desktopnow vs workspace manager · appsense desktopnow might seem to be more complex to manage than...

DesktopNow vs Workspace Manager

First Edition, January 2015

Information in this document, including URL and other Internet Web site references, is subject to

change without notice.

Without limiting the rights under copyright, no part of this document may be reproduced, stored in or

introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical,

photocopying, recording or otherwise), or for any purpose, without the express written permission of

Raido.

© 2015 Raido, all rights reserved.

Section: Table of Contents www.raido.be

Table of Contents

1 ABOUT .................................................................................................................. 5

1.1 ABOUT RAIDO ................................................................................................. 5 1.2 ABOUT THE AUTHOR ...................................................................................... 5 1.3 DOCUMENT HISTORY ...................................................................................... 6

1.3.1 REVISIONS ................................................................................................ 6 1.3.2 REVIEWS ................................................................................................... 6

2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .................................................................................. 7

3 APPSENSE AND RES AT A GLANCE ............................................................. 8 3.1 RES SOFTWARE .............................................................................................. 8

3.1.1 HISTORY ................................................................................................... 8 3.1.2 FUNDING ................................................................................................... 8 3.1.3 PRODUCTS................................................................................................. 8

3.2 APPSENSE ........................................................................................................ 8 3.2.1 HISTORY ................................................................................................... 9

3.2.2 FUNDING ................................................................................................... 9 3.2.3 PRODUCTS................................................................................................. 9

4 THE ARCHITECTURE .................................................................................... 10 4.1 RES WORKSPACE MANAGER ...................................................................... 10

4.1.1 CONSOLE ................................................................................................ 10

4.1.2 DATABASE .............................................................................................. 11 4.1.3 MIDDLE TIER .......................................................................................... 11

4.1.4 CLIENT SOFTWARE ................................................................................. 12

4.2 APPSENSE DESKTOPNOW ............................................................................. 12 4.2.1 CONSOLE ................................................................................................ 12 4.2.2 DATABASE .............................................................................................. 13

4.2.3 MIDDLE TIER .......................................................................................... 13 4.2.4 CLIENT SOFTWARE ................................................................................. 14

5 ENTERPRISE SCALABILITY ........................................................................ 15 5.1 CONFIGURATION DATABASE ........................................................................ 15 5.2 N-TIER .......................................................................................................... 15

5.3 VERSIONING .................................................................................................. 15 5.4 DTAP ............................................................................................................ 15 5.5 MANAGEMENT CONSOLE ............................................................................. 15 5.6 LEARNING CURVE ......................................................................................... 16

5.7 CONTEXT AWARENESS ................................................................................. 16 5.8 THREADING ................................................................................................... 16

6 THE SETUP ........................................................................................................ 17

6.1 RES WORKSPACE MANAGER ...................................................................... 17 6.1.1 THE WIZARDS ......................................................................................... 17

6.1.2 DATASTORE WIZARD .............................................................................. 17 6.1.3 CREDENTIALS DB CREATION .................................................................. 18 6.1.4 CONFIGURATION WIZARD ....................................................................... 18

6.2 APPSENSE DESKTOPNOW ............................................................................. 18 6.2.1 EVALUATION INSTALLATION .................................................................. 18

Section: Table of Contents www.raido.be

6.2.2 PREREQUISITES ....................................................................................... 19

6.2.3 CONFIGURATION WIZARD ....................................................................... 20 6.2.4 ENTERPRISE INSTALLATIONS .................................................................. 20

7 DESKTOP CONFIGURATION ....................................................................... 21 7.1 SCENARIO 1: SET THE DESKTOP WALLPAPER .............................................. 21

7.2 SCENARIO 2: CONNECT PRINTERS ............................................................... 22

8 THE USER PROFILE ....................................................................................... 24 8.1 RES, ZERO PROFILE .................................................................................... 24

8.1.1 STORAGE ................................................................................................ 24 8.1.2 USER PROFILE PARTITIONING ................................................................. 25

8.1.3 TEMPLATES ............................................................................................. 25 8.1.4 INCLUSIONS AND EXCLUSIONS ................................................................ 26 8.1.5 INJECTION OF APPLICATION SETTINGS .................................................... 26

8.1.6 BACKUP AND RESTORE ........................................................................... 27

8.2 APPSENSE, EM PERSONALIZATION ............................................................. 28 8.2.1 STORAGE ................................................................................................ 28 8.2.2 TEMPLATES ............................................................................................. 28 8.2.3 INCLUSIONS AND EXCLUSIONS ................................................................ 29

8.2.4 USER PROFILE PARTITIONING ................................................................. 29

8.2.5 INJECTION OF APPLICATION SETTINGS .................................................... 29 8.2.6 BACKUP AND RESTORE ........................................................................... 29

9 LOGON SPEED ................................................................................................. 31 9.1 STEP 1: THE BASELINE ................................................................................. 32

9.2 STEP 2: AGENT SOFTWARE INSTALLED, NO CONFIGURATION AND NO

HYBRID PROFILE MANAGEMENT ACTIVATED .......................................................... 32

9.3 STEP 3: AGENT SOFTWARE INSTALLED, WITH CONFIGURATION BUT NO

HYBRID PROFILE MANAGEMENT ACTIVATED .......................................................... 33

9.4 STEP 4: AGENT SOFTWARE INSTALLED, WITH CONFIGURATION AND HYBRID

PROFILE MANAGEMENT ACTIVATED ....................................................................... 35 9.5 RECAP ........................................................................................................... 36

10 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................... 37

11 REFERENCES ................................................................................................ 42

Raido DesktopNow vs Workspace Manager - First Edition, January 2015

5 of 43

Section: About www.raido.be

1 About

1.1 About Raido Raido was founded in 2008 and is a consultancy company specialized in virtualization

and focuses on solutions from Citrix, VMware, AppSense, Imprivata, Microsoft, Igel

and DataCore. In addition to its virtualization solutions Raido also delivers services

such as high-end consulting, project management, implementation, training and

technical support.

Positioning

Raido provides innovative IT solutions and services that enable companies to work

more efficient, more secure and at a lower cost, regardless of location, time or device

and without making business processes more complex.

