The new version of my PrepSQL tool now supports the changes that have been introduced with ServicePack 3 for App-V 5. You can silently create the App-V Management Database and Reporting Database on remote SQL servers, on SQL server clusters or in scenarios, where you can’t run App-V’s setup wizard on the SQL server machine. This new version also allows to upgrade the databases from a pre-SP3 version. It already includes the fix for a known error with Microsoft’s original scripts.
Download PrepSQL for App-V 5 SP3 from kirx.org
During the research for the App-V 5 Reporting articles I came across a variety of useful resources. I think they could be interesting for you as well.
With App-V 4, using a Profile Management or User Environment Management solution was recommended, but not highly required, as App-V managed user configurations quite OK for itself. With App-V 5 – especially in a ConfigManager scenario – this changed dramatically. Furthermore, UEM can help overcoming some of App-V 5’s most popular downsides.
Here is why I consider any UEM is a requirement for App-V 5.
With App-V 5 Microsoft introduced the concept of Dynamic Configurations, allowing to manage and control the way how virtual applications integrate into the base OS or how the virtual packages behave on clients. One of the main benefits of Dynamic Configurations is the ability to apply different settings to different machines or users. However, these Dynamic Configurations are applied differently, depending on the distribution model. In this article we’ll show that the old principle of “A package’s virtual resources are equal regardless of the deployment model’ has changed in App-V 5.
In short: Just having or modifying the XMLs is not enough, in no scenario!
All right, you do have your new App-V Beta system installed according to the Beta Documentation – but your Apps just don’t appear on the Client Desktop! Where do you start? Let’s try to figure out some basic steps that can be the foundation of a troubleshooting guideline
“Alles bleibt anders” (Everything remains different) might be a good short description for App-V 5 (Beta). While most of the components keep their names and follow existing general concepts, quite a lot changed under the hood. This post gives you a short overview about Aoo-V 5’s main components and the communication flow between them.
App-V 5 Beta allows to connect to a Database that is installed on a remote machine. However, it has shown that using a remote SQL Database is not that trivial. This article will highlight how to prepare the remote SQL Database to be used by App-V 5.
Reading through the documentation there is no hint that connecting an App-V 5 Publishing Server to an SQL database that is running on a different machine might be sort of ‘special’. Instead, it states something like “just enter the name of your Database Server’ and that’s it. Well, if you read some forum articles, posts and tweets it appears that this implementation does not exactly provide an ‘out-of-the-box’ experience. Let’s see…
So, you followed one of the posts orthe Admin Guide that have told you how to publish a new application with the App-V 5 Beta Management/Publishing Server(s) – but your Client doesn’t seem to refresh changes?
The potential reason for this is an interval that is defined on the Publishing Server feature. By default, it only refreshes its information every ten minutes. If this appears to slow for you, there is a simple switch to shorten that period…
A colleague of mine, Volker Kleiner (owner of App-V.info) , posted a German article on Softgrider.de about how to install the App-V 4.5 Management Server onto Windows Server 8 Beta. Why… well, because it just doesn’t work out-of-the-box. During installation, you’d get an Error 25100 or Error 25122. For Windows 2008, a solution is described at MS KB2212140, but that doesn’t work on Win8: To prepare the machine, you need to “convert” it into a “GUI less” server instance and convert it back afterwards. This is the (loose) English translation of that article…
Microsoft’s Application Virtualization Client 4.5 and 4.6 settings essentially are controlled by Registry values. A while back, Microsoft published an ADM Template to control some of these settings. Login Consultants then published an add-on ADM Template that controls the seetings that Microsoft did not implement.
Now, Login Consultants offers an new, full ADMX Template that uses the more current XML based way of manipulating software settings by Group Policy Objects (GPOs). Furthermore, the new ADMX contains all relevant settings to control App-V Clients, so admins don’t have to deal with two different templates any longer. However, there are som considerations…