Convert App-V Application Packages to App Volumes Application Packages

Use the Omnissa App Volumes Application Capture Command-Line Program to convert an App-V (Microsoft Application Virtualization) application package to an App Volumes application package. For this conversion, packagefromappv, Windows command-line argument, must be used with the appcapture.exe command.

After the conversion, the capture command-line program generates the following files: *.workstation.vmdk, .vhd, and .json at C:\ProgramData\Omnissa\AppVolumes\Packages. After you import the converted application package into App Volumes Manager, you can assign the application and deliver the package to the end users.

Prerequisites

• Ensure that you start the conversion on a clean virtual machine.

  You can use the same virtual machine to run multiple conversions one after the other.

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

• Ensure that the command-line capture program utility is installed at C:\Program Files\Omnissa\AppVolumes\Agent.

• Ensure that you have the App-V application package that needs to be converted on the virtual machine.

  If the application package is from a version earlier than App-V 5.0, then you must upgrade the application package to App-V 5.0 and then perform the conversion. appcapture.exe supports App-V 5.0 format only.

  For upgrading to App-V 5.0, see the Microsoft documentation.

Considerations For Converting App-V Application Packages

Be aware of the following when converting an App-V application package to an App Volumes application package:

• After an App-V application package is converted, application isolation and sandboxing are not supported in the converted App Volumes application package.

  If you want to use application isolation and sandboxing capabilities, see Omnissa ThinApp documentation.

• If you have script events running for App-V application packages, then the same scripts are not functional for the converted App Volumes application packages. Alternately, you can use the batch scripts available for App Volumes workflow. For more information about these batch scripts, see Batch Scripts for App Volumes workflow.

• Conversion of Microsoft Office App-V application package to App Volumes application package is not supported.

  However, you can install the application in the base image of the deployment VDI or virtual machine.

• When the converted package is imported into App Volumes Manager, the pacakge delivery mode is Classic by default.

  To use the converted package in the On-demand delivery mode, after importing the package to App Volumes Manager, you can update the package and change the delivery mode to On-demand. However, note that you can change this to On-demand only after completing package capture.

  For package capture, see Package an App Volumes Application.

  For updating a package, see Update an App Volumes Package.

• If the converted App-V application package was not sequenced for all users, then this App-V application package might not function correctly after conversion.

  For an App Volumes application, the best practice is to ensure that the application is installed in Program Files rather than a single user profile and application icons are created in the All Users folder.

Procedure

1. Take a snapshot of your virtual machine.

   You can revert to the snapshot after the conversion.

2. Open a command-line window.

3. To convert an App-V application package to an App Volumes application package, navigate to the location where the command-line capture program is installed and run the following command:

   appcapture.exe /packagefromappv "location_of_the_appv_package"

   After the conversion is successful, the following files .vhd, *_workstation.vmdk (monolithic sparse), and .json (contains the metadata of the converted App Volumes application package) are generated at C:\ProgramData\Omnissa\AppVolumes\Packages.

4. Revert to the virtual machine's snapshot taken before you started the conversion.

5. To test the converted application package, see Test a Captured Application.

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, upload these files to the desired datastore 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 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.