RESpedia!
New to the User Workspace comunity and Runbook Automation? No worries, many people are these days. When you need to figure what PowerFuse and Wisdom is all about, first thing is to scale that brick wall of buzzwords so you know what the story is when somebody talks about Workspaces, Dispatchers, and Custom Resources etc.
The RESpedia below (formerly known as the glossary), will be a work in progress, continually updated. Therefore you will encounter items which have not been described completely yet. These are marked as work in progress (
) If you would like to contribute with some relevant terminology, just comment on this article below and I’ll move it into the article. A final couple of notes: The RESpedia is ordered alphabetically and organized across all RES Software products. Not all terms in this glossary are official RES terminology, but may come from engineering jargon in the field or similar sources.
To make it easier to recognize to which product or part of the RESverse the term applies, I’ve added relevant tags to the terms in the RESpedia. Here is an overview of them:
- [P]owerFuse
- [W]isdom
- [O]rchestration Pack for Wisdom
- [B]usiness stuff
- [T]raining related.
Where you see links in Italics, it refers to a jump link to another item covered in the RESpedia. Below is an alphabetical jump index of the entire RESpedia:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
A
$Adinfo() [P] – A function in PowerFuse which will allow you to reference any Active Directory attribute within PowerFuse. For example use $adinfo(firstname) as part of an Email Template signature for Outlook.
Access Balancing [P] – A performance subsystem found in PowerFuse which acts as a session throttle. Works really well in preventing overloaded servers in peak load periods. The log of acces balancing can also help you analyse your logon-time SLA. See this article for info how to do it.
Access Control [P] – The ability to control to whom and where a configuration or security object is available. Access control is a tab on most PowerFuse objects, where you can configure one or more Access Principals to configure the identity of the user. Multiple access principals can either be combined with a logical AND or a logical OR. The access principal can optionally be combined with a Location and Devices setting, describing where/what the computer is. The logical relationship between the Identity and Location elements of an Access Control configuration is always a logical AND.
Access Principal [P] – This term references the methods with which you can apply Access Control to almost any object in PowerFuse. Examples of simple access principals are groups, ou’s and individual users. More advanced access principals exists, such as Language selection, Orchestration Services (only available when Wisdom/Orchestration integration is configured and enabled). You are also able to use exclusions. Note that while you can mix and match access pricipals on regular objects, you can currently (per PowerFuse 9.0.0.1) only select one access principal on applications.
Action, Orchestration [O] – This is an activity which moves a Orchestration workflow from one step to the next after completion. An example could be asking somebody, like a manager for permission to add a given new Finance employee access to the payroll system.
Action, PoweFuse [P] – Within the context of RES PowerFuse, actions are tasks that can be assigned an application uppon launch. Examples of actions are: Merge registry settings into HKCU, execute a command, run a wisdom task, modify contens of homedirectory, and more
ADDTOWORKSPACE [P] – One of the public MSI attributes for the RES PowerFuse installation. This parameter, used as ADDTOWORKSPACE=”NameOfYourWorkSpaceContainer”, will automagically add the installed PowerFuse agent to the Computer Control tab of the given workspace container.
Administrative Note [P,W] – Formerly known as Annotations. You will find these fields all over PowerFuse and Wisdom and it’s your job as a responsible console operator to put some sensible information into them. Don’t enter information here just for the sake of entering info. Put in good comments that will help yourself and your colleagues 6 months down the road to figure out why you did any particular configuration in the first place.
Administrative Roles [P, W] – Formerly known as Security Roles. Adminstrative roles are used to delegate what part of the consoles (both PowerFuse and Wisdom) can be used by whom. This is brilliant for slicing out the console for different parts of the IT organization. For example you may only wish to give access to Workspace Analysis and User Sessions for firstline supporters, while 2nd and third get more priveledges. On the other hand the CIO may request a pure read-only role to the console, so he can keep up to speed on what’s going on, but not wanting to change anything. In PowerFuse you can in addition combine Administrative Roles with Scope Control. If a user does not belong to any security roles, he/she will be refused access to the console.
Agent [P,W] – A term used for both PowerFuse and Wisdom. Both are regular NT services which run in the background and talk with respectively the PowerFuse and Wisdom datastores. The Wisdom agent’s purpose is to execute jobs which are scheduled to it. The PowerFuse agent’s primary job (see RES Service) is to ensure that the DBcache folder is synchronized with the central datastore. Agents are uniquely indentified by either a unique GUID or WUID, the MAC address of the first NIC, or the combination of domain+computername.
AI_DESKTOP_SH [P] – One of the public MSI attributes for the RES PowerFuse installation. This parameter, used as AI_DESKTOP=<0|1> determines if an icon for the PowerFuse Management Console is placed on the AllUsers Desktop during installation. Default is 1, meaning icon is created. If you set it to 0, it’s great to use for StealthMode deployment of PowerFuse. See also AI_STARTMENU_SH.
AI_STARTMENU_SH [P] – One of the public MSI attributes for the RES PowerFuse installation. This parameter, used as AI_STARTMENU=<0|1> determines if an icon for the PowerFuse Management Console is placed on the AllUsers Start Menu during installation. Default is 1, meaning icon is created. If you set it to 0, it’s great to use for StealthMode deployment of PowerFuse. See also AI_DESKTOP_SH.
Alligator [B] – A former expression (not really used anymore) by RES Software developers, to denounce a bug or unexpected behavior, as in “Whoa! We’ve got an alligator here!”. The origins of the expression is rumored to have come from the initial introductions where developers were explained: “You’re here to kill an alligator, not do drain the swamp”. In short it was a way of saying don’t persue an overly complex solution to a simple problem. To keep it in mind, once we had big alligator pooltoys hanging from the ceiling in R&D :-)
Annotation [P,W] – Old name for Administrative notes.
AppGuard [P] – A security subsystem in PowerFuse. Appguard prevents unauthorized processes from running. This is done by way of a kernel filter driver which intercepts all calls to the OS to spawn new process names. If the processes do not match processname+authorized path to the executable, the process will be barred from executing. When enabled, it can be run in either Blocking mode or Learning mode.
AppID [P] – Aka. Application ID. This is an unique-value integer which is assigned each is assigned to every managed application. These can be inspected if you open the PowerFuse Management Console and go to Composition | Applications | Managed Applications and click on the Application List tab. In the ID columb, you will see the AppID’s for every application. The AppID is used by PWRGATE.exe to invoke the right actions when a managed application is launched by a user. Note, there are some reserved application ID’s in PowerFuse for internal applications such as the Workspace Preferences and Printing Preferences. There is an article on this specific topic right here.
Audit Trail [P,W,O]- A function in PowerFuse and Wisdom which will allow you to see which console operator modified a given setting in the PowerFuse console. An audit trail is usually available per object, such as an application or for example a drive letter mapping. In the products there is also a global audit trail which will show you what’s been going on across all objects. Logs can be protected from deletion with a separate password.
Autolink [W] – A feature in RES Wisdom where project parameters or runbook parameters can automagically be linked to the parameters inside. Only prerequisite for this to happen is that you have used the same names for the parameters in the modules/projects that you are linking to. For example, if you have a Project Parameter called DomainName, a module parameter in an embedded module must use the same name for the AutoLink feature to work.
Azure [P] – A new cloud based SQL Database offered by Microsoft, which PowerFuse 2010 now supports natively as it’s datastore. See this article for more information.
B
Blocking Mode [P] – Refers to a state which a security subsystem is currently operating in. Note: There is no such term as Blocking Mode in the PowerFuse console, this is just a term commonly being used by field engineers. Blocking mode is said to be active when the given subsystem is set to enabled.
Building Block [P,W] – Term applies to both PowerFuse and Wisdom. A buildingblock is a block of configuration data for either product which is stored in XML format. A buildingblock allows you as an integrator to re-use configuration from one customer site to another, thereby being more efficient. As a Console Operator it allows you to backup/restore individual parts of the system and re-use them elsewhere. An example of a valuable Wisdom building block could be one which installs a Citrix server from scratch. Buildingblocks can be imported and deleted in PowerFuse using the right command line parameters.
