To properly set up a Azure Virtual Desktop environment, you need to make sure everything is planned out properly. If you rush to deploy a virtual desktop environment, you may find you spend a significant amount of time after deployment tidying everything up.
Spending a bit of extra time planning will save significant time and therefore money in the long run. Here’s how we recommend successful deployment of Azure Virtual Desktop.
Azure Virtual Desktop deployment
There are four main areas of a Azure Virtual Desktop deployment. These are planning, preparation, deployment and optimisation. We’ll be covering the first two in this blog post, and the final two in a future article.
Plan
Before you deploy the virtual desktop, the following should be completed:
- Network considerations: before you can deploy you Virtual Machines, you need to have a network set up. Make sure a firewall is set up correctly – Azure Virtual Desktop requires specific firewall rules for it to work correctly.
- The number of virtual machines: you can create up to 159 virtual machines when you create your host pool – with a hard limit of 10,000 machines per host pool.
- Limitations and sizing: for single session scenarios, you’re recommended to have at least 2 physical CPU cores per machine. Check with your app software vendors for sizing recommendations, specific to your workload.
- Image types: Azure uses two types of image to create virtual machines, Gallery and Storage blob. You’ll need to choose the type of operating system discs – Standard SSD, Premium SSD or Standard HDD.
- Joining the domain: two domain join virtual machines you need to specify the full Active Directory domain name.
- Application groups: you can assign a user or groups to a remote desktop application group and a RemoteApp application group in the same host tool. Users can only launch one type of application group per session.
- Device clients: you can access a Azure Virtual Desktop workspace from either a web browser or by using a client on your device. We recommend accessing from a device.
Prepare
To prepare for WVD deployment, make sure you have the right licensing, an Azure subscription and the correct Azure Active Directory and VM configuration.
- Licenses and subscriptions: You can access Azure Virtual Desktop for free with an eligible Windows licence, M365 licence or RDS Client Access Licence (CAL) with Software Assurance, depending on the operating system you want to deploy. You must also have an Azure subscription that contains a virtual network that either contains or is connected to the Windows Server Active Directory or Azure AD DS instance. This subscription must also be parented to the same Azure AD tenant.
- Create Azure resources: Create the Azure network and configure connectivity to Active Directory via a VPN, local host or using Azure virtual network peering.
- Azure Active Directory: You’ll need a domain controller that’s synced with Azure AD.
- Virtual Machines: VMs must be standard domain-joined or Hybrid AD-joined, and must be running a supported operating system image.
- User requirements: Register the required subscription(s) with the Microsoft. Desktop Virtualization resource provider.
Properly deploying a Azure Virtual Desktop environment will save your organisation time and money in the long run. If you’re interested in setting up a virtual desktop environment for your staff, get in touch with ACUTEC today.
