ProfileUnity FlexApp technology provides an alternative way of delivering applications to just the users who need them. FlexApp enables organizations to create a single base image for all users and add in extra applications as needed thus reducing storage requirements to maintain multiple base images for different departments or segments of users.
With the enhanced functionality that ProfileUnity already delivers, approximately 80% of what an application needs to run is already delivered by the base solution. So, what else do we need to make an application function in a ‘floating’ state with FlexApp?
In the case of FlexApp, applications are stored inside a virtual hard disk (VHDX) on the network or a VMware virtual machine disk (VMDK) on storage visible to the ESXi host. A VHDX looks like a local file system but can be mounted from anywhere on the network that we want to host our applications. VMDKs also look like a local file system but are mounted from the storage visible to the ESXi host where the desktop is running. Using a virtual disk has a number of benefits including IOPS reductions, file system compression, and application portability.
Before delivering applications to specific users or departments, administrators package applications using the FlexApp Packaging Console. When packaging an application using the FlexApp Packaging Console, each application gets its own virtual disk. After the packages have been created, the admin assigns the packages to users from within the ProfileUnity Management Console. The FlexApp Configuration module is used for assigning VHDXs packages to users while the FlexDisk Management section is used for assigning VMDKs to users. When a user logs in to their desktop, ProfileUnity breaks down which applications have been assigned to the user by the administrator. The virtual disk for each application is attached to the OS to a directory. These applications are then played back into the OS and are available for use.
