What is Azure Virtual Desktop?

As many of your employees or customers continue to work with virtual desktop environments, Azure Virtual Desktop (short AVD) remains a crucial solution for delivering secure and scalable virtual desktops and applications. Understanding the architecture, terminology, cost, licensing, and prerequisites of AVD is essential for optimizing deployment and ensuring an efficient virtual desktop environment. In this blog post, we’ll explore the basics of AVD.

Understanding Azure Virtual Desktop

AVD is a powerful desktop and application virtualization service hosted on Microsoft Azure. It enables users to securely access their desktops and applications from anywhere, on any device. AVD offers flexibility by allowing organizations to choose between personal or pooled virtual machines (VMs), suiting various deployment needs. Seamlessly integrating with other Microsoft services, AVD also ensures built-in security and compliance, making it a robust solution for modern remote work environments.

Key Highlights

  • Deliver a full Windows experience: Use Windows 11, Windows 10, or Windows Server. Assign devices to a single user with single-session or use multi-session.
  • Offer full Desktops or RemoteApps: Deliver individual apps through RemoteApp.
  • Optimize Microsoft 365 apps: Run Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise in multi-user virtual scenarios.
  • Run line-of-business or custom apps: Install apps in formats like Win32, MSIX, and Appx.
  • Deliver SaaS for external use: Offer software-as-a-service.
  • Replace RDS deployments: Migrate from existing Remote Desktop Services (short RDS) deployments.
  • Unified management experience: Manage desktops and apps from different Windows and Windows Server operating systems.
  • Host desktops and apps on-premises: Utilize a hybrid configuration with Azure Local.

Watch this neat introductory video to learn more about Azure Virtual Desktop.

Terminology

Host Pools

A host pool is a collection of Azure VMs that are registered to AVD as session hosts. All session host VMs in a host pool should be sourced from the same image for a consistent user experience. You control the resources published to users through application groups.

A host pool can be one of two types:

  • Personal: Each session host is assigned to an individual user, optimizing environments for performance and data separation.
  • Pooled: User sessions can be load-balanced to any session host in the pool, providing shared remote experiences, lower costs, and greater efficiency.

The following table details the differences between each type of host pool:

Feature Personal host pools Pooled host pools
Load balancing User sessions are always load-balanced to the session host assigned to the user. Load balanced based on user session count, using breadth-first or depth-first algorithms.
Maximum session limit One. Configured by the maximum session limit value of the properties.
User assignment Users can be directly or automatically assigned to the first available session host. Users aren’t assigned to session hosts; sessions may be balanced to different hosts upon sign-in.
Scaling Autoscale starts session host VMs based on schedule or user session state. Autoscale turns VMs on/off based on capacity thresholds and customer-defined schedules.
Windows updates Updated with traditional tools or redeploy session hosts from updated images. Updated by redeploying session hosts from updated images.
User data Data can be stored on the OS disk of the VM. Data should be stored using FSLogix profiles.

There are two management approaches for host pools:

  • Session Host Configuration (preview): Azure Virtual Desktop manages the lifecycle of session hosts.
  • Standard: You manage creating, updating, and scaling session hosts.

For more information, see Host Pool Management Approaches.

Application Groups

An application group controls access to a full desktop or a grouping of applications. Users can be assigned to multiple application groups across host pools, varying the applications and desktops they can access.

Application group types
Desktop: Access full Windows desktop from a session host (available with pooled or personal host pools).
RemoteApp: Access individual applications (available with pooled host pools only).

With pooled host pools, both types can be assigned to the same host pool simultaneously. For further details, see Preferred Application Group Type For Pooled Host Pools In AVD.

Workspaces

A workspace is a logical grouping of application groups. Each application group must be associated with a workspace for users to see the desktops and applications published to them.

User Sessions

Users can have three types of sessions:

  • Active User Session: A user is signed in and connected to their resource.
  • Disconnected User Session: A session where the user hasn’t signed out but is inactive.
  • Pending User Session: A placeholder session reserving a spot for the user.

Service Architecture and Resilience

AVD’s architecture is designed for high availability and resilience, leveraging Azure’s global infrastructure to enable deployment across multiple regions for redundancy and closer proximity to users.

  • Azure’s global network: Ensures low latency and high performance by hosting VMs in regions close to the users.
  • Storage: Utilizes Azure Blob storage for user profiles, leveraging FSLogix to ensure profiles are quickly accessible and follow users across sessions.
  • Load balancing: Automatically distributes user sessions across available session hosts to optimize resource utilization and user experience.
  • User connections: Feed discovery and RDP connection processes ensure users can access their resources effectively. For detailed technical information, see Understanding Azure Virtual Desktop Network Connectivity.
  • Service resilience: Azure Virtual Desktop is designed to be resilient, with multiple instances of Microsoft-managed components across Azure regions to withstand failures and provide reliable service.

Understanding and Estimating Costs

The cost of Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) depends on several key factors, including the type and size of virtual machines (VMs), storage, networking, and the number of users. To assist in estimating these costs, Microsoft provides a pricing calculator. When planning your AVD deployment, it’s vital to account for both fixed costs, such as storage, and variable costs, like consumption-based pricing for VMs.

Licensing

To utilize AVD, organizations must have an Azure subscription and appropriate Windows operating system licences. Licensing requirements can vary depending on the deployment scenario. Typically, licences such as Microsoft 365 E3, E5, A3, A5, F3, Business Premium, or Windows 10/11 Enterprise E3, E5 are required. Additionally, there are costs associated with Azure resources consumed, including VMs, storage, and networking.

Prerequisites

Before deploying AVD, certain prerequisites must be met:

  • Azure Subscription: Required to create and manage Azure resources.
  • Some form of Identity provider: Essential for identity and access management. For more details, see Understanding Authentication Methods for Azure Virtual Desktop.
  • Virtual network: Needed to connect VMs to the internet and potentially to an on-premises network.

Conclusion

Azure Virtual Desktop represents a powerful solution for organizations aiming to provide a secure, flexible, and efficient remote desktop environment. Its integration with Azure’s global infrastructure and services makes it a compelling choice for businesses of all sizes. Understanding the architecture, cost implications, licensing requirements, and prerequisites enables administrators to deploy a streamlined, high-performing AVD solution.

For more detailed guidance and information, view those documentations:

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Tags: Azure Virtual Desktop, Licensing, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure

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