Mission

Raido wants to be a 'trusted advisor' for all its customers on which they can rely for

innovative virtualization solutions delivering them a significant strategic advantage at

a lower cost. Raido also wants to build a long term relationship - a journey – with its

customers based on specialized knowledge and trust.

Specialization and knowledge

Raido provides services and high-end consultancy in the field of application, desktop,

server and storage virtualization. Raido's consultants have a very high level of

knowledge and certification for all solutions in their portfolio.

1.2 About the Author Like many other IT professionals in the Windows-world, it all started at the helpdesk.

For Geert it was just before the turn of the millennium when he had to deal with

Windows NT 4 and Microsoft Office 95. About 5 years later, he was no longer at the

helpdesk; Geert was introduced to Citrix Metaframe XP.

In 2011 Geert started working as a consultant at Raido, where it did not take long

before he became the technology owner of User Virtualization products, with a strong

focus on AppSense DesktopNow. You can read some of his articles about AppSense

on the blog of Raido (www.raido.be/blog).

Geert did several small comparisons of RES Workspace Manager and AppSense

DesktopNow, mostly on request of a customer or for his own interest. Now it was

time to combine the articles and notes into a document and share it with the world.

Geert plans to update this document when product updates come from one of the

vendors.

You can contact and follow Geert through Twitter: @dekeysergeert

http://www.raido.be/blog

mailto:@dekeysergeert


6 of 43

Section: About www.raido.be

1.3 Document history

1.3.1 Revisions Version Date Author Company Notes

1.0 1/1/2015 Geert De Keyser Raido First Release

1.3.2 Reviews Version Date Reviewer(s) Company Notes

1.0 15/12/2014 Kid Kooijmans Raido Initial Review

1.0 23/12/2014 Joeri Kumbruck Raido Initial Review

1.0 26/12/2014 Erik Janssens Raido Initial Review


7 of 43

Section: Executive Summary www.raido.be

2 Executive Summary AppSense DesktopNow and RES Workspace Manager are competing products to

virtualize the user environment. At Raido we created 2 environments, one with

AppSense and one with RES. Then we created a head to head battle to understand the

flaws and the strengths of both products. This document describes our findings and

intends to compare both products. It will help you in making an informed choice. The

document only focuses on the technical differences, it does not take any financial,

contractual or other parameters into account.

The document contains following chapters:

We start with a comparison of both architectures and enterprise scalability.

Then we run through the installation process of Workspace Manager and

DesktopNow.

Next we explain two real-life scenarios for the creation of the user workspace

and explain how to set those up in each product.

Then we put the Zero Profile solution of RES next to the Personalization

product of AppSense.

This is followed by a logon test, where we take a closer look at the footprint

and impact of both products.

We complete the document with a detailed head to head comparison to

provide a rating for each section of the product.

RES is developed to make the life of the IT administrator easier: RES has one single

console where a lot of predefined settings can be switched on/off. RES comes with

many more templates, a possible preconfigured environment and a learning curve that

is less steep. RES integrates with all possible database providers for the

configurations and avoids the need of an SQL server for storage of the user profiles in

their Zero Profile solution.

AppSense focuses on improving the end user experience: Multi-threading, in

combination with the wide variety of trigger points, provides an immense increase in

performance, allowing the end users to log on much faster as can be seen in the

chapter “Logon Speed”. RES expects the administration to happen within a

framework that is provided by themselves, while AppSense provides the administrator

the tools to create his own framework, giving a lot more options and flexibility to

configure the end user environment. This is very visible in the chapter about

“Desktop Configuration”.

Although AppSense DesktopNow and RES Workspace Manager have a very similar

goal, they use a completely different strategy to reach this goal. AppSense

DesktopNow might seem to be more complex to manage than RES Workspace

Manager, but once you understand the way to configure the user environment, you

will experience that there are many possibilities with AppSense. In our opinion,

AppSense provides a more mature product with built-in versioning and release

management, which prevents human errors and enables easy rollback functionality.

Because of the flexibility provided by AppSense, the admin is capable of configuring

a better performing user desktop.


8 of 43

Section: AppSense and RES at a Glance www.raido.be

3 AppSense and RES at a Glance

3.1 RES Software RES Software has its US headquarters in Philadelphia, PA. The company also has

offices in 's-Hertogenbosch (Netherlands), Copenhagen, Paris, Oslo, Munich, London

and Sydney. With over 200 employees worldwide, RES Software serves more than

2,500 customers with more than 3,500 deployments in 27 different countries. The

company currently holds 11 patents for unique technology that helps IT departments

increase their productivity each day.

3.1.1 History RES Software was founded in the Netherlands by Bob Janssen in 1999. Bob Janssen

is now Chief Technology Officer of RES Software. He has been responsible for

product vision, strategy and development at RES Software since founding the

company.

In 1999 RES created its first product called RES PowerFuse; this was renamed in

2010 to RES Workspace Manager. RES Automation Manager (formerly known as

Wisdom) was released in 2005 and last year RES IT Store was added to the product

family.

3.1.2 Funding Updata’s investment of $12.5 million in June 2009 helped in RES’s future growth. As

a result, Updata recruited a new U.S.-based Chairman and CEO, an industry veteran

familiar with international management who had previously grown SAP Americas.

In April 2010 GIMV invested €4.7 million in Dutch company RES Software. RES

Software used the proceeds of this financing for its further international expansion,

and in particular its North American operations.

3.1.3 Products RES Workspace Manager reduces the complexity of desktop management and

user profile management. Workspace management software optimizes the way

they consume the appropriate IT services at the right time, in the right

location, on the right device.

RES Automation Manager enables IT to quickly move from manual, repetitive

and risky IT changes to automatic, secure and reliable run books. Simple yet

scalable architecture to automate IT.

RES IT Store is a self-service IT portal where users can interact with IT

without delay. The platform enables to deliver IT services when needed and

without manual intervention.

3.2 AppSense AppSense has a US headquarters in Sunnyvale, CA and a UK headquarters in

Daresbury, England. The company also has offices in London, Munich, Amsterdam,

Paris, Oslo, Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra and New York. AppSense is used by over

4,000 companies worldwide including JPMorgan Chase, Lowe's, United Airlines and

ESPN. Customers in central Europe include Allianz, Lufthansa, Daimler AG and

Landesbank Baden-Württemberg.


