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You can enable and configure automatic updates for all Azure Virtual Desktop hosts in a host pool.
To schedule Agent auto-upgrade:
Go to Farm > Site > Azure Virtual Desktop > Host pools > Properties > Auto-upgradee tab.
Clear the Inherit default settings options if you want to modify them for this host pool.
Select the Enable auto-upgrade maintenance window option. During the maintenance window, all hosts in the host pool will try to download Agent upgrades. The upgrades will be downloaded and installed as soon as all users log out of their hosts. New logons from users are prohibited (drain mode). If the users don't log off during a maintenance window, the upgrades won't be installed until the next window.
Specify the start date and time, duration, and recurrence settings for this event. To make this a one-time event, select Never in the Recur drop-down list.
(Optional) If you want to forcefully log off all users and download the upgrades at the end of a maintenance window, select the Force logoff of current sessions at the end of the maintenance window duration option.
(Optional) Configure a message that will be sent to users before or during a maintenance window. Click the Configure messages button and specify the message title, body, and the time period when it should be sent.
To cancel Agent auto-update:
Go to Farm > Site > Azure Virtual Desktop > Host pools.
Select Tasks > Cancel auto-upgrade maintenance window.
An Azure Virtual Desktop template is a virtual machine from which other virtual machines are created as clones of the original VM and added to a host pool as session hosts.
To manage Azure Virtual Desktop templates, navigate to Farm > Site > Azure Virtual Desktop and select the Templates tab.
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 |
|---|---|
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
See Using MSIX application packages.
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.
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).
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).
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).
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).
To create a template:
On the Templates tab, click Tasks > Add. This opens the Create Parallels Template Wizard.
On the first page, select an Azure Virtual Desktop provider (if you have more than one).
Select a template type from the following:
Multi-session: Multiple concurrent user sessions are allowed on a single host running a Windows Server operating system, Windows 10 or Windows 11 Enterprise multi-session.
Single-session: A single user session is allowed on a single session host.
On the Template Source page, select a source from the following:
Custom host: Displays a list of existing virtual machines.
Azure Gallery: Allows you to select an image and create a new virtual machine from it. Depending on the template type, multi-session or single-session, commonly used marketplace images such as Windows 10 Enterprise multi-session, are predefined to be easily chosen and created as a template. Select a location and specify the local administrator username and password. The Browse all images button opens a dialog where you can choose any other image from the Marketplace or Shared Image Gallery. When choosing an image from the Shared Image Gallery, select from a list of publishers, SKUs, offers, and other options.
On the Hosts page, select virtual machine properties from the predefine Azure values according to your needs:
First, specify an Azure resource group.
Select a virtual machine size.
Note: The virtual machine size can be overridden in the settings of the host pool using a given template. This gives you the ability to specify a different VM size at the host pool level.
Select a disk type.
Select a virtual network and subnet.
Note: In case using Accelerated networking for the Template, make sure you select the appropriate host size for session hosts that support accelerated networking.
On the General page, specify the following settings:
Template name: The name of the template.
Create an availability set: If selected, hosts will be deployed from the template in an availability set. Note that the maximum number of hosts that can be deployed in an availability set is 200 (this is an Azure limitation). If you require more than 200 hosts, clear this option and specify your own value in the Maximum number of hosts field.
On the Preparation page, select an image preparation and specify the required options. This is similar to how an image is prepared for a RAS VDI template. There are some minor differences, but the configuration procedure is essentially the same. For details, please see .
On the Optimization page, configure optimization settings. These settings are inherited from Site defaults but custom settings can be specified if needed. For details, please see .
On the New template version page, specify the name and description and select the tags for the version. You can select several tags.
On the Summary page, review the settings and click Finish to create the template.
To view and manage Azure Virtual Desktop sessions, navigate to Farm > Site > Azure Virtual Desktop and select the Sessions tab. Sessions from all hosts in all host pools are displayed in the list.
For a detailed information about managing sessions, please see .
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.
The Scheduler tab allows you to create scheduler tasks that will be performed on individual hosts or host pools at a specified time.
Note: When the scheduled event is triggered, affected hosts are disabled in Parallels RAS and their status is displayed as "Disabled (scheduler)" or "Pending reboot (scheduler)". You can cancel these states by right-clicking a host on the Hosts tab and choosing Control > Cancel disabled state (scheduler) or Control > Cancel pending reboot (scheduler).
To disable a host or a host in a pool:
Click Tasks > Add > Disable host or Disable host pool.
On the General tab, select the Enable Schedule option.
