User Profile Disk (UPD)

As the successor of Roaming User Profiles, UPD stores user profiles in a VHD/VHDX container. This container mounts on a machine upon the user logging in. Microsoft is no longer actively developing UPD and as a result it is considered a legacy technology. Management of UPD in Parallels RAS is only available when upgrading from previous versions of Parallels RAS and is no longer available in new deployments of Parallels RAS.

The limitations of this technology are:

• UDP cannot be used on multiple devices concurrently. Once VHD(X) is mounted for the user, it cannot be mounted on a different device if the user still has an active session on the given session host. If a user connects to another session host while the UPD is already in use, a temporary profile is created.

• UPD requires a configuration at the level of RDS collections. Should there be a user with the ability to log on to several collections, a separate profile will be used for each collection. In Parallels RAS this applies to RDSH host pool. Whenever a user connects to two servers that belong to different RDSH host pool, the second RDP session uses a temporary profile.

• Windows deletes the search index for a user profile when the UPD disconnects at logoff. The search index is recreated upon every login. This means that Windows search is not usable in non-persistent VDI environments. This issue also extends to Outlook search capabilities on RD Session Hosts.

• UPD is supported on RD Session Hosts and Windows client systems in VDI. Physical Windows client machines are not supported.