C
Capture once, track further [P] – This is a new Zero Profile mode available from PowerFuse 2010 SR2 , which allows you to use the best of immediate mode and specified mode to further ease migration scenarios. What happens is that you start with specifying a given setting which you want to pick up. For example, this setting could be the Outlook .N2K file which caches all the email addresses the user has typed until now. The setting will picked up in specified mode the first time, without the user having to make any changes to it. This could be arranged by a Stealthmode PowerFuse deployment to the existing environment. As soon as the setting has been picked up, the zero profile mode will be flipped to immediate mode and all changes to the setting will be tracked in realtime by PowerFuse from there and onwards.
Catalog [O] – This is essentially a list of OPW orchestration Services which may be made available to users or 3rd party applications.
Catalog Service [O] – This is a NT service, part of OPW, which is installed in your datacenter. Publishes sets of available Orchestration services. May be used by the Orchestration Client, Control Center and 3rd party applications.
Category [O] – Logical classification of a group of people in Orchstration Pack for Wisdom. A category may be pretty much anything, for example: Department, Education, Shoesize, etc – whatever you need to distinguish people on in order to orchestrate services for them in your organization. You can then filter Qualification uppon these categories.
Composition [P] – A main section of the new PowerFuse 2010 console. It includes access to Managed Applications, User Installed Applications, Files and Folders, Data sources and User Settings. In short, the composition covers every type of item the user might receive in PowerFuse.
Computer Control [P] – A tab found on the properties of every Workspace Container in the PowerFuse console. This is a list of computers – not computer names – referenced by the PowerFuse agent’s identifiacation method. This means that if you for example are using MAC address identification, you can rename the computer as you want and it will still remain a member of this WorkSpace container. Remeber that Computer Control can be combined with regular Access Control within the Workspace Container. If this happens, all items are treated with logical AND’s. This means if a Workspace Container’s computer contol tab contains ComputerX, and has UserY and LocationZ defined on the Acces Control tab, all three items must test positive before the Workspace container is active.
Computer Function [W] – One of the Conditions which RES Wisdom offers when processing tasks. With computer function you can add task logic on if the target computer is a SQL server, Domain controller (both DC’s and legacy PDC/BDC’s are supported), running the Timesource service, is an Apple File Protocol server, is a Lan Manager 2.x domain member, is sharing a print queue, running dial-in service, supports Microsoft File and Print for NetWare, Running a browser service as backup, running the master Browser service, running the domain master Browser or is a Terminal Server.
Condition [W] – This is one of the features of Wisdom which gives it significant value add to other automation such as SCCM and Citrix Workflow Studio. Conditions in RES Wisdom allow you to control whether a given task is executed, skipped or failed. You can also optionally chose to skip all following tasks. Criterias for conditions can be Computer Function, Date and Time, value of a (system) Environment Variable, Version of an executable/dll, full or partial FQDN, OS bit version, OS suite, OS type, OS version/servicepack level, Module parameters, Processor Architecture (x86/x64), Registry setting (HKLM, HKCR, HKU) and State of previously executed task (completed/failed)
Connection String [P] – A feature of PowerFuse 2010, which allows you to import/export an encrypted string, contains all the information to connect a PowerFuse agent to it’s datastore. As an added bonus you can put the connection string into a DHCP option, so a new agent automagically wil initialize it’s connection. See this article on how to set it up.
Connector [W] – A feature of RES Wisdom which allows you access to extended functionality in the product. The way it works is that if you don’t use the functionality, you don’t pay for it. There are several connectors, and when you enable one, it charges a given amount of licenses from your Wisdom licensepool. You can read more about the connectors in this technote article.
Console Operator [P,W,O] – This is not official terminology. However, as RES Software products offer the ability to permit non-adminitrative users to run the administrative console, via Administrative Roles. Thus using the term ‘administrator’, may leave room for misunderstanding, it may be better to refer to such users as Console Operators.
Consultancy Reward Program [B] – This is a program designed to reward currently non-partnering consultants and/or integrators for bringing business to RES Software. Contact your local RES Software representative for more information on the CRP program.
Context [P] – A main section of the new PowerFuse 2010 console. It includes access to Locations and Devices, Directory Services, Administative Roles, Connection State, Languages and Workspace Containers. Context generally refers to items that describe identity (who the user is), location (subnets, etc) type of device being used (workstation, terminalserver, laptop, etc) and even time of day, although this is a property of the individual applications currently.
Context, Workspace Designer [P] – Inside the Workspace Designer wizard, we also refer to Context. Although it essentially means the same as above, it is important to distinguish that in the wizard it refers to any selection of known groups, defined locations which together matches the data that was picked up in by the Desktop Sampler. In other words, in the Workspace Designer wizard you would chose one or more contexts that would make sense to assign a rule to. where you get maximum coverage and minimum slack or missed users.
Control Center [O] – The central console for Orchestration Pack for Wisdom (OPW). This console is the first item that you typically will install. It requires .Net Framework 3.
Coverage [P] – A name of a tab and a term used in the Workspace Designer wizard in PowerFuse. Let’s say you are using the workspace designer to create rules for Drive and Portmappings. Going through the wizard, you will pick one or more contexts to assign the mapping to, the Coverage percentage tells you how many users which had the mapping before and would keep it using the selected context(s). Ideally your coverage should always be 100%. If you have less than 100% coverage you have missed users. See also slack.
CPU Optimization [P] – Formerly known as CPUshield. One of the performance enhancement subsystems in PowerFuse. CPU Optimization works by actively repriortizing any user process which misbehaves. As default if an app is using more than 70% cpu time for more than 5 secs, CPU Optimization slams the process’ priority down to Idle. Once the process starts behaving nicely again (keeps under 10% for 30 secs) the original process priority is restored. This system is so simple yet incredible effective that was enabled per default up until PowerFuse 2010, where everything is switched off in the default Workspace Model.
CPU Shield [P] – Old name, pre PowerFuse 2010. See CPU Optimization.
CRP [B] – Acronym for the Consultancy Reward Program
Custom Resources [P] – This is a place in the RES console where you can store files which automagically should be replicated out onto each machine running PowerFuse. The files are stored in the powerfuse datastore. The replication is done by the RES PowerFuse agent service, which is a part of any PowerFuse installation. There is a variable %rescustomresources%, which inside a PowerFuse session will point to the folder the resources are replicated to. Examples of usage for custom ressources are: Ensuring a certain graphic logo is replicated out to all computers, so an HTML outlook signature will work with it. Another good usage is to store a mandatory profile here, to eliminate network traffic. There is a nice article on that here
D
Datastore[P,W,O] - Reference to the database of either PowerFuse or Wisdom. Supported database systems are: MS SQL 2000 and up, Oracle 8.1 and up, IBM DB II, MySQL 5.0 and up and Microsoft Azure (from PowerFuse 2010)
Data Sources [P] – Formerly known as Instant Datasources. A configuration item in PowerFuse, which will enable you to create ODBC connections on the fly. PowerFuse stores the ODBC configuration once created. All you need to do is to attach it to an application. Uppon launch of the app, PowerFuse creates the datasource as a User DSN. If access is withdrawn from a user to an app with an associated Instant Datasource, the User DSN will be cleaned out at logout.
DBcache[P] - This is the folder where PowerFuse stores it’s cached copy of the central configuration datastore. The default path is %programfiles%\res powerfuse\data\DBcache
Desktop Extender [B] – See Virtual Desktop Extender.
Desktop Sampler [P] – This is a standalone component in PowerFuse 2010, which can be deployed into any existing Windows environment to pick up current settings. The net result is like sticking your head into every users session out there. The desktop sampler currently records stuff like: Current applications in startmenu, Location information, Domain, Datasources, Drive and Port Mappings, Subst’s and network Printers. All this stuff is stored in an encrypted .DTS file, which then can be processed in the Workspace Designer. The Desktop sampler can be pushed out with an MSI file and have preconfigured an expiry date and a path to save sample files. It is launched per default via HKLM\…\Windows\Run. Desktop sampler can be downloaded seperatly from the RES Portal, or you can find it’s MSI file in %programfiles\RES Powerfuse\ when you have installed the full package somewhere.
Desktop Transformation [P] – A unique solution offered by RES PowerFuse 2010, which allows for a gradual transition to from a traditional scripted/unmanaged environment, into a fully managed User Workspace. You start by recording data about the existing environment with the Desktop Sampler. After a while you can import the resulting DTS files into the Workspace Designer, where you create the necessary rules which can create the required items such as Managed Applications, Drive and Port mappings, ODBC Datasources, Printer mappings, and much more. Once the rules are created, they can be origanized into one or more Workspace Models which will allow you to switch things on at the pace you are comfortable with. There are two nice videos to explain the concept here and here.