9 of 43

Section: AppSense and RES at a Glance www.raido.be

3.2.1 History AppSense was founded in 1999 by Charles Sharland. The original management team

consisted of Tony Bolland CEO, Mark Austin CTO and Paul Kenyon VP of Sales

who remained with the company until 2008. Originally based in Daresbury, England,

in 2010 AppSense opened a US headquarters in New York City and a technology

center in Sunnyvale, California. The company relocated its headquarters to

Sunnyvale, California from New York City in 2013.

3.2.2 Funding In February 2011, AppSense announced it received a $70 million round of funding

from Goldman Sachs for a minority share in the company. This round was the

company’s first funding to date.

3.2.3 Products AppSense DesktopNow provides complete policy and personalization

management, application entitlement and system resource entitlement across

all desktop and application delivery mechanisms.

New embankments involve data management with DataNow.


10 of 43

Section: The Architecture www.raido.be

4 The Architecture To study both products, I have setup the AppSense DesktopNow release from

December 2014 and the RES Workspace Manager release 2014 SR 2 in our lab

environment. This chapter and all following chapters are based on those to compare

both products.

4.1 RES Workspace Manager

4.1.1 Console A Management Console is used to create a list of all possible desktop items that need

to be composed and secured in a User Workspace. In this console you can manage:

User Context: This is where filters are created to determine how the user

environment will be setup.

Composition: This is the location to create the user environment.

Security: Here the user environment is secured. You can configure

applications, websites, files and folders,… for which user-access can be

allowed or denied.


11 of 43


This console is the main interface. The Workspace Model controls which parts should

be composed and secured, it is the only place where you need to go to manage User

Workspaces. The Management Console stores all the provided information in a

database.

4.1.2 Database The Datastore is the central database for your RES Workspace Manager environment.

All computers in an RES Workspace Manager environment can connect to this

database directly, or via an optional relay server for maximum scalability.

The Datastore can exist in any of the following Database types:

SQL (including SQL Express and SQL Azure)

Oracle

DB2

MySQL

For sizing it is possible to split the database in two parts. This allows you to put the

logging and usage tracking in a secondary database.

4.1.3 Middle Tier Relay Servers are an optional infrastructure component. They cache information from

the Datastore and pass it on to Agents or to other Relay Servers.

Relay Servers offer a number of advantages:

• Improved scalability in all kinds of distributed network topologies.

• Reduced network traffic in multiple-site environments, as fewer components

connect directly to the central Datastore over relatively slow data connections.

• Reduced datastore load, as fewer components connect directly to the central

Datastore.

• Agents that connect to Relay Servers do not need to have a database driver

installed for the RES Workspace Manager Datastore.


12 of 43


4.1.4 Client Software The RES Workspace Manager Client is the element that composes the uniform

workspace that the end users are presented with, regardless of the technology stack

used. The RES Workspace Manager Client provides only the functionality that the

end user requires. This includes all applications, menu items and settings to which the

user is granted access. The configuration is gathered from the local cache that is used

to ensure correct management in an off-line state. RES Workspace Manager Clients

can connect to either a Relay Server or directly to the Datastore. When connecting to

the Relay Server, the client can do this through DNS lookup, DHCP scope options,

broadcast or a list, provided during installation.

4.2 AppSense DesktopNow

4.2.1 Console AppSense DesktopNow is a suite which comprises of 4 products, each of them has its

own console:

AppSense Management Center (AMC) provides the overall management of

the entire suite, allowing administrators to manage endpoints and deploy

agents and configurations.

AppSense Environment Manager (EM) allows administrators to control

behavior by deploying policy and personalization configurations for their

users.

AppSense Application Manager (AM) allows administrators to control

entitlements to run applications, controlling who can and cannot launch an

application.

AppSense Performance Manager (PM) allows administrators to control

entitlements over system resources such as memory and CPU usage.


13 of 43


4.2.2 Database There are 2 databases:

The AppSense Management Center relies on the availability on the network

of a Microsoft SQL server for the storage and retrieval of AppSense software

agents, configuration packages, licenses and event and alert data.

The AppSense Environment Manager: User Personalization captures

application and desktop changes to a central database and reapplies them for

the user upon logon or application start, regardless of operating system or

delivery mechanism.

4.2.3 Middle Tier There are 2 types of middle-tier servers:

The AppSense Management Center: The Management Server manages

communications (using Microsoft Internet Information Services - IIS) with a

Microsoft SQL Server database for data access and storage, providing security

control, communications for managing network discovery services and software

deployment to managed endpoints, resource management and enterprise auditing.

Management Server security manages network authorization for Management

Consoles and product Consoles.

Handles download schedules, group management and file transfers, and

network discovery services for integration with Active Directory.

Management Center supports a list of failover of servers which can take over

the role of the Management Server to allow the system to continue functioning

in the event of a hardware or environment failure.

The AppSense Environment Manager: The Personalization Server is implemented

as an Internet Information Services (IIS) Website and acts as the broker between the

endpoints and the Personalization database. It enables access to the database from

multiple clients to be controlled from one place. The Personalization Server can verify


14 of 43


the identity of the clients before processing requests so clients do not need to be added

as users to the database.

Both the AppSense Management Center and AppSense Environment Manager can be

installed on one single server for smaller environments, while they can be split into

dedicated servers for more complex enterprise environments. These IIS servers are

stateless servers that can be load balanced easily.

4.2.4 Client Software The AppSense DesktopNow is a suite which comprises 4 products, each product has

its own Agent Software. For the tests in this document only the Client

Communications agent and the Environment agent are used.

The Client Communications agent: The agent is installed on managed

endpoints to manage communications between the product agents and the

AppSense Management Center. The agent polls the Management Server to

manage the download and installation of agent, configuration and prerequisite

package updates and also sends event data generated by the product agents to

the Management Server.

The Environment Manager agent: Within the session is the Environment

Manager software which monitors changes that the user makes to managed

applications and communicates these to the Personalization Server. The

software also manages the policies that are created in the EM console and sets

these policies according to the triggers (logon, logoff, application

started/stopped, network connect/disconnect, session disconnect/reconnect,

session locked/unlocked)

The other two products are currently not taken into account for this comparison:

The AppSense Application Manager agent: For Application Manager to

function the agent must be installed on the client endpoint together with an

associated configuration. Each and every execution request is validated

against the configuration settings. According to the configuration settings, the

execution request will be stopped or allowed.

