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	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.

Option

Description

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.

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.

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.

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.

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:

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.
- If the host pool provisioning is configured as Template, you cannot manually add hosts here. Instead, use the Hosts tab in the main Azure Virtual Desktop view.
Click OK.

Application packages

See Using MSIX 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

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).

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).

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).

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).

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