How do I package an App Volumes Package that stores license meta data in c:\users\UserID

[dward4]

Environnment:
APP VOLUMES 4, VERSION 2111 (4.5.0.77) 

vSphere Client version 7.0.3.00600

(Noob here, probably a noob question) I have an app volumes issue. I'm installing a package that at the end of the install writes licensing meta data to C:\Users\USERID, which during app install is an admin account. Assigning said package to a user has the application that was packaged show up, but of course the user doesn't have access to the admin C:\Users\Admin space and so the licensing file which was created isn't accessable. Is there a way to package an application so that file gets dropped in C:\Users\whoever, where whoever is the person who has been assigned the package and is trying to use it?

Thank you very much in advance!

[kmgp]

Hi,

The packaging process does not capture \Users and hence you might be seeing the issue.

What is the application that you are packaging?

GURU

[kmgp]

To make sure that the needed file is available at %userprofile% for each user, you might want to consider a GPO approach.

Keep the needed file at a shared location and then define a GPO to copy this file.

Do the following at the AD.

1. Keep the licensing metadata at a shared location available to all users. Lets Presume that the license metadata file is metadata.xml and it is in shared location is \\a.b.c.d\License.
2. Create a new GPO.
3. Edit the GPO.
4. Goto User Configuration -> Preferences -> Windows Settings -> Files.
5. New -> File
6. In the new File properties,
   • Choose Action as "Create",
   • Enter the source file as \\a.b.c.d\License\metadata.xml and
   • destination file as %userprofile%\metadata.xml
     
   • Click Ok
7. Logon to the end point machines the applications might work.

GURU

[dward4]

Thanks so much for replying!

The package in question is Cameo 2021x. Unfortunately, Cameo uses one big config file that also holds user specific UI information, so (please correct me if i'm misunderstanding!) a GPO approach would mean that everyone would have to have the same configurations. If I did the GPO approach would the file one time be dropped at %userprofile%\metadata.xml and then the user could modify it as it had been written locally to %userprofile%\metadata.xml? If so then a GPO approach would make sense.

Thanks again for helping me think through this!

[kmgp]

Hi,

The GPO approach would not suit to your requirements.

The GPO approach would help only if you just need to copy a file to a specific location. You need a solution that maintains a state of the application UI based on each user's specific settings right?

At logon of a user to a desktop, could you check when does %userprofile%\metadata.xml gets created? Could you please check if %userprofile%\metadata.xml gets created post launch of the Cameo 2021x application?

GURU

[dward4]

Hi Guru,

The %userprofile%\metadata.xml does get created after the launch of Cameo 2021x usually, which I can confirm when I install it locally. Unfortunately, we're running into an issue due to some security based controls (CMMC Level 3), where any application can't write out to remote hosts (our entire User area for all our users, that presents to the user as C:\Users\UserID, is on a storage device in the same data center as the ESXi host but with a different host name). With the control in place as is, it can't write to that "remote" storage device, but only local paths.

Is there a way we can "allow" ALL of our applications to be able to write to just that single remote hostname for ALL users? I think that might rectify the issue, but I wasn't sure what mechanism we should use from VMWare. Thank you again!

[Dan_SullivanNY]

I've used vbs scripting to help for a couple of these scenarios. say in the c drive create a folder with those configuration files present. create a vbs script that copies the contents of said folder to the desired %username% location those files. Once you have the script copying the config files correctly create a shortcut in the appstacks windows startup folder to run the script on startup.

You'll have to play in finding how the appstack knows to look at that directory path. Reg keys or config files located in the software. My experience has been the software is looking under the current user location.

Note you can locate these files on a network location also as long as the user has read access to the directory.

[kmgp]

Hi,

With the understanding that the file gets created at the first launch of the application inside a user's desktop, then this is a part of the user profile. These files can never be a part of the virtual application.

Using User profile management solutions like DEM or Writable Volumes to manage the Cameo application may be a solution.

Thanks

GURU