Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops

Manage Application Groups

Note: When using Application Groups with the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service, the “restrict by tag” feature is currently not available.

Introduction

This article describes how to manage the Application Groups you created.

See Applications for information about managing applications in Application Groups or Delivery Groups, including how to:

  • Add or remove applications in an Application Group.
  • Change Application Group associations.

Managing Application Groups requires the Delegated Administration permissions of the Delivery Group Administrator built-in role. See Delegated Administration for details.

Enable or disable an Application Group

When an Application Group is enabled, it can deliver the applications that have been added to it. Disabling an Application Group disables each application in that group. However, if those applications are also associated with other enabled Application Groups, they can be delivered from those other groups. Similarly, if the application was explicitly added to Delivery Groups associated with the Application Group (in addition to being added to the Application Group), disabling the Application Group does not affect the applications in those Delivery Groups.

An Application Group is enabled when you create it. You cannot change this when you create the group.

  1. Select Applications in the Studio navigation pane.
  2. Select an Application Group in the middle pane and then select Edit Application Group in the Actions pane.
  3. On the Settings page, select or clear the Enable Application Group check box.
  4. Click Apply to apply any changes you made and keep the window open, or click OK to apply changes and close the window.

Enable or disable application session sharing between Application Groups

Session sharing between Application Groups is enabled when you create an Application Group. You cannot change this when you create the group. For more information, see Session sharing with Application Groups.

  1. Select Applications in the Studio navigation pane.
  2. Select an Application Group in the middle pane and then select Edit Application Group in the Actions pane.
  3. On the Settings page, select or clear the Enable application session sharing between Application Groups check box.
  4. Click Apply to apply any changes you made and keep the window open, or click OK to apply changes and close the window.

Disable application session sharing within an Application Group

Session sharing between applications in the same Application Group is enabled by default when you create an Application Group. If you disable application session sharing between Application Groups, session sharing between applications in the same Application Group remains enabled.

You can use the PowerShell SDK to configure Application Groups with application session sharing disabled between the applications they contain. In some circumstances this may be desirable. For example, you might want users to start non-seamless applications in full-size application windows on separate monitors.

When you disable application session sharing within an Application Group, each application in that group launches in a new application session. If a suitable disconnected session is available which is running the same application, it is reconnected. For example, if you launch Notepad, and there is a disconnected session with Notepad running, that session is reconnected instead of creating a new one. If multiple suitable disconnected sessions are available, one of the sessions is chosen to reconnect to, in a random but deterministic manner. If the situation reoccurs in the same circumstances, the same session is chosen, but the session is not necessarily predictable otherwise.

You can use the PowerShell SDK either to disable application session sharing for all applications in an existing Application Group, or to create an Application Group with application session sharing disabled.

PowerShell cmdlet examples

To disable session sharing, use the Broker PowerShell cmdlets New-BrokerApplicationGroup or Set-BrokerApplicationGroup with the parameter SessionSharingEnabled set to False and the parameter SingleAppPerSession set to True.

  • For example, to create an Application Group with application session sharing disabled for all applications in the group:

    New-BrokerApplicationGroup AppGr1 -SessionSharingEnabled $False ‑SingleAppPerSession $True

  • For example, to disable application session sharing between all applications in an existing Application Group:

    Set-BrokerApplicationGroup AppGR1 -SessionSharingEnabled $False ‑SingleAppPerSession $True

Considerations

  • To enable the SingleAppPerSession property you must set the SessionSharingEnabled property to False. The two properties must not be enabled at the same time. The SessionSharingEnabled parameter refers to sharing sessions between Application Groups.
  • Application session sharing works only for applications that are associated with Application Groups but are not associated with Delivery Groups. (All applications associated directly with a Delivery Group share sessions by default.)
  • If an application is assigned to multiple Application Groups, make sure that the groups do not have conflicting settings. For example, one group with the option set to True, and another group’s option set to False results in unpredictable behavior.

Rename an Application Group

  1. Select Applications in the Studio navigation pane.
  2. Select an Application Group in the middle pane and then select Rename Application Group in the Actions pane.
  3. Specify the new unique name and then click OK.

Add, remove, or change the priority of Delivery Group associations with an Application Group

An Application Group can be associated with Delivery Groups containing shared (not private) machines that can deliver applications.

You can also select Delivery Groups containing shared machines that deliver only desktops, if both of the following conditions are met:

  • The Delivery Group contains shared machines and was created with a version earlier than 7.9.
  • You have Edit Delivery Group permission.

The Delivery Group type is automatically converted to “desktops and applications” when the Edit Application Group dialog is committed.

  1. Select Applications in the Studio navigation pane.
  2. Select an Application Group in the middle pane and then select Edit Application Group in the Actions pane.
  3. Select the Delivery Groups page.
  4. To add Delivery Groups, click Add. Select the check boxes of available Delivery Groups. (Incompatible Delivery Groups cannot be selected.) When you finish your selections, click OK.
  5. To remove Delivery Groups, select the check boxes of the groups you want to remove and then click Remove. Confirm the deletion when prompted.
  6. To change the priority of Delivery Groups, select the checkbox of the Delivery Group and then click Edit Priority. Enter the priority (0 = highest) and then click OK.
  7. Click Apply to apply any changes you made and keep the window open, or click OK to apply changes and close the window.

Add, change, or remove a tag restriction in an Application Group

Adding, changing, and removing tag restrictions can have unanticipated effects on which machines are considered for application launch. Review the considerations and cautions in Tags.

  1. Select Applications in the Studio navigation pane.
  2. Select an Application Group in the middle pane and then select Edit Application Group in the Actions pane.
  3. Select the Delivery Groups page.
  4. To add a tag restriction, select Restrict launches to machines with the tag and then select the tag from the dropdown.
  5. To change or remove a tag restriction, either select a different tag from the dropdown or remove the tag restriction entirely by clearing Restrict launches to machines with this tag.
  6. Click Apply to apply any changes you made and keep the window open, or click OK to apply changes and close the window.

Add or remove users in an Application Group

For detailed information about users, see Create Application Groups.

  1. Select Applications in the Studio navigation pane.
  2. Select an Application Group in the middle pane and then select Edit Application Group in the Actions pane.
  3. Select the Users page. Indicate whether you want to allow all users in the associated Delivery Groups to use applications in the Application Group, or only specific users and groups. To add users, click Add, and then specify the users you want to add. To remove users, select one or more users and then click Remove.
  4. Click Apply to apply any changes you made and keep the window open, or click OK to apply changes and close the window.

Change scopes in an Application Group

You can change a scope only if you have created a scope (you cannot edit the All scope). For more information, see Delegated Administration.

  1. Select Applications in the Studio navigation pane.
  2. Select an Application Group in the middle pane and then select Edit Application Group in the Actions pane.
  3. Select the Scopes page. Select or clear the check box next to a scope.
  4. Click Apply to apply any changes you made and keep the window open, or click OK to apply changes and close the window.

Delete an Application Group

An application must be associated with at least one Delivery Group or Application Group. If deleting an Application Group will result in one or more applications no longer belonging to a group, you will be warned that deleting that group will also delete those applications. You can then confirm or cancel the deletion.

Deleting an application does not delete it from its original source. However, if you want to make it available again, you must add it again.

  1. Select Applications in the Studio navigation pane.
  2. Select an Application Group in the middle pane and then select Delete Group in the Actions pane.
  3. Confirm the deletion when prompted.