The AppSense Performance Manager agent: The Performance Manager

agent resides on the managed computers with the configuration which

contains the resource-based policies which the agent implements to manage

the computer resources.


15 of 43

Section: Enterprise Scalability www.raido.be

5 Enterprise Scalability

5.1 Configuration Database RES Workspace Manager: RES has a big list of supported databases. I did

not test all of them, but I’m sure they all do their job. It must be a big task to

continue to support and test all those platforms on every upgrade or patch.

AppSense DesktopNow: AppSense keeps it simpler: Microsoft SQL server,

that’s it. If you don’t have that, then you’ll need to get it. But I have never

considered this to be a problem.

5.2 N-Tier RES Workspace Manager: Since version 2012, RES introduced the relay

servers, which synchronize a copy of the database locally at predefined

intervals.

AppSense DesktopNow: AppSense DesktopNow makes use of a 3-tier

architecture for deployment and management of agents, configurations and

event data as well as personalization data.

5.3 Versioning RES Workspace manager: When updating the configuration settings in RES

workspace manager, these updates are performed directly into the database.

No version history is stored but there is tracking of the changes that are made

by the Administrator. After clicking ‘save’, the agents will receive the new

settings upon the next poll-interval.

AppSense DesktopNow: Configurations are saved in files, which are stored in

the database. Every new file is a new version. To receive the updates the new

configuration file needs to be assigned to the computers. This makes it a lot

easier to roll back to a previous version of the configuration.

5.4 DTAP RES Workspace Manager: To create a DTAP environment it is possible to

setup different databases for Development, Test, Acceptance and Production.

That allows you to first test the new settings in each step of the application

lifecycle. You can use building blocks to migrate settings between

environments.

AppSense DesktopNow: To create a DTAP environment it is possible to

create a deployment group for each step in Development, Test, Acceptance

and Production. Larger environments can have an SQL database for each step

in the DTAP. Configuration files can then easily be transferred from one

environment to the other. All this makes AppSense very flexible when setting

up your DTAP.

5.5 Management Console RES Workspace Manager: RES has 1 consolidated console, where

everything can be managed. The console is created in a user-friendly manner.

When composing a workspace for a user, it is easy to browse through the pre-


16 of 43

Section: Enterprise Scalability www.raido.be

defined options, activate them and configure them. The console is built to

facilitate the IT Administrator.

AppSense DesktopNow: DesktopNow has split all the configurations over 4

different consoles. No predefined settings are created, so everything needs to

be built by the admin. There are a few templates that can be used.

5.6 Learning curve RES Workspace Manager: Thanks to a lot of predefined settings and

templates you can understand and configure RES Workspace Manager in no

time. RES provides an online Knowledge Base with basic information on the

product.

AppSense DesktopNow: It takes some research and possible AppSense

courses to get the most out of AppSense DesktopNow. It can take some time

and effort to understand the ins and outs of AppSense, but once you

understand the product, the possibilities are almost endless. AppSense also

provides a good online Knowledge Base with basic information on the product

and very thorough release documents with every product update. AppSense is

built to optimize user performance.

5.7 Context Awareness RES Workspace Manager: RES uses the idea of context awareness, these

allow an administrator to control behavior according to criteria. You have to

create a (set of) criteria, which create a zone. Zones can then be linked to an

action.

AppSense DesktopNow: AppSense has conditions. Due to the way the

different consoles are built, a condition (or set of conditions) can be linked to

each action.

5.8 Threading RES Workspace Manager: When a user logs on, Workspace Manager

processes the configuration in a predefined sequential order. This order cannot

be altered by the administrator.

AppSense DesktopNow: In AppSense the order in which actions are executed

is defined by the Administrator. Parallel execution of action is possible, which

results in a noticeable performance gain.


17 of 43

Section: The Setup www.raido.be

6 The Setup In this chapter I would like to compare the server setup process of both the products.

For both applications, I used a basic install of Windows Server 2012 R2, with the

latest hotfixes installed. I did not add any features or roles (except .Net Framework,

which I needed for the agent of my hypervisor). Then I clicked on the setup file and

just allowed myself to be guided through the setup.

6.1 RES Workspace Manager

6.1.1 The Wizards The installation consists of 5 different wizards:

RES Workspace Manager Installer: Select which components to install.

RES Workspace Manager 2014 Setup: Install the components selected in

the installer.

Connection Wizard: Connect to an existing environment or setup a new

environment.

DataStore Wizard: In case you chose to setup a new environment in the

connection wizard. The datastore for that environment will be created here.

Configuration Wizard: This is an optional wizard to add a bunch of template

settings to the environment, as a starting point.

6.1.2 Datastore Wizard During the Datastore wizard I was asked to connect to a database; there were a lot of

options:

At this point I got stuck, I had expected an automatic installation of SQL Express for

in testing purposes. I am doing this setup in my lab environment and I do not have a

full-blown database server there. I had to interrupt the installation and download

SQL-Express, install it on my test server and then restart the installation.


18 of 43


6.1.3 Credentials DB creation During creation of the database, there was no option to use impersonation with a

windows account. When “use Windows Authentication” was selected, the installer

tried to authenticate with the computer account.

I did not want to create the database with a computer account so I had to choose SQL

authentication to create the database. There is an article though, Q201457, which

describes how to configure RES Workspace Manager to connect to Microsoft SQL

Server using Windows Authentication.

6.1.4 Configuration Wizard The last wizard is called “Configuration Wizard”. This is an interesting feature,

almost foolproof, where you can import a Template with a lot of example

configurations. It helps the beginner to understand how RES Workspace Manager

does its things. The good thing is also that all these settings are disabled by default.

You still have to open the console and enable the settings.

6.2 AppSense DesktopNow

6.2.1 Evaluation Installation AppSense installation has always been a bit complicated. You have to understand the

principles of the Management Server and the Personalization Server to be able to

configure them at the end of the install process. But in the last version, AppSense has

added a new installation type called “Evaluation”.


19 of 43


This handy installation type is perfect for your POC or lab environments. It simply

configures everything automatically, including the install and configuration of SQL

express.

