I have setup the App-V 5.0 streaming environment about 5 times now. The setup is a little different to previous versions mainly because the streaming protocol has changed, so to has the actual Management Console itself. The console is now web based and requires Microsoft Silverlight to view and use. Firstly you should note if you are setting this up on Server 2008 R2 you will require .NET Framework 4.0, Powershell 3.0, Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable 2005 SP1 and 2010 and Silverlight if you intend to test the site out on the server itself…which you likely will.
If you are using Windows Server 2012 you”ll have .NET Framework 4.5 enabled and also Powershell 3.0. The Setup for App-V Management Server seems to install the two Visual C++ Redistributable parts. If you still have XP and Server 2003 in your environment then App-V 5.0 is not for you yet unfortunately as these platforms are no longer supported. Pre-reqs can be found HERE and Silverlight HERE
List of the Features required on your server are:
Windows Web Server with the IIS role with the following features: Common HTTP Features (static content and default document), Application Development (ASP.NET, .NET Extensibility, ISAPI Extensions and ISAPI Filters), Security (Windows Authentication, Request Filtering), Security (Windows Authentication, Request Filtering), Management Tools (IIS Management Console)
64-bit ASP.NET registration
Below is a step by step of how to setup both the App-V Server (A guide for setting up a distributed setup will be posted in the future, this if for a single server) and a quick how to for the App-V Client to test with.
Select Microsoft Application Virtualizion for Desktops on your MDOP 2012 Disc and select App-V 5.0 Server
Select Install
Select I accept License terms and hit Next
Depending on your environment you can select whatever update option you like. Odds are you don’t want to use Updates and you’ll manage these yourself. But that’s your call. Choose and hit next
The Database setup for App-V has changed for this new version. You now setup two databases, one being a more static Management Database and the second being a Reporting Database. Setting them up on their own unique instance is a good idea to optimal performance, though the actual writes to the databases for App-V is pretty small.
If you’d like to use a service account you can configure the setup to use that here or alternatively just select local computer
Next Create your Reporting Database
Similar again you can select to use a service account
There’s three web services for App-V 5.0. The first to setup is the Management service. Select a management AD Group. If you have a previous version of App-V already setup you can use your old group. If not create an AD Group with users who you wish to grant App-V Management access to. You will need to have 3 firewall ports selected and available for use. I’ve been trying to keep my port numbers sequential e.g. 316,317,318. This particular site is for the Management Service.
Next up is the Publishing Server. You need remember these settings because this will be required when configuring the Client machines. e.g. https://localhost:316
Finally a Port is required for the Reporting Server
You setup for the App-V Server is complete. You can click on the hyperlink presented on the final dialog. If you have Silverlight installed on the server as mentioned earlier, it should present the Management site to you.
To test out your setup you’ll need to import an App-V 5.0 sequenced application into the Management site and assign it to an AD Group which your testing account is a member. You need to setup the App-V Client. I may post a setup guide for the App-V Client separately but basically you need to setup on a machine with .NET Framework 4.0 or later and Powershell 3.0. Go to your MDOP Disc again and this time select client. Accept all defaults during the installation as you no longer setup the configuration for the App-V Server connection through the installation GUI. You now do this post install using Powershell.
Open Powershell. To configure using Powershell you can do this by typing:
Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned
Hit Enter and then hit Y for yes when prompted. Next type:
import-module appvclient
Hit enter, you’ve now imported the App-V Client module which gives you access to the App-V Client options.
Add-AppVPublishingServer -NAME App-VPublishingServer – URL “https://Server.domain.com:Port”
For the URL you should revert back to the earlier step of setting up the Publishing Server. Use the Hostname of the server you set the App-V server on and whatever port you chose.
By default since this is the first Publishing Server your setup will be assigned ID number 1. If you have an Application assigned you can either open the App-V Client on the machine and hit update or you can type the following on your open Powershell:
Sync-AppVPublishingServer
hit 1 and then enter.
Also in a test environment at least you may want to change the following registry settings on your publishing server:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\AppV\Server\PublishingService
PUBLISHING_MGT_SERVER_REFRESH_INTERVAL = 600 (default setting in seconds)
PUBLISHING_MGT_SERVER_REFRESH_INTERVAL = 5 (common value used for test environment)
Without setting these you may notice applications will not be delivered to your end user devices right away, this is the default behavior as the interval are managed by this setting. Doing an IISRESET would also speed it up but that’s pretty manual!
You have a few options when streaming with the App-V Management Server. HTTP, HTTPS and SMB. With SMB it’s quite simple, you store your created App-V applications on a file share, when you import into the App-V Management Server, you browse to their path on the file share. Using HTTP, HTTPS requires a little more consideration, for this I suggest taking a look at Ingmars great post: HERE and Nickes post on getting start right HERE