Directory maintainance [P] - This part of PowerFuse will let you wrangle the contens of the users homedirectories and profile directories. It revolves around a Model Directory where you store all the stuff you need to deploy to someone. The files etc. are deployed according to rules which can be copy always, copy only if newer, delete, or edit values in .ini file. The last part is really cool, as it will allow you to use variables too.
Dispatcher [W] - A part of the Wisdom architechture. The function of a Dispatcher is to broker communication between Wisdom Agents and the Wisdom datastore. Also the dispatcher will cache ressources being used, thereby minimizing network traffic. In short the Dispatcher is the keystone in Wisdom’s ability to operate concurrently on litteraly thousands of computers without killing the central datastore. In Wisdom 2009 the Dispatcher has a limit of 150 concurrent Agent connections. This looks to increase drasticly in Wisdom 2011.
Drive Substitutes [P] – A feature in PowerFuse, found under the Composition | Files and Folders | Drive Substitute node. This feature will allow you to emulate the old DOS subst command, which will map a local path to a virtual driveletter. As an example, it’s extremely usefull for providing a homedrive on a laptop, when it’s offline – that is, if you’re not a big fan of Windows Offline Folders…
DSbrowse – A really cool utility from RES Software. It was formerly known as Tim the Toolman. The utility helps customers time different responses from their AD. In other words, if your domain controller is performing badly, DSbrowse will let you know about it by timing different operations, such as enumerating AD objects. These are the same procedures that PowerFuse employs. DSbrowse is unfortunatly not available from the download portal, so you have to ask around. More info here
DTS file [P] – Files with this extension are produced by the PowerFuse 2010 Desktop Sampler component. The files are typically around 256kb in size and are named as username@computername.dts. The DTS file contains a snapshot of non-application speciffic settings present in the users current environment. This covers items such as applications in the startmenu, mapped networkdrives and printers, ODBC settings, domain membership, network/subnet information. All this information is encrypted. One or more DTS files can be imported through the WorkSpace Designer in the PowerFuse console.
E
EAP [B] – Acronym for Early Adopter Program.
Early Adopter Program [B ] – This is RES Software’s program for existing customers and partners, who are willing to go the extra mile to help us try out and give suggestions on our upcomming releases. This program is by invitation only. Where the EAP program differs from a regular Beta program, is that Interim releases made available to early adopters are completely supported. The caveat is that due to support capacity, RES Software only takes in a certain number of EAP members and each applicant is reviewed individually. If you have received an invitation, it is required you fill out this form and send it back to your commercial point of contact within RES.
E-mail Templates [P] – Formerly known as Instant Mail. Allows you to setup MAPI profiles for many of the most popular communications suites. The emphasis is on Outlook 2000 and up, but Instant mail also supports configuring a bunch of other messaging components. It works similar to Datasources: You create one and attach it to an application. For Outlook especially, it will also allow you to create a dynamic email signature which picks up it’s elements, such as title, name and phone etc, from Active Directory
Exclusive Filter [P] – This is an optional checkmark which you can set on PowerFuse filters which will configure the filter to show only settings which have explicitly have been given only to the users/workspace containers/locations as specified by the filter.
Execute Command [P,W] – Formerly know as External Task. The ability to run a command of your choice within the framework of either PowerFuse or Wisdom. Note that currently within PowerFuse 2010 SR1, the command is executed with the credentials of the user who’s currently logged in.
External Task [P] – Old name, pre PowerFuse 2010. See Execute Command.
F
File and Folder security [P] – One of the security subsystems in PowerFuse. With F&F Security you can block access to certain filetypes (such as .MP3 .torrent, etc) and also to specified folders. The latter is extremely usefull if you for example want to restrict some users from placing anything on the desktop – except shortcuts. There is an article on this topic right here. The important thing to note about File and Folder security is that contrary to the other security subsystems, this one is the only one that allows you to directly blacklist specific items.
File Types [P] – Formerly known as Instant Filetype Associations. This feature of PowerFuse lets you take very granular control with any type of file associations, both very simple yourapp.exe %1 to very complex DDE filetype configurations. With File Types you can import existing associations for an app, as well as create new ones. This includes building context (rightclick) menu’s which can do all sorts of nice things for your users.
Filter [P] – A method to see only the stuff you need to work with in PowerFuse. In the lower left hand corner you’ll find a funnel icon. By rightclicking it you can define for who, what or where you want to see in the righthand side of the console. An example would be that one day a console operator only wants to work with the applications available to the Finance department. See also Scope Control. Note: When a filter is active, the mentioned funnel icon turns blue. Also, you wil notice the word [filtered] in the titlebar of the console applicaiton.
Folder Synchronisation [P] – A feature of PowerFuse 2010 which utilizes Microsoft’s .Net synchronisation framework. You may already be familiar with this technology through utilities such as SyncToy. Problem with SyncToy specifically is that it was part of the PowerToys from Microsoft, thus never supported. Using PowerFuse you get a fully centralized GUI for managing any kind of filesync in your user’s sessions. This is especially usefull for synchronizing the users’ network homedirectory to a laptop so they can work offline. Syncronization can be configured to happen on login/logout/refresh/reconnect, per timed interval and of course when you launch an application. This last option is useful for creating a Sync-My-Stuff-Now button for example. Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 and Microsoft Sync Framework 1.0 must be installed on all Agents running user sessions in which folders are to be synchronized. Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 must be installed separately; Microsoft Sync Framework 1.0 is automatically installed during installation of RES PowerFuse.
G
Global Authorized Files [P] – This list shows what files and executables have been authorized either through AppGuard, Read-Only Blanketing or File and Folder security.
Global Settings [P] – A part of the Workspace Model found under the main node Setup in PowerFuse. Global settings are the master settings for what parts of PowerFuse is turned on/off per default. In a freshly created Powerfuse 2010 datastore everything in the global settings is turned off per default. If you have upgraded a PowerFuse 2008 installation, everything will be turned on per default, as it was difficult to turn things off individually in the console back in the 2008 version. See article RG027 for further information on this topic. Global settings can also refer to the registrysettings found under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\RES\PowerFuse\Settings. See this posting for further info on the RES policy registry settings.
GUID [P,W] – Acronym for Global Unique IDentifier. Within PowerFuse and Wisdom, each configuration item is assigned an internal GUID which enables the replication subsystems to distinctly identify the changes in the datastore and replicate those changes to where they need to go.
H
Home Directory [P] – A crucial part of any PowerFuse installation. As individual workspace preferences and user settings are stored here per defailt, it is important that every user has a home directory. Unlike other products which store these things in their datastore, there is significant performance and reliability to be obtained by having user’s settings and preferences readily available where the user is. Note that workspace preferences and user settings can alternative be placed somewhere else than the user’s homedirectory, as long as it’s a drive unique to each user.
I
Identification Method [P, W] – Both PowerFuse and Wisdom Agents can be identified by either MAC, GUID/WUID or Domain+Computername. Which ID method you select will depend on the environment you use. For example you probably will not use GUID/WUID identification if you use Cloning alot in your environment, as you would start to see duplicate Agent entries in your consoles.
Immediate Mode [P] – Aka. Realtime mode. One of the two zero profile modes available in RES PowerFuse. In immediate mode RES Powerfuse will pick up any profile change done by a target object and store it as a upr2 file if it is a registry setting in HKCU or as a upf2 file if it’s a file in the user’s profile. See also specified mode
Instant Datasources [P] – Old name, pre PowerFuse 2010. See Data Sources for details.
Instant File Associations [P] – Old name, pre PowerFuse 2010. See File Types for details.
Instant Logoff [P] - A technology in PowerFuse which was developed a year before Microsoft released their UPHclean utility. Instant Logoff does two things. It closes any open filehandles when a logoff is initiated. Second, if it’s running inside a ICA/RDP or VDI session, it can optionally disconnect the session. The resulting impression is a logoff that is fast as lightning, although it’s smoke, mirrors and a timely disconnect which does the job.
Instant Mail [P] – Old name, pre PowerFuse 2010. See Email Templates for details.
Instant Report [P] - A nifty way to generate system configuration documentation. PowerFuse will allow you to generate PDF based reports for every configuration screen in the console. This also is the case for the Workspace analysis view of a given user. You can either click on the Instant repport button for a given item you wish to document, or you can rightclick in the console and choose “Select items for instant report”
Interim Release [B] – An early release of any RES Software product. These releases are strictly personal and only available to RES Software’s Early Adopter Program partners. Interim software releases are fully supported by RES.