6.2.2 Prerequisites Just like RES does, AppSense also takes care of the installation of all the

prerequisites, so no worries, just run that setup and it will work:


20 of 43


6.2.3 Configuration Wizard AppSense does not have any “configuration wizard” in its setup, so you cannot

generate a default configuration that easily teaches you how to use their product. But

they do have a “Starter Kit”, a bunch of documentation and videos that help you with

the first steps of AppSense.

6.2.4 Enterprise Installations Besides the evaluation installation I performed above, AppSense still has that more

advanced (and complex) Installation wizard, as well as a silent install option (an

option which is also provided by RES Workspace Manager). These are the options

you use for a production installation.


21 of 43

Section: Desktop Configuration www.raido.be

7 Desktop Configuration I want to configure the Desktop of the users with RES and AppSense. I will discuss a

few scenarios that where requested by customers. I will create the configurations for

those scenarios in AppSense DesktopNow and RES Workspace Manager and

compare them.

7.1 Scenario 1: Set the desktop wallpaper I was working at a customer where about every 2 months a new marketing campaign

was released to the public. The marketing department wanted the desktop wallpaper

to change to the same as the billboards all over the country on the morning of that

new campaign.

RES workspace manager: As with most things in RES, there is a predefined

action for this. In the composition part you have to go to Desktop, Background

and enable it on the workspace container you want to apply it to. Then you can

click on picture, add it and choose “stretch” from the drop-down menu for the

picture placement. This way the image will magically appear when you next

logon.

The problem with the scenario we have set here is that the IT admin will have

to make sure that he or she reaches the office first on the morning of the new

advertisement. I could not figure out a way to schedule when to apply this

setting.

AppSense DesktopNow: To manage this scenario, we will have to use

AppSense Environment Manager. I create a node called “Wallpaper” under

the trigger “Logon - Pre-Desktop”. Then I created a condition to make sure

that the action only runs after a certain date, followed by a simple file-copy

and a policy to set the desktop wallpaper to the copied file.


22 of 43


If you would wish to, you could improve the process a bit by copying the file

only the first time but in my lab environment that was not really necessary.

7.2 Scenario 2: Connect Printers At one of my XenApp projects, in a hospital, printers were mapped at logon and at

session reconnect. It was very important for them to re-map during session reconnect

because the doctors and nurses were traveling from one room to the other, always

working on thinclients, and they obviously always wanted to print from the nearest

printer.

RES Workspace Manager: In RES Workspace manager you can configure

the action to map printers, but the problem is that it can only be linked to the

“logon” event and not to the “Session Reconnect” event. This made the above

scenario impossible.

AppSense DesktopNow: In AppSense Environment Manager you can create a

reusable node and link it to both the Logon event and the Session Reconnect

event. Below you can see a printscreen of what is configured in the print node.


23 of 43


Of course, I did suggest the IT-admin from that hospital to use a follow-me-

technology for their printers to avoid the need for this configuration, but that was not

in their budget so it was not an option.


24 of 43

Section: The User Profile www.raido.be

8 The User Profile Microsoft has created 3 types of user profiles in their Operation System: local,

roaming or mandatory (we do not talk about temporary profiles here). Both AppSense

and RES enables you to use a 4th type of profile: the Hybrid profile. This hybrid

profile can be created with any of the first 3 types, combined with a technology to

inject the user settings as they are needed. Mostly a hybrid profile is a combination of

a mandatory profile with the injection method of the providers. For RES this

technology is called Zero Profile, for AppSense this is called EM Personalization.

Below I will compare both technologies.

8.1 RES, Zero Profile

8.1.1 Storage With the zero profile technology from RES, all the data is stored in a network

location. This location is configured in the settings-node of the “User Settings”. By

default this is a hidden folder called “Personal Settings” in the home directory of the

user.

Through this setup, the data communication between client and server happens over

SMB, with compression.

RES does not provide reporting, archiving and restoring of individual parts of the

profile. Every file is created with the same GUID as can be seen in the console:

You can browse to the location on the fileserver and match the GUID to the

corresponding files:


25 of 43


8.1.2 User Profile Partitioning RES has divided the user profile in a part for the Windows Profile and an Application

profile. With RES you have to open the “User Settings” in the root of the composition

console to configure the Windows Profile.

The windows profile is then divided in following sub-parts:

Control Panel: Accessibility Options, Desktop Content, Desktop Icons,

Desktop Gadgets, Keyboard Settings, Mouse Settings, Regional and Language

Options, Screen Saver, Sounds, Start Menu, Taskbar, Themes and Visual

Settings.

Windows Explorer: Folder General, Folder Search, Folder View

User Certificates

Windows Messaging Subsystem

When you open/close an application it writes a stamp in the corresponding datafiles.

This means that the data will grow even when the application did not change

anything.

8.1.3 Templates For each part of the Windows profile there are templates that provide you with the

default configurations. These configurations can be adjusted according to your needs:

RES also comes with templates for more than 30 common applications. These settings

are tested and approved by RES, but can easily be altered as per the needs of every

customer.


26 of 43


8.1.4 Inclusions and exclusions The admin can configure which files, folders and registry keys will be synchronized.

Exclusions can be configured for single files, folders or registry keys and can also be

configured for files older then x time and files larger then x KB/MB.

For the Application profile settings, the configuration is done in the “User Settings”

of each individual application. The same logic and rules are used for the Windows

profile. All file and registry settings are stored in the same central storage location as

the Windows Profile.

8.1.5 Injection of Application Settings When a user launches an application through RES, you must define a Managed

Application. This will create a shortcut in the Workspace, which the user has to use to

launch the application. This shortcut will actually launch the executable pwrgate.exe,

which will first download the profile settings for that application before actually

running it.


27 of 43


Launching the application in any other way (for example an excel export from SAP or

opening a document from windows explorer) might mean that the settings are not

applied to the user. This can lead to an inconsistent user experience. This can be

solved to some extend by adjusting the File Type Associations.

All the files and registry settings are copied in the real location, without any

virtualization layer.

