In this post is explained how work with manifest.xml file a new futures in Microsoft APP-V (formerly SoftGrid)  and various scenario where you can use this file for testing purpose  and for production environment to optimize use of this beautiful platform.

 

I would to thanks Softgridblog.com for this articles that is clearly explained above

 

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The manifest file is a new file in App-V 4.5 and automatically is generated each time when saving a Sequence. It is always named like the SPRJ and SFT filename you enter with _MANIFEST.XML following. So when you save a package and name it CRMAPP.SPRJ the manifest file will be named CRMAPP_MANIFEST.XML.

 

The manifest file contains all information to create Desktop, Quicklaunch and Start Menu shortcuts of the Sequenced application. Also all information about the application it’s File Type Associations and Context Menus are stored in there.

 

First off, lets talk about what it is NOT used for. Strangely enough the manifest file is not used in a “Native” App-V 4.5 infrastructure where you use the App-V Management and/or App-V Streaming server. In this case the .SPRJ file is still the file you use to import a Sequenced application into the App-V Management Console.

 

At this moment there are three other new App-V 4.5 deployment scenarios where the manifest file is used:

 

1. You need the manifest file each time you import a Sequenced Application into SCCM 2007 R2. So if you have existing Sequences based on SoftGrid 4.1/4.2 and you are thinking about using the App-V 4.5 integration available in SCCM 2007 R2, you simply need to open (not open for Package Upgrade!) your older Sequences and save them within the 4.5 Sequencer. The manifest file will automatically be created.

 

2. You can also use the manifest file to manually or script the import of a Sequence on any machine with the App-V 4.5 Client installed. This makes it possible to use App-V enabled (sequenced) applications without having any App-V Back-end infrastructure. The nice thing about doing it this way instead of pointing the .OSD file to a local file (which is another trick), is that with use of the Manifest file the application fully behaves like it is installed locally with all the shortcuts and File Type Associations.

 

This could be very usefull when Sequencing and you simply want to test the result on a App-V client.

 

This is the command you use:

 

SFTMIME.EXE add package:could-be-any-unique-name /manifest c:foldercrmapp_manifest.xml /overrideurl c:foldercrmapp.sft

 

So the unique package name I mention doesn’t even have to be the same as the name you used during packaging. It is best to do so off course. The streaming location in the OSD files from the Sequenced application will now be overruled by the /overrideurl parameter, and on launch the application will be streamed from file. When you launch the application at this point the application will be streamed from file.

 

If you also want to automatically load the application into cache after running the previous command, use the following command:

 

SFTMIME.EXE load package:should-be-the-same-name-as-before

 

To be able to use this type of import functionality the App-V client needs to be configured to “Allow Streaming from File” which you can set during a Custom Installation of the App-V 4.5 Client. Doing this afterwards cannot be done from the App-V Client Management Console (SFTCMC.MSC), but can be done by changing a registry key and restarting the App-V Client Service (SFTLIST). The registry key that needs it’s value to be changed from 0 to 1 is:

 

HKLMSoftwareMicrosoftSoftGrid4.5ClientConfigurationAllowIndependentFileStreaming

 

If necessary, for a non-local Admin to be able to run this command also the security settings within the App-V 4.5 client should be changed. The permissions called “Add Applications” should be checked in the App-V 4.5 Client for “Users” to be able to do this.

 

The use cases for using the command line to do this are various like for example doing this in a Terminal Services environment with App-V 4.5 and you don’t need App-V back-end infrastructure anymore.

 

3. With App-V 4.5 the option of creating an additional .MSI file when saving a Sequence is introduced. What actually happens is that the manifest file, .OSD and .ICO files are saved in the .MSI file. And when you run the .MSI file a MSI Custom Action is run from the .MSI file, which is actually the same SFTMIME command as I describe in scenario 2.

