VMware App Volumes provides a system to deliver applications to desktops through virtual disks.

App Volumes 2.19 agent is intended to be used with App Volumes 4. For more information about App Volumes 4, see the VMware App Volumes 4 Installation Guide and VMware App Volumes 4 Administration Guide at VMware Docs.

Important: App Volumes 2.x templates must be uploaded to App Volumes 4 App Volumes Manager. For more information about the templates that must be used, see Upgrade App Volumes Templates.

A typical App Volumes environment consists of a few key components that interact with each other and an external infrastructure.

Table 1. App Volumes Components
Component Description
App Volumes Administrator or User Active Directory (AD) or organizational unit (OU) account to which AppStacks and Writable Volumes are assigned. User must have local administrator privileges.
App Volumes Manager App Volumes 2.x no longer includes App Volumes Manager. You must install the App Volumes 4 App Volumes Manager to use the App Volumes 2.19 agent.

See Install App Volumes Manager in the VMware App Volumes 4 Installation Guide and Configuring App Volumes Manager in the VMware App Volumes 4 Administration Guide at VMware Docs.
App Volumes agent Software installed on all Windows desktops where AppStacks and Writable Volumes are assigned. See Install App Volumes Agent.
AppStacks This is a read-only volume containing one or more Windows applications. Once provisioned, an individual AppStack or multiple AppStacks can be mapped to a user, a group of users, or computers at login, or in real-time and to computers only at the time of startup. Refer to the administration guide for details.
Writable Volume Read and write volume for persisting user-specific information between sessions. You can use Writable Volumes to store the following data:
  • User installed applications and application settings
  • Application licensing information
  • User and computer profile
  • Data files
Note:

Users can have more than one Writable Volume assigned to them. For details about using Writable Volumes and restrictions, see the Writable Volumes sections in the administration guide.

Provisioning Desktop A clean virtual machine that contains the necessary applications for installation into AppStacks. The desktop must have the App Volumes agent installed and configured to connect to the App Volumes Manager. See the administration guide for information about AppStacks.
Target Computer A VDI desktop, physical client computer, Remote Desktop Services (RDS) Host or Citrix XenApp Server where users log in to access their applications delivered from the AppStack. The target computer must have the App Volumes agent installed and configured to connect to the App Volumes Manager.