8.1.6 Backup and Restore On each application or windows setting there is an option to store multiple versions of

that configuration, to allow IT Admins or users to restore those settings:

This results in a new file each time an application is closed, which can be restored as

needed:

To restore files, it is easiest to use the “Restore User Settings Wizard” in the console:


28 of 43


8.2 AppSense, EM Personalization

8.2.1 Storage AppSense Personalization stores all its data in an SQL Server database. The data is

compressed when stored into the database. This data compression is also maintained

during transit over HTTP(S), to allow for maximum performance. Storing the data in

an SQL Server database provides easy versioning capabilities and allows extended

reporting, archiving and restoring of individual parts of the profile.

8.2.2 Templates AppSense provides template settings for 10 more common applications. These

settings are tested and approved by AppSense, but can easily be altered as per the

needs of every customer.


29 of 43


8.2.3 Inclusions and Exclusions The admin can configure which files, folders and registry keys are synchronized.

With files and folders, it is possible to use wildcards to substitute for one or more

unspecified characters. Exclusions can be configured in the same way as the

inclusions (files, folder and registry key).

8.2.4 User Profile Partitioning With AppSense as well as with RES, the user profile is divided in a Windows Profile

(Windows Personalization) and an Application Profile (Application Personalization).

8.2.5 Injection of Application Settings Windows Settings are configured during logon, while application settings are

configured at the time when the executable is launched. AppSense uses a hook on the

executable to pause the application launch, download the latest version of the profile

and then continue to run the application. This ensures that the profile is always

updated, no matter how the application is launched.

8.2.6 Backup and Restore For AppSense Personalization, every update of a profile sets an archiving flag in the

database. Once per day a copy of all the changes is archived in a separate table. By

default these archives are run at 1:00 AM.


30 of 43


This allows the IT Admin to perform an easy restore to a previous version. To allow

users to restore an archive of their profile, an extra feature called EM Browser

Interface needs to be installed on the AppSense server. This provides a website

through which users can browse and select which archive to restore.


31 of 43

Section: Logon Speed www.raido.be

9 Logon Speed After comparing the profile and the policies, I wanted to let both products compete in

a logon-speed-test. I have set up 2 Windows 2012 R2 servers, connected one to RES

Workspace Manager and connected the other one to AppSense DesktopNow. Then I

logged on with Admin credentials to open Process Monitor from SysInternals and

compared both logon processes. I did this test in 4 steps. I first checked the baseline,

where I wanted to make sure that both machines were performing equally without any

software on it. Then I installed the software, created a configuration and at last I also

compared both products with their user profile solution installed.

To make sure that I had as little external factors as possible influencing my tests, I

installed them as follows:

2 Windows 2012 R2 servers:

o Both cloned from the same server

o On XenServer 6.2

o 4 GB RAM

o 2 vCPU

o 24 GB Disk, on the same physical disk

The environment exists out of 2 XenServers, one which holds following servers:

The AppSense Server

The RES Server

1 test server for AppSense

1 test server for RES

On a second Xenserver I was running following servers:

The SQL Server

The Domain Controller

The File Server

For measuring the logon speed I used a procedure based on the following blogpost:

https://firstaidsupportforit.wordpress.com/2014/07/03/using-process-monitor-to-

measure-logon-times/

In short this means that I measured following process start actions:

Winlogon.exe: You can see the first process to kick off is the Winlogon.exe.

It starts at logon and ends when a user logs off.

Userinit.exe: Next one to launch is the userinit.exe process which includes

various user initializations. This process will also have a Process Exit after a

while, which means the users session is fully initialized.

Explorer.exe: When explorer.exe starts the user will get his start menu,

meaning that he can start working.

Notepad.exe: I added a shortcut of notepad.exe in the

“C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp”, since

this can give us an independent and visible time to assume the user logon

process has completely finished.

https://firstaidsupportforit.wordpress.com/2014/07/03/using-process-monitor-to-measure-logon-times/

https://firstaidsupportforit.wordpress.com/2014/07/03/using-process-monitor-to-measure-logon-times/


32 of 43


9.1 Step 1: The Baseline I wanted to be sure that both my testing machines were performing equally. As

discussed above, I made sure they have the same hardware, from the same host

computer. But to be absolutely sure, I had to do the logon tests before installing any

software.

AppSense DesktopNow RES Workspace Manager

userinit explorer notepad userinit explorer notepad

Test 1 2,0 2,1 14,4 2,2 2,2 14,6

Test 2 1,8 1,9 14,2 1,8 1,8 14,1

Test 3 1,7 1,8 14,1 1,6 1,7 14,0

Test 4 1,7 1,8 14,1 1,7 1,7 14,0

AVG 1,8 1,9 14,2 1,8 1,9 14,2

The above table shows me that on both computers, the start menu was accessible after

about 2 seconds, and the entire logon process took a little more than 14 seconds. You

can see that on both computers the first test is slower than the other tests. This is

because it was the first logon after rebooting the computer and nothing was loaded in

the memory yet. In all the upcoming tests this first logon after reboot is removed from

the test results.

9.2 Step 2: Agent software installed, no configuration and no hybrid profile management activated

For the second step I installed the software of both products, without any

configurations, just bare installs. I still did the same test; measuring the time between

“Process Start” of winlogon.exe, userinit.exe, explorer.exe and notepad.exe.



33 of 43


userinit explorer notepad userinit Explorer Notepad

Test 1 2,4 2,5 14,9 1,8 5,7 18,1

Test 2 2,3 2,4 14,8 1,9 6,1 18,5

Test 3 2,4 2,5 14,9 1,8 5,9 18,3

Test 4 2,3 2,4 14,8 2,2 6,1 18,5

AVG 2,3 2,4 14,9 1,9 6,0 18,4

From the above table I conclude that the footprint of RES Workspace manager is a lot

bigger than the footprint of AppSense DesktopNow. AppSense lost about half a

second before the start menu was accessible, but RES lost more than 4 seconds. This

also resulted in the complete logon slowing down accordingly.

9.3 Step 3: Agent software installed, with configuration but no hybrid profile management activated

I created following configuration settings in both the consoles:

Set the Desktop Wallpaper to the logo of the company in stretched mode.

Do 4 drive mappings to the file server.

Do 2 printer mappings to the server. I also added 1 printer mapping that would

not happen because the user was not member of the AD group that was part of

the condition.