IP Security [P] – See NetGuard.
L
Learning Mode [P] – The different security Subsystems in PowerFuse have a learning mode. This mode will allow anything through the filters, but a log entry will be created on anything that has not been autorized and would have been prevented in Blocking Mode. Learningmodes for all subsystems writes to the log table stored in the PowerFuse datastore. Note: Unchecked and enabled globally, logs can become very large, why I urge you to excercise caution when enabeling in a live environment. See this article for further info.
Licensing, Activation [P, W] – Activating evaluation or purchased RES product licenses licenses can be done in 3 different ways: Online (SSL/443), Email or via file import/export. The last option is great if the installation is on a secure net without internet access. Regardless of method chosen, uou will be asked if you are activating this as an end-user customer, or if you are doing it on behalf of said customer as a consultant/partner. You will then be prompted to fill in your details. At the end a license request will be generated. As soon as it has been reviewed by RES Software, a license activation file will be sent back to the email-address(es) you specified during your activation request. These are then imported into the products console and you’re done. Note: the activation request review takes place in central european business hours which is 8am-5pm CET+1. That would be 11pm-8am PST or 2am-11am EST, so plan accordingly.
Licensing, Evaluation [B] – Prospective and existing customers as well as partners of RES Software can request evaluation licences for any RES current product. An evaluation license can contain any number of licenses, however it is always be time limited. When you contact your local RES representative for such, he/she will obviously ask some questions about your organization and project and will grant you a license. The licenses will arrive shortly after in an email, where you save the attached .XML based license files and import them into your RES product. The evaluation license may require activation.
Licensing, managed applications [P] - PowerFuse has the ability to not only monitor but also enforce the licensing of applications provided to the user. There are currently 5 licensing models supported: Company wide license, per Server, per named user, Per seat and Concurrent users. Note in order for PowerFuse to enforce licensing on an application it must be a managed application, launched through pwrgate.exe
Licensing, NFR [B] – Aka. Not-For-Resale license. A license typically provided to RES Software partners, being resellers and distribution partners. The NFR license is typically a low-count license file which will allow the partner to keep a long-term lab environment running without having to worry about license expiry. Note: NFR licenses are exclusively issued at the discretion of RES Software.
Licensing, PowerFuse [P] – PowerFuse is licensed per concurrent users, depending of the device where the user is logging in. If a an ACPI compliant battery is detected in the device, PowerFuse assumes it’s a laptop and a license is bound to the ID of the PowerFuse agent running on that machine. This is however not permanent. If a laptop is lost, all you have to do is delete the PowerFuse agent from the PowerFuse console and the license is returned to the pool.
Licensing, Trial [P,W] – These are the built-in fully functional time-limited licenses which Powerfuse and Wisdom come with out of the box. When you install RES PowerFuse, 60 trial licenses will be available for 2 months / 60 days. RES Wisdom comes with 75 licenses that likewise will run for 2 months.
Licensing, Wisdom [W] - RES Wisdom is licensed differently from PowerFuse as Wisdom deals with the machine and not not the user session on it. Therefore Wisdom is licensed per device and device type. This means that one regular windows workstation or laptop takes 1 license, a server (print/file/etc) takes 4 licenses, and a server with Terminal Services configured in Application Server mode, requires 8 licenses. On top of this you have the option to add additional functionality by configuring so-called connectors. See the Wisdom Licensesing 101 article for further information.
Linked Applications [P] – See User Settings Linking
Linking [W] – See parameter linking or user settings linking.
Locations and Devices [P] – Aka. Zones, aka. Location. Formerly known as PowerZones. A containerobject in PowerFuse which describes a computers geography and/or geometry. By geography is meant where the computer is. This can be IP subnets, ranges, computer name masks, etc. By geometry a Location can trigger on the contens of the computer. To name a few examples are: Screen resolution, CPU speed, DVD burner present and reported chassis type. A Location doesn’t do anything by itself, but almost any kind of configuration item can be attached to it.
M
MAC [P,W] – Media Access Control number. This is the physical 6-segment hex number (for example 00-1D-BC-65-1E-45) assigned to your network adaptors. One of the Identification Methods available for both PowerFuse and Wisdom. If there are more than one nic in the computer, the MAC chosen is the one from the primary network card. Note that the MAC can usually be changed via the driver software.
Major release [P, W] – In PowerFuse and Wisdom, a new major version is released every second year or so. PowerFuse 2010, PowerFuse 2008 and PowerFuse 7, 6 and 5 were major release versions. Where PowerFuse runs with even release years, RES Wisdom runs on even years. Wisdom 2011, 2009, 2007 etc are major release versions of Wisdom.
Managed Application [P] – A Managed application is a record in RES PowerFuse that exactly defines how a given application should be configured, exposed and handled by PowerFuse. On the properties of the Managed app node, you can configure the behavior of managed apps, if they should replace all existing shortcuts, merge with existing or do nothing. On each individual managed application it is possible to configure general properties and settings, licensing, notifications, publishing, access control, time- and location/device restrictions, actions, filetypes, email templates, ODBC datasources, user settings to be retained, and security authorizations on the application.
Memory Optimization [P] – This feature set of PowerFuse contains multiple ways of helping you control memory consumption. This is obviously most valuable on a multiuser system. By linking what’s going on in the workspace with what’s being swapped to disk, PowerFuse ensures memory is freed up exactly when it is not needed anymore. Second, Memory Optimization allows you to set limits, either per number of apps or per amount of MB’s allocated, before a user is allowed to launch new apps.
MemoryShield [P] – Old name, pre PowerFuse 2010. See Memory Optimization for details.
Missed [P] – A name of a tab and a term used in the Workspace Designer wizard in PowerFuse to describe the situation in details, when you have less than 100% coverage. Let’s say you are using the workspace designer to create rules for Drive and Portmappings. Going through the wizard, you pick one or more contexts to assign the mapping to, the Missed percentage tells you how many users which had the mapping before and would loose it using the selected context(s). Ideally your missed percentage should always be zero. The workspace designer has the ability to automatically remove both missed users and slack by chosing the “Add any missing and remove slack” checkmark. Missing users are simply added explicitly to the access control on the rule being generated by the wizard.
Model Directory [P] – A place in the PowerFuse console where you can create templates for how your home directory and your profile folder should contain. See home directory maintainance
Module [W] – A Wisdom object, which can contain multiple Wisdom Tasks. The module is essentially a list of items to process plus associated module parameters and conditions and Wisdom modules can be scheduled on their own or organized into Wisdom Run Books and Projects.
Module Parameters [W] – These objects will allow you to make Wisdom modules generic and flexible, by allowing you to enter input during import and/or execution of the module. For example if you create a module to enter a computer into the domain, it’s a good idea to make a parameter for the domain credentials, as they probably will change over time. By asking for them when a module is scheduled you avoid having to re-edit the module. Overall this offers you the posibility to build black-box tools for use by for example first-line support personell. They don’t have to know how the modules work, as long as they can answer the right questions, you can set it up so they can run, but not edit modules of your choice.
N
NetGuard [P] – aka IP Security. This is a security subsystem of RES PowerFuse which will let you control which hosts are reachable from a given executable. This is usefull for limiting for example a telnet client from reaching certain hosts in the datacenter. Traffic can be controlled on portnumber, dirction, transport (udp/tcp) and target IP adress which supports wildcards. Note that Netguard can be configured also per application, so you can have two instances of a TN3270 app, given to two seperate usergroups, where they respectively only can hit two seperate hosts, i.e. no posibility of crossing over.
Node [P,W,O] – This term usually describes a location in one of the consoles. The term is used for both root nodes such as the Context, Composition, Security, Diagnostics and Setup in the PowerFuse console, as well as for leaf nodes such as Composition | Desktop | Lockdown and Behavior.
Notification [P] – A property of PowerFuse managed applications, which will allow you to define seperate messages the use will receive, for when a) the application is disabled and/or b) when the user launches the application. A flag can be set so the notification message is only shown once per user per app. The messages can contain rich text (fonts, colors, etc) and the notification box also supports all environment variables and the $adinfo() function. Another cool way to utilize the notification, is to create a Message of the Day app.
O
OPW [O] – Unofficial acronym for Orchestration Package for Wisdom.
