App-V Scheduler Review

With the improved integration and support for App-V (5) in Citrix XenDesktop 7.8 it is no surprise that many more people are getting acquainted with the changes of App-V 5. The App-V Scheduler provides many of the features that help you cope. In this article the App-V Scheduler is reviewed.

Included in RDS licenses, App-V on XenApp is an attractive solution to separate applications from the Citrix infrastructure. The deployment of virtual applications, however, has been quite challenging with the latest version, especially when using Citrix Provisioning Services (PVS). Citrix PVS and Machine Creation Services (MCS) deployments need specific configuration. You only want to deploy App-V applications on your applications servers (when the disk is in Read Only mode), not on your master image (when the disk is in private mode).

There are a few options to deploy App-V 5 applications on Citrix XenApp:

1. Using Microsoft App-V infrastructure
2. Standalone mode
   • PowerShell scripts
   • Third party tools
3. SCCM integration

In this article, we will review one of the third party tool called App-V Scheduler which can be used for Standalone deployments.

App-V Scheduler

App-V Scheduler is a tool aiming to reduce the complexity of App-V deployments and help troubleshooting.

The version 2.3 was released in March 2015 and supports the following features:

• User/Machine level deployment
• Easy to deploy and configure
• Prevent double management when using UEM tools like RES Workspace Manager
• Support for both persistent and non-persistent environments (Citrix PVS\MCS integration)
• Advanced cache management (Cleanup, auto balance cache with source and selectively pre-cache packages)
• Improve application launch time with virtual registry pre-staging and application pre-launch feature
• Packages and Connection groups available at machine startup and ongoing through deploy cycle
• Complete application life cycle management; from instantly deploying packages to draining and retire applications without touching your image
• Real-Time (portable) remote management console (inventory, manage and central configuration)
• No App-V full infra components needed (dramatically simplify your deployment)

There are two components included when your purchase the enterprise edition:

1. App-V Scheduler
2. App-V Scheduler Central View for remote management

Source: http://www.citrixguru.com/2016/03/13/app-v-scheduler-review/