During a Microsoft App-V 5.0 implementation I had to deploy an App-V Reporting server so the customer could track usage information. I found that the required information is not well documented at TechNet but can be found (it’s scattered around the internet). Also, the information provided by Microsoft is (at the moment of writing) not accurate. Prerequisites are missing.

Hence I figured it would be good to sum up the information I gathered along the way.

Prerequisites

Before you can (or should) install the App-V 5.0 Reporting Server certain prerequisites should be met. I won’t sum there here as they are summed at the TechNet Library. Unfortunately not all prerequisites are clear or missing.

Server

• On Windows Server 2012 you need to install .ASP.NET 4.5  (not ASP.NET 3.5).This makes sense since .NET Framework 4 a perquisite. The same applies for .NET Extensibility
• Besides the x86 version of the Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 SP1 Redistributable Package you also need the x64 version. This makes sense since the 64-bit ASP.NET registration is requested.

When Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 SP1 Redistributable Package (x64) is NOT installed you’ll receive the following error on the App-V 5.0 Client: AppV Error Code: 1300000013. Additionally an error event is raised on the client by Microsoft-AppV-Client/Admin with ID 17006. On the App-V Reporting Server a warning event is raised by ASP.NET 4.0.30139.0 with ID 1310.

Database

• The computer account of the App-V Reporting Servers requires a SQL login with sufficient (dbOwner?) privileges on the AppVReporting database. Unlike with the Management database you can’t nest the computer account in an Active Directory Group (AppVRead / AppVWrite / AppVAdmins).

When the computer account has no SQL login an Error event is raised by Server-Reporting with ID 100.

Client configuration

After the Microsoft App-V Reporting server is built and configured the App-V client needs to be configured to upload its usage data. On each App-V Client you need to run the Set-AppvClientConfiguration cmdlet with –ReportingEnabled 1 parameter, more details can at the TechNet Library.

Others

You need to keep the following in mind:

• Each App-V Client communicates directly with the Reporting Server, this is not handled by the Publishing Server;
• Collected data from the App-V client is processed once a day at midnight (for details see hakabo.com);
• Microsoft does not provided reports or software to display reports.

Yes you’ve read the last one correct, Microsoft does not supply any mechanism to display the tracked usage of the App-V applications. While the Management Server console looks pretty awesome it’s very basic. So what if you want to create reports based on the collected data? Well, that’s up to you. At hakabo.com you can find an example how create reports using Microsoft Excel or SQL Reporting Services.

Conclusion

While Microsoft made a lot of improvements with App-V 5.0, the first complete rebuild since the initial release (Softricity SoftGrid). But the documentation is poor and incomplete, which is a shame.

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