 

So also the end result of running the .MSI file will be the same as described in scenario 2. The downside of the “MSI way” is the OSD files are in the .MSI file and the .OSD files you see “outside” the MSI file are not used. Which means that if you want to quickly edit an .OSD file you need to do this from the Sequencer, where in scenario 2 you can do this without using the Sequencer en simply run the SFTMIME command again.

 

The nice thing from scenario 2 and 3 is that you can now easily integrate App-V 4.5 in any other deployment solution if you don’t want to use App-V in the “Native” way or if you are not using System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM).

 

More information from the source

 

Hi all,

I signalize a little resource kit for who work in virtualization environment. These tools are very useful and be worth your attention.

 

 

The Immidio Resource Kit is a collection of small, simple, and dedicated tools addressing different aspects of virtualization environments. The Resource Kit is aimed at users of Windows Terminal Services, Microsoft App-V, Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix XenApp, or Virtual Desktop Infrastructures, and consists of the following tools:

 

 

App-V Ping – Detects if a Microsoft App-V server is available.

 

 

Registry Timestamper – A graphical tool for inspecting and modifying timestamps of registry keys.

 

 

TsMode – Checks basic API functions and registry values relevant for terminal servers.

 

 

I want to dedicate a few seconds only to one of this, App-V Ping, this tool is dedicate at the administrators that work with App-V, but I should that you know other tools too, because be worth your attention….

 

 

App-V Ping

 

 

App-V Ping (you can download here…with the registration) is a command-line tool that can be used to determine if a Microsoft App-V server is up-and-running. It accepts a number of command line parameters to control its behavior, and sets the ERRORLEVEL to indicate whether the server is available.

 

 

Usage

 

 

 

App-V Ping can be started from a command prompt, or can be used in a batch file. Usage: App-V-Ping.exe [-q] [-v] [-t timeout] [-c] -s server [-p port]

 

Parameter	Description
-q	Quiet. Shows no output on the console.
-v	Verbose output.
-t	Specifies the connection time out. Defaults to 5 seconds.
-c	Connect-only test. Returns success if TCP connection succeeds. (Default is to also check response for App-V-specific content.)
-s	Specifies the server to connect to. This is the only mandatory parameter.
-p	Specifies the port to connect to. Defaults to 554.

Hi all,

 

Below there are some SoftGrid error that and a little description of the error code, I would publish in my blog a few of these because when install SofGrid/APP-V platform you can find them, and in these description there are a shot description how to resolve them… I hope that this can be useful for all APP-V users and administrators…

 

 

Many than ks to Microsoft SoftGrid blog that have grouped some of these  

 

There are a link to Microsoft knowledge base

 

 

 

SoftGrid Client "Error code: xxxxxx-xxxxxx0A-20000194"

 

When streaming an application, it may fail with the following error code:

 

The SoftGrid Client could not launch {application_name}.
The package requested could not be found in the system data store or the files associated with this package could not be found on the server. Please report the following error code to your System Administrator.
Error code: xxxxxx-xxxxxx0A-20000194

 

The SoftGrid Client log file, sftlog.txt, may also report the following:

 

The SoftGrid client could not connect to stream URL '{protocol}://{server_name}:{port}/{path}/{filename}.sft' (FS status: xxxxxx0A-20000194).
The client was unable to connect to a SoftGrid server (rc xxxxxx0A-20000194)

 

The SoftGrid Virtual Application Server log file, sft-server.log, may report the following:

 

44808 "Unable to locate {provider_policy}."
44811 "Unable to open {path}{filename}.sft."

 

Luckily we have a great Knowledge Base article that will tell you exactly how to resolve this.

 

 

 

SoftGrid Client "Error code: xxxxxx-xxxxxx2A-00002AFC"

 

When streaming an application, it may fail with the following error code:

 

The SoftGrid Client could not launch {application_name}.
The package requested could not be found in the system data store or the files associated with this package could not be found on the server. Please report the following error code to your System Administrator.
Error code: xxxxxx-xxxxxx0A-20000194

 

The SoftGrid Client log file, sftlog.txt, may report the following:

 

The SoftGrid client could not connect to stream URL '{protocol}://{server_name}:{port}/{path}/{filename}.sft' (FS status: xxxxxx0A-20000194).
The client was unable to connect to a SoftGrid server (rc xxxxxx0A-20000194)

 

The SoftGrid Virtual Application Server log file, sft-server.log, may report the following:

 

44808 "Unable to locate {provider_policy}."
44811 "Unable to open {path}{filename}.sft."

