A standard capture workflow constitutes of starting a command-line capture program session, installing the application, and completing the capture session. To start and end the capture, appcapture.exe /new and appcapture.exe /end commands are used respectively.

After the capture completes, the program creates an application package in the .vmdk (monolithic sparse) and .vhd formats. In addition to the package file formats, the program also generates a .json file which has the metadata for the generated packages. Later, you can manually transfer this application package into App Volumes Manager and deliver the package to the end users.

You can use the /noauto argument with /new and /end. For more information about these command-line arguments and others, see Windows Command-Line Arguments for the App Volumes Application Capture Command-Line Program. Alternately, you use appcapture.exe /help on the command line.

Prerequisites

  • Ensure that you start a new capture every time on a clean virtual machine.
  • Ensure that the User Account Control (UAC) in Windows is deactivated.

    To deactivate UAC, see Microsoft Windows documentation.

  • You must run the command-line capture program as an administrator.
  • Ensure that the command-line capture program utility is installed at C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\AppCapture.
    Note: Do not use the command-line capture program's executable located at C:\Program Files (x86)\CloudVolumes\Agent. This copy of the executable is meant for internal purpose only.
  • Ensure that you have downloaded the installer of the application that must be captured.
  • Ensure that you are aware of the command-line arguments that can be used with the appcapture.exe command.

Procedure

  1. Take a snapshot of your virtual machine.
    You can revert to the snapshot after the capture session.
  2. Open a command-line window.
  3. Start a new capture session from the location where the command-line capture program is installed by using the following command: appcapture.exe /new <package_name>.
    package_name - name of the application package that is captured.
  4. Install the application that you want to capture.
    1. If your application install requires a virtual machine reboot, perform the reboot or wait for the reboot to complete.
      The command-line capture program session automatically restarts.
  5. Finish the capture session by using the following command: appcapture.exe /end.
    Machine reboots and the command-line capture program session automatically restarts.
    The capture process is complete and the application package is created in the vhd and .vmdk (monolithic sparse) formats.
  6. Ensure that the following outputs package_name.vhd, package_name_workstation.vmdk, and package_name.json are generated at C:\ProgramData\VMware\AppCapture\appvhds.
  7. Revert to the virtual machine's snapshot taken before you started the capture session.

What to do next

  • To import the *_workstation.vmdk package into App Volumes Manager, place the .vmdk and .json files on the App Volumes Manager server at <installation_directory>\CloudVolumes\Manager\ppv\packages, upload these files to the desired datastore from the Storage page in the admin UI by using Upload Templates, and follow the Import an Application to App Volumes procedure.
  • To import the .vhd application package into App Volumes Manager, copy the package (including the .json file) to a file share and follow the Import an Application to App Volumes procedure.

After the package is successfully imported into App Volumes Manager, you can assign the application and deliver the package to the end users.