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.
Personal vs. pooled
Personal 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.
Pooled 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).
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
When you create a host pool, you need to select from Template or Standalone. 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.
Template: 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 Autoscale in Parallels RAS) can be turned on or off in the host pool properties.
Standalone: 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.
To manage Azure Virtual Desktop host pools, navigate to Farm > Site > Azure Virtual Desktop and select the Host pools tab.
Host pool properties
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
Autoscale
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.
Installing agents
If you see a message 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.
Repairing agents
If you see Broken (Host unavailable) in the Status column, the Azure Virtual Desktop agent has become unresponsive.
To repair the agent:
Click Tasks > Repair.
This will uninstall the Azure Virtual Desktop agents, remove the host from the host pool, reinstall the Azure Virtual Desktop agents and add them to the host pool. During this process the Status column will show the status Deployment in progress.
Adding hosts to a pool
To add a new host to the pool:
Click Tasks > Add.
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.
Click OK.
Application packages
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:
Click Tasks > Add.
In the Select User or Group dialog, specify a user or group and click OK.
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
Optimization
Settings
RDP printer
Agent auto-upgrade
AVD agent
The AVD agent tab allows you to schedule updates for Azure Virtual Desktop agents installed on the hosts in the host pool. If you do not schedule the updates, they will be installed automatically when Microsoft releases a new version.
To schedule AVD agent updates:
Go to the Farm > Site > Azure Virtual Desktop > Host pools > Properties > AVD agent tab.
Select the Scheduled Microsoft AVD agent updates option.
Select the time zone for the updates:
If you want to use the host's local time zone, select the Use local session host time zone option.
If you want to use a specific time zone, select it in the Time zone drop-down menu.
Specify the date and time for the maintenance window.
(Optional) You might want to create two maintenance windows to ensure that updates are installed during the designated time. To do that, select the Add an additional window option and specify the date and time for the second maintenance window.
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