Orchestration Client [O] – This is the user interface of OPW. There are currently 2 Orchestration clients available. One is a windows client, which sits nicely in the systemtray, the other is a webclient which looks nice on most cellphones. Both clients look practically identical and the user may use the client to request services, or partake in a workflow, by adding input, approving something, etc.
Orchestration Package for Wisdom [O] – Aka. OPW. The new RES Software product comming out later in 2010, which will allow you to implement people processes and business flows in a swift and efficient manner. As of August 2010, OPW is still in EAP. I look forward to be able to provide details a bit further down the road.
OS Suite [W] – One of the conditions available in RES Wisdom for conditional executions of modules, projects, etc. It is also one of the conditions available for Team Rules. OS Suite will allow you to detect if Backoffice components are installed, is this a Windows Home edition, Windows Server Compute Cluster edition, Windows Server Datacenter edition, Windows Server Enterprise edition, Windows Server Web edition, Windows Small Business Server, Windows Storage Server, or Windows XP Embedded.
P
Parameter Linking [W] – This is a very powerful feature of RES Wisdom. For example, you can link a project parameter to module parameters in modules which are included in a project. For example lets say that you have a project that uses two or more modules, which both require domain credentials. Instead of having to supply the credentials two or more times, you would create a project parameter of type Credentials. Using the Add button on the Project Parameters | Links tab, you would connect the Project parameter to the Credentials module parameter in the two modules. The great thing is that this can happen automatically using the Autolink button.
Partly Managed Workstations [P] – Old name, pre PowerFuse 2010. See User Installed Applications.
Pass-thru Publishing [P] – A very nifty feature of PowerFuse which will enable you automatically connect to a published application in a farm when the given application is not available on the server you are on. Pass-though publishing will automatically generate the required ICA or RDP file to create a session to the serve(s) which offer the managed application. This works with both Terminal Services 2008′s remoteapps and also with Citrix Xenapp. It requires that PowerFuse is installed on every server to participate in the scheme.
Pattern Matching [P,W,O] – The ability to use advanced wildcards in RES Products. Pattern Matching enables you to use the following operators: ? matches any single char, * matches zero or more characters, # matches any digit 0..9, [c-h] matches any single character between c and h (case sensitive, ![k-p] is an inverse character list, that matches any single character NOT between k and p in this example. Look for the 
button or a Pattern Maching button wherever there is posibility to enter a partial string.
PFGII.exe [P] – Process name for the PowerFuse Generic Isolation Integration component. This executable is inserted by different means into other non App-V application virtualization bubbles. Examples of supported enviroments is VMware Thinstall, Citrix Streaming server and others. The procedure for this is described in the PowerFuse online help, accessible through F1 in the PowerFuse Management Console
PFWSMGR.exe [P] – Main process for the PowerFuse Workspace Composer, formerly known as the Workspace Manager.
PMC [P] – Acronym sometimes heard used for the PowerFuse Management Console. Probably originated with Citrix admins who are used to referring to their Access Management Console as the AMC.
Placeholder App [P] – Field engineer jargon for an empty application (that doesn’t have a commandline) in PowerFuse which only purpose is to store a set of configuration items such as security rules. See this article for further information.
PlusMenu [P] – This is an integral part of the PowerFuse 2010 console. It is used to specify global options for specific users/locations/workspace containers. You will notice it on console nodes which normally define global settings. An example is CPU Optimization. You will see a menu appearing as 
at the top of the node you’re in. If you click on it, you will be able to add one or more Workspace Containers. You can then specify a different set of CPU Optimization rules for that workspace container. If one or more plusmenu’s are inserted, they will be processed from left to right. You can re-arrange them and/or disable them individually by rightclicking. See this article for further information.
PMWS [P] – Obsolete acronym for Partially Managed WorkStations. From PowerFuse 2010, see User Installed Applications instead.
Portal [B] – See RES Portal.
PowerFuse [P] – Aka. RES PowerFuse. The flagship product for +10 years of RES Software. PowerFuse is the market leading solution for user workspace management. For the technical crowd this is the ultimate Leatherman SuperTool for managing configuration, profile contens, security, reliability, alerting, performance, documentation and much much more. The architechture of PowerFuse is a lightweight cached client-server job, where a local RES Service caches the configuration data from the central PowerFue datatastore and a seperate process, the Workspace Composer renders the users workspace contens (apps, data, printers, settings, etc) according to the user’s context (user identity, location, devicetype and time of day), while maintaing kernal level security for processes, filesystems, removable drives and network.
PowerFuse Management Console [P] – Aka. PMC, Aka Real Enterprise Manager. The only and last console you will ever need for User Workspace Management. The PowerFuse console can be deployed seperatly to an administrative workstation. It must be noted that the PowerFuse console is deployed as part of every full client installation. This is however nothing to worry about (think about all the adminstrative MMC’s that are included with regular Windows out of the box.) In the case of the PowerFuse console there are 3 seperate security safeguards against unauthorized use. First the icon will not be shown to users who won’t have access, second the AppGuard kernal driver will intercept and block access and third, even if one should be able to bypass the first two measures, the console has its own internal administrative roles that define who can do what (if anything) inside the console.
PowerLaunch [P] - This was a pre-PowerFuse 2010 term, commonly used for items such as Environment variables, Drive and port mappings, Drive Substitutes, Network printer mappings, user registry settings, home directory/profile folder management, external tasks and Wisdom integration. There are two places in PowerFuse 2008 where Powerlaunch settings were configured. The global PowerLaunch settings, which are found under Configuration Management | PowerLaunch, and then underneath every single application defintion, under the Configuration | Powerlaunch tab. The difference between the two is that the global PowerLaunch items are mostly processed only at logon (there are certain exceptions to this), while the application PowerLaunch settings are processed when an application is started. All this is still the case in PowerFuse 2010, although the old menu of PowerLaunch items have been broken up and put other places in the console. See the PowerFuse help for details.
PowerHelp [P] – An information utility for the user, found inside a PowerFuse user session. PowerHelp will allow the user to see an overview of available managed applications, what they do and where to find them. This is even though the user might not currently have access to them yet. Think of PowerHelp as a service catalog. PowerHelp can be disabled, or applications can individually be hidden from view in PowerHelp. Note with the advent of the Orchestration Package for Wisdom in 2010, this feature will be mostly obsolete.
PowerHours [P] - Old name, pre PowerFuse 2010. See Time Restrictions
PowerPanel [P] - Old name, pre PowerFuse 2010. See WorkSpace Preferences
PowerPack [P] – Old name, Pre PowerFuse 2010 for a PowerFuse Service Pack
PowerPrint[P] - Old name, pre PowerFuse 2010. See Printing Preferences
PowerTrace [P] – Old name, pre PowerFuse 2010. See Usage Tracking
PowerZone [P] – Old name, pre PowerFuse 2010. See Locations and Devices
Printers.lst [P] – This is a special file which can be distributed to users via Directory Maintainance or Custom Resources. The file will allow users much more intuitively to chose printers from a tree of well known geographical/physical locations instead of just the names of printservers. See this article for more information and examples.
Printing Preferences [P] - Formerly known as PowerPrint. This is a utility similar to WorkSpace Preferences. Printing Preferences in it’s simplest form, merely allows a user to choose his default printer. An advanced button is available per default, letting the user configure a default printer which will be remembered per device. This is very usefull for users who frequently roam back and forth between two or more locations and don’t want to be bothered with setting up printers every time they move.
Project [W] – A project is a Wisdom container object wich is designed to hold two or more Wisdom Modules. The idea with using a project is that you can group a bunch of modules together. An example module would be building a Citrix server. Here you would have different modules which would be installing different prerequisite components such as Java, .Net framework etc. A Project can have Project Parameters which then can be linked to the modules inside.
Project Parameter [W] – Similar in nature to module parameters. The advantage is that a project parameter can be linked to module parameters in different modules via parameter linking.
PWRGATE.exe [P] -This process is responsible for launching all Managed Applications. When PowerFuse renders a shortcut in the users Start Menu, QuickLaunch or Desktop, the commandline of those Managed App icons will always be PWRGATE.EXE <AppID>. This will ensure that PowerFuse runs any Actions that are associated with the managed application before the real executable of the application is launched.
PWRGRID.exe [P] -This is a special process that like PFGII.exe is used for integration with application virtualization. This one is however dedicated to Microsoft App-V (formerly SoftGrid). The reason why there is a seperate integration piece for App-V is that this came way before any of the others, so RES Software made some especially smooth integration with the App-V platform.
