Anyone use App-V?

[steinooo]

Hi all,

I am wondering if any OCukers use App-V for delivering applications e.g. from a datacentre over a WAN to a remote site?

I looked at streaming apps through Citrix Xenapp 6.0/6.5 to combat user's hatred of published desktops and to see if streaming gives an experience which masks network drop outs a little, but I soon found out that actually these days Citrix send people down the App-V route.

 

[steinooo]

Citrix aren't necessarily telling people to use App-V, Xenapp 6.5 still out performs App-V, the protocols used are far better. However moving to Xendesktop 7, the applications are kinda delivered by App-V, as Xenapp has been removed totally.

I would still use Xenapp over App-V at the moment though. Depends on what you need.

Why do the users hate published desktops, if set up correctly, they should look and feel exactly like Windows 7 :s

Users dislike:

• Lack of "native" app feel due to no processing done on the local machine
• Disconnected sessions when the WAN has a blip
• Lack of customisation (heavy lock down policy which I know I could change)

Interesting to hear you'd still use XA 6.5 to stream apps over App-V. I presume by better protocols you refer to the slimmer bandwidth requirement of ICA over RDP?

 

[steinooo]

1) I don't see how on poor bandwidth links
No matter how many tweaks I've tried on the client and server I've never managed to get a "native like" feel. Have you seen desktops performing snappy and latency free on a poor wan link?

2) this is exactly what I'm trying to get more info on....offline apps. I hear that streaming injects portions of the app into the local profile on the client, giving a native like feel and allowing blips in the wan due to the portion being kept on the client machine. Do you suggest any course, book, forum for me to read up on this stuff?

3) I knew this was possible with gpos but nevertheless it is a complaint.....but just not one I'm particularly willing to compromise on too much just yet.

 

[steinooo]

1) thanks I'll look for what other settings I can disable to save bandwidth but the connection isn't just small bandwidth its unreliable. 2 I urgently need to check settings with!

Regarding the offline plugin for apps streaming ...how do you find this in practise? Do ppl use it and like it? It is useless for applications which need to contact a database in the data centre of course but I can see uses for it if it works with email clients like lotus for example.......

Xenclient is something I tried to play with but dropped as it seemed very complex. I.e. just to try it out I couldn't get a VM on the client.....is a synchronisation server necessary even for a small test?

 

[steinooo]

you need to decide what and how you want to deliver your apps as App-V could solve your issues, but it does come down to where you want processing to be carried out etc.

Cheers for the input jinxy.

The quoted bit is really the part I can't decide on as I've never spoken to anyone who uses it, so can't fathom what it's capable of.

Citrix users want to stop using published desktops so I want to trial them using local fat clients with nice cheap processing power at their fingertips, and deliver apps to them which can harness this local processing power.

I can't understand if "offline streamed apps" via App-V/XenApp will

1) mask a network blip?
2) perhaps even allow email client users to undock and continue to write emails, read through existing ones?
3) allow use of local processing power for a native feel?

thanks in advance for sharing, I am clueless on this offline streaming but it sounds good so I am hungry for advice and use-cases