Application Streaming
VMware ThinApp (formerly Thinstall) provides streaming capability without requiring a new server or a client
Any network storage device can serve as a streaming server for hundreds or thousands of client PCs. To use ThinApp packages in a streaming fashion, simply place your ThinApp package in a location that is accessible to client PCs send a link to end-users to run the application directly, for example \\server\sharename\application.exe. You can also create shortcuts on the end-user's desktop which point to the centrally hosted EXE package(s). When the user clicks on the shortcut, the application will automatically begin streaming to the client PC.
During the initial streaming startup process, the ThinApp statusbar will inform the user of the progress. Once enough of the application has been streamed that the application can begin running, the statusbar will slide down and the user can begin using the application. As more parts of the application are required by the application, they will be pulled from the "streaming server". ThinApp does not require any special server software to provide streaming capability, any windows file share, NAT device, or SMB share can automatically provide this capability.
The amount of data that needs to be transferred before the application can begin running will vary widely, Office 2003 only requires a fraction of the package contents to be streamed before the application can run. ThinApp's streaming is currently designed for LAN based environments with 100mb networks recommended.
Seeing is believing: Stream Firefox now:
- Download the Thinstalled Firefox.exe from the Application Virtualization Kit
- Place the EXE on a LAN drive
- Create a shortcut on a local PC
- Start streaming the application
After the data has been received on the client PC, data is decompressed directly into memory and provided to the application. Because no data needs to written to disk during the entire process the process is very fast and client PCs need only minimal disk space to host the operating system.
When subsequent read request are made by the application for the same data, the Window disk cache will provide the same data without requiring a network read operation. If the client PC runs low on memory, Windows will automatically throw away some of it's disk cache and provide the memory resource to other applications.
