Virtualization

Last week I attended a ZAV 9.01 ATT.

Anybody using ZAV 9.01 already?

Hi Petaris

I've played a bit with ZENworks Application Virtualization a while ago. It's an OEM version of XENOCODE's application virtualization suite.
The result (on first sight) was pretty similar to what you get with VMware ThinApp. A single executable file you can place on a network drive so you theoretically don't need a software deployment anymore.

What I don't like about those single exe files is that every single user could take it on a stick and use the software without any client installation at home, which could lead to serious licensing problems.

During my tests I've encountered problems where virtual apps should communicate to each other. That wasn't possible (at that time).

So, we stick with SVS (now called Symantec Workspace Virtualization) but still use ZENworks for deployment of those virtualized apps.

Cheers
Roland

Hi,

I'm trying out the latest Xenocode version 2009(7.0.162). Application linking is available now. It is configured about the same way as ThinApp by editing configuration files. It should also be possible by using the Xreg tool. Haven't tried that though.

Anybody else using/trying Xenocode or ZENworks application virtualization?

Jurjen van Leeuwen

I'm using Zenworks Application Virtualization 7.1.301 right now.

It's the first version that is Windows 7 compatible, and I am pleased with the results.

I have to say, however, that at times it is a significant amount of work at times to figure out just what needs to be done to an application to get it to virtualize properly.

One example is Adobe Creative Suite 4.
I was able to virtualize the entire suite, production premium and design premium.
It should be noted that in order for this to work, I couldn't just virtualize the entire suite at once, I had to do each application with its prerequisites separately.
This means that any application that had a connection to another application is broken.
Also, it is currently impossible to capture a driver with ZAV, as such the PDF printer in Acrobat 9 Professional does not work.
Another caveat is that since Office 2007 isn't currently virtualized, nor is it a part of the virtualized package, dragging an office document into Acrobat 9 Professional fails to work because the additional components for Acrobat are not installed to allow it to interact with an office application.

With this said, I was able to virtualize SPSS 17 with no issues.

Another example is Mathematica 7.01.
I was not able to virtualize it at first, I received an error upon the application loading.
After some web research, a similar problem was experienced by someone virtualizing this application with Microsoft Appv.
Wolfram provided an alternate Mathematica executable which resulted in the application working properly.

I was able to virtualize Groupwise 8 HP2.
Issues encountered include mailto: links being broken, file associations from within the application (e.g. a microsoft word document attached to an email) not working properly, and some client-side preferences such as additional columns added to the address book window not being saved when a new version is run.

Currently I am working on Maple 13, with the issue that the application launches, then closes a few seconds after opening - with no error message.

Jacob

A couple of thoughts:

I worked with about 6 of the different products for App-virt in the marketplace. One of them was Xenocode (ZAV is based on Xenocode see post from rpfenninger). One of the differences is the ease of packaging. With certain products it should be easier to virtualize apps then with others if we have to believe the advertizing. When I work with the User mode app-virt products(Xenocode and ThinApp for example) it's more challenging to find solutions to problems like the one you're having with Maple 13. Both products I named in the previous sentence do provide troubleshooting but we aren't able to use Procmon or any other tool like that to help. ThinApp (haven't used the Xenocode debugging) logs massive amounts of data. In the end of the logfile(can be hundreds of Mb's) you are pointed to possible reasons why the app is not working. Still it can be quite challenging though. So I feel with you [;)]

Did you check or found out where Groupwise stores the additional colums you add to the addressbook? Sounds like it gets sandboxed.

Good of the Wolfram people to think with you, I don't see that a lot. Mostly the telephone conversation kinda stops when we mention app-virt. But time will change that. Remember mentioning Citrix to your application vendor?

For last: None of the products out there to day can virtualize drivers as you may know.

That is one thing I wish App-V had, the debugger that comes with ThinApp. Procmon is nice but too high level for the difficult issues. I used to use Dependency Walker with SoftGrid and that exposed a fair bit of detail when profiling an application but App-V 4.5 blew that solution out of the water and I don't have a replacement tool. [&:]

I rather use Novell ZAV for a few weeks now an I am pleased with it. Most of our applications are for educational use. Nowhere on the internet you can find helpfiles, forums etc about those programs.
Normaly I created an MSI using ActiveStudio and roll out with Novell Zenworks. Mostly it worked fine but not all programs are that nice. How you to deploy a program like this: X:\program.exe "userprofile '12345.xml' teacher"? It is not possible. Now virtualize it with ZAV and it works perfect! I'm happy, Teachers happy, students less happy.
Wonderfull!