As many of your employees or customers continue to embrace virtual desktop environments, Azure Virtual Desktop (short AVD) remains a crucial solution for delivering secure and scalable virtual desktops and applications. A key feature to drive efficiency in AVD is the preferred application group type setting for pooled host pools. This setting allows administrators to fine-tune user access and optimize resource management.
In this blog post, we’ll dive into the workings of preferred application group types, their benefits, and how you can utilize them to optimize your AVD deployment performance.
Understanding Application Group Types in Azure Virtual Desktop
In AVD, an application group is essentially a logical set of applications available on session hosts within a host pool. These groups determine whether a user accesses the full Windows desktop or specific applications, customizing the virtual environment based on needs. There are two primary types:
- Desktop Group: Provides users with access to the full Windows desktop from a session host. Applicable for both pooled and personal host pools.
- RemoteApp Group: Allows access to individual applications selected and published to the application group. Available only in pooled host pools.
In pooled host pools, both types can coexist. However, to avoid user access conflicts, administrators can use the preferred application group type setting to ensure a smooth user experience.
The Role of Preferred Application Group Type
The preferred application group type determines the default access mode (Desktop or RemoteApp applications) for users assigned to both types within the same host pool. By enforcing this setting, Microsoft ensures that administrators can prevent users from having multiple sessions from conflicting application groups, which can lead to performance issues and confusion. Previously, it was possible for users to have both Desktop and RemoteApp applications running simultaneously within the same host pool. Now, when creating a new host pool, you must set the application group type to either Desktop or RemoteApp. For host pools without a set preferred application group type, the system defaults to enforcing the Desktop type. RemoteApp applications won’t display for these pools in Windows App or the Remote Desktop app, ensuring users only see desktop resources.
Creating a host pool through the Azure portal involves two key default behaviors: the preferred application group type is set to Desktop by default, which can be changed during or after host pool creation; and a Desktop application group is automatically created and named after the host pool with the suffix -DAG, which can be removed if only RemoteApp applications are required.
Example Scenarios
Let’s look at a few scenarios to understand how preferred application group type settings influence user access:
Scenario 1: Host pool hostpool1 has both desktop and RemoteApp application groups. Flavio, part of the management security group, accesses the desktop while Mika, part of the finance security group, accesses RemoteApp applications. The preferred application group type doesn’t affect this setup.
Scenario 2: Host pool hostpool1 has both groups. Flavio accesses the desktop, and Mika, assigned to both groups, defaults to the desktop because the preferred application group type is set to Desktop.
Scenario 3: Two host pools: hostpool1 (Desktop) and hostpool2 (RemoteApp). Both Flavio and Mika, assigned across groups, access both desktop and RemoteApp applications in Windows App or the Remote Desktop app.
Conclusion
Strategically using preferred application group types in AVD helps improve user productivity and reduce performance issues by effectively managing access to applications and desktops. Understanding and leveraging these settings allows you to maintain a seamless and efficient virtual environment that suits your organization’s specific requirements. Additionally, be aware that host pools without a defined preferred application group type can lead to access conflicts and may not align with your needs after automatic changes made (setting “Desktop” as default) by Microsoft.
For detailed guidance on setting preferred application group types, refer to Set the preferred application group type for a pooled host pool in Azure Virtual Desktop.