# Manage host pools (Azure Virtual Desktop)

A host pool is a collection of one or more identical virtual machines (VMs) within an Azure Virtual Desktop environment. Each host pool contains an application group that users can access.

Host pools can be configured a number of different ways depending on the intended purpose. The following table describes different options that you can choose when creating a host pool.

| Option                      | Description                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      |
| --------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Personal vs. pooled**     | <ul><li><strong>Personal</strong> host pools contain single session hosts, each of which is assigned to a single user. The assignment is persisted even after the user logs off or the host is powered off. You can unassign the host from a user and assign it to a different user if needed.</li><li><strong>Pooled</strong> host pools contain multi-user session hosts (RD Session Hosts or multi-session Window 10 machines), which are not assigned to any particular user. Each host in a pool can serve multiple users (multi-session).</li></ul>                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        |
| **Application vs. desktop** | A host pool can only publish applications or desktops, but not both at the same time. When you create a host pool, you choose a publishing type from **Desktop** or **Application**. An application group of the appropriate type (Desktop or RemoteApp) for the host pool is created automatically. Note that you cannot change the publishing type later. If you decide that you want to change it, you'll have to delete the existing host pool and create a new one.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         |
| **Template vs. standalone** | <p>When you create a host pool, you need to select from <strong>Template</strong> or <strong>Standalone</strong>. A host pool can contain hosts that already exist (Standalone) or it can use a template which in turn could be based on an existing guest VM or chosen to be created on the fly from images in Azure Marketplace or in your Shared Image Gallery.</p><ul><li><strong>Template</strong>: Hosts can be created from the template by the administrator manually or they can be created automatically when there's a demand. Automatic host creation (called <strong>Autoscale</strong> in Parallels RAS) can be turned on or off in the host pool properties.</li><li><strong>Standalone</strong>: Hosts are added and removed to/from a host pool by the administrator. Hosts (virtual machines) must already exist in Azure and must be domain joined.</li></ul> |

To manage Azure Virtual Desktop host pools, navigate to **Farm** > **Site** > **Azure Virtual Desktop** and select the **Host pools** tab.

To view and modify host pool properties, right-click it and choose **Properties**. In the dialog that opens, select tabs and view or modify host pool properties as described below.

## **General**

On the **General** tab, you can enable or disable the host pool. Note that if you disable it, all hosts and published resources will also be disabled.

You can also modify the host pool description and view general host pool properties.

In the **Application group** section, you will see the name of the application groups created for the host pool.

The **Friendly name** field shows the friendly name used for the workspace in Azure Virtual Desktop and Parallels RAS.

## **Configuration**

On the **Configuration** tab, examine the host pool configuration properties. You should be familiar with them from when you created a host pool.

You can modify the following properties on this page:

* **Load balancer**
* **Limit number of sessions on host**
* **Power on host on-demand**
* **Validation environment**

For the explanation of configuration properties, see [**Add an Azure Virtual Desktop host pool**](/landing/ras-admin-guide/v19-en-us/parallels-ras-19-administrators-guide/azure-virtual-desktop/deploy-azure-virtual-desktop/add-host-pools-azure-virtual-desktop.md).

## **Autoscale**

This tab is shown only for host pools with **Template** as a provisioning type. Here you can select a template if one has not been specified for the host pool yet. You can also create a new template by clicking the **Create new** button, which will open a wizard. If you don't have any templates, the only selection available is **None**, which means that there's no template to create hosts from. If that's the case, you need to create a template first and then select it here. See also [**Manage templates**](/landing/ras-admin-guide/v19-en-us/parallels-ras-19-administrators-guide/azure-virtual-desktop/manage-azure-virtual-desktop/manage-templates-azure-virtual-desktop.md).

The **Autoscale settings** section contains settings that determine how hosts (virtual machines) are created from the specified template. These settings work the same as Autoscale settings for RD Session Host groups. The only difference is, in Azure Virtual Desktop we deal with hosts and host pools, while in RD Session Host groups we talk about servers and groups, otherwise the settings work in a similar manner. For details, please see the **Autoscale** subsection in [**Grouping and cloning RD Session Hosts**](/landing/ras-admin-guide/v19-en-us/parallels-ras-19-administrators-guide/rd-session-hosts/manage-rd-session-hosts/manage-host-pools-rd-session-hosts.md).

