App-V 4.6 SP1 Sequencer execution profile

Aug 14, 2017

You can use the App-V 4.6 SP1 Sequencer execution profile with Install Capture, Self-Provisioning, or Forward Path to package applications for deployment using the App-V Client 4.6 SP1.

By default, this execution profile generally installs the application on the capture machine twice – once for sequencing and once outside of the sequencer to capture the application into an MSI for import into AppDNA. You can optionally suppress the second installation. If you do this when running the execution profile from Install Capture, the .sft file is automatically imported. Because the .sft file is prepared for the virtual environment, it does not include all of the application DNA for a native Windows environment. For example, it may omit information about drivers and registry settings. Therefore Citrix recommends the default behavior if you want to analyze the application for a native Windows environment.

Set up the capture machine

To run the App-V 4.6 SP1 Sequencer execution profile, perform the following additional setup on the capture machine:

Ensure that the capture machine has the same operating system and configuration as the client machine on which the App-V application will run.
Turn off Windows Defender and Windows Search on the capture machine.
Install Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.6 Service Pack 1 on the capture machine. You can download this from http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=14552.
Map the Q: drive on the capture machine to a suitable location.
Optionally create a project template to store monitoring options, and deployment and other settings. Then configure the sequencer to automatically apply the template when creating new packages. See The Microsoft Application Virtualization Blog for more information.

For general instructions:

For setting up a virtual machine for Install Capture or Forward Path, see Install Capture.
For setting up a Self-Provisioning capture machine, see Install the Self-Provisioning client.

One or two installations?

As mentioned earlier, by default this execution profile generally installs the application on the capture machine twice. To suppress the installation outside of the sequencer, give the ImportSft replaceable a value of 1.

By default the execution profile installs the application once only when:

You run the execution profile from Install Capture and the input file is an MSI, and you select the Load input file check box.
You run the execution profile from Forward Path, and the SequenceName or App:Name replaceable has been specified, or the input file is an MSI.

Output

The output of running the execution profile is stored in a subfolder within the main output folder defined in the virtual machine configuration (Install Capture and Forward Path) or in the Self-Provisioning client. How the subfolder is named depends on how you run the execution profile – when run through Install Capture or Forward Path, the subfolder’s name is derived from the name of the input file and the date and time stamp. When run through Self-Provisioning, the name of the folder is based on the instruction file’s identifier.

The execution profile generates the following output:

An MSI for importing into AppDNA (if the application was installed on the capture machine twice).
Installation instructions in the form of an HTML page that references images of each installation step.
An _appvsequence subfolder that stores the output of the sequencer. You can control the naming of the .sprj, .sft, and .msi files that are generated in this folder as explained next.

The execution profile names the files generated by the sequencer as follows. If more than one of these apply, the highest in the list always take precedence.

If the SequenceName replaceable is specified, this is always used.
If the input file is derived from Active Directory or ConfigMgr, the App:Name replaceable (which automatically stores the application name) is used.
If the input file is an MSI, the MSI product name is used.
If the input file is not an MSI, the default name (application) is used. This is replaced by the name of the generated MSI if using the double install option and the SftRenameLevel replaceable has a value greater than 0.

Replaceables

The following table provides details of the replaceables that you can use to configure the App-V 4.6 SP1 Sequencer execution profile.

Name	Description
ImportSft	Set this to a value of 1 if you want to load the generated .sft file into AppDNA rather than capturing a separate MSI specifically for importing into AppDNA. Setting this value to 1 suppresses the second installation of the application on the capture machine. This is suitable when you have already analyzed the application within AppDNA and now simply want to sequence the application.
MsiSilentSwitch	Use this replaceable to pass additional options to msiexec for MSI installations (for example, -qb - for silent installs). See http://technet.microsoft.com/library/cc759262(v=ws.10).aspx for information about the msiexec command line options.
SequenceName	You can use this optional replaceable to specify the name of the files generated by the sequencer (the .sft, .sprj, manifest .xml, and .msi package). If this replaceable is specified, it takes precedence over all other naming options.
SftRenameLevel	Use to specify which of the files that are generated by the sequencer are renamed. 0 (or unset) – Rename no files 1 – Rename the .sprj file only 2 – Rename the .sprj and .msi files 3 – Rename the .sprj, .msi, and .sft files Note: This option does not apply if the SequenceName replaceable is specified, if the installation package comes from Active Directory or ConfigMgr, or if the input file is an .msi.
VirtualRootPath	Specifies the sequence virtual path. If not specified the path will be generated randomly in Q:\.
WaitForSmbIdle	Specifies the time in seconds to wait for the network share access to cease before completing the task. This is useful to avoid problems caused by a stateful firewall preventing network share access on subsequent tasks.
LaunchEditor	Set this to True if you want the execution profile to automatically launch the Application Virtualization Editor after the sequencing has finished.
PromptForPrerequisites	Set this to True if you want the execution profile to prompt the user to install any prerequisites before running the sequencer.
UseAutoClick	Set this to --use-autoclick if you want the execution profile to run with auto-clicker on by default. Set this to an empty string if you want auto-clicker to be off by default.

For more information

Microsoft App-V 4.6 SP1 Sequencing Guide

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