Specify a name for this schedule and an optional description.
Select a host or a pool in the Available list and click Add. The host or pool will appear in the Target list.
Select the Trigger tab and specify start date and time, duration, and recurrence settings for this event. To make this a one-time event, select Never in the Recur drop-down list.
Select the Options tab. It contains the following options:
Message list: Configure a message that will be sent to users before the host goes offline. Click Tasks > Add and specify the message title, body, and the time period when it should be sent.
On disable: Specify what should happen to current sessions when a scheduled task triggers. Select the desired option from the On disable drop-down list.
Enforce schedule for currently inactive hosts: This option is only enabled when you have an active message in the list. If the option is enabled, hosts that are currently offline are also monitored, and if such a server comes back online during the scheduled task execution, the task is applied to it too.
Click OK to save the schedule.
To reboot a host or a host in a pool:
Click Tasks > Add > Reboot host or Reboot host pool.
On the General tab, select the Enable Schedule option.
Specify a name for this schedule and an optional description.
Select a host or a pool in the Available list and click Add. The host or pool will appear in the Target list.
Select the Trigger tab and specify start date, time, and recurrence settings for this event. To make this a one-time event, select Never in the Recur drop-down list. In addition, specify the following options for the "Reboot host pool" task:
Complete in: Specify the time to complete the task.
Select the Options tab. It contains the following options:
Message list: Configure a message that will be sent to users before the host is rebooted. Click Tasks > Add and specify the message title, body, and the time period when it should be sent.
Enable Drain Mode and Force server reboot after: The two options work together. If you select the Enable Drain Mode option, then when the task triggers, new connections to a host are refused but active connections will continue to run and can be reconnected. The server will be rebooted when all active users close their sessions or when Force server reboot after time is reached, whichever comes first. For active users not to lose their work, create a message that will advise them to save their work and log off.
Enforce schedule for currently inactive hosts: This option is only enabled when you have an active message in the list. If the option is enabled, hosts that are currently offline are also monitored, and if such a server comes back online during the scheduled task execution, the task is applied to it too.
Click OK to save the schedule.
Note: This task applies only to hosts and host pools based on a template.
To start up a host or a host in a pool:
Click Tasks > Add > Startup host or Startup host pool.
On the General tab, select the Enable Schedule option.
Specify a name for this schedule and an optional description.
Select a host or a pool in the Available list and click Add. The host or pool will appear in the Target list.
Select the Trigger tab and specify start date, time, and recurrence settings for this event. To make this a one-time event, select Never in the Recur drop-down list.
("Startup host pool" task only) Select the Options tab. It contains the following options:
Percentage of members: Select this option to specify the percentage of hosts that must be started up in each pool.
Specific number of members to be started: Select this option to specify the number of hosts that must be started up in each pool.
Click OK to save the schedule.
To shut down a host or a host in a pool:
Click Tasks > Add > Shutdown host or Shutdown host pool.
On the General tab, select the Enable Schedule option.
Specify a name for this schedule and an optional description.
Select a host or a pool in the Available list and click Add. The host or pool will appear in the Target list.
Select the Trigger tab and specify start date, time, and recurrence settings for this event. To make this a one-time event, select Never in the Recur drop-down list.
Select the Options tab. It contains the following options:
Message list: Configure a message that will be sent to users before the host is rebooted. Click Tasks > Add and specify the message title, body, and the time period when it should be sent.
Enable Drain Mode and Force server shutdown after: The two options work together. If you select the Enable Drain Mode option, then when the task triggers, new connections to a host are refused but active connections will continue to run. The server will be shut down when all active users close their sessions or when Force server reboot after time is reached, whichever comes first. For active users not to lose their work, create a message that will advise them to save their work and log off.
Enforce schedule for currently inactive hosts: This option is only enabled when you have an active message in the list. If the option is enabled, hosts that are currently offline are also monitored, and if such a server comes back online during the scheduled task execution, the task is applied to it too.
Note: This task applies only to hosts and host pools based on a template.
To recreate a specific host or all hosts in a host pool:
Click Tasks > Add > Recreate host from template or Recreate host pool from template.
On the General tab, select the Enable Schedule option.
Specify a name for this schedule and an optional description.
Select a host or a pool in the Available list and click Add. The host or pool will appear in the Target list.
Select the Trigger tab and specify start date, time, and recurrence settings for this event. To make this a one-time event, select Never in the Recur drop-down list.
