Everything You Always Wanted to Know About SVS but Were Afraid to Ask

About a year ago I began writing a F.A.Q, (yep, a list of Frequently Asked Questions), and because we are on the Juice, now I'm willing to share it with you all.

This FAQ is separated into sections.

Section 1: Let's start using SVS

Question: There are so many solutions? Why should I start with SVS?

That's an easy one. SVS is the coolest tool I ever saw. Building, editing and exporting packages is probably the easiest in the world. You can do amazing stuff with SVS. And best of all? It leaves no traces behind when you delete a package. Ever tried to install 30 day trialware on your computer and a couple of months later install it again after you deleted it? Won't work. It leaves traces so that prevent it from installing a second time. With SVS. It is just gone like it was never there.

Question: Where do I get it and what version do I need?

Go to www.svsdownloads.com and download it there. www.svsdownloads.com always has the latest public version available. If you'd like to play with betas, then subscribe to http:\beta.altiris.com and see if SVS is currently in beta.

Question: I wish to play for a while with it to see what it does?

No problem. SVS is free for personal use, and you are always able to download the latest 120 day evaluation version for in the Office. Just download it and become one of the most respected packagers.

Question: What is the difference between SVS and SVS Pro?

SVS Pro is a streaming version that will enable you to stream packages on demand to your clients. It will help you greatly for a mass rollout. If you have ten PCs, you can do it manually. When you have 50, then SVS Pro is a very good solution.

Section 2: Deploying Packages

Question: I built a couple of VSA's but I do not know how to distribute them?

SVS and especially SVSCMD, the commandline tool that installs with SVS helps you to do a lot of tasks. You can rollout SVS packages with: Altiris Deployment Solution, Microsoft SMS, HP Openview, DinamiQs client management solution or even Tivoli. It all works just by knowing some of the command lines.

Question: I have Altiris Deployment Solution running. Can I install SVS from the console?

Yes you can. Actually the job is already standard inside. Just place the SVS Msi on the correct location and drag and drop the job on the desired PC. It is as easy as that.

Question: What tool do you like most for software deployment?

I personally preferred a easy solution. Altiris DS can do a lot without really understanding what it does, but it is also a dangerous tool when you don't understand it. Get good training. I love DinamiQs. I created it myself, and some of my colleagues programmed it. It can only be used with a mouse. So it is commandless. A very cool addition is SVS Pro. It publishes the new application to the desktop and when the user starts it, SVS Pro delivers it to the desktop in small blocks. After 30% is streamed it starts, and the rest is streamed on the background or on demand when a user needs functionality that isn't yet there. Spend a few bucks, and you have a cool on demand streaming engine that empowers your environment greatly.

Question: Can I use it with SMS, and how does it work?

Yes, you can use it with SMS. Build a rule like SVSCMD.exe [LayerGUID|LayerName] <command> [flags], and make sure you have enough rights on the directory where the VSA is located. Start cmd.exe and type svscmd in the black box. Then you will see what I mean.

Section 3: Building Packages

Question: Can I build packages in SVS or do I need Wise packaging Studio 7?

This is a hard one. You can build all packages with SVS admin. It works great, and helps a lot in editing packages. But just for in the office probably it is very good to get a Wise Packaging Studio license. It will prevent you from manually editing all kinds of settings. Wise adds a lot of extra functionality to a package. Think about Onevents or the meta file that you need for several packages.

Question: What's all this about OnEvents?

OnEvents are actions that you can perform when you do certain actions. For instance, onPreactivate does something before the layer is activated. You can, for instance, copy a file from the layer to the physical system. Onpost deactivate does an action after the layer is de-activated. So the file can be copied back inside the layer. You find various posts about it on the Juice. Try this one: http://www.symantec.com/connect/article/1744/getti...

Question: Do I have to add the OnEvents manually or can this been done automatically?

In SVS you have to do it manually. This is a little tricky, because you need to understand how it works. With Wise Packaging Studio they are integrated automatically, and that makes it much more easy to use them. For instance: You have a driver that should be active before the package is activated. In Wise you add a meta directory, and you place the driver in the META. Then you create a onpractivate that copies the file to the system and registers it.