Redirect folder “Documents” to connect to the home folder of the user

(connected on H:\ through Active Directory user property)

Configure Group Policies to:

o Prevent Access to the command prompt

o Hide following control panel items:

Microsoft.Display

Microsoft.Fonts

Microsoft.PowerOptions

Microsoft.ProgramsAndFeatures

Microsoft.RegionAndLanguage

Microsoft.System

Microsoft.UserAccounts

Microsoft.WindowsFirewall

o Hide the Clock

Set 1 environment Variable

Copy 4 files, with a total of 14,9 MB to the %TEMP%

Of course this is a very brief configuration. In an environment at a customer side,

there will be a lot more actions happening during the logon of a user. But this

configuration gives an idea of how the logon process would impact the user.

For RES Workspace Manager this resulted in the following configuration:


34 of 43


For AppSense DesktopNow this resulted in this configuration:


35 of 43


Until now the local user profile was used. But since this local user profile will be

altered during the configuration test, I make sure that this profile is removed before

each logon to have an equal battle.



Test 1 3,6 3,7 21,4 2,5 11,2 25,2

Test 2 3,7 3,8 21,7 2,3 11,5 25,3

Test 3 3,7 3,8 22,0 2,3 11,2 25,7

Test 4 3,9 4,0 22,0 2,3 10,9 25,2

AVG 3,7 3,8 21,8 2,3 11,2 25,4

It takes 3 times longer for RES workspace Manager to present the start menu to the

user then for AppSense DesktopNow. If you compare the complete logon process,

both products come closer to eachother but AppSense DesktopNow is still about 15 %

faster the RES Workspace Manager.

9.4 Step 4: Agent software installed, with configuration and hybrid profile management activated

For the last step, I configured the default settings of the Zero Profile of RES

Workspace Manger:

And the default settings for AppSense DesktopNow personalization:


userinit explorer notepad userinit Explorer Notepad


36 of 43


Test 1 5,4 5,5 21,3 2,5 12,1 26,5

Test 2 5,5 5,6 21,4 2,4 11,9 26,2

Test 3 5,3 5,3 21,3 2,4 11,6 25,9

Test 4 5,7 5,8 21,4 2,4 11,6 26,0

AVG 5,5 5,5 21,3 2,4 11,8 26,2

I saw very little impact of this configuration. I was surprised to see that the AppSense

process was even a little bit faster once personalization was configured. While RES

Workspace Manager slowed down less than 1 second. I did not do any configurations

after logon, so the user profile was very basic and no big files were copied back and

forward.

9.5 Recap

AppSense DesktopNow: All actions happen before userinit.exe starts or after

explorer.exe has already started. The user will be able to access his start

menu/desktop very early in the logon process. The multi-threading gives some

obvious performance gain. AppSense is well integrated in the Windows logon

process.

RES Workspace Manager: The start and Finish of the configuration happens

between the launch of userinit.exe and explorer.exe. This can be explained by

the fact that the entire configuration is performed through the pfwsmgr.exe

which is configured as the alternate shell of Windows.



Step 1 1,8 1,9 14,2 1,8 1,9 14,2

Step 2 2,3 2,4 14,9 1,9 6,0 18,4

Step 3 3,7 3,8 21,8 2,3 11,2 25,4

Step 4 5,5 5,5 21,3 2,4 11,8 26,2


37 of 43

Section: Conclusion www.raido.be

10 Conclusion

Topic AppSense RES

Management

Console

Benefit:

Connects to DB

through IIS.

Can work offline.

Disadvantage:

4 consoles

Benefit:

1 console

Disadvantage:

Direct connection to

database.

Cannot work offline.

Database

Benefit:

Only support for

Microsoft SQL Server,

this provides clarity and

easier to support.

Disadvantage:

Only support for

Microsoft SQL Server,

but this is the unofficial

industry standard.

Benefit:

Support for Microsoft

SQL Server, Oracle,

DB2 and MySQL. It is

very likely that a

company has a license

for at least one of

them. (no extra cost)

Disadvantage:

N/A

N-Tier

Benefit:

Compulsory 3-tier

architecture provides

clearness.

The product is designed

like this.

Disadvantage:

N/A

Benefit:

RES recently added the

Relay Server to the

architecture, which

serves a similar

purpose.

Disadvantage:

N/A


38 of 43


Topic AppSense RES

Client

Software

Benefit:

Smaller footprint

(according to test of

Logon-Speed)

Better integration with

Windows OS (dll’s,

hooks,…).

Disadvantage:

4 Agents

Benefit:

1 Agent

Disadvantage:

Bigger footprint

(according to test of

Logon-Speed)

Less integration with

Windows OS

(replacement of

windows shell and

shortcuts)

Configuration

Versioning

Benefit:

Included in

Environment Manager

Policy, Application

Manager and

Performance Manager.

Disadvantage:

Not included in

Environment Manager

Personalization.

Benefit:

N/A

Disadvantage:

Not included.

No proper roll-back

functionality in case of

failing settings.

Change

Tracking

Benefit:

Included in Application

Manager and

Environment Manager

Policy.

Disadvantage:

Not included in

Environment Manager

Personalization and

Performance Manager

Benefit:

Included.

Disadvantage:

N/A


39 of 43


Topic AppSense RES

Learning

Curve

Benefit:

Good documentation

Good introduction

videos

Disadvantage:

Product is more

complex, harder to

learn.

Benefit:

Good documentation

Good introduction

videos

Product is less

complex.

Disadvantage:

N/A

Context

Awareness

Benefit:

On Environment

Manager Policy, there

is a lot of flexibility, a

lot of conditions and

integrated on every

level.

Disadvantage:

Less on Application

Manager, Performance

Manager and

Environment Manager

Personalization.

Benefit:

N/A

Disadvantage:

Less options

Complex to setup

Triggers

Benefit:

More triggers

(Shutdown, Startup,

Process Stop, Session

Lock, Session Unlock,

Network Disconnect)

Disadvantage:

No trigger for Refresh

Workspace

Benefit:

Also a trigger for

Refresh Workspace

Disadvantage:

Less Triggers (only

Logon, Session

Refresh, Session

Reconnect and Logoff)

Not all actions are

possible at every

trigger.


40 of 43


Topic AppSense RES

Threading

Benefit:

Multi-Threaded.

