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Using the App-V 5.0 client without the App-V management back-end

  • Article

If you deploy a full App-V 5.0 environment you will need an App-V Management Server and an App-V Publishing server and if you want redundancy on this App-V back-end then you need at least two servers and a load balancer. With a Multi datacenter setup, you can end up with four servers (two per datacenter)

This wiki will explain how to use the App-V 5.0 client without the App-V management backend.

Requirement on the client: (this can also be a Windows 7/8/8.1 VDI or a Server 2008 R2/2012/2012 R2 Remote Desktop Services server)

  • App-v client 5.0 SP1 client
  • PowerShell

Other requirements:

  • Fileserver share that will contain the .appv packages

PowerShell command to configure the client:

first, configure the execution policy

set-executionpolicy remotesigned -force

Next load the Appvclient module

import-module appvclient

Use the following command to add an App-V package to the local client:

1.Add-AppvClientPackage -Path “\\server\share\TestApp\App1.appv”

Next you need to publish the App-V package: (use the full name for the application that is displayed in the info when you add the App)
The -global setting will make the application available to all users using the desktop or server.

1.Publish-AppvClientPackage -Name “Test Application 1” –Global

The application will now be cached in C:\ProgramData\App-V\guid app>\guid version>\

Example: C:\ProgramData\App-V\0FA1D473-27B4-445C-8DDB-A55CBCA9F2C1\4FD5EBBE-4A1F-4209-941B-F2D3477CA2B9\Root\VFS\ProgramFilesX86\IDM Computer Solutions\UltraEdit\

From there you can add the application executable your  user environment management solution (RES, AppSense, Citrix XenApp, ....)

Optionally you can configure the App-V client to run in Shared Content Store mode, with this setting only pointers will be added to cache folder instead of a full local cache of the application.

1.Set-AppvClientConfiguration -SharedContentStoreMode 1

http://www.citrix-guru.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/appv4.png

You can check all the App-V client settings with the following command:

1.Get-AppvClientConfiguration

http://www.citrix-guru.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/appv5.png

As you can see there are many setting to configure including the default folder used to cache the applications.

To add and publish a large ammount of .appv packaged you could use a PowerShell script that will add all packages and publish all packages. This script can be part of a Group Policy setting that will start a script when the desktop/servers starts or when a user logs on.