Publishing an application

To publish an application, follow the below procedure:

1. In the RAS Console, select the Publishing category and then click the Add icon below the Published Resources tree (or right-click inside the Published Resources box and click Add in the context menu). This will launch the publishing wizard.

Note: If the wizard has all options disabled, it means that there are no resources (servers) in the Farm from which publishing can be configured.

1. On the Select Item Type wizard page, select Application and click Next.

2. On the Select Server Type page, select the server type from which to publish and click Next.

Note: If you want to publish from a pool-based Remote PC, select the Virtual Guest option. The Remote PC option there is for standalone Remote PCs.

1. On the Select Application Type page, select one of the following available options:

• Single Application. Choose this option to fully configure the application settings yourself such as the executable path etc.

• Installed Application. Choose this option to publish an application that is already installed on the server, therefore all of the application settings are automatically configured.

• Predefined Application. Choose this option to publish a commonly used Windows application such as Windows Explorer.

• Application Packages. Choose this option to publish an application from an MSIX application package. The process of publishing applications from MSIX application packages is described in Publishing an application with MSIX app attach.

1. Click Next.

2. On the Publish From page, specify from which host the application should be published. You have the following options:

   • (RDSH) All Hosts in Site. If selected, the application will be published from all servers that are available on the Site.

   • (RDSH) RD Sessions Host Host Pools. Select this option and then select individual host pools to publish the application from.

   • (RDSH) Individual Hosts. Select this option and select individual servers to publish the application from.

   • (VDI) Host pools. Select the host pool to publish the application from.

   • (AVD) Host pools. Select the host pool to publish the application from.

   The page will be skipped if the application type that you are installing is Predefined Application.

3. Click Next.

4. Depending on the application type that you selected on the Select Application Type page, the next wizard page will be one of the following:

   • If you selected Single Application, the Application page will open where you have to specify the application settings manually (more about this option later in this section).

   • If you selected Installed Applications, the Installed Applications page will open listing available applications (the applications are grouped by functionality). Select an application you wish to install and click Next. Follow the instructions to complete the wizard.

   • If you selected Predefined Application, the Select Predefined Applications page will open listing available applications. Select an application you wish to publish and click Finish.

5. If you selected Single Application on the Select Application Type wizard page, the Application page will open. Specify the application settings as follows:

   Note that if you populate the Target field first using the "browse" button ([...]), the application Name, Description, and icon will be chosen automatically. You can override this selection if you wish.

   • Name. Choose and type a name for the application.

   • Description. Type an optional description.

   • Run. Select the application window state (normal window, minimized, maximized).

   • Exclude from session prelaunch. For details, see see Understanding session prelaunch.

   • Start automatically when user logs on. Select this option if you want to start an application as soon as a user logs on. This option works on desktop versions of Parallels Client only.

   • Change Icon. Change the application icon (optional).

   • Server(s). Allows you to specify the rest of the server parameters individually for each server the application was published from. Select a server from the drop-down list box and specify the parameters. Repeat for other servers in the list.

   • Target. Specify the application executable path and file name.

   • Start in. If the Target field is valid, this field will be populated automatically. You can specify your own path if needed.

   • Parameters. If the application accepts startup parameters, you can specify them in this field.

6. (VDI only) Select the Enable static assignment to guest VM option to mark a guest VM as persistent the first time a user connects to it.

7. (Remote PC only) Click the [...] button in the Remote PC Settings section to select a Remote PC from which the application should be published. In the box that opens, double-click a PC to select it.

8. On the next page, specify the initial status of the resource. Choose from Enabled (end users can launch the resource), Disabled (the resource will not appear in Parallels Client), In maintenance (the resource will appear in Parallels Client but users will not be able to launch it). When a resource is in maintenance and a user tries to launch it, they will see a message. To customize the message, click the Configure button. For more info, see Site defaults (Publishing).

9. When done, click Finish to publish the application.

Publishing an App-V application

Microsoft Application Virtualization (or App-V) is an application streaming solution from Microsoft. Beginning with Parallels RAS v16.5, a support for App-V application publishing is available in the Parallels RAS console.

At the time of this writing, the App-V support implements scenarios where application provisioning is performed by means of App-V components:

• Applications are sequenced by the administrator according to Microsoft guidelines.

• Applications are stored on a network share created by the administrator (SMB, HTTPs).

• App-V Management and Publishing servers are used to publish applications for a specific AD groups that must by synced manually by the administrator with RAS publishing groups used for App-V application publishing.

• App-V client is installed and configured manually by the administrator.

The process of deploying and publishing an App-V application is as follows:

1. Package an applications using the App-V Sequencer.

2. Deploy the application to an RD Session Host using the App-V Management Console, Microsoft SCCM, etc.

3. Provision the application.

4. Verify that users can launch the application from the RD Session Host.

5. Publish the application from RAS Console (see below for instructions).

6. Launch the application from a Parallels Client.

To publish an App-V application:

1. In the Parallels RAS Console, select the Publishing category.

2. Click the [+] Add icon at the bottom of the right pane. The publishing wizard opens.

3. On the Select Item Type page, select the App-V application option.

4. Click Next.

5. Select the server type from which to publish an application and click Next.

6. Select a server or a group to publish from and click Next.

7. On the Installed Applications page, select one or more App-V applications and click Next.

8. Review the summary and complete the wizard.

Once an App-V application is published, it can be launched from a Parallels Client.

Note: To avoid launch issues, use AutoLoad=2. More details in https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/technetsto_sup/2013/11/12/autoload-setting-in-app-v-5-0/.