If you’ve just stumbled upon this article, I recommend you start from the beginning by clicking the Part 1 link below. For easy reading, I’ve broken this blog post into four parts:
Part 1: Microsoft SQL Server Installation
Part 2: Management and Reporting Server Installation
Part 3: Publishing Server Installation, Registration, and Load Balancer Configuration
Part 4: Sequencing and Client Installation <– YOU ARE HERE
The next logical step is to install the sequencing components. In my topology, I have a Windows 8 Sequencer and a Windows Server 2012 Sequencer. The installation process is the same for both. I would highly recommend using virtual machines for the sequencers so you can snapshot and revert after each application installation. Follow the process below to complete the sequencer installation. Mount the App-V Installation Media, navigate to Drive:\App-V 5.0 Sequencer and launch APPV_SEQUENCER_SETUP:
Click Install:
Accept the license terms and click Next:
Click Install:
Click Close:
Launch the App-V Sequencer and familiarize yourself with the process of sequencing applications. This is a science in itself, so I will save the application sequencing process for another blog. For this environment I have sequenced Microsoft Office 2013 and uploaded it to a highly available scale out file server:
Next, we’ll import that Office 2013 package into the Management Server. Going back to the main management interface, select Packages and click Add or Upgrade Packages:
Click Browse:
Navigate to the .appv package to be imported and click Open: (There is specific guidance for SMB/CIFS server security and placement for App-V. See Microsoft documentation for reference)
Click Add:
Once imported, click Close:
Right Click and select Publish:
Click Edit next to AD Access:
Enter an Active Directory security group, click Check:
Click Grant Access and then click Close:
Review the package once imported:
Follow the steps below to complete the client installation. Download and install Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable (x86) v8.0.61001 (vcredist_x86):
Click Yes:
For the following steps, I am installing the App-V client for use with Microsoft Remote Desktop Services (RDS), so I will need to use the RDS client media. If using the App-V client on a thick client workstation or VDI desktop, use the standard App-V media. Mount the App-V Installation media, navigate to Drive:\App-V 5.0 Client and launch APPV_CLIENT_SETUP_RDS:
Click Install:
Accept the license terms and click Next:
Select Use Microsoft Update and click Next:
Click Install:
Click Close:
In the example below, I am pointing the client registration address to the DNS record of the Load Balanced Virtual IP (VIP) to provide high availability and load balancing. To register the client to the management server, run the following from an elevated PowerShell prompt:
Add-AppvPublishingServer -Name WS12APPV500 -URL http://ws12appv500:554
Get-AppvPublishingServer | Set-AppvPublishingServer -GlobalRefreshEnabled $true
Get-AppvPublishingServer | Set-AppvPublishingServer -GlobalRefreshOnLogon $true
Sync-AppvPublishingServer -Name WS12APPV500
Paste these commands in an elevated command prompt:
Open the App-V Client from the Start Menu and click Update:
Click the Virtual Apps section to review any assigned applications. Click Download to prestage any application packages:
After a couple minutes, the package will download to the client:
When complete, the progress bar will display green and notify that the package is Ready for offline use:
At this point, navigating to the Start Menu displays application shortcuts for Office 2013 Suite. Launching Word is a good test of functionality:
The App-V package of Word 2013 is displayed as expected:
This concludes the initial setup, configuration, and validation of the App-V 5.0 environment using Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8! To review any section, please choose from the following:
Part 1: Microsoft SQL Server Installation
Part 2: Management and Reporting Server Installation
Part 3: Publishing Server Installation, Registration, and Load Balancer Configuration
Part 4: Sequencing and Client Installation <– YOU ARE HERE
If you have any questions, comments, or just want to leave feedback, please do so below. Thanks for reading!
–youngtech
Do you mind to share that part where you sequence Office 2013? Have you ever sequenced Office 2013 on RDS server? How does the product activation work for Office 2013?
Great blog. I’m getting a license error message when I try to launch Office 10 Application. I packaged up Office 2010 and have followed the Sequencing Office 10 document from Microsoft. Did you run into these issues?
Hi, We are using XenApp 6.6 With APP-V 5 W/SP3 for RDS client. I’ve followed the procedure on MS site about creating APP-V package for Office 2013 with ODT (/download and /packager) for ProPlusVolume and only Office, No MS-Visio and No MS-Project. What ever I’m trying with user account or full server admin account, I still get the message that Office in unable to connect right now. All our server Citrix farm have no internet access and my KMS server is I guess correctly configure. I was working with Office 2010 (App-V also). How can I solve this issu to make Office 2013 fond my KMS server ? What I’ve done wrong ?
Hi, I know it;s been a while you have created this post, but I would like to take a chance and see if you would reply to my question.
Where should I install my App-V Sequence? I am not sure if I have to create a separate VM for it or if I can install on my Management server. My DB server is in a separate box.
I have read that the App-V Sequence should have the same OS as the Client workstation in the company, if that’s true, so I cant install it on a Windows Server, right?
Thank you in advance
Hi, Yes the Sequencer should be the OS where the final APPV package will be executed. Ex: If you will execute only the final APPV package on a Windows 20012 R2 Citrix Xenapp the sequencer should be (preferable) to be also a W2K12R2. Concerning where you have to install the sequencer, by experience building a lot à mutilple package from many application the sequencer should be always on a separate VM that you will manage the snapshot before and after building any package. Because building a package should be always start from fresh state “before building a package”. The VM should be in fresh Sequencer installation status and no package built before. before any package building revert the sequencer VM to the original state like “Before ANY PACKAGE BUILT”. start the VM, built your package and save it to your share server where the package will be downloaded by final clients. Then stop sequencer VM and back to your orginal Snapshot called “Before ANY PACKAGE BUILT”. So next time you have a package to built the VM will be in a fresh state. Try it, try to built a second package after buiding one. you will experiment that the APPV sequencer have history about what you have built and previous application installed still installed. using VM Snapshot insure that no application is instllaled before instllaing new one. This will talk more to you when for exemple if you try to built package for Application X and you see after using final package that some feature missing. So will have to built a new package and if the sequencer is not from fresh installation you will have to unistalled application before rebuilt it and cause big problem.