What is Azure Virtual Desktop?
Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop virtualizes desktops and apps. The following are some of the main points:
- Use Windows Server, Windows 10, or Windows 11 to present a complete Windows experience. To allocate devices to a single user, use single-session; for scalability, use multi-session.
- Provide entire desktops or offer specific apps with RemoteApp.
- Showcase Microsoft 365 apps for business and make sure they function well in virtual environments with multiple users.
- Install your corporate software or personal apps, such as those in the Win32, MSIX, and Appx formats, that you may use from any location.
- Provide Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) to other parties.
- Swap out the current deployments of Remote Desktop Services (RDS).
- Utilise a single management interface to oversee PCs and applications from various Windows and Windows Server operating systems.
- Use Azure Local to host desktops and apps in a hybrid on-premises setup.
An introductory video
This video explains what Azure Virtual Desktop (previously Windows Virtual Desktop) is, why it’s special, and what’s new:
Essential skills
Azure Virtual Desktop allows you to create an environment that is both flexible and scalable:
- Without using any gateway servers, set up a complete desktop virtualisation environment in your Azure subscription.
- Configurations that are adaptable to your varied workloads.
- For production workloads, bring your own picture or use one from the Azure Gallery for testing.
- Utilise shared, multi-session resources to cut expenses. You may significantly lower the amount of virtual machines and operating system overhead while still giving your users the same resources thanks to the new Windows 11 and Windows 10 Enterprise multi-session feature, which is only available with Azure Virtual Desktop or Windows Server.
- Assign personal (permanent) desktops to each individual.
- Help control costs by automatically increasing or decreasing capacity according to the time of day, particular days of the week, or as demand varies using autoscale.
Applications and virtual desktops can be set up and managed:
- Create and configure workspaces, application groups, host pools, assign users, and publish resources using the Azure interface, Azure CLI, PowerShell, and REST API.
- To cut down on the quantity of images, you can publish a desktop or individual programs from a single host pool, make separate application groups for various user groups, or even assign users to distinct application groups.
- Use the built-in delegated access to assign roles and gather diagnostics to comprehend different configuration or user problems as you manage your environment.
- Azure Virtual Desktop Insights gives you important information about your environment and the people using it.
- In your Azure subscription, you only need to manage the virtual machines and images you use for the sessions not the infrastructure. Unlike Remote Desktop Services, you do not have to manually oversee the underlying infrastructure functions, like a gateway or broker.
Link users:
- After being assigned, users can use the Remote Desktop client or the Windows App to access their published Windows desktops and apps. You can connect from any device by using the HTML5 web client in a web browser or by using a native application on your device.
- Avoid opening any inbound ports by securely establishing users using reverse connections to the service.
Terminology for Azure Virtual Desktop
Users may easily and securely access their virtualized desktops and apps with Azure Virtual Desktop. You may learn more about Azure Virtual Desktop’s overall structure and terminology in this article.
Host Pools
A group of Azure virtual machines registered as session hosts for Azure Virtual Desktop is called a host pool. For a consistent user experience, every session host virtual machine in a host pool should be supplied from the same image. Application groups give you control over the resources that are made available to users.
There are two types of host pools:
- Personal, in which a user is assigned to each session host. End users can access dedicated desktops from personal host pools, which optimise environments for data separation and performance.
- Pooled, allowing load balancing of user sessions to any host in the host pool. On a single session host, several users may be present simultaneously. Pooled host pools guarantee reduced expenses and increased efficiency by giving end users a shared remote experience.
Additionally, there are two methods for managing host pools:
- Session host configuration (preview), in which Azure Virtual Desktop uses a combination of native technologies to handle the lifecycle of session hosts in a host pool on your behalf.
- Typical, in which you oversee the creation, maintenance, and expansion of session hosts inside a host pool.
Validation environment
A host pool can be configured as a validation environment. You can keep an eye on service upgrades in validation environments before the service deploys them to your production or non-validation environment. Users in your production environment may experience downtime if you fail to identify modifications that introduce issues without a validation environment.
The validation environment should resemble host pools in your non-validation environment as much as feasible to guarantee that your apps function with the most recent changes. The validation environment should be accessed by users just as frequently as the production environment. You should incorporate automated testing into the validation environment if you automate testing on your host pool.
Application groups
Access to a whole desktop or a logical collection of programs that are accessible on session hosts within a single host pool is managed by an application group. You can change which desktops and apps users can access by assigning them to different application groups across different host pools.
There are two sorts of application groups that can be created:
- Desktop: a session host provides users with access to the entire Windows desktop. accessible with shared pools or personal host pools.
- RemoteApp: Users can access certain programs you choose and publish to the application group using RemoteApp. only accessible with pooled host pools.
You can simultaneously assign both application group types to the same host pool when using pooled host pools. Multiple RemoteApp application groups can be assigned to the same host pool, but only one desktop application group can be assigned per host pool.
Host pools have a preferred application group type setting. An end user will only see resources from the selected application group type if they are assigned to both a desktop and a RemoteApp application group on the same host pool. An aggregate of all the apps in the application groups to which a user is assigned is available to users assigned to several RemoteApp application groups that are assigned to the same host pool.
Workspaces
Application groups are logically grouped together to form a workspace. For users to view the desktops and apps that have been published to them, each application group needs to be linked to a workspace. Only one workspace can have an application group associated to it.
Final consumers
Users can use any Azure Virtual Desktop client to connect to an Azure Virtual Desktop deployment once they have been assigned to their application groups.
Sessions of users
Each of the three categories of user sessions that end users may experience is discussed in this section.
The current user session
When a user logs in and connects to their desktop or RemoteApp resource, the user session is deemed active.
Disconnected user session
An inactive session that the user hasn’t yet signed out of is known as a disconnected user session. The remote session disconnects when a user exits the window without signing out. A user gets redirected to their disconnected session on the session host they were working on when they rejoin to their distant resources. The disconnected session then reverts to its active state.
Pending user session
A placeholder session that holds a position on the load-balanced virtual machine for the user is called an awaiting user session. This placeholder session guarantees that the user won’t be removed from their session if another user finishes their sign-in procedure first, as the sign-in process can take anywhere depending on the user profile, it can range from 30 seconds to five minutes.