have to select the “Mount this package” check box :

After you select this option, the package will also be saved in the XML file on the package source location. So also no need to change this on multiple machines or inside the image. App-V Scheduler will mount the selected packages automatically the next time the machine starts.

Other improvements in App-V Scheduler 2.1

It’s now possible to set the deployment timer to manual, if you want to use Central View for example to initiate the deploy whenever you like on multiple machines at the same time
Improved clean cache mechanism
Scenario options removed, settings are now directly available in the configuration window to make the configuration more transparent
Option to use RES Workspace Manager variables, if you enable this option App-V Scheduler will use the version variable of RES Workspace Manager when generating the Command Line Hook switch for example. The version variable is used by Workspace Manager to detect the latest version of the package so you don’t have to change the version GUID after deploying a new package
The App-V Scheduler event log will now show how long it took to load all packages, this gives you insight in the machine boot time especially handy in non-persistent environments where all packages are loaded to the machine at start up

App-V Scheduler Central View real-time management console
Part of the Enterprise license is also a lightweight portable central management console called App-V Scheduler Central View. This console allows you to centrally manage packages on multiple machines. You can see which packages are currently deployed, compare machines and update packages by invoking a remote deploy process. You can remove packages on the fly or clean the whole cache remotely. Central View leverages Windows Remote Management (WinRM) so no need to open any exotic ports. Below you will find a print screen of the console :

You can change the layout to easily sort on package name or you can sort all in use packages for example. It’s possible to invoke a deploy new packages procedure on all the machines in the group or to individual machines by selecting the icon in the group view. You can also refresh individual machines from here to immediately reflect the changes. It’s also possible to view and control all running virtual processes remotely, this is handy if you want to understand virtual application usage or want to quickly see which process keeps the package in use.

For troubleshooting purposes Central View has the option to open the App-V Scheduler or App-V 5 Client event log directly on the remote machine.

Central View uses an Active Directory group to read machines from and for remote management it uses integrated windows authentication or you can specify a custom account if you want to delegate the console to accounts that doesn’t have the permissions to make remote management connections.
The inventory accounts password is stored encrypted and cannot be retrieved from the console. Below you will find an screenshot of the Central View settings dialog :

The Central View console can easily be sequenced and deployed in your environment as part of your management tool set, you don’t need a dedicated server for it. You can also use Central View without App-V Scheduler on the machine, when you use another deployment method for example, but it will add value when used in combination with each other.

What’s next for App-V Scheduler?
We are working on the following features for the next release of App-V Scheduler :

Fail over package source location, configure a backup source location which App-V Scheduler can use when the primary location isn’t available
Further improving App-V Scheduler Central View with new capabilities
Support for Deployment Config XML file and connection with the App-V Configuration Editor (ACE) from Virtual Engine
And more…

Big thanks for everybody providing feedback and supporting the App-V Scheduler project. Especially Kees Baggerman, Andrew Morgan and Nathan Sperry for providing valuable feedback in the last months.

Suggestions and feature requests are always welcome!

Availability
App-V Scheduler 2.1 is available on the App-V Scheduler website, you will also find the pricelist and the feature comparison there.

App-V Scheduler 2.0 Release

31/03/201427/06/2014 / Bram Wolfs / 8 Comments

App-V Scheduler

Introduction
You may have heard about the App-V 5 Scheduler project, if not you can read more on how everything started in this previous blogpost. In short the vision of App-V Scheduler is to reduce complexity and make the deployment and management of App-V 5 packages in RDS & Citrix environments easy. No need for complex PowerShell scripts with limited functionality and visibility, also no need for full infrastructure components like App-V Management and Publishing servers or System Center Configuration Manager.

App-V Schedulers goal is to deploy App-V 5 packages on a machine level and manage them the same way we do with natively installed applications and this is where user environment tools like RES Workspace Manager comes to play. The power of such tools is that we can control application access and configuration from one single console, without having to configure application access and settings on multiple levels and in multiple consoles. I will explain the powerful combination of App-V Scheduler and RES Workspace Manager later on in this blog post. First let’s have a look at the new App-V Scheduler 2.0 version.

App-V Scheduler Editions
To start with App-V Scheduler is now available in 2 editions : Community and Enterprise edition.