PWRHELP.exe [P] – The executable which launches Power Help. Located in %programfiles%\RES PowerFuse\
PWRTECH.exe [P] – The executable which launches the PowerFuse Management Console. See this article for commandline options.
Q
Query [W] – A query is one of the two types of basic objects you use within RES Wisdom. With a query you can ask about something across one or multiple computers or teams. The other type of object is tasks.
Query Evaluator [W] – A feature which is available from Wisdom 2011. Query evaluators will allow you to make decisions uppon the outcome of a query. An example of this is to do a query on diskspace. Based on available space (specified either in size or percent free) you can then execute other tasks to deal with it.
R
RALC [T] – Acronym for RES Authorized Learning Center.
RCP [T] – Acronym for RES Certified Professional.
RCT [T] – Acronym for RES Certified Trainer.
Read-Only Blanketing [P] – One of the five security subsystem of RES PowerFuse. The easiest way to understand RoB is to imagine that you put a clear piece of plastic over the filesystem, and user processes are then only able to read the file system. There are of course default exceptions such as the Recycle Bin folder, Spool directory, the user’s profile directory and the Temp directory, where Read-Only Blanketing is disabled per default. Note: RoB only works on local drives, for your fileshares you should use your NTFS/Share permissions on your fileserver. Read-Only blanketing is not hard to set up as all necessary permisions can be picked up by running either the entire environment or a specific application in Learning Mode.
Real Enterprise Manager [P] – Old name for the PowerFuse Management Console
Refresh [P] – The process of reinitializing the user’s PowerFuse session with new settings. A refresh is a non-destructive event, i.e. the user will not lose any data or be forced to close apps. It is important to know that only some settings are processed during a refresh. These are security rules, and settings on applications. Anything below Configuration settings | PowerLaunch requires the user to login again. From PowerFuse 2010 two major changes has been made to the refresh: 1) If a refresh is triggered by the user or an admin while in a session, the screen is not blanked anymore. A progress indicator is shown just above the system tray area and the user can continue working while this happens. 2) The refresh can now be performed completely silent.
Removable Drive Security [P] – Aka. USB Security. PowerFuse offers two ways of managing security around USB removable drives. A) you can set security on the drives so for example you can only read data IN from a drive, but not write data OUT to a drive. This is governed by the kernal filter driver built into PowerFuse. B) another way is using the said USB device as a security token. PowerFuse is able to read the serial number and manufacturer off almost any USB drive, hence enabeling you to detect ranges of USB devices. Combine an app with the prompt for password setting and you’ve got two-factor authentications on your apps! See this article for an example on how to use Removable Drive security.
RES [B] – Acronym for Real Enterprise Solutions, the original company name of RES Software.
RES Authorized Learning Center [T] – A training company or partner with adequate facilities and a RCT on staff able to provide official certification training with RES Software courseware. To find a RALC in your area, contact training@ressoftware.com
RES Certified Professional [T] – A certification awarded to those who pass the prometric exam for a given RES Product. This means you can be a RCT in PowerFuse and Wisdom seperatly.
RES Certified Trainer [T] – a certification awarded to those who a) currently hold RCP certifications in all RES Products and b) have participated in a T3 class. While a RALC can provide the prerequisites, only RES Software can certify new trainers.
%RESCUSTOMRESOURCES% [P] – Environment variable which points to the location of PowerFuse Custom resources. Default path is: %programfiles%\res powerfuse\data\DBcache\Resources\custom_resources\
RESguru [B] – Aka. Max Ranzau. Has trained and implemented RES solutions at customers worldwide since 2001. Joined RES Software in late 2007. For more info, see this page. Started the RESguru.com blog site in early 2009. RESguru.com is now a part of the the RES User Group entity.
RESPFREBRANDING.xml [P] – A special file generated by RES Software for certain customers where it was imperative that the logon splash screen and other components showed the logo of the customer, instead of PowerFuse. The file, which is to be placed in the %programfiles%\res powerfuse folder, contains a digital signature, so it cannot be changed once issued by RES. For more information about the rebranding program, contact your local RES representative.
RES Portal [B] – Aka the Support Portal. This is the place where SA customers can log in to retreive the latest released software, access the knowledgebase. See this article for details.
RES PowerFuse [B] – See PowerFuse
RES Service [P] – Aka. RES PowerFuse Agent Service. A part of the PowerFuse installation package. The job of the RES Service is to connect to the PowerFuse datastore and ensure replication of downstream configuration data and upstream logging and Usage Tracking information. The short name of the service is RES and the binary image is C:\PROGRA~1\RESPOW~1\svc\res.exe. The service runs with local system credentials. This is fine as long as you use SQL authentication. If you want to use Windows Authentication on your SQLserver, you will need to change the credentials on the RES Service.
RES Software [B] – The place where all the magic happens! RES Software has produced user workspace management solutions for over 10 years with a broad adaptation in over 14 countries. As of August 2010 the two current procuts are RES PowerFuse and RES Wisdom. For more information, visit the corp website here.
RES User Group [B] – Originally founded by Yuri Haak, The RES Software User Group (RESUG) is a community formed with the intention of representing a worldwide association of people who share a common interest in the development, deployment and exploitation of RES Software’s products. The usergroup is a seperate legal entity from RES Software and has a blog here and is also home to an active forum with many participants.
RESverse [B] – Okay, okay, so I totally made that one up.. :-) The ‘RESverse’ is my humble reference to the realm of all things RES Software related: The RES Universe!
Resource [W]- A Wisdom object which can contain any kind of file or collection of files, which are being used by a Wisdom task. A resource can be anything; for example a hostfile, a MSI file to a printer driver, consisting of multiple files. A resource can be stored in the Wisdom datastore or you can point to an existing fileshare, where you might have an existing installation library.
Reverse Seamless Windows [P] – Seamless Windows was a client display concept implemented by Citrix in the late ’90′s in the MetaFrame product. The technology made it possible to spoof the desktop into displaying a remote application as if it is part of the local desktop on a client PC. Reverse Seamless Windows does, as the name indicates, the exact opposite. Here we take a local application (such as an app that won’t run well or at all on a SBC server) and make it look like it’s actually part of the remote desktop being served up on the server farm. Reverse Seamless Windows is offered by RES Software by way of the Workspace Extender, Desktop Extender and the Subscriber.
RoB [P] – Acronym for Read-Only-Blanketing.
Run Book [W] – A runbook, in Wisdom terminology is an object which can contain parings between modules and/or projects, – and agents and/or teams. What this means in plain english is that you can store job schedulings for different tasks to be run on different computers, all within one container. This will enable you to automate jobs which has dependancy across multiple computers. An example would be to build the components of a Citrix Xenapp farm: First build the DC, then the SQL, and then finally deploy XenApp to the terminal servers.
Run Book Automation [W] – See Run Book
S
SA [B] – Acronym for Solution Assurance.
Sampling Mode [P] – Is a subfeature of the PowerFuse 2010 User Settings. This feature is NOT related to the Desktop Sampler. It allows you to capture what’s going on for an cross section of the user population to which you are planning to implement User Settings. You can configure a ratio so that you for example only record sample data for, say 1 out of 10 users. Unlike User Settings and the desktop sampler’s DTS files, the sampled data is stored in the PowerFuse datastore. This is however only temporary until you get a fix on what settings you want to presereve or ignore. After that you are free to dump the sampledata.
Scope Control [P] – This describes the ability to limit a given Administrative Role to a certain subset of users identities, locations and devices and/or workspace containers. The idea is that you can run several departments (or perhaps even companies for that matter) under the same umbrella. Using scope control, you can then configure that AdminX for DepartmentX can only manage settings which are exclusive to the users of DepartmentX. Settings which are shared among different scopes will be read-only to the Administrative Roles that share them.
Secure Envelope [P] – This was a demo concept to show off the capabilities of Removable drive security. The secure envelope is configured around a “secure” app, where the prereqiusites are: a) Two factor authentication and b) Certain other communication apps such as IE, MSN, Outlook must not be allowed to run while the envelope is active. More information on this novel approach can be found in this article
Security Roles [P,W] – Old name, pre PowerFuse 2010. See Administrative Roles.
ServicePack [P] – New name for PowerFuse PowerPacks. The servicepacks are quarterly released sets of fixes and enhancements, which include a rollup of all the updatepacks which has been released since the previous servicepack or major release. See version numbers for further details.
