VMware Horizon Community
nuberaldhoore
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Appvolumes version 2.9

According to VMware App Volumes 2.9 Promotion | United States there is a promotion available for App Volumes 2.9.

I was wondering when this version will become available and more importantly which new features will be introduced with this new feature.

Does somebody know?

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Ray_handels
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

I can't believe but think that this is a typo. We just had version 2.6 available. I can't image them going to 2.9 (or 2.9 being available at short notice) but that's just my 2 cents.

I would expect 2.7 first (seeing they went from 2.5 to 2.6) or 3.0.

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ggordon
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

We can't disclose features of future releases at this time but you may be able to reach out to your local VMware rep and discuss it under NDA.

The version number is correct; as far as I know the next version to be released will be version 2.9. If you read the FAQ on the promotion you will see the following that will give an indication of the timeline,

"You will receive a notification email within 45 days of VMware App Volumes 2.9 general availability or within 45 days after you place the eligible order, whichever is later. Promotion offer must be redeemed by July 31, 2015 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time (PT)."

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Lieven
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

ggordon Life would be easy if people stopped answering in riddles. 🙂

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HenryLe0311
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

It sure would be easier. first the .29 teaser stuff and now the VMware touting the "VMware Application Management Bundle" Making Citrix Work Better: VMware Simplifying Application Management for Citrix XenApp and XenDeskto...

It would be nice to see some detail or straight answers for one. I understand if a company cannot say "here are our plans for the next year! come get us competitors!" But to put out a new product and put out some stuff about 2.9 and how/when you can buy it, with no detail, is simply silly.  And in that link VMware is saying for Citrix XenDesktop/XenApp but the 2.6 version I have says it doesn't support XenDesktop. Only XenApp 6. Something new on the horizon?

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HenryLe0311
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I just have to add, I have re-read that announcement on the bundle and this is a quote

Available to customers and partners today, the VMware Horizon Application Management Bundle offers a comprehensive set of VMware technologies for WEM that includes:

How can it be available for XenApp and XenDesktop today if 2.6 doesn't support XenApp 7 or XenDesktop at all? We are a VMware shop for the hypervisor and Citrix for everything else. But no way will I get the Xen guys to try something the documentations says is unsupported. They just wont even look at it. I like the tech but this seems like marketing BS to me.

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Bleeder
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

There are also several VMware KB articles referencing App Volumes 2.7.x.  Just type this into Google:

site:kb.vmware.com "app volumes 2.7.x"

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HenryLe0311
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I get that. The results seem to be almost all KB articles and I am sure if you are writing one (or getting ready to release a new version) you can do a search and replace on a bunch of KBs.

But the 2.9 come buy it now message. Or the EUC blog talking about a package for sale right now that actually isn't supported is what gets my goat. When I saw the blog I thought "Cool, now I can get the Xen team to test" then after digging and learning nothing has changed in the product I was pissed.

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JHT_Seattle
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Unfortunately, what ggordon stated was inaccurate.  Coupled with the promo that was found, it led people in the wrong direction.

Next release is 2.7 (more KB articles and blogs support this), and 2.9 will be a later release.  I've not seen anything referring to 2.8, so it's entirely possible that there won't be one.

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Ray_handels
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

I agree with JHT on this one. In all communications I had there was never speaking of a 2.9 version in short notice. I have no idea why that is stated. We did however test Cloudvolumes with XenDesktop 7.0 (very very long time ago) and my understanding was that they did support Citrix. Still not that VMWare bought it i have no idea how long it will stay supported on Citrix.

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HenryLe0311
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

https://www.vmware.com/support/appvolumes/doc/app-volumes-26-release-notes.html

It MAY work with XenApp 7. But they come out and announce a management pack for Citrix and make a big smiley blog about it and then you click on the product page and see:

Under compatibility notes:

XenApp 6.5  (No XenApp 7.x no XenDesktop... no Win Server 2012 for the agent)

So how do I go to a Citrix team with that. I would get laughed out of their conference room.

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JHT_Seattle
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

2.7 is out now.  Take it to your Citrix team. 

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nuberaldhoore
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

And I just installed version 2.6 today at a customer. What a petty we don't get a heads-up on release dates.

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JHT_Seattle
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

I would say the good thing about releases post 2.6.0 is that, while you still have to uninstall the old version of the Manager in order to install the newer one, at least it doesn't detach the stacks by default, so you can update without needing to schedule a full outage.

Edit to add - if you have an LTM in front of two managers, disable one pool member prior to updating it and your users will never know anything was down.

HenryLe0311
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

JHT_Seattle wrote:

2.7 is out now.  Take it to your Citrix team.

Nice, though Release notes say its still just XenApp 6.5 and for XenDesktop they only added back 5

We have a LITTLE bit of XenApp 6.5 but I think its down to like 6 or 7 servers. The rest of the environment is on XenApp 7 and XenDesktop 7

So I am still confused by their push here. I think its just a few in VMware trying to poke Citrix in the eye without any real drive to support Citrix products.

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nuberaldhoore
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I would have liked to see the experimental multi-vcenter feature going into a supported version + I am still waiting for vSphere 6.0 compatibility.

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JHT_Seattle
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

VMware is probably just looking at Citrix install numbers, and I would venture to guess that most Citrix deployments are on 6.5 or older still.  I'm sure support for 7 will come in time, but App Volumes team is probably prioritizing their support (official) for vSphere 6.x, View 6.1, and Server 2012/R2, SQL 2012, etc.  Too many other parts to worry about bleeding edge Citrix users.

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Bleeder
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Keep in mind, there's less than 10 months before end of maintenance for XenApp 6.5.

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whibr
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Come on, what's the hang up? Still no vSphere/vCenter 6.0 support yet in 2.7?  Very frustrating.

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sachindsharma
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Sorry for the confusion on this one. 2.7 does support XA/XD 7.X, we just had a hiccup in updating our release notes. The release notes were updated shortly after GA on 4/28 and should reflect that 2.7 supports XD 7.X, which includes XA 7.X.

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