Deliver Apps on Demand in the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Environment

Follow the steps in this workflow to set up Apps on Demand, an App Volumes feature, in the Citrix environment. This workflow constitutes of installing and configuring App Volumes components and setting up the application properties in Citrix Studio to deliver on-demand applications to end users.

For information about the on-demand application delivery, see the Understanding Package Delivery Modes in App Volumes in the VMware App Volumes 4 Administration Guide.

Prerequisites

Ensure that you have the following:

• Prepare the golden image.
  • Optimize the Microsoft Windows RDSH Server golden image.

    For more information about optimization, here are some of the resources: https://techzone.vmware.com/resource/manually-creating-optimized-windows-images-vmware-horizon-vms, https://support.citrix.com/article/CTX224676/citrix-optimizer-tool, and https://www.citrix.com/content/dam/citrix/en_us/documents/solution-brief/best-practices-for-optimizing-your-citrix-environment.pdf.

  • Ensure that VMware Tools are installed.
  • Install VMware App Volumes agent and Citrix Virtual Delivery Agent (VDA) in the golden image.
• Prepare the golden image for delivery through a non-persistent image delivery mechanism such as Citrix PVS (Provisioning Services) or Citrix MCS (Machine Creation Services).
• Ensure at least one Citrix RDSH server is online to verify that the applications are published correctly and deliver the published applications.

Procedure

1. Set up App Volumes Manager as follows:
   1. Install App Volumes Manager.
      For information about this procedure, see the Install App Volumes Manager section in the VMware App Volumes 4 Installation Guide.
   2. Configure App Volumes Manager.

      For more information about this procedure, see the Configuring App Volumes Manager section in the VMware App Volumes 4 Administration Guide.

      Note: You can also capture VHD application packages using App Volumes. However the option of using VHD application packages is out of scope for this document. For more information about using App Volumes to capture VHD application packages, see the Types of Machine Manager Configurations in the VMware App Volumes 4 Administration Guide.
2. To package applications which must be delivered to the end user, set up the packaging virtual machines.
   1. Use an RDSH server as a packaging virtual machine.
      For more information about setting up the packaging virtual machines, see the Preparing a Packaging Virtual Machine and Best Practices for Packaging App Volumes Applications sections in the VMware App Volumes 4 Administration Guide.
   2. Install App Volumes agent on the packaging virtual machine.
      For information about this procedure, see the Install App Volumes Agent section in the VMware App Volumes 4 Installation Guide.
   3. Install the application which you intend to package on the packaging virtual machine.
      Note: This application must have either a Start menu shortcut or a desktop shortcut because the application is delivered when the user clicks the application shortcut.
3. Create an application.
   For more information about this procedure, see the Create an application section in the VMware App Volumes 4 Administration Guide.
4. Package the application in the packaging virtual machine set up in an earlier step.
5. Install App Volumes agent on the RDSH server where the Citrix Virtual Delivery Agent (VDA) is already installed.
   For information about the install procedure, see the Install App Volumes Agent section in the VMware App Volumes 4 Installation Guide.
6. Assign applications to users.
   For information about this procedure, see the Assign an App Volumes Application to an Entity in the VMware App Volumes 4 Administration Guide.
7. Open Citrix Studio and navigate to Delivery Group.
   Each Delivery Group must be associated with the Machine Catalog which is intended for on demand application delivery.

   1. Select the Delivery Group.
   2. To add applications, right click the Delivery Group and select Add Applications.

      Alternately, you can navigate to the Actions pane and select Add Applications.

   3. In the Getting Started with Applications window, click Next.
   4. In the Applications section, select the desired application folder.

      Alternately, you can create a new folder in the Applications section only for publishing applications configured as on demand. To create a new folder, click Change and follow the UI prompts.

   5. Add applications either from the Start menu or Manually.
      Depending on your choice, perform the following steps:

      Option	Procedure
      From Start menu	In the Add Applications from Start Menu window, select the desired applications. Application properties are automatically updated for the application. Click OK. Click Next. Click Finish.
      Manually	In the Add Applications Manually window, browse the server from where you can add applications delivered by App Volumes. In the Path to the executable file field, click Browse. In the Choose share window, select the desired file share. Click Continue. Select the desired application. Application properties are automatically updated for the application. Click OK. To complete publishing the application, follow the next set of UI prompts.

   6. Navigate to the Applications menu and review the published application.
   7. Select the application whose delivery needs to be configured as on demand.
   8. Right click the application and select Properties.
   9. In the Application Settings window, navigate to the Location tab and edit the fields as displayed in the table.
      • The application icon is already initialized as part of publishing the application in the earlier steps. This can be reviewed in the Delivery tab.
      • To avoid errors, ensure that you copy the values mentioned in the followings fields in a notepad so that you can easily paste them in the field when required.

      Fields	Values
      In the Path to the executable file	C:\Program Files (x86)\CloudVolumes\Agent\svservice.exe
      Command line argument (optional)	app run {application_guid} <exe_path> <arguments> For example: app run {77bf2642-6f23-4baf-af8a-cc882884c721} "C:\Program Files\Notepad++\notepad++.exe" Note: Alternately, you can also use the application shortcut ( .lnk file) instead of the exe path. Using the application shortcut allows you the flexibility to add additional parameters for application configuration. For example: app run {77bf2642-6f23-4baf-af8a-cc882884c721} "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Notepad++\Notepad++.lnk" For more information about the svservice app run command, see the Command-line Delivery of Applications in App Volumes section in the VMware App Volumes 4 Administration Guide at VMware Docs.
      Working directory	C:\Program Files (x86)\CloudVolumes\Agent

   10. Configure the Limit Visibility section.
   11. In the File Type Association section, leave the fields blank.

       File Type Association is a characteristic of an App Volumes application package delivered as on demand. For information about this characteristic, see Understanding Package Delivery Modes in App Volumes in the VMware App Volumes 4 Administration Guide at VMware Docs.

   12. Click Apply.

Results

After this setup when you deliver an application to an end user, the application is delivered as on demand.