Select the Options tab. It contains the following options:
Message list: Configure a message that will be sent to users before the host is rebooted. Click Tasks > Add and specify the message title, body, and the time period when it should be sent.
Enable Drain Mode, Force host recreation after, and Force host pool recreation after: The options work together. If you select the Enable Drain Mode option, then when the task triggers, new connections to a host are refused but active connections will continue to run. The server will be recreated when all active users close their sessions or when the time specified in Force host recreation after or Force host pool recreation after is reached, whichever comes first. For active users not to lose their work, create a message that will advise them to save their work and log off.
Enforce schedule for currently inactive hosts: This option is only enabled when you have an active message in the list. If the option is enabled, hosts that are currently offline are also monitored, and if such a server comes back online during the scheduled task execution, the task is applied to it too.
For Disable Host and Disable Host Pool tasks, you can only send a message before the scheduled task is triggered. Hence, when creating a message, you can only select the "before" option when specifying when the message should be sent. You can create more than one message if needed and send them at different time intervals, so the users are notified more than once before the task executes.
For Reboot Host and Reboot Host pool tasks, you can send a message before or after the scheduled task is triggered. The "after" option is available for these tasks because you have the ability to enable the drain mode, which will keep the active sessions running for some time. During this time, you can send multiple messages to active users reminding them that they should finish their work and close their sessions. To use the "after" option, the Enable Drain Mode option must be selected. Please also note that the "after" time interval and the Force server reboot after setting should be coordinated. For example, if the force reboot occurs before the "after" time elapses, active users will not have a chance to see the message.
An Azure Virtual Desktop provider in Parallels RAS is a collection of IDs and other properties that give you access to Azure resources. Properties include Tenant ID and Subscription ID, among others. Normally, an organization is given one Tenant ID by Microsoft, but there could be multiple subscription IDs owned by the same organization. For each Tenant ID and subscription ID combination, a provider must be configured in Parallels RAS.
To manage Azure Virtual Desktop providers, navigate to Farm > Site > Providers and select the Providers tab.
To add a new provider, click Tasks > Add and select Azure Virtual Desktop. For the information on how to complete the wizard, please see Add Microsoft Azure as a VDI Host. To view and modify some of the existing provider properties, right-click a provider in the list and choose Properties.
Other provider management tasks can be accessed from the Tasks menu, including:
Checking provider status: Tasks > Troubleshooting > Check status.
Configure and manage logging: Tasks > Troubleshooting > Logging.
Parallels RAS 18.3 supports virtual machines joined to Windows Server Active Directory Domain Services and Azure Active Directory Domain Services. By default, Parallels RAS is configured to work with Windows Server Active Directory Domain Services, but you can change this if needed.
To choose the type of Active Directory Domain Services for a provider:
Right-click a provider in the list and choose Properties.
In the provider properties window, select the Credentials tab.
In the Active Directory Domain Services type drop-down list, select the type of Active Directory Domain Services:
If your users are created with Windows Server Active Directory and your virtual machines are joined to Windows Server Active Directory Domain Services, select Windows Server AD DS (selected by default).
If your users are created with Windows Server Active Directory and your virtual machines are joined to Azure Active Directory Domain Services, select Azure AD DS.
If your users are created with Microsoft Entra ID and your virtual machines are joined to Azure Active Directory Domain Services, select Azure AD DS.
You can configure an Azure Virtual Desktop provider to automatically change the type of the used managed disk to Standard HDD for AVD hosts that are not currently in use. When an AVD hosts is started, the managed disk is automatically changed to the original type. This feature allows you to reduce the cost of maintaining AVD hosts.
To enable disk storage cost optimization:
Right-click a provider in the list and choose Properties.
In the provider properties window, select the Advanced tab.
Select the Enable disk storage cost optimization option.
Select the desired option in the Set timeout before enabling storage cost optimization drop-down list.
A workspace is a logical grouping of application groups in Azure Virtual Desktop. Each Azure Virtual Desktop application group must be associated with a workspace for users to see published remote apps and desktops.
To manage Azure Virtual Desktop workspaces, navigate to Farm > Site > Azure Virtual Desktop and select the Workspaces tab.
To add a workspace:
Click Tasks > Add to open the Add Azure Virtual Desktop Workspace wizard.
Select a provider at the top of the wizard page (if you have more than one). You can also create a new provider right from this page. If you wish to do so, click the New provider button to open another wizard. For details, see Manage providers.
After selecting (or creating) a provider, complete the workspace wizard as described in Add an Azure Virtual Desktop workspace.
