V mware+thin app+-+gcvmug

Editor's Notes

1. For this presentation we are going to do a basic product overview of ThinApp... ...then dig a little bit into the nuts and bolts of how ThinApp works and some of its more technical features. We’ll also do a basic product demonstration where we actually work with ThinApp to package an application... ...and then we’ll compare ThinApp against other similar competitive products on the market. And if you have any questions during this presentation, please feel free to speak up and ask them at any time.
2. 100% user-mode Support for Virtual Side-by-Side (SxS) No device drivers Allows apps requiring Admin rights to run without additional privileges Thinstall Runtime embeds in packages Thinstall is small, light weight, & fast Easy Package editing & builds Compression Streaming 100% user-mode Thinstall is the only Virtualization solution available which runs completely in user-mode. This has many system stability, security, infrastructure, and ease-of-use implications. For more details, see Why User-mode is a Good Thing. Support for Virtual Side-by-Side (SxS) Thinstall is the only Virtualization solution to fully support SxS, a critical feature for deploying most new applications. For more details, see Why SxS support is a must-have No device drivers Because Thinstall requires no device drivers, it can run application without Administrator rights and requires zero changes to the PC even if the user is running on a locked-down PC. Microsoft reports 3rd party device drivers cause over 80% of machine crashes, and a large number of new machine-wide vulnerabilities come from bugs in device drivers. Allows apps requiring Admin rights to run without additional privileges Many applications fail to run without Admin rights because they expect to be able to write to global locations like HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and c:program files. Using sandbox technology, Thinstall makes applications believe they have the ability to make global changes when they are actually writing to user+app specific locations. This feature allows applications to run in security restricted environment like Terminal Server and Vista. Using Thinstall it's possible to take many older applications and convert them to Vista or multi-user applications. Thinstall Runtime embeds in packages Deployment cannot get any simpler and fool-proof than using Thinstall. Thinstall accomplishes it's zero-footprint and no installation by embedded it's entire runtime in each executable that it packages. Because the Thinstall runtime is super-small (~400k), and package data is stored in a compressed state, the overall disk footprint is usual 2X smaller than traditional deployments of the same application not using Thinstall. Thinstall is small, light weight, & fast Thinstall can be loaded into memory in a few milliseconds (even over network) and quickly loads the application in question. In some cases Thinstall can actually load applications faster than Windows. The entire Thinstall runtime occupies ~400k on disk! Easy Package editing & builds Thinstall uses a directory based structure to store captured projects, allowing for easy browsing, search, editing, and modification using standard file system tools like explorer and Windows search. There are not complicated new user interfaces to learn. If you know how to browse your file system, you know how to edit Thinstall projects. Because Thinstall projects are simply directory with no absolute path information, they can be easily copied from computer to computer, or be hosted and compiled directly from network shares. The Thinstall build process is similar to a compiler & linker and should be familiar to most IT and development shops. Compression Thinstall is the only solution to provide block-base streaming decompression directly into memory, which means compressed data does not need to be first decompressed to disk. · You can launch brand new packages from a network share instantly without a lengthy decompression step. All the package data is decompressed a block at a time as needed by the application, so only startup data is sent over the network.  · Significant disk space savings are available on the client PC since file data is not decompressed to disk. When packages are deployed to PC hard drives for offline use, the disk requirements are much reduced because package data remains compressed at all time.  · Thinstall has similar compression ratios to ZIP  Streaming Thinstall provides streaming capability without requiring a new server or a client. Thinstall uses the standard SMB protocol to stream applications over a LAN, so any Windows file share can instantly become a "streaming server". Thinstall's embedded client technology means users can simply click on EXE files from network shares and the client will be loaded directly into memory. · Client is Windows (already installed)  · Server is any SMB share (already exists)  · Streams block-by-block  · Packages over 8GB in size can start instantly  · Streams from any source media:  · Network shares & ISCSI  · Hard drive, USB Flash, CDROM   Sandboxing Virtual File system Virtual Registry Virtual COM Virtual services Scripting Active Directory Authentication Easy to deploy, stream, or push in EXE or .msi format Runtime logging & diagnostics Sandboxing · Application EXE remains "read only" at all times  · Stores application modifications on a per-user and per-application basis  · Prevents apps from "messing-up" machines  · Allows most non-Terminal Server apps to run on Terminal Server  · Allows most non-Vista apps to run on Vista  · Enables IT to maintain locked-down desktops  · "Reset" applications by deleting sandboxes  Virtual File system · Only solution with no package size limits, supports packages over 4GB in size  · Supports sandboxing, isolation, and system merge modes for specific registry sub-trees  · Sandboxed files can be scanned/blocked by anti-virus software  · File system is stored in macro format, remapping shell folders on-the-fly  · File system automatically migrates SXS from XP to Vista  Virtual Registry · EXE contains "read-only" image of registry  · Virtual registry is visible app only, not entire system  · Virtual registry is merged onto system registry.  · App specific registry sub trees are automatically isolated from the host PC to prevent conflicts with locally installed versions.  · Sandbox stores runtime modifications as"diffs".  · Registry can contain per-user data (HKEY_CURRENT_USER)  · Registry can contain SID specific user data  · Registry can be reset to captured state by deleting sandbox  · Virtual registry is shared by all apps in the same sandbox  · Automatic backup and restore on disk corruption (common USB flash)  · Dynamic Path Relocation applied to all registry read & writes allowing instant OS and PC migration  Virtual COM · Support for "In process" COM from virtual DLLS.  · No system registration  · No extracting DLLs or OCXs to filesystem  · Support for "Out of process" COM/DCOM  · Use EXE based COM without install  · Support for "Services based" COM  · Use service based COM with virtual services  Virtual services · Applications that require a service can be Thinstalled  · Virtual services auto-start when app is launched  · Virtual services can be started and stopped by application like real services  · Primarily for service-based license systems  · Support for packaging services and deploying as real Windows services started at boot time  Scripting · Embed and execute .vbs in your EXEs  · Can pre-launch and shutdown  · Exposes Thinstall runtime API  · Access to any COM scripting provider  · Execute commands in virtual or real environment  · Can be used set application use time-outs, authenticate with LDAP or database  Active Directory Authentication · Tie application access to AD Groups  · Dynamically add / remove users to AD groups to control access  · Prevent access from users not connected to domain  · Supports offline cached credentials for off-line usage  Easy to deploy, stream, or push in EXE or .msi format · Support for zero-footprint execution and streaming  · Easy desktop integration with filetypes and shortcuts using ThinReg  · Ability to generate self-registering .msi files enabling easy integration with desktop management products.  Runtime logging & diagnostics · Report of potential errors in application  · Complete API trace with all parameters  · Top 100 slowest API calls  · DLL usage & load location  · Crash information  · COM Interface logging
3. Talk about stages Generically: integrate, stage, deploy Specifically: each service could have its own stages, rules re: how to move between them AND the number of “service instances” at each stage to support the process Lots of duplication of a complex configuration ---- often it is a pain to do all this duplication, so people test on production – BAD !!! This makes it easy and cost-effective to replicate on demand At the “integrate” step, may have several test configurations being worked on by multiple IT users Note: there is application development (dev/QA) and then there is the dev/test work that is done in IT to support: operations/configuration management/putting services into production Talk about the ability to have different stage definitions on a per-service basis Talk about the “service template”
4. ThinApp Links