Capture an App Volumes Application

A standard capture workflow constitutes of starting a command-line capture program session, installing the application, and completing the capture session. To start and end the capture, appcapture.exe start and appcapture.exe finalize commands are used respectively. Different arguments such as /manualresume, /author, /format, /appproductid, and so on can be used with these commands.

After the capture is done, by default, the program creates a .vhd application package format and .json file. This file has the metadata for the generated package. Additional parameters such as /output, /format, and so on can also be used during the capture.

Prerequisites

• Ensure that the command-line capture program utility is installed at C:\Program Files\Omnissa\AppVolumes\Agent.
  For more information about how to install this program, see the Install App Volumes Application Capture Command-Line Program section in the Omnissa App Volumes Install Guide at Omnissa Product Documentation.

• Ensure that you start a new capture every time 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 an administrator.

• Ensure that you have downloaded the installer of the application that must be captured.

• At the time of packaging, ensure that you turn off the auto updates for the application which is getting captured.

• Ensure that the automatic Windows Updates are always turned off in the packaging machine.

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

  For more information about the appcapture.exe command-line arguments, see Windows Command-Line Arguments for the App Volumes Application Capture Command-Line Program.

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. Start a new capture session from the location where the command-line capture program is installed by using the following command:

   appcapture.exe start /name package_name /format [VHD, VMDK, MSI] /output location_of_output_files /appproductid custom_GUID

   package_name - name of the application package that is captured

   location_of_output_files - location at which the application package and metadata files are generated

   • By default, the output files are located at C:\ProgramData\Omnissa\AppVolumes\Packages. However, the location of these files can be customized using the /output parameter.

   • By default, the generated package is in the .vhd format. Using the /format parameter and its values, the application package can be generated in the format that you want.

   • Using the /appproductid parameter, a GUID is obtained for identifying different application package versions which belong to the same application.

     Note: /name is a required parameter and all other parameters are optional.

4. Install the application that you want to capture.

   Note: Any customization for the application must be done before finalizing the capture session.
   For example: When installing Zoom, the application might need customization such as room details, booking parameters, and so on. This customization must be done before finalizing the capture.

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

   The command-line capture program session automatically restarts.

6. Finish the capture session by using the following command: appcapture.exe finalize.

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

   The capture process is complete. The output files, package_name.vhd and package_name.json, are generated at this location: C:\ProgramData\Omnissa\AppVolumes\Packages.

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

What To Do Next

Depending on the infrastructure, you can deliver the captured application packages as follows:

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure

• If you have generated the VMDK format, to import the *_workstation.vmdk package to App Volumes Manager, place the .vmdk and .json files on the App Volumes Manager server at <installation_directory>\CloudVolumes\Manager\ppv\packages, upload these files to the datastore that you want from the Storage page in the admin UI by using Upload Templates, and follow the Import an Application to App Volumes procedure.

• To import the .vhd application package to 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 to App Volumes Manager, you can assign the application and deliver the package to the end users. If you have used the /appproductguid parameter when capturing the package, then the package is automatically associated with an existing application in App Volumes Manager.

Windows Endpoints

See Deliver App Volumes Applications to Windows Endpoints.