6.2 Streaming Virtual Applications from the Web

You can set up a Spoon Standalone server plug-in that allows users to receive applications that are created in Novell ZENworks Application Virtualization and streamed from the Web.

6.2.1 Preparing Applications for Streaming

To build a model for streaming an application, you must first package and profile the application or product. This section includes the steps that make a product ready for streaming.

Packaging

You need to package the application to prepare it for profiling.

  1. Create a virtual application by using the templates available, or take a snapshot and capture the information.

  2. While creating the application, select Settings > Process Configuration and ensure that the Compressed Payload option is disabled.

  3. Build the application.

Profiling

The profiling feature generates transcripts or profiles which are then used to create a streaming model for the virtual application. Clicking on profile launches the application and creates a single transcript file based on observed user behavior during that run. It is recommended that multiple transcripts are created before creating a streaming model. Using multiple transcripts allows the streaming system to take into consideration different use cases for the application. It is also recommended that at least one transcript must be created for each operating system that the application runs on.

NOTE:Only uncompressed virtual applications can be profiled and streamed. Compression is automatically disabled during the model build process.

Learning the product for building application streams.

  1. Click Advanced, select Profiling, and choose the virtual application to be profiled. This application is the one created in Packaging.

  2. When you open the virtual application, its profiling begins.

  3. Let the application run for a few of minutes to complete profiling and close the application. This step completes the profiling activity.If profiling is not complete, wait for a minute and select Stop to stop the profiling.

Building a Model

Once the necessary transcripts have been created, the streaming model is ready to be built. The model build process uses the transcripts and Connection Speed parameter to compute a model for execution. After the model build process is complete, the streaming files are written to the selected output folder. The Connection Speed setting is used to optimize delivery of application content to the end-user.

To make the product ready for streaming.

  1. Select the desired Connection Speed. The 1.5Mbps connection speed setting is recommended in most scenarios.

  2. Click BuildModel and create a model file for the virtual application.

  3. Create a new temporary location.

  4. For streaming the application from the Web server, move the entire directory from the Client or temporary location to the Web server under the layers folder. This directory contains one model.xm file and a number of *.xs files.

6.2.2 Setting Up Files on a Web Server

ZENworks Application Virtualization Streaming Server can be set up using any standard web server. For the purposes of this guide, Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager has been used to install a web server.

Once a directory for the root folder of the server site has been configured, files can be added to the root folder. Setup files for ZENworks Application Virtualization Streaming Server are included in the StandaloneTemplate.zip file from Novell.

The StandaloneTemplate.zip file contains the following files and folders:

  • The config folder: Contains the xreg and xvm configuration files, and will be the eventual location of your virtual application configuration files.

  • The doc folder: Contains documentation for setting up ZENworks Application Virtualization Streaming Server.

  • The images folder: Contains the Novell logo, which will appear in the application buffering dialog during application launch.

  • The layers folder: Contains the xreg, xvm, and Spoon plugin layer files, and will be the eventual location of your virtual application streaming model files, and/or SVMs.

  • The scripts folder: Contains the scripts for the ZENworks Application Virtualization Streaming Server web site.

  • The launch file: The HTML file used to run the virtual application from the server web site.

  • The plugin-check file: The HTML file used to check whether or not the Spoon plugin has been installed.

Use the following steps to set up Spoon Standalone plug-in files on a Web server.

  1. Extract StandaloneTemplate.zip to the root folder for the Spoon Web site.

  2. In the root folder, edit scripts\spoon_config.js to specify the correct location on the Web server and the correct plug-in version. Do this by making sure that the Spoon_SiteRoot variable in this file refers to the root folder on the Web site where the Spoon files are found.

    Example 1: If the files are copied to http://www.mysite.com/spoon/, edit the variable like this:

    Spoon_SiteRoot=’/spoon/’;

    Example 2: If the files are copied to http://www.mysite.com/products/streaming/, edit the variable like this:

    Spoon_SiteRoot=’/products/streaming/’;

  3. In the root folder, update the config\xvm.xml file and the config\spoonreg.xml file:

    1. Find the <Configuration …/> element (located near the end of each file).

    2. In this element, update the layer URL to point to the correct location.

      Example: <Layer entry="True" type="Exe">http://www.mysite.com/layers/spoonreg/8-0-1271-4__0/spoonreg.exe</Layer>

  4. In the root folder, modify launch.html by setting the Spoon_Config variable to the full URL path of the application configuration file to be used for launching the application.

