What’s New for FlexApp Packaging Automation?

Version 1.6.0 - Released November 20, 2024

Issues Resolved

  • Increased number of installers supported from three to ten, allowing for a single package to contain a larger amount of installations.
  • Added ability to configure package job retry behavior with the default behavior configured to retry failed jobs equal to the number of agents available.
  • User registry data from HKCU and HKU can now be excluded from capture with the default behavior configured to still capture said data.
  • Added support for AppData content capture.

Version 1.5.1 - Released February 28, 2024

Issues Resolved

  • Fixed an issue where temporary installation directory was prematurely deleted.

Version 1.5.0 - Released November 8, 2023

What's New

  • Service Account and User Compatibility Improvements:
    • Service Account for Packaging: The automation framework now creates a default service account for packaging applications, moving away from using the SYSTEM account. This change enhances compatibility with various application captures, ensuring a smoother and more reliable packaging process.
    • Case-Insensitive Usernames: Usernames for primary clients and agents are now treated as case-insensitive, reducing potential issues related to user account discrepancies and improving overall system resilience.
  • Version Compatibility and Package Management:
    • Component Version Matching: All installed FlexApp components, as well as those included in the FlexApp One bundler, now match the version of the core FlexApp based on version 6.8.6. This ensures consistency and reliability across the entire FlexApp suite.
    • FlexApp One Package Creation: During the packaging process, an associated FlexApp One package is now automatically created, with any FlexApp One (FA1) arguments being duly passed along.
    • Package Versioning: Users now have the ability to apply versioning to the packages created, allowing for better management and tracking of application layers.
    • Continuous Capture: The automation framework supports continuous capture, allowing for the replacement of existing packages in a ProfileUnity configuration with newly-created packages.
    • FPC "Offline Mode" Packages.xml Support: New packages can be added to a running inventory outside of the ProfileUnity Console, a "packages.xml" file which can be opened by the FlexApp Packaging Console in "Offline Mode".
  • Performance and Efficiency Enhancements:
    • API and Capture Timeouts: The wait time for various API timeouts has been reduced to 10 seconds, and the timeout for the capture process has been increased to 120 minutes. This ensures a more efficient and timely packaging process.
    • High-Compatibility Capturing: A new default capture mode, High-Compatibility Capturing, has been added to enhance the success rate of application captures.
    • OS Optimizations and Runtimes: The capture agent now performs automatic OS optimizations for the cleanest capture possible and installs common runtimes needed for compatibility.
  • Capture Agent Enhancements and Installation:
    • AppData Local and Roaming: Data from these locations is now captured by default and copied in during playback or at logon for each assigned user.
    • License File Handling: The capture agent installation process now supports defining the location of a FlexApp One license file, ensuring it is copied to the correct directory. Additionally, the installation process automatically checks the current working directory for the license file.
    • Script and MSI Installer Improvements: MSI installers automatically call 'msiexec /i' with appended '/qn', and script-based installers call the respective executable with appropriate silent arguments.
    • Agent Service Auto-Registration: During an "Install Agent", the /PrimaryAddress arguments can be used to automatically register the new Agent with an existing Primary Packaging Manager. In addition, the same arguments passed during an "Uninstall" will unregister the Agent with a Primary Service during uninstallation.
    • Script-based installation: Scripts can be called in place of an installer, locally downloading the working directory to the capture machine so associated files are available when called during installation. Depending on the extension of the file, scripts are automatically run by the associated interpreter and include the respective silent installation switches.
  • Cloud and Storage Enhancements:
    • IAM Role-Based S3 Access: The capture process now supports IAM Role-based S3 access, eliminating the need for access keys and secrets.
    • Custom Storage Locations: The framework now supports custom storage locations using URI format for both S3 and Azure, providing additional flexibility in storage options.
    • Block Caching Enhancements: Packages destined for cloud storage are processed, post-capture, to ensure a successful initial playback even during times of poor network conditions.
  • Diagnostics and Logging:
    • ProfileUnity Diagnostic Utility: The product now includes the ProfileUnity diagnostic utility, offering enhanced diagnostics capabilities.
    • Improved Logging: Logs created during package creation now have the package name prepended to the filename, making it easier to identify and troubleshoot issues.
  • User Interface and Help Improvements:
    • Help Output Updates: Various areas of the 'help' output for the installer, client, and agent have been updated and corrected, providing clearer guidance and support to users.
    • Full API Documentation: Admins can enable the API documentation page on the Primary or Agent Service, as-needed, when developing workflows and automation integration points.
  • Error Handling and Validation:
    • Capture Job Retries: The Primary Packaging Manager Service will retry certain types of failures as many times as there are Capture Agents. This helps keep overall success rate high in the event a Capture Agent is experiencing an issue mid-job. If there were any, retry counts would be included in the Job Summary.
    • Improved Error Pass-Through/Recording: Enhancements have been made to the error pass-through and recording process from the capture agent to the client, ensuring that issues are promptly identified and resolved.
    • Validation Checks: Additional validation checks have been implemented against numerous parameters passed during the packaging process, including files, paths, and credentials, further ensuring the integrity of the packaging process.
  • Command Line Interface (CLI) and Job Management:
    • Enhanced CLI Support: The package creation process now accepts all possible packaging arguments via CLI, and various 'agent' and 'packages' commands have been enhanced to support passing primary credentials and other essential parameters.
    • Job Filtering and Retry Mechanism: Users can now filter packaging jobs based on their status, and failed captures are retried a number of times equal to the number of known agents, improving the robustness of the packaging process.

Issues Resolved

  • Fixed an issue where packages could be identically named
  • Fixed an issue where packages failed to be created on Windows Server OS due to system restore attempt.
  • Fixed an issue where FPA-created packages were unable to be cloned in the FlexApp packaging console in certain scenarios.
  • Fixed an issue with packages that do not contain shortcuts fail to capture.
  • Fixed an issue where an MSI installer path that contained spaces fail to capture.
  • Fixed an issue where the Service would remain after a failed installation of either primary or agent.
  • Fixed an issue where lwl_proc_info system driver is not removed during uninstallation.
  • Fixed an issue with Existing packages were unable to be extended.
  • Fixed an issue with Creating packages directly on the client did not honor parameters present in the argument file.

Version 1.0.25 – Released August 18, 2021

The first version of FlexApp Packaging Automation is released to market. This framework allows for multiple and concurrent unattended FlexApp Package captures.