Parallel actions.

Disadvantage:

N/A

Benefit:

N/A

Disadvantage:

Sequential actions.

Profile Storage

Location

Benefit:

AppSense moved away

from storing the user

profile data on a file

share and uses the

scalable IIS/SQL

combination

Better Reporting

(profile size, DB Size)

Disadvantage:

N/A

Benefit:

N/A

Disadvantage:

RES stores the user

profile on the

HomeDrive or another

CIFS share.

No reporting (profile

size)

Templates

Benefit:

N/A

Disadvantage:

Less Templates

Benefit:

More Templates

Disadvantage:

N/A

Profile

inclusions and

exclusions

Benefit:

Central point of

management

Disadvantage:

N/A

Benefit:

More options (file size

and file age)

Disadvantage:

N/A


41 of 43


Topic AppSense RES

Logon Speed

Benefit:

Faster

More options to

configure.

Better Integration with

Windows OS.

Disadvantage:

N/A

Benefit:

N/A

Disadvantage:

Slower

Less integration with

Windows OS.


42 of 43

Section: References www.raido.be

11 References Throughout the document I did a lot of research and following sources were used in

alphabetic order:

AppSense website: http://www.appsense.com/

GIMV Investment in RES: http://gimv.com/en/media-and-news/press-

releases/gimv-invests-eur-4-7-million-in-dutch-res-software

How to create and Assign User Profiles for Users in a Domain -

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/128624

LinkedIn, AppSense:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/15403?trk=tyah&trkInfo=tarId%3A14192

42964078%2Ctas%3AAppSense%2Cidx%3A2-1-4

LinkedIn, RES:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/165709?trk=tyah&trkInfo=tarId%3A1419

242937729%2Ctas%3ARES%2Cidx%3A3-2-8

Managing Roaming User Data Deployment Guide, scenario 3 -

http://download.microsoft.com/download/3/b/a/3ba6d659-6e39-4cd7-b3a2-

9c96482f5353/managing%20roaming%20user%20data%20deployment%20gu

ide.doc

Managing User Profiles - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-

us/library/bb726990.aspx

Microsoft Technet | User Profiles - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-

us/library/cc737881(WS.10).aspx

MyAppSense: https://www.myappsense.com/

RES Automation Manager: http://www.ressoftware.com/product/res-

automation-manager

RES IT Store: http://www.ressoftware.com/product/res-it-store

RES Knowledge Base:

https://support.ressoftware.com/Modules/KnowledgeBase/KnowledgeBaseTre

eView.aspx

RES Pedia: http://resguru.com/glossary/

RES Software Celebrates Ten-Year Anniversary:

http://www.prweb.com/releases/RES_Software/Ten_Year_Anniversary/prweb

2998474.htm

RES website: http://www.ressoftware.com/

RES Workspace Manager 2014 Self Study kit -

https://support.ressoftware.com/Modules/Downloads/Downloads.aspx?Downl

oadGuid=9e8b7411-eadf-e311-82a7-005056bb474c

RES Workspace Manager: http://www.ressoftware.com/product/res-

workspace-manager

The Case of the Slow Logons:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/markrussinovich/archive/2010/01/13/3305263.aspx

Updata Investment in RES: http://updatapartners.com/?portfolio=res-software-

2

Using Process Monitor to investigate logon times and analyse applications:

http://uvarchitect.blogspot.be/2014/03/using-process-monitor-to-

investigate.html

http://www.appsense.com/

http://gimv.com/en/media-and-news/press-releases/gimv-invests-eur-4-7-million-in-dutch-res-software

http://gimv.com/en/media-and-news/press-releases/gimv-invests-eur-4-7-million-in-dutch-res-software

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/128624

https://www.linkedin.com/company/15403?trk=tyah&trkInfo=tarId%3A1419242964078%2Ctas%3AAppSense%2Cidx%3A2-1-4

https://www.linkedin.com/company/15403?trk=tyah&trkInfo=tarId%3A1419242964078%2Ctas%3AAppSense%2Cidx%3A2-1-4

https://www.linkedin.com/company/165709?trk=tyah&trkInfo=tarId%3A1419242937729%2Ctas%3ARES%2Cidx%3A3-2-8

https://www.linkedin.com/company/165709?trk=tyah&trkInfo=tarId%3A1419242937729%2Ctas%3ARES%2Cidx%3A3-2-8

http://download.microsoft.com/download/3/b/a/3ba6d659-6e39-4cd7-b3a2-9c96482f5353/managing%20roaming%20user%20data%20deployment%20guide.doc



http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb726990.aspx

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb726990.aspx

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc737881(WS.10).aspx

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc737881(WS.10).aspx

https://www.myappsense.com/

http://www.ressoftware.com/product/res-automation-manager

http://www.ressoftware.com/product/res-automation-manager

http://www.ressoftware.com/product/res-it-store

https://support.ressoftware.com/Modules/KnowledgeBase/KnowledgeBaseTreeView.aspx

https://support.ressoftware.com/Modules/KnowledgeBase/KnowledgeBaseTreeView.aspx

http://resguru.com/glossary/

http://www.prweb.com/releases/RES_Software/Ten_Year_Anniversary/prweb2998474.htm

http://www.prweb.com/releases/RES_Software/Ten_Year_Anniversary/prweb2998474.htm

http://www.ressoftware.com/

https://support.ressoftware.com/Modules/Downloads/Downloads.aspx?DownloadGuid=9e8b7411-eadf-e311-82a7-005056bb474c

https://support.ressoftware.com/Modules/Downloads/Downloads.aspx?DownloadGuid=9e8b7411-eadf-e311-82a7-005056bb474c

http://www.ressoftware.com/product/res-workspace-manager

http://www.ressoftware.com/product/res-workspace-manager

http://blogs.technet.com/b/markrussinovich/archive/2010/01/13/3305263.aspx

http://updatapartners.com/?portfolio=res-software-2

http://updatapartners.com/?portfolio=res-software-2

http://uvarchitect.blogspot.be/2014/03/using-process-monitor-to-investigate.html

http://uvarchitect.blogspot.be/2014/03/using-process-monitor-to-investigate.html


43 of 43

Section: References www.raido.be

Wikipedia, AppSense: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AppSense

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AppSense