In my previous blog, We have discussed about the release of App Volumes 2.12 GA. This blog will guide you through the new features and enhancements of App Volumes 2.12.
As you all aware that App Volumes is the only solution optimized and certified on the VMware SDDC (Software-Defined Data Center).
App Volumes 2.12 is the seventh major release. This release includes feedback directly from largest customers like LCMC Health and ANZ Bank etc.
Let me quickly walk through the new features, enhancements and capabilities of App Volumes 2.12:
What’s New:
Performance improvements for faster user login and application launch:
- Optimized handling of application registry hives by not blocking end-user login
- Addressed a bug that caused the App Volumes agent to scan Appstacks and Writable Volumes before the Windows explorer shell is available.
Integration with Active Directory:
- Multiple Active Directory Domains: This feature allows customers to deploy App Volumes 2.12 Appstacks to multiple domains even without trust, using an account with Read privileges to the domain. This feature makes it easier to deploy, Manage and provision from a central location for multiple domain. also simplifies administration for customers with multiple domains.
- AV 2.12 Support for one-way trust and two-way trust
- Admins can manage application and writable volumes assignments across multiple Active Directory domains and forests.
- Admins can add multiple domain controllers that App Volumes Manager leverages to query Active Directory users, computers, groups, and OUs.
- Admins can move and retain application and writable volumes assignments even when Active Directory objects are moved out of an OU or Group
Security Enhancements:
- By default, communication between App Volumes Manager and agent occurs over HTTPS. The App Volumes Manager is installed with a port number of 443. See KB 2148178 for more information.
- Now we can replace the default self-signed certificate with CA signed certificate on App Volumes Manager.
- By default, certificate validation is required for all communication between the App Volumes Manager and vSphere. See the SSL section in the App Volumes User Guide for detailed information.
- Ruby engine has been upgraded to v 2.2.4, this will reduce security risks.
Smart Domain Controller Discovery and Routing:
- This feature enabled App Volumes to detect the nearest domain controller with best response time. App Volume manager will generate a list of available Domain controller and pick the nearest one with best response time.
- This will improve the performance and fail-over capabilities. If one DC fails manager will automatically mark next available DC for authentication.
Support for Delivering Office 365 (Office 2016) applications through AppStacks:
- You can deliver Office 365 (Office 2016) applications through AppStacks. See KB 2146035 for detailed information.
Support for Windows 10 Anniversary Update (AU) build 1607:
- You can now deliver applications, user-installed applications, and profiles through AppStacks and Writable Volumes to Windows 10 version 1607 (Windows 10 Anniversary Update) on Current Branch, Current Branch for Business and Long-term Service Branch. Windows 10 version 1511 is not supported with App Volumes 2.12. See KB 2148177 for more information.
Tech Preview Features:
Note – The Tech Preview features and capabilities are not supported for production deployment, rather they are available as a preview of potential upcoming innovations to test in a lab or UAT environment. You can provide feedback to improve these features through VMWare Communities.
Centralized Log Collection:
- With this release, we have option to redirect logs from all App Volumes Managers and agents to a central location. This helps in uploading the logs more easily to VMWare Support and also makes troubleshooting easier. See KB 2148180 for more information.
Read-only Administrator:
- A read-only administrator can only log in to App Volumes Manager and view the App Volumes configuration details but cannot make any modifications. See KB 2147984 for more information.
Asynchronous Mounting:
- You can configure asynchronous mounting of AppStacks on App Volumes Manager to improve scalability. See KB 2147985 for more information.
I hope this is informative for you. In my next articles will explain about installation and configuration of new features. Please stay tuned.