System Center Configuration Manager 2007 : Integrating Virtual Applications (part 2) - Activating Application Virtualization in ConfigMgr 2007 R2

2. Activating Application Virtualization in ConfigMgr 2007 R2

Although Microsoft Application Virtualization is integrated with ConfigMgr 2007 R2, ConfigMgr does not activate the application virtualization functionality by default. Several steps are required to add the Microsoft Application Virtualization components:

• Configure the Advertised Program Client agent to run virtual applications through the ConfigMgr console.

  Navigate to -> Site Database -> Site Management <Site Code> <Site Name> -> Site Settings -> Client Agents -> Advertised Programs Client Agent. Right-click Advertised Programs Client Agent and then select Properties.

  On the General tab, select the option Allow virtual application package advertisement. Figure 1 displays this configuration.

  Figure 1. Configure virtual applications on Advertised Programs

  

  Caution when Checking the Allow Virtual Application Package Advertisement There was a situation where a site deployed SoftGrid to provide the majority of application distribution for that environment. Only those applications that could not be sequenced properly were deployed through ConfigMgr. The SoftGrid environment suddenly stopped functioning and systems that were online started to remove their applications and references to the SoftGrid server. It was eventually determined that SoftGrid integration had been enabled in ConfigMgr at the time that the SoftGrid environment stopped functioning (the Allow virtual application package advertisement setting in the Advertised Program Client Agent Properties specifically). This change caused the Configuration Manager clients to remove all previously deployed virtual application packages (published through an Application Virtualization full infrastructure or standalone MSI). This occurred through a purging of the Application Virtualization Client cache and removing any existing Application Virtualization Client references to Application Virtualization Management Servers. The lesson—if you have an existing SoftGrid environment and plan to activate this functionality in ConfigMgr 2007 (R2), be sure you fully test the impacts in a testing environment prior to making the change in production.

  
  

• Enable the Application Virtualization streaming server.

  Open the ConfigMgr console -> Site Database -> Site Management <Site Code> <Site Name> -> Site Settings -> Site Systems. Then click the name of the server, right-click the ConfigMgr Distribution Point, and select Properties.

  On the Virtual Applications tab, select Enable Virtual Application Streaming. See Figure 2 for this selection. Also verify that the distribution point supports HTTP requests (available in the properties of the distribution point on the General tab, under communication settings with the following option: Allow clients to transfer content from this distribution point using BITS, HTTP, and HTTPS).

Figure 2. Configure virtual applications streaming on distribution point(s)

After adding these components, you can import virtual application packages into Configuration Manager through the ConfigMgr console -> Computer Management -> Software Distribution -> Packages node.

The ability for Configuration Manager 2007 to integrate virtual applications greatly expands its functionality, because ConfigMgr can now deploy both installed and virtualized applications!

Additional Readings on App-V

The following references provide additional reading on sequencing applications:

• Steve Rachui’s blog entry presents a step-by-step example for sequencing an application in App-V and provides additional details on the App-V client, available at http://blogs.msdn.com/steverac/archive/2008/12/22/deploying-virtual-apps-with-sccm.aspx.

• Microsoft also provides a video discussing application sequencing, available at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dd459150.aspx.

• The Microsoft App-V documentation library is available at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/appvirtualization/cc843994.aspx. This library includes a white paper on virtual application management with Configuration Manager 2007 and Application Virtualization 4.5.

• Steve also has a good blog write-up that provides an App-V introduction highlighting components and integration with ConfigMgr, available at http://blogs.msdn.com/steverac/archive/2008/12/22/app-v-introduction-components-and-sccmintegration.aspx.