SessionGuard [P] – Old name, pre PowerFuse 2010. See Sessions.
Sessions [P] – Formerly known as SessionGuard. This is a technology within PowerFuse to allow the console operator to control the behavior of user sessions when the user roams physically from one device to another. If a user moves from one device (PC or thin client) then PowerFuse can prompt the user for what he wants to do (log off the other session, disconnect, etc)
SETPRINT.exe [P] – The executable that launches Printing Preferences. Located in %programfiles%\RES PowerFuse.
SetShell [P] – Aka. SETSHELL.exe This utility is almost obsoloete. See end of this paragraph. SetShell is a free utility from RES Software designed to switch the shell of either the local or a remote computer between native Windows (means Powerfuse 2008 or earlier switched off), PowerFuse enabled, or RES Subscriber enabled. SetShell can only configure one computer at a time. If you need to change the shell on more than one computer simultaniously, there is a Task in Wisdom to do just this, or you can do it in the Powerfuse 2010 Agent view. The SetShell used to be freely available for download from the main RES site, but they have moved it onto the portal, so you need a username and password to get it. Note: With the release of PowerFuse 2010, setshell has become largely obsolete as you can now set the shell on all agents centrally from the RES console. See this article. Note however that if you are using the Subscriber, currently (March ’10) Setshell is the only RES utility that can set that for you, unless you want to modify the registry yourself.
Shell [P] – The interface you’re presented with. When PowerFuse is controlling a user session’s shell, there are two options available. Either use the built-in Windows shell, managed by PowerFuse or use a small RES-built desktop called PowerMenu. There are advantages and caveats of each, which may be covered in another article sometime. Note however that you can configure exeptions for the shell so you can have different users running different shells.
Slack [P] – A name of a tab and a term used in the Workspace Designer wizard in PowerFuse. Let’s say you are using the workspace designer to create rules for Drive and Portmappings. Going through the wizard, you pick one or more contexts to assign the mapping to, the Slack percentage tells you how many users which didn’t have the mapping before and would now all of a sudden get it, using the selected context(s). Ideally your slack percentage should always be zero. The workspace designer has the ability to automatically remove both slack and missed users by chosing the “Add any missing and remove slack” checkmark. Slack is removed by adding explit no-access entries for the slack users to the access control on the rule being generated by the wizard.
Solution Assurance [B] – A.k.a. SA, Software Assurance, Subscription Advantage, etc. This is the annual fee you would pay as a RES Software customer to ensure eligibility and continual access to the latest releases of the software you’ve purchased. A typical SA would be something like 20% of the purchase price. When you purchanse your RES product, one year of SA is included per default. Note: SA does not per default entitle you for EAP status as this is per invitation only.
Specified Mode [P] – Aka. legacy mode. This is one of the Zero Profile modes available in PowerFuse 2010, which is compatible with the User Preferences feature in PowerFuse 2008. Contrary to Immediate mode, which captures anything a given target does, specified only grabs specifically what you tell it to grab. This is very useful for picking up known settings.
Splash screen [P] – The graphic loader screen with a progress indicator, being shown while the Workspace Composer renders the user workspace at logon. From PowerFuse 2008 SR5 this graphic could be altered to customer specifications, but not be removed. This has changed with PowerFuse 2010, where you can switch off the splashscreen completely in the Composition|Desktop|Lockdown & Behavior node. Note: switching off the splashscreen is a global setting, it is not possible to show it to some users, but not to others. This is due to the fact that when the user is identified the windows for deciding to show a splashscreen would have passed.
Stealth Mode [P] – This is as of yet still an unofficial term, used to describe the situation when you install PowerFuse 2010 onto an existing unmanaged computer and switch off all the management functions in the Workspace Model to begin with. The user will not notice the shell has been switched to PowerFuse if the splashscreen is disabled at the same time. The cool thing about stealthmode is that you can then gradually start to take managed ownership over different parts of the existing estate. For example you might want to start with taking over the network drive mappings, thereby eliminating a big chunk of the existing loginscript. See article RG02A on Stealthmode deployment.
Subscriber[P] – This is a variation of the Workspace Extender. This component will allow you to convert any regular PC into a thin-client, though preserving it’s ability to launch local applications. The Subscriber is set as an alternative shell, which in turn either can display a local simple menu, or suck the user straight into a loadbalanced, published, central desktop (where PowerFuse must be running in order for the Subscriber and Workspace Extender to work). Tip: run subscriber.exe /config to access the configuration panel of the application. See article RG011 on how to set it up.
T
T3 – [T] Acronym for Train The Trainer.
Task[W] – Basic object within RES Wisdom which does something to the target computer. The other type of basic object is a query. There are 100+ different tasks and associated queries to chose from in RES Wisdom, from the simple task of changing computer properties, to the advanced items which can manipulate Active Directory objects. All of them present a nice GUI to the console operator, so scripting is largely eliminated.
Team [W] – A group of Wisdom Agents. Memership of a Team can be either static or based on Team Rules. A Wisdom team can also be marked as a Primary Team. Finally it’s possible to assign a project or a module to be scheduled when an agent is respectively added to or removed from the team.
Team Rules [W] – These rules allow for Wisdom to automatically place an agent into a team. Rules which can be used for this are Computer Function, FQDN, IP address, MAC address, OS bit version, OS suite, OS type, OS version/servicepack level and processor architechture (32/64bit)
Teleport Button [P] – Not official terminology, but used among field engineers. On the Workspace Model node, when clicking any item that can be enabled/disabled/etc, a button will appear to the right that looks like this: . Clicking this button wil teleport you straight into the node which it’s controlling.
Tim the Toolman [P] – Former name for an early version of DSbrowse.
Time Restrictions [P] - Formerly known as PowerHours. A way of configuring an application to only be available in certain timeframes on certain days. PowerHours are configured underneath an applications Access Control | Time Restrictions tab, where you can specify the available “opening hours” for an app in 30 minute intervals for a 7 day period. Note, currently in PowerFuse 2010 SR1 the user will get warned 1 minute before he/she hits a time restriction on an application. If the user does not comply and closes the application, it will be forcefully terminated.
Tracing [W,P] - This is essentially switching on a debug log if there’s something strange in the neighborhood. You can enable this in both PowerFuse and Wisdom although the methods are a bit diffrent. To enable Tracing in PowerFuse, go look at the article here. To do the same in Wisdom, go have a look here.
Train the Trainer [T] – A course hosted by RES Software to train new RCT candidates. During this course the participants present themselves and teaching techniques are discussed also. Only candidates who have passed prometric exams for both PowerFuse and Wisdom are elligible to participate in the Train the Trainer course.
V
VDX [B] – Acronym for Virtual Desktop Extender.
Version number [P] – In PowerFuse you have a 4 segment version number (x.x.x.x) The first digit indicates the Major release version, which is typically incremented every year. PowerFuse 2010 is 9.x.x.x, PowerFuse 2008 is 8.x.x.x, PowerFuse 7 is 7.x.x.x. The second digit represents the minor release version. The minor version number hasn’t been used as far as I can remember. The third digit represents current servicepack level and the fourth and last digit represents the updatepack level.
Virtual Desktop Extender [P] – Aka VDX. This is the new name of everything related to the component known formerly as the WorkSpace extender. Refer to this press release for further information.
W
Web Portal [P] – Formerly known as WebTop. Allows you to generate a web-page in the users session that will show the contens of the start menu as a web page. To address any confusion, NO – this is not a replacement for Citrix’s web interface. The HTML is rendered inside the users session in the %temp% folder. It is for use in environments where you want to provide a consistent web look-n-feel.
WebTop [P] – Old pre PowerFuse 2010 terminlogy, see Web Portal.
W.i.s.d.o.m (acronym) – Interesting factoid #117. Originally Wisdom was an acronym for Windows Installation, Scheduling and Deployment Operations Manager. No longer in use. These days we speak about Runbook Automation for Windows, when referring to Wisdom.
Wisdom Integration [P] – RES PowerFuse has the ability to interface with it’s sister-product RES Wisdom. In effect this integration allows you to execute Wisdom projects and modules either when a user logs on, or when a certain application is launched. This effectively gives you install-on-demand capability, without having to sacrifice security. The beauty of this integration is that Wisdom executes the job using the Wisdom agent, which runs in the context of LocalSystem per default. Effectively there is no hassle with the UAC, or having to elevate the user’s rights in his session one way or another.