To view properties of an existing workspace, right-click it and choose Properties. You can enable or disable the workspace and modify the workspace description and friendly name. Other properties are read-only. Note that if you disable the workspace, all associated objects, including host pools and published resources will also be disabled.
When you create a host pool and set its provisioning type as Template, you need to assign an existing template to it. This can be done when you create or modify a host pool, or you can assign a template to a host pool on the Templates tab.
To assign a template to a host pool:
Select a template and click Tasks > Assign to host pool.
Click Tasks > Assign to pool. A wizard opens.
On the Versions page, select the template version that will be assigned to the host pool.
(Optional) On the Host pool page, select the host pools that you want to recreate on schedule and click the Configure button. You will see a dialog that allows you to schedule recreation. Configure the schedule according to your needs and click Next.
Click Finish.
To remove a template from a host pool:
Select a template and click Tasks > Remove from host pool.
The Remove from Host Pool dialog opens listing all host pools using the selected template.
Select one or more host pools to remove the template from and click OK.
Note that if a host pool has hosts, they will be removed. You will see a message and need to confirm the removal.
If one or more host pools are being locked by another administrator, you will also see a message and will have to repeat the operation later when a pool is unlocked.
To manage Azure Virtual Desktop hosts, navigate to Farm > Site > Azure Virtual Desktop and select the Hosts tab.
The list displays hosts from all available host pools. You can apply a filter to the table to see hosts from a particular pool or using other criteria. To apply a filter, click the magnifying glass icon and specify the filter in a column (or columns) of interest.
Tasks that you can perform on a host are accessible from the Tasks menu and include the following:
Add: Add a host to one of the available host pools. See the Add a host subsection below.
Assign: This option is enabled for hosts from a Personal host pool. It allows you to assign the selected host to a user. If a host is already assigned to another user, you'll be asked if you want to change the assignment. Select an Microsoft Entra ID user when asked. The assignment is done in Azure, so the host status will change to "Assigning" for the duration of the operation.
Unassign: Removes the user assignment from the selected host, see Assign above. This menu option is enabled for hosts that are currently assigned to a user. The status of the host changes to "Unassigning" for the duration of the operation.
Search: Allows you to search for a host in the list by applying a filter.
Show sessions: Switches to the Sessions tab with a filter applied to show the selected host sessions.
Show published resources: Displays a list of resources published from the selected host.
Show application packages: Displays MSIX application packages added to the selected host.
Control: Control options, including enable or disable logons on the selected host, cancel a pending reboot (originated by scheduler), cancel a disabled state (originated by scheduler). See Using scheduler for details.
Start, Stop, Reset, Restart: Power operations that can be performed on the selected host. The Restart operation (graceful) has a 10-minute timeout. If not completed during this time, the Reset operation (forced) will be used. If you choose Stop, the host will be stopped and deallocated.
Upgrade all Agents: Upgrades agents on every host in the list (if necessary).
Stop optimization: When an optimization is applied to a host, it can be canceled in the beginning stages. For more information, see Optimization.
Tools: Standard RAS tools, including Remote Desktop, computer management, service management, event viewer, Powershell, and others. For the complete description, please see Computer management tools.
Troubleshooting: Allows you to check the agent status and update it if necessary. Also allows you to manage logging.
Details: Shows details when a host was not created due to a failure. The option opens a dialog describing the reason of failure and some additional information.
Change license type: Change the type of Azure license.
Recreate: Recreates a host.
Delete: Deletes a host from the list and from the host pool to which it belongs. The host (virtual machine) itself is kept or deleted depending on the host pool provisioning type. A host created from a template will be completely removed. A standalone host is not deleted, which means that the virtual machine stays intact.
Refresh: Refreshes the list.
You can add a host to a host pool from the Hosts tab. To do so:
Click Tasks > Add.
In the Add Hosts dialog, select a target host pool. Depending on the provisioning type configured for the selected host pool, do the following:
Standalone: Select one or more hosts from the list. You can also select the option at the bottom to show hosts in other existing host pools on Azure that are not managed by Parallels RAS.
Template: Specify the number of hosts to add to the pool from the template.
Click OK.
To modify an existing template, right-click it and choose Properties. Some properties cannot be modified, while many can. For the description of individual properties and settings, please refer to instructions in Create a template.
To delete a template, select it in the list and click Tasks > Delete. Note that at the time of this writing, there's a known issue that if a template is deleted in the RAS Console, the template and associated hosts may not be completely removed from Microsoft Azure. To make sure that all such objects are removed, it is recommended to do it from the Azure portal.