The **Specifications section** allows you to overwrite the virtual machine size specified in the settings of the template used by the given host pool. Select the **Overwrite the size specified in template properties** option and select a desired size from the drop-down list. The selected size will only be used by this host pool. Other host pools using the same template will be unaffected. Note that available sizes may depend on the location, size, and power state of the host pool members and the template. Also note that overwriting the size requires a host reboot.

## **Hosts**

The **Hosts** tab lists hosts from this host pool. You can examine the status of a host and other properties by looking at the values in the table.

The **Status** column should indicate "OK" if a host is operating normally. To verify the agent status, right-click a host and choose **Check agent**. If you see a message that "Agent did not reply", click **Install** to try and install the agent. If everything goes well, the agent will be updated and the **Status** column should say "OK". You can also upgrade all agents by clicking **Tasks > Upgrade all Agents**.

To add a new host to the pool:

1. Click **Tasks** > **Add**.
2. Depending on the host pool provisioning type, do one of the following:
   * If the host pool provisioning is configured as **Standalone**, select one or more hosts from the list. You can also select the **Show hosts in existing host pools not managed by RAS** option to show hosts that exist in other host pools on Azure.
   * If the host pool provisioning is configured as **Template**, you cannot manually add hosts here. Instead, use the [**Hosts**](/landing/ras-admin-guide/v19-en-us/parallels-ras-19-administrators-guide/azure-virtual-desktop/manage-azure-virtual-desktop/manage-hosts-azure-virtual-desktop.md) tab in the main Azure Virtual Desktop view.
3. Click **OK**.

## **Application packages**

See **Using** [**MSIX application packages**](/landing/ras-admin-guide/v19-en-us/parallels-ras-19-administrators-guide/common-management-tasks/using-msix-application-packages.md).

## **Assignment**

The **Assignment** tab displays Active Directory users and groups assigned to Microsoft Entra ID objects. In order for users to see published desktops and applications, they must be assigned to the application group available in the host pool.

To create a new assignment:

1. Click **Tasks** > **Add**.
2. In the **Select User or Group** dialog, specify a user or group and click **OK**.
3. Follow the onscreen instructions and complete the assignment. Note that additional filtering in the **Publishing** category may be used to control Azure Virtual Desktop resource availability in Parallels Client. For details, see **Publish resources**.

## **User profile**

By default, this tab inherits its settings from Site defaults. If you wish to specify custom settings, clear the **Inherit default settings** option. For the information about configuring user profile, please see [**Site defaults (Azure Virtual Desktop)**](/landing/ras-admin-guide/v19-en-us/parallels-ras-19-administrators-guide/azure-virtual-desktop/site-defaults-azure-virtual-desktop.md).

## **Optimization**

The **Optimization** tab allows you to specify settings that will be used to optimize session hosts for best performance in a Parallels RAS environment. You can select Windows components, services, and other options that will be disabled, removed, or optimized to ensure a more efficient, streamlined, and improved delivery of virtual apps and desktops. By default, this tab inherits its settings from Site defaults. If you wish to specify custom settings, clear the **Inherit default settings** option. For the information about configuring optimization options, please see [**Site defaults (Azure Virtual Desktop)**](/landing/ras-admin-guide/v19-en-us/parallels-ras-19-administrators-guide/azure-virtual-desktop/site-defaults-azure-virtual-desktop.md).

## **Host pool settings**

This tab allows you to configure settings such as sessions timeouts, client URL/Mail redirection, drag and drop and others. By default, this tab inherits its settings from Site defaults. If you wish to specify custom settings, clear the **Inherit default settings** option. For the information about configuring host pool settings, please see [**Site defaults (Azure Virtual Desktop)**](/landing/ras-admin-guide/v19-en-us/parallels-ras-19-administrators-guide/azure-virtual-desktop/site-defaults-azure-virtual-desktop.md).

## **RDP printer**

The **RDP Printer** tab allows you to configure the renaming format of redirected printers.  By default, this tab inherits its settings from Site defaults. If you wish to specify custom settings, clear the **Inherit default settings** option. For the information about configuring user profile, please see [**Site defaults (Azure Virtual Desktop)**](/landing/ras-admin-guide/v19-en-us/parallels-ras-19-administrators-guide/azure-virtual-desktop/site-defaults-azure-virtual-desktop.md).


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