Wisdom Management Console [W] – Aka. WMC. The application used to manage RES Wisdom with. The WMC connects directly to the Wisdom datastore. The console is protected by Security Roles, where you can specify who can do what in the console. There are also several interesting commandlines to be used with the console executable.
WMC [W] – Often heard acronym for the Wisdom Management Console.
Workspace Analysis [P] – A part of PowerFuse which will let you analyze a users workspace environment into details. You will be able to see every aspect of the central PowerFuse configuration, but from the perspective of the user. Not only can you see what configuration items the user is eligeble to receive, but also the result. Did he actually receive it and did it result in an error. Examples are what applications does the user have access to, and why does he have access. What printers, drives and registry settings will he receive. Account AD attributes. What security violations has this user incurred. What happened during the last X number of logons, ctc etc. The list is very extensive, which is why an Instant Report can be generated for every user.
Workspace Composer [P] – Formerly known as the Workspace Manager. This is the pfwsmgr.exe process that runs during logon, when the PowerFuse splash screen is shown, and encapsulates the users session from beginning to end. Note that from PowerFuse 2010, the splash screen of the WorkSpace Composer can be hidden from the User.
Workspace Container [P] – An object within RES PowerFuse, which will allow you to cut out and manage certain parts of your environment. In it’s simplest form, a Workspace Container is simply a list of computers, maintained on the Computer Control tab of the containers properties. Useful applications for a workspace includes managing workstations, laptops and terminalservers from one console, or perhaps managing multiple silo’s in a XenApp farm. The uses are many, therefore I have dedicated a separate article to workspace containers and their many uses.
Workspace Designer [P] – A wizard within the PowerFuse Management Console, which will let you import and process .DTS files recorded by the Desktop Sampler. Using the Workspace Designer, you are able to create configuration items in the powerfuse management console based on real-world data from your existing environment, rather than having to rely on assumptions and guesswork. The workspace designer even offers you the ability to experiment with what-if scenarios, in terms of coverage, slack and potential missed users, even before the resulting configuration items are saved. Note: The workspace designer can only analyze a number of DTS files equal to the number of PowerFuse licenses you have installed. This is to prevent somebody with a 15-user trial license from analyzing a 10.000 user environment without anybody knowing about it. In that case, get in touch with your local RES representative and talk about an evaluation license for your project.
Workspace Extender [P] – This is a free component available from the RES portal, which you can use to extend applications, running locally, into a remote PowerFuse desktop on a Citrix/TS environment. In effect what the workspace extender does is allowing you to do Reverse Seamless Windows. This means that apps which doesn’t run well on Server Based Computing environments (such as DVD burners, CAD and video apps, etc) can be run locally, yet seem as they are part of the centralized desktop. See article RG011 on how to set it up. See also Subscriber and Virtual Desktop Extender.
Workspace Manager [P] – Old name, pre PowerFuse 2010. See Workspace Composer.
Workspace Model [P] – A central part of the new PowerFuse 2010 console which acts as a master circuitbreaker panel. Here you can turn on/off all parts of the PowerFuse experience. For example, if you turn everything off, you’ve effectively enabled Stealth Mode. The cool thing about the Workspace Modelis that you can define several configuration sets for different uses, using the PlusMenu. An article has been written specifically about the Workspace Model. Click here to read it.
Workspace Preferences [P] - Formerly known as PowerPanel. The WorkSpace Preferences is an application provided in the users’s start menu, which will allow him to change certain items in his environment, which in turn the admin has allowed. Per default, the user can change the contens of the start menu, desktop, quicklaunch and startup. Besides that there are options to change screensaver timeout, and similar things. Most Workspace Prefs items can at any time be overruled by the console operator. Alternatively the WorkSpace Preferences panel can be disabled completely.
WUID [W] – Acronym for Wisdom Unique IDentifier. This is a value written into the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE registry. The purpose of the value is to uniquely identify a wisdom
WUP file [W] – These files are downloadable from the RES portal, when a new version or service release of Wisdom is available. Wisdom automagically updates all agent, dispatcher and wisdom console components. In Wisdom 4.0 and up you can if necessary do a downgrade by loading up an older .WUP file. All components will then revert to the older version.
U
UpdatePack [P] – A minor set of fixes, which typically address one or more acute challenges. In the Microsoft world these are known as private hotfixes. A PowerFuse updatepack is no different, as it’s not announced to the public. However, if a customer installation exhibits symptoms which the updatepack may solve, RES Support may advise the customer to download and install the given update pack. It is not recommended to install updatepacks unless being told to do so by support. Every quarter, exising updatepacks are rolled up into PowerFuse Servicepacks. See also version numbers. Updatepacks are cumulative unless otherewise specified.
UPF file [P] – UPF files contain the file based user setting that are recorded for a User Setting in Powerfuse. The files in questions are files/folders/foldertrees specified in the users %userprofile% path.
UPF2 file [P] – This is the new immediate mode storage format for any file changes to the user’s profile in PowerFuse 2010. These file files are encrypted, but their contens can be viewed using WorkSpace Analysis on the user in the PowerFuse Console.
UPR file [P] – These files store the HKCU registry User settings for a user. TheseThe UPR files can be found in <Homedrive:>\PwrMenu\UserPrefs\{GUID}.UPR Note: the files are binary and can only be read by PowerFuse and a certain old internal RES utility. This is however obsoloete with the advent of PowerFuse 2010, as you are now able to view the User Settings files directly in the RES PowerFuse console.
UPR2 file [P] – This is the new immediate mode storage format for HKCU registry based User Settings in PowerFuse 2010 and up. These files are encrypted, but their contens can be viewed using WorkSpace Analysis on the user.
Usage Tracking [P] – Formerly known as PowerTrace. An extensive historical logging system built into PowerFuse, which can collect information about all application, web, user, department and computer activity: For example, which websites were visited by who and how long, what applications were used for how long. More information about Usage Tracking can be found here and here
USB Security [P] – See Removable Drive Security
User Installed Applications [P] – Formerly known as Partially Managed Workstations. This feature of PowerFuse will allow installation of new unmanaged applications by certain specified users on certain computers. Note that the users usually need local admin privledges to execute MSIexec. All installations by the users are logged centrally in terms of Time, date and Software title. Tip: look into using PowerFuse and Wisdom combined to trigger installation.
User Preferences [P] – This was the first implementation of User Settings in PowerFuse 2008. Back then, we only had the option to retreive/store settings at login/logout. PowerFuse 2010 maintains compatibility with User Preferences by offering user settings configured in specified mode.
User Settings [P] – The implementation of Hybrid Profiles, Flex Profiles, etc in RES PowerFuse. The idea is to scoop up specified user settings from files/registry in the user’s profile, save it instantly to the homedir (or at logout), and then dunk it all back in there when you need the setting again. User Settings can be specified both globally and per application. The big deal here is that this happens in realtime. PowerFuse will grab both HKCU settings and files modified in %userprofile% and you can do all sorts of exclusions to your hearts content. Besides that, user modifies settings are NOT (unlike certain other vendors do) stored in the datastore, but easily accessible in the users homedirectory. Finally, you can record and log everything that’s going on, using Sampling Mode.
$UserShell() [P] – This function will allow you to refer to UserShellFolders locations, such as favorites, desktop, appdata, sendto, cookies, etc. to name a few. This is especially usefull when defining environment variables in PowerFuse. See this article for an overview of the function.
User Workspace Management[B] –
Z
Zero Profile Mode [P] – The way you configure the PowerFuse User settings feature to pick up profile registry or file changes for the users, so you are independent of what, if any profile that is being used. You can chose between immediate mode and specified mode. In PowerFuse 2010 SR2, you now also have the option to Capture once and track further.
Zero-Profile Technology [P] – This is marketing speak for using PowerFuse 2010 to A) manage configuration settings which need to be rendered dynamically B) grabbing User settings in realtime and storing them outside the profile, thereby C) not relying on any specific profile. To be perfectly candid about it, it’s way cool to do this, but since any Windows session in reality needs to load some kind of profile, one might be a bit more specific and refer to it as zero profile reliance. Example: If you don’t configure a profile for users in a TS environment, this will work nicely. However local static profiles would start to pile up on every server, hence you really want to set up a fast locally stored mandatory profile everywhere you can in that example. There is an nice article on that right here. Other articles of interest in relation to Zero profiling, can be found here and here.
RESguru | 
2009/03/31 17:52
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