With a onpostdeactivate you can unregister it and place it back in the layer. In SVS it is hard to do this. Only files that resides in the META can be written back to the layer when it is de-activated.
Try the following links. http://www.symantec.com/connect/article/2726/packa... or use the oneventtool POGO wrote: http://www.symantec.com/connect/download/2985/onev...

Question: How hard is it to build packages?

Building packages is as easy as installing software. Building stable packages for multi deployment is hard to do. You have to cleanup messes from other programs, especially when you build global layers.

The most difficult in building packages is the registry. You really should understand how the registry works because you can destroy a lot. I saw packages that once activated caused the computer to show a Microsoft built in feature. The BSOD (Blue screen of Death).
Read more on the following link: http://www.symantec.com/connect/article/3174/svs-b...

Question: I heard something about Priority's? What's that?

When you build a layer with Adobe Acrobat Reader and a layer with Adobe Creative Suite, and you click on a PDF. What is going to be used? We know it will kickoff the program that is in the layer that is activated the last. But is that what you want? With Prioritizing you can actually start what you want to. The command line is as follow: svscmd.exe "Layername" priority -t hkcr -l 75.6.

A application that is installed local on the system or in a layer always's get prio 75.5. The higher the number the lower the Priority. So if you want Adobe reader to be always's the program to start when you doubleclick on a PDF, just give in SVSCMD.EXE "adobereader" Priority -t hkcr -I 75.4.

That will do the job for you. Now Adobe Reader will be the default program to use.
Scott Jones posted a nice article and links with more information: http://www.symantec.com/connect/question/4154/conf...

Question: When I build a application with a Onpostactivate and I use autoactivate it will not work?

When you use autoactivate, the application is actually not activated like you suspected. It starts already before you logon, and that prevents it from doing the onpostactivate event. The only way to do this is by starting it manually or by using a script.
http://www.symantec.com/connect/question/4493/what...

Question: What is the logonhook?

The logonhook is a cool feature that enables you to do SVS commands by looking at the active directory. When the user logs on, winlogon looks at the active directory. When a user has rights for Adobe, and the logonhook is configured well, then you are able to activate the layer. When the layer is not there, the logonhook actually imports it first and then activates the application. But it does not work on Vista.
http://www.symantec.com/connect/book-page/2289/cha...

Question: I want to use Logonhook on Vista?

Now you are in trouble. I have rewritten the logonhook and it even now shows a tekstballoon telling the user what it is doing. And it works on Vista and Windows 2008. But I'm still testing it. When it is tested firmly, I will place it on the Juice, and everybody can get a copy of it.

Section 4: SVS on Servers, Terminal Servers or Citrix.

Question: can I use SVS on my servers.

Yes you can. But do not attempt to virtualise SQL, Exchange or other system software. SVS is not mentioned for that. But you can virtualise some other stuff like management tools, sysinternal tools or software you need to maintain a server.

Question: SVS is so cool. It greatly helps on a terminal server or Citrix. How can we do this?

The 3092 version of SVS has some improved multiuser support, but it will trigger blue screens on a terminal server or Citrix server. The SVS variables are set when a user logs in. The first user that is logging in will set all the variables. All other users will try to write in the userprofile of the first user. I wrote an add-on that sets the variables every time a user logs on. Again and again. So user 1 will have the variables set to his profile, where user 3 will set them to his own profile. This prevents the server from having unpredictable behavior. Because SVS is in OSI layer 3 it also will cause unpredictable memory usage. DVS4SBC is preventing this behavior. When the memory stacks are written full, dvs4sbc is able to go to a higher memory stack. This prevents the server from becoming unresponsive and stops the blue screens.
http://www.symantec.com/connect/article/2478/use-s... and watch Steve Morton getting a explanation how it works on a fun way: http://www.symantec.com/connect/tip/4514/video-alt...

Question: Are there known application that we should not use when we use SVS on a terminal server or a Citrix server or on a client?

Yes, we noticed that SVS can't be used with the Softgrid client. SVS works ok, but when you stream a Softgrid layer it will stream 100% and then it stops the server with a blue screen. UPHclean is also a cool Microsoft tool to cleanup profiles. But also UPHclean will give blue screens. This behavior is unpredictable and occurs in several situations.