Assigning AppSense Personalisation Server access rights includes the ability to let users access the AppSense Environment Manager web interface and manage some of their own settings, such as rolling back specific settings from archived copies of their profile.

To configure access rights follow the steps below.

• Open the Environment Manager
• Select the User Personalisation workspace.
• Connect to the required Personalisation Server.
• Select Manage from the menu bar.
• Click the Access Rights
• Click the Add button – this will present the familiar Active Directory Select Users or Groups dialogue box.
• Once a user is found the relevant access rights can be assigned using the dropdown box under the Roles column heading.

If assigning web roles, the user should be able to access relevant functionality via the EM browser interface typically:  http://PSServerName/EMBrowserInterface.

I have a database that all users write to when they logon (date, time, computer name etc.).  This relies on an ODBC connection to a SQL Server database.  Here’s how I created the ODBC connection using AppSense Environment Manager (EM).

Note:  Using EM 8.6.

• On the machine running the EM admin console, manually create a USER DSN  with the required settings, using the ODBC Data Sources tool (normally found on the Administrative Tools menu).
• In the EM console open the appropriate EM policy (use Run as Administrator to launch the console).
• Create a new node called ODBC Settings under User # Pre-Desktop.
• Click the Actions button and select ODBC # Create ODBC Connection.
• Give the connection a name and select the Driver Type, e.g. SQL Server.
• The manually create connection should appear in the list box labelled Current Connections. Select the connection.
• Click on the ODBC Data Pairs tab to observe the settings that EM has picked up from the existing ODBC connection.
• Click OK and save the EM Policy configuration as usual.

Just getting started with AppSense which my organisation is intending to use to manage user profiles, application access and more.  Below is very much a newbies guide to creating an AppSense Deployment Group (DG), deploying AppSense agents to devices that are members of the DG and assigning an AppSense Environment Manager (EM) Policy to the devices.

Assumption

An EM Policy has already been created ready to assign to devices.  For testing I use a simple policy initially to ensure new agents are working OK – maybe a policy that just contains a action to create a new folder.

Procedure

Create the DG

• Open the AppSense Management Console.
• Right-click Deployment Groups and select New Deployment Group.
• Name the DG appropriately.
• Expand the DG and choose Settings.
• For testing purposes on the General tab, change the Polling and Data Upload times to 5 minutes.
• On the Installation tab change the settings to suit relating to installing Agents and rebooting target devices.  For testing installing at the next poll is OK for me.
• Click Submit to effect changes.

Asisgne Packages and Policy

• Select Packages and under the Environment Manager heading right-click the appropriate Agent (32 or 64-bit), choose Change Agent Version and then select the appropriate Agent.
• Still under the Environment Manager heading, right-click Configuration and choose Change Configuration.
• Select the appropriate pre-created EM Policy and click Next.
• Select Always Use Latest (this ensures the latest changes to the policy are automatically applied to the DG members), click Finish.
• Click the Review and Submit button at the bottom of the screen, click Submit and confirm the message.

Discovery and DG Membership

• Navigate to the main DG node.
• Change the default credentials if required by clicking the Manage Credentials button.
• In the Membership Rules area click the Configure Membership Rules button.
• Select the appropriate DG and click the Edit Conditions link.
• Click the arrow adjacent to the Add button and select Active Directory Container.
• Click the ellipses, browse to the appropriate container, click OK and submit the change.
• Under the new DG, select Computers and click the Discover link on the right.

Deploying the AppSense Agents

• When the target computer(s) appear in the list, right click and select Install Deployment Agent.
• Below the list observer the installation by clicking the Packages tab.  The install of the Management Agent, EM Agent and EM Policy should be in progress.
• Once the install is complete the computer may reboot immediately depending on the settings made above.