When implementing a new VDI or terminal server project, the biggest stumbling block is not usually the solution framework, be that VMware, Microsoft or Citrix. It’s the applications.
It’s those odd one or two apps that have either been created in house, are cheap bespoke applications or an app so old that it’s ceased being developed and is now out of support.
If the application is old and out of support I can’t blame the vendors, it’s the customer who should never have gotten themselves into that situation. It’s the other two situations that need to be looked at.
Small application vendors need to raise their game, it’s no longer good enough to code an application, check it works on your local copy of XP or Vista and sell it to the customer. Terminal services has been around fifteen years, and Application Virtualisation five years, these are no longer new technologies. If I phone up a vendor and ask them what’s the correct way to install their application on terminal services or App-V, I don’t want to hear ’sorry that isn’t supported’.
In the past, I’ve had an application vendor hand me a ten sheet document with installation instructions for their app on TS, it went like this:
Create user X,
Assign Y and Z rights to User X
Install weird application service
Add User X to application service
Find Reg key HKLMSoftwareVendorxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx-xxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxx and create DWORD value zzz IMPORTANT! see note
Once all these steps are finished, run the application and click the buttons m through p
Once done install the plug-in as normal.
note:
If you cannot find the regkey DO NOT install weird application service, create ODBC connection as shown on page 9
etc.
In my opinion the customer should have refused to accept this and asked the vendor to finish the application.
The reason that I want vendors to provide MSIs is that they have several advantages over other methods of installation:
- Database driven instead of script driven
- The application is installed in an administrative context
- MSI provides a standard package format
- Transactional install and rollback
- Customisation via MST files
- Many tools available
The tools part is starting to get really interesting, Apptitude have released their App-DNA product, which will test whether your app is suitable for Citrix, App-V, Windows 7, x64 and more. If you have an MSI, it only needs to look at the MSI tables, you don’t even have to install the application to get the report.
Acresso, the folks who make Admin Studio, have developed a new feature which allows direct conversion from an MSI to an App-V, Citrix Streaming or VMware ThinApp package.
Both the above technologies can drastically reduce the time taken to implement new application delivery methods. To best take advantage of both tools you need applications provided in an MSI format.
The main reason that I have found applications not being delivered in the correct format is that organisations have not realised that it is vital that the IT department of any organisation is involved in the decision making process when it comes to purchasing new applications, at the very least they need to set the minimum standards required:
- The application should be provided in an MSI format
- The vendor must suport multi user OS deployment
- The vendor must support application virtualisation/streaming
If you are an application vendor and it’s ‘too much effort’ to support the above minimum standards, I would suggest you are cutting yourself off from a large and growing sector of the market.
If you develop applications in-house or are purchasing a bespoke product, there is no reason why standards should slip, apply the same set of rules to these as you would to an off the shelf product. A bit more development time, is going to save you a whole lot of heartache in the future.
Look for an update sometime in the future.
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