Community Edition
Community edition provides the same functionality as the previous 1.3 version, this means automatically deployment of packages and connection groups, multiple cache options, aware of single image management technology like MCS\PVS and with this new release the community edition also comes with the redesigned GUI :

As you can see you have a very clear view on which packages and which versions are deployed on the machine, the package size is displayed in a readable format and on the bottom left you can see the total size of all packages currently loaded. When you select a package you can remove it manually, or launch CMD\Regedit inside the virtual environment for troubleshooting purposes. You can also directly launch the application from here to test its functionality. There is an administrator guide attached to the download which goes further into technical details, be sure to read it before installing.

Enterprise Edition
Enterprise edition will add the following features on top of community edition :

Pending Tasks support
When an updated package is deployed while the previous version is in use, the App-V client will create a pending task. For global publishing this means the pending task will be processed when the machine reboots. This is not desirable when you want to deploy a new version during the day. App-V Scheduler detects pending tasks and will process the pending task automatically when the package is no longer in use. You only have to ask the user to close the application. All of the processing is automatically done by the App-V Scheduler service, no need to leave the GUI open, you will get an overview of pending tasks by clicking on the Pending Tasks button :

Virtual Process overview
Quickly get an overview of all virtual processes on a machine, also native processes started inside a virtual environment are shown here. You can see which user(s) are associated with the virtual process and the path where the executable is started from. You can also end virtual processes from here. Virtual process overview is very handy in combination with pending tasks, it allows you to easily see which users\processes keeps the package in use.

Package Details
Package details gives you a clear view on which extension points are registered for a given package. The output is filtered so you will only see the information that is applicable to the selected package. With the blink of an eye you can see which shortcuts, file type associations, services, ActiveX and other com objects are registered in a readable and understandable format. Also extension points like browser plugins and shell extensions are shown here. App-V 5 comes with a lot more extension points than its predecessor, its important to know how a package is integrated in the OS to understand the behaviour of the application. The auto generated commandline hook switch can be used as a parameter for native processes to launch them inside the virtual environment of the package, think of Excel addins etc. In the RES Workspace Manager part I will give you an example on how to configure this.

There is also a details button to zoom further into the extension point details like this :

Central management console
Part of Enterprise edition is also a lightweight (portable) central management console called Central View where you can centrally manage packages on multiple machines. For example you can see which packages are currently deployed and in use, you can also update packages by invoking a remote deploy process and view pending tasks remotely. The central management console will form a great combination together with App-V Scheduler but can also be used without it, for example if you decide to deploy packages in another way.

Support and software assurance
Part of Enterprise licensing is free support and upgrades to the latest versions for the first year, the subscription can be renewed on an annual basis for a fraction of the price. App-V Scheduler is being actively developed and new features are added frequently. Compatibility with future App-V 5 releases and service packs will also be assured.

App-V Scheduler in combination with RES Workspace Manager
After App-V Scheduler deployed a new package, we can configure the application in the RES Workspace Manager console by leveraging the App-V 5 integration. All we have to do is select the .appv file and the integration will take care of :

Dynamically locate the package installation root (App-V Cache location, which can be configured directly in App-V Scheduler)
Dynamically select the latest version of a package that is deployed, so you never have to worry about changing paths after a version upgrade
Load application settings inside the virtual environment (think of registry values, files and folders, etc)

Below you will find a screenshot of the App-V 5 integration in RES Workspace Manager :

As you can see it’s really easy to integrate App-V 5 applications in RES Workspace Manager, but how can we integrate a natively installed application with a virtual application? We could use great new App-V 5 technics like run virtual or dynamic virtualization. But if we want to do this more selectively? let’s say an Excel addin for a group of users? This is where the command line hook switch comes in handy which App-V Scheduler automatically generates when you open up the package details. All you have to do is hit the copy to clipboard button and paste it in the parameters field of the native application :

Finally configure access to a select group of people and that’s it. You can open the virtual process overview to check if Excel runs virtualized.

Conclusion and availability
App-V 5 Scheduler, in combination with an User Environment Management tool like RES Workspace Manager, is a powerful and simple way to deliver packages to your machines without the need for a full App-V 5 infrastructure model or complex scripting. Just place the package on a share and App-V 5 Scheduler will do the rest for you.
Community edition already gives you a good starting point to simplify the App-V 5 deployment in your environment, Enterprise edition features will make the management of App-V 5 packages a breeze and there are more features to come.

How to get Enterprise Edition ?

Thank you! It would be great if you consider to upgrade to Enterprise edition, besides the additional features, this will also support the further development of App-V Scheduler.

App-V Scheduler 2.1 released!

Please visit the App-V Scheduler 2.1 release blog post for the availability and more information about the new version.

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