Deploying the System Center 2012 Service Manager Console as an App-V package

While at MMS2012 I had a conversation about packaging the System Center 2012 Service Manager Console as an App-V package and whether it had been tried or not.

At the time I couldn't think of any information I'd come across saying that it could or couldn't be done, but knowing that I had previously packaged the 2010 version successfully, I couldn't see why the 2012 version wouldn't be ok.

Well I've finally managed to squeeze some time in to try it and it seems to package and run fine.

After I had tried it, I thought it might be an idea to blog about it for others, but since there are so many steps, writing it up was a bit of a mammoth task.

So I recorded it and stuck it on YouTube!

Not only does this video show you the packaging of the console, which to be honest is a bit boring with nothing really special to see, but I also walk through some of the steps to then create an application in Configuration Manager and deploy it as an App-V package.

The steps I show also include deploying the dependencies for the Service Manager Console and targeting it at an Active Directory group of users rather than a collection of devices.

It also shows installing the application from the ConfigMgr self service portal.

Couple of bits of information shown in the video:

1. When sequencing the application, the Service Manager shortcut isn't captured and needs manually adding.
2. The silent install command I used is:
   setup.exe /Silent /Install:Console /AcceptEula:YES /CustomerExperienceImprovementProgram:NO /EnableErrorReporting:NO /RegisteredOwner:"Registered User"
3. Dependancies Specified in ConfigMgr:
   App-V Client
   SQL Analysis Objects
   Report Viewer 2010

Each of those dependencies have their own requirements and dependencies ensuring the right components get installed depending on the OS and usage.

The App-V sequencing can definately be improved, but it works at the end of the day.

Finally...
This is a DEMO.  I have not tested this to great lengths so ensure you do your own testing before putting this into your live production environment.  There's no warranties from me and no official statement from Microsoft about this being supported either.