    Example: Spoon_Config = 'http://www.mysite.com/config/myappconfig.xml’;

    For more information, see Creating an App Configuration File by Using the Command Line Utility.

6.2.3 Adding File Types to the Server’s MIME Type List

The Spoon plugin utilizes certain special file types which must be added to the web server’s MIME type list in order to be recognized.

The following is a list of file extensions to be added, along with the MIME type in parentheses:

  • .svm (application/octet-stream)

  • .xs (application/octet-stream)

  • .xm (application/octet-stream)

  • .xlayer (application/octet-stream)

6.2.4 Streaming License Certificates

ZENworks Application Virtualization allows you to generate site license certificates to validate that the application is running in a licensed environment. Application configuration files are then generated using the site license certificate to be used with the Novell standalone streaming server. This section describes how to generate site license certificates in ZENworks Application Virtualization.

  1. Launch the ZENworks Application Virtualization console, then click Advanced.

  2. In the App Certificates box, click Request Certificate.

  3. Enter the following details in the fields provided:

    • Organization Name: Provide a name for the organization.

    • Unit: Provide a name for the user per unit.

    • Allowed Portal Hosts: Provide the allowed port or ports of a server from which the application streams.

  4. Click Request to request the license certificate, then select Save File to save it to a desired location.

6.2.5 Adding Applications to the Server

This section describes how to make new application configurations available on the Spoon Standalone server that requires adding the .svm or streaming files to the Web server and create a configuration file which references the application.

Adding Streaming Files to the Web Server

After you use ZENworks Application Virtualization to package and profile the application you want to stream, create a folder on the Web server to host the files.

Example Path for a Streamed Application: http://site/site_root/layers/application_name/version__revision/xstream/model_revision/

A concrete example of a path for a streamed application might be

http://www.mysite.com/spoon/layers/firefox/3.5.0.8__0/xstream/0/

Example Path for a Non-Streamed Application: http://site/site_root/layers/application_name/version__revision/

A concrete example of a path for a non-streamed application might be

http://www.mysite.com/spoon/layers/firefox/3.5.0.8__0/

Creating an App Configuration File by Using ZENworks Application Virtualization

ZENworks Application Virtualization now allows you to generate site license certificates, which can then be used to generate application configurations for use with Novell’s standalone streaming server.

  1. Launch the ZENworks Application Virtualization console, then click Advanced.

  2. In the App Certificates box, click Request App Config.

  3. Enter the following details in the fields provided:

    • Application Name: Provide a name for the application.

    • Application Version: Provide a version number for the application in the following format: Major.Minor.Build.Revision format, for example, 3.8.12.895.

    • Layer Revision: Provide the current revision of the application build.

    • Type: Select either SVM or XM (streaming).

    • Layer URL: Include the path to the location where the application is hosted. The file will be of the .svm or .xm format, as defined by the type check box).

    • Xvm Config URL: Path to the location of the virtual machine configuration.

    • SpoonReg Config Url: Path to the location of the SpoonReg configuration.

    • Certificate Path: Path to the requested application license certificate that was saved during generation of the application license certificate. Click Browse Icon to search for this location.

  4. Click Request to request the application configuration.

Creating an App Configuration File by Using the Command Line Utility

Each application delivered by using the Spoon Standalone requires a unique .xml configuration file. Each configuration file is linked to a private key. An application configuration file is copied to the Web server and referenced on the Web page where the application is launched. The Spoon Standalone plug-in uses the configuration file to validate the application and determine where to locate the files to stream and launch the application.

Use the LicenseUtil-Novell.exe command line tool (extracted from StandaloneTemplate.zip) to create application configuration files.

IMPORTANT:The LicenseUtil-Novell.exe command line tool requires Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 for correct operation.

