Comparision between Native connection group and SCCM 2012 virtual environment in App-V 5.0

Native & Full Infrastructure	SCCM 2012
Ø       Setting dependency to other virtual applications is done through Connection group.	Connection group is achieved through creating virtual environments  in the SCCM console.
Ø       Connection groups can be published either globally or to user.	Virtual Environments are published globally to the system alone.
Ø       Connection groups can contain a mixture of both user and globally targeted packages.	It cannot contain a mixture of both user and globally targeted packages. SCCM 2012 will only deliver connection groups if all member packages are targeted to either user or machine exclusively. Mixed member targeting is not supported with Virtual Environments in SCCM.
Ø  Connection groups targeted globally cannot contain any user targeted Packages.Connection groups targeted at the user alone can contain both user and computer targeted packages. Mixed scope connection groups always need to be targeted at the user.
Ø       Packages in a connection group set to use any version or set as optional will always use the latest version in cache when initially delivered.	Use any version is not available with SCCM. However we can use the "OR" operator in the console.
Ø      Connection groups can be enabled or disabled to a specific user by an administrator using PowerShell.	Not available as virtual environments are enabled for system only.
Ø      There are two levels of priority with connection groups that can be set in full infrastructure & native.       1. Packages within a connection group can have priority over each other.        2. It can have priority between connection groups.	Virtual Environments can only handle priority between members of a connection group.This is handled by ordering the members in the console.It doesn’t handle priority between connection groups themselves.SCCM currently does not give the ability to set the priority of a virtual environment.So if Package A is a member of two separate connection groups and a user launches Package A, it will fail to launch.
Ø       Packages will fail to unpublish if they are set as mandatory in a published connection group.	Packages that are mandatory can be uninstalled in a virtual environment successfully.SCCM client will create a new connection group which excludes the uninstall package.

User settings and Connection Group in App-V 5.0

User settings from a connection group member packages will not be transferred to its Connection Groups. Similarly, once the Connection Group is disabled, user settings from the Connection Group will not be transferred to its member packages.

Example:

1.     Sequence Google chrome application using App-V 5.0.

2.     Sequence Adobe shockwave Player using App-V 5.0.

3.     Add/Publish/mount Google chrome App-V Package.

4.     Launch Google chrome shortcut and set www.google.com as homepage.This setting will be stored in user profile location.

5.     Add/Publish/mount Adobe shockwave player.

6.     Now create a connection group for Google chrome and Adobe shockwave Player packages.

7.     Open Google Chrome and now you can see google.com is not seen as home page. This is because user settings will not be transferred to the connection group.

8.     Now set www.homepage.com as the new homepage. Close the shortcut and open the Google chrome package again. You can see the www.homepage.com been set as homepage.

9.     Now disable the connection group and re-launch the Google chrome shortcut, you can see the home page will be set to www.google.com and not www.homepage.com. This is because since we have closed the connection group, the user settings that was set inside the connection group will be broken and not reflected back to its member package.

Connection Group Overview: Full infrastructure compared to SCCM

Full infrastructure	SCCM
Connection Groups have to be explicitly published to a target.	Only the App-V application sequences have to be distributed to a target. Connection groups are automatically created if a Virtual Environment (VE) is applicable.
All App-V sequences in a connection group are available on the target that the connection group has been published to regardless of whether or not the separate sequences have been published to the target.	The ability to create ‘AND’ and ‘OR’ VE’s. In the case of an ‘AND’ VE the connection group will be created only when all sequences in the connection group have been distributed to the target. In the case of an ‘OR’ VE the connection group will be created with only the sequences that have been distributed to the target.
Connection group priority can be set at the server console.(Although this does not work with App-V 5 Sp1 due to a bug. This bug has been fixed in Hotfix 1 for App-V 5.0 SP1 Management Server)	There is no method to manage connection group priority. You will have to prevent conflicts from occurring by making sure that one sequence will not be a member of more than one connection group on the same client, through managing your distributions.
Connection groups can be disabled (unpublished) from the console.	Connection groups cannot be disabled only removed by removing the VE in SCCM.
Connection Group GroupID and VersionID are generated at the server and passed down to every client.	Connection Group GroupID and VersionID are generated at the client (unique at every client).