 

Here’s a Knowledge Base article that will help resolve that one.

 

 

 

SoftGrid Management Console "Error code: 0000C800"

 

When connecting to the SoftGrid Management Web Service from the SoftGrid Management Console, it may fail with the following error code:

 

Unexpected error occurred.
Please report the following error code to your system administrator.
Error code: 0000C800

 

And here’s your answer, yet again found in a KB article.

 

 

 

SoftGrid Client “Error Code:xxxxxx-xxxxxx2C-800736B1

 

When trying to launch a sequenced application you may receive the following error on the client:

 

The SoftGrid Client could not launch <xxxxx>.
This application has failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem.
Error code: xxxxxx-xxxxxx2C-800736B1

 

You may also see some of the following events logged in the system log:

 

Source: SideBySide
Event ID: 59
Description: Generate Activation Context failed for <path to exe>. Reference error message: The operation completed successfully.

 

Source: SideBySide
Event ID: 59
Description: Resolve Partial Assembly failed for Microsoft.VC80.MFC. Reference error message: The referenced assembly is not installed on your system.

 

Source: SideBySide
Event ID: 59
Description: Dependent Assembly Microsoft.VC80.MFC could not be found and Last Error was The referenced assembly is not installed on your system.

 

Resolution:

 

This is usually caused because the Visual C++ 2005 runtime or some other similar component is required by the application yet is not installed locally on the client. The logs in the system event log should give you a clue as to what is missing. If you’re trying to sequence an application like this with the current shipping version of SoftGrid, once you’re able to identify the component that is giving you problems simply install it locally on the SoftGrid client computer and the sequenced application should now work. For your reference, the Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable Package can be found here.

 

 

 

SoftGrid Client "Error code: xxxxxx-xxxxxx0A-0000E019

 

When streaming an application, it may fail with the following error code:

 

The SoftGrid Client could not launch {application_name}.
An unexpected error occurred. Please report the following error code to your System Administrator.
Error code: xxxxxx-xxxxxx 0A-0000E019

 

The SoftGrid Client log file, sftlog.txt, may also report the following:

 

The SoftGrid client could not connect to stream URL ' {protocol} :// {server} : {port} / {path} / {filename} .sft' (FS status: xxxxxx 0A-0000E019).
The client was unable to connect to a SoftGrid server (rc xxxxxx 0A-0000E019)

 

Here’s a Knowledge Base article that will help resolve this one.

cheers

Alex

 

One of the biggest battle any network engineer has to fight is constantly dealing with spyware issues on client PCs. One technique that is commonly used to prevent devices from accessing known spyware related sites is using DNS to black hole these domains. In doing this, you create a record on your internal DNS servers for a particular domain so that the server things it is authoritative for that domain. When a client computer using this server for DNS queries that name, the server will be configured to point it to a loopback address of 127.0.0.1 or something like 0.0.0.0. The end result is that the client computers cannot access these malicious sites.

Doing this in DNS is as simple as creating a forward lookup zone for the domain in question. You can get a pretty good listing of some known spyware related domains at http://malwaredomains.com/.

Tanks at the source of this article (Windows Networking.com)

 Hi all,

 

 at the link below is possible to view a video featured on Tech·Ed in Barcellona about new version of Microsoft Server Operating System;

 

This session will provide you an overview of the new technologies in Windows Server 2008 R2. They have discussed new Management Technologies, Virtualization Enhancements, Scalability features and enabling the remote workforce.

 

View Video Here…

 

For Microsoft TechEd On line (for developers and IT Pro) click here

 

cheers

 

Alex