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Roaming and Virtual Application Deployment

A target computer is said to be roaming when it moves from one location to another within the enterprise network. As a result of the move, the target computer may need to connect to a new scalability server. This move may happen because the user is working in a new office, and the user’s computer needs to connect to the local scalability server instead of the original scalability server. Also, if there are organizational changes in the enterprise that affect the structure of the network, some target computers may be assigned to different scalability servers.

For target computers that run virtual applications in streaming mode, the scalability server also functions as the streaming server. With streamed virtual applications, the applications must be staged on the scalability server connected to the target computer in order for the applications to run on the target computer. Thus, if a target computer moves to a new location and a new scalability server, the new scalability server may also become the new streaming server. The Staging packages for all virtual applications that are streamed to the target computer must be installed on the new scalability server before the new server can function as a streaming server. See the description of Virtual Application Packages for more information on the types of virtual application packages.

To avoid problems with running streamed virtual applications on a roaming target computer, the CA ITCM agent on the target computer performs some checks before changing the computer’s streaming server. These checks do not affect the switch to the new scalability server. The target computer does roam to the new scalability server. The checks determine whether the new scalability server also functions as the streaming server. If the result of the checks is successful, the streaming server is changed to the new scalability server. If the result of the checks is not successful, the original scalability server continues to function as the streaming server. See the description of How Roaming Works with Virtual Applications for more information.

Notes:

• Roaming does not affect the deployment of Standalone virtual application packages or the preparation of scalability servers for streaming mode operation.
• You can turn roaming off by setting common configuration policy parameters. If you do so, the original scalability server is always kept as the streaming server. See the DSM Explorer Help for more information about configuration policies and the Deploy Virtual Applications policy group in particular.