When you create a configuration file, the first parameter must be CreateAppConfig. For other command line parameters, refer to the following list:

  • /pc: The path to the private key (ZAV80-NOV-xxxxxx.xml) file on your Web server.

  • /an: The name of the application (limited to ASCII characters).

  • /av: Application version information (application_version;layer_revision;model_revision_if_applicable).

    • Streamed Application Example: 1.0.0.0;0;0

    • Non-Streamed Application Example: 1.0.0.0;0

  • /au: The URL to the model file for a streamed application or to the .svm file for a non-streamed application.

    • Streamed Application Example: http://www.mysite.com/layers/myapp/1.0.0.0__0/xstream/0/model.xm

    • Non-Streamed Application Example: http://www.mysite.com/layers/myapp/1.0.0.0__0/myapp.svm

  • /vm: The version information for xvm.exe version;revision, such as 8.1.1398.1;0

    To locate the version number, from the extracted StandaloneTemplate.zip folder, go to layers, select either xreg or xvm folder. Copy the directory name 8-1-1398-1__0 and replace it in the command line as 8.1.1398.1;0

  • /xvm: The URL to the .xvm configuration file.

  • /xreg: The URL to the .xreg configuration file.

    NOTE:The spoonreg version and revision information is assumed to be identical to the xvm version and revision.

  • /o: The output file.

The following is an example of the command line syntax that was used to create a GroupWise application configuration file.

C:\inetpub\wwwroot>LicenseUtil-Novell.exe CreateAppConfig /pc c:\bh\Zav8-Internal-Spoon Certs\ZAV80-NOV-0000#.xml /an groupwise /av 8.0.1.0;0;0 /au http://164.99.186.184/spoon/layers/groupwise/8-0-1-0__0/xtream/0/model.xm /xvm http://164.99.186.184/config/xvm.xml /spoonreg http://164.99.186.184/spoon/config/spoonreg.xml /vm 8.0.1236.1;0 /o groupwise.xml

After you generate the configuration file, save it in a convenient location on the Web server, for example, http://site/site_root/configs/.

6.2.6 Testing the Spoon Standalone Setup

Testing the ZENworks Application Virtualization Streaming Server setup involves installing the Spoon plug-in and launching an application. This section includes the following information:

Testing the Plug-in Install

  1. (Conditional) On the Windows desktop, click Start > Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs, select Spoon Sandbox Manager, then click Remove.

    Repeat this step to remove all previous installations (versions) of the Spoon Sandbox Manager.

    NOTE:Although this step is unnecessary for end-users, it helps you to ensure that the plug-in installer is correctly referenced.

  2. Use a Web browser to navigate to plugin-check.html. For example,

    http://www.mysite.com/spoon/plugin-check.html

  3. Install the plug-in.

Testing the Application Launch

  1. From a text editor, open launch.html and edit the Spoon_Config variable to reference one of the application configuration files available on the Web server.

  2. Use a Web browser to navigate to plugin-check.html.

    The page then redirects to launch.html.

  3. Click the Run link on the page. A security dialog box might appear requesting to run the application. If so, allow the application to run.

    The application buffers and then launches.

NOTE:

  • The application configuration file is cached by the plug-in for up to 15 minutes. If the application configuration is changed, it is best to restart the Spoon plug-in (select Start > All Programs > Startup > Spoon Sandbox Manager) before retesting.

  • To register the streamed applications to a local machine, modify the RunApp function in the launch.html file as follows: spoon.RunApp(Spoon_config, true);

Troubleshooting an Application That Fails to Buffer

The DebugView tool from Microsoft generates the logging information output from the Spoon plug-in. Use the following steps to obtain, configure, and use the tool.

  1. Download the DebugView tool from the Microsoft Web site.

  2. Run the debug tool (dbgview.exe) to immediately start capturing the debug output.

  3. In HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Code Systems\Spoon of the Windows registry, create the TraceLevel value and add Debug as a new String value.

  4. On the Windows desktop, select Start > All Programs > Startup > Spoon Sandbox Manager to restart the Spoon plug-in.

  5. Navigate to launch.html.

  6. Inspect the DebugView output for possible errors in the application configuration file.