VMware THINAPP 4.6 - Using Thinapp Packages Streamed from the Network; How Thinapp Application Streaming Works

VMware, Inc. 47
Chapter 3 Deploying Applications
3FromtheStartmenu,selectPrograms>AdministrativeTools>Services.
Yourvirtualserviceapplicationappearsinthelistofservices.
Youcanmanagetheserviceinthesamewayasanynativelyinstalledservice.
Using ThinApp Packages Streamed from the Network
Anynetworkstoragedevicecanserveasastreamingserverforhundredsorthousandsofclientcomputers.
SeeFigure 3‐1.
Figure 3-1. Data Block Streaming over a Network Share
Ontheend‐userdesktop,youcancreateshortcutsthatpointtothecentrallyhostedexecutablefilepackages.
Whentheuserclickstheshortcut,theapplicationbeginsstreamingtothe
clientcomputer.Duringtheinitial
streamingstartupprocess,theThinAppstatusbarinformstheuseroftheprogress.
How ThinApp Application Streaming Works
WhenyouplacecompressedThinAppexecutablefilesonanetworkshareorUSBflashdrive,thecontents
fromtheexecutablefilestreamtoclientcomputersinablock‐basedfashion.Asanapplicationrequestsspecific
partsofdatafiles,ThinAppreadsthisinformationinthecompressedformatoverthenetworkusing
standard
Windowsfilesharingprotocol.Foraviewoftheprocess,seeFigure 3‐2.
Afteraclientcomputerreceivesdata,ThinAppdecompress esthedatadirectlytomemory.BecauseThinAppdoes
notwrite datatothedisk,theprocessisfast.Alargepackagedoesnotnecessarilytakealongtime
toloadover
thenetworkandthepackagesizedoesnotaffectthestartuptimeofanapplication.Ifyouaddanextra20GB
filetoapackagethatisnotinuseatruntime,thepackageloadsatthesamespeed.Iftheapplicationopensand
reads32KBofdata
fromthe20GBfile,ThinApponlyrequests32KBofdata.
TheThinAppruntimeclientisasmallpartoftheexecutablefilepackage.WhenThinApploadstheruntime
client,itsetsuptheenvironmentandstartsthetargetexecutablefile.Thetargetexecutablefileaccessesother
partsoftheapplicationstored
inthevirtualoperatingsystem.Theruntimeclientinterceptssuchrequestsand
servesthembyloadingDLLsfromthevirtualoperatingsystem.
Theloadtimeoftheruntimeclientacrossanetworkisafewmilliseconds.AfterThinApploadstheruntime
clienttomemoryontheclientcomputer ,theend‐user
computercalculateswhichblocksofdataarerequired
fromtheserverandreadsthembasedonapplicationactivity.
Whentheapplicationmakessubsequentreadrequestsforthesamedata,theWindowsdiskcacheprovides
datawithoutrequiringanetworkreadoperation.Iftheclientcomputerrunslowonmemory,Windows
discards
someofitsdiskcacheandprovidesthememoryresourcetootherapplications.
Sam’s
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Joe’s
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Jill’s
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shared folder