Update an App Volumes Application

To update an existing application which has been captured, use the /s argument in the appcapture.exe command. The command-line capture program creates a copy of the existing package's disk (.vhd format) and updates the disk.

You can use the /noauto argument with /new and /end. For more information about these and other command-line arguments, see Windows Command-Line Arguments for the App Volumes Application Capture Command-Line Program. Alternately, you can use appcapture.exe /help on the command line.

Prerequisites

• Ensure that you perform this task on a clean virtual machine.

• Ensure that the User Account Control (UAC) in Windows is deactivated.
  To deactivate UAC, see Microsoft Windows documentation.

• You must run the command-line capture program as administrator.

• Do not use the command-line capture program's executable located at C:\Program Files (x86)\CloudVolumes\Agent.
  This copy of the executable is meant for internal purpose only.

• Ensure that you have the path of the .vhd file of the existing, captured application.
  This path is used as the source when starting the capture session.
  See Capture an App Volumes Application.

• Ensure that you have downloaded the installer of the application that needs to be updated.

• Ensure that you are aware of the command-line arguments that can be used with the appcapture.exe command.

Procedure

1. Take a snapshot of your virtual machine.

   You can revert to the snapshot after the capture session.

2. Open a command-line window.

3. Update the existing application package from the location where the command-line capture program is installed by using the following command: appcapture.exe /new <package_name> /s <source_vhd_filepath>.

   • package_name - name of the application package that is updated.

     Important: package_name must be different from the name provided during the application's initial capture session.

   • source_vhd_filepath is the source path of the captured application's .vhd file.

4. Install the application updates.

   1. If your application install requires a virtual machine reboot, perform the reboot or wait for the reboot to complete.

      The command-line capture program session automatically restarts.

5. Finish the capture session by using the following command: appcapture.exe /end.

   Machine reboots and the command-line capture program session automatically restarts.

   This completes the update process and the application package is created in the vhd and .vmdk formats.

6. Ensure that the following outputs package_name.vhd, package_name_workstation.vmdk, and package_name.json are generated at \AppCapture\appvhds, where AppCapture is present in one of the subfolders within C:\ProgramData.

7. Revert to the virtual machine's snapshot taken before you started the capture session.

What to do next

• To import the *_workstation.vmdk package into App Volumes Manager, place the .vmdk and .json files on the App Volumes Manager server at <installation_directory>\CloudVolumes\Manager\ppv\packages and upload these files to the desired datastore from the Storage page in the admin UI.

  For more information about uploading these files, see Upload Templates.

• To import the .vhd application package into App Volumes Manager, copy the package (including the .json file) to a file share and follow the Import an Application to App Volumes procedure.

After the package is successfully imported into App Volumes Manager, you can assign the application and deliver the package to the end users.