AVD Admin Experience Create New Host Pool | Workspace | Session Host

Let’s learn about AVD Admin Experience and how to create Host Pool, Workspace, and Session Host. I explained about AVD v2 ARM model architecture in the last blog post.

The AVD spring 2020 release is not generally available yet. I think Microsoft is planning to get AVD v2 out of public preview very soon.

In this post, I will help you to understand how to: Register Azure Virtual Desktop, Create a New Host Pool, Create New Session Hosts (VM), and Create New Workspace.

Register with Azure Virtual Desktop V2

Let’s see how to register the host pools with AVD in the new admin experience from the Azure Virtual Desktop portal itself.

Patch My PC
  • Click on the Subscription icon
  • Select the subscription.
  • Click Resource Providers.
  • Search with “Desktop“.
  • Click on Microsoft.DesktopVirtualization
  • Click on the Register button
  • Check the status changing from NonRegistered 👉 Registering 👉 Registered
Microsoft.DesktopVirtualization - AVD v2 Admin Experience Create New Host Pool | Workspace | Session Host
Microsoft.DesktopVirtualization – AVD v2 Admin Experience Create New Host Pool | Workspace | Session Host

Create AVD v2 Host Pool

Let’s create a new AVD v2 host pool using a new admin experience.

  • Login to portal.azure.com
  • Search with “Azure Virtual Desktop“.
  • Click on the Azure Virtual Desktop icon as shown in the below screenshot.
Microsoft.DesktopVirtualization - AVD v2 Admin Experience Create New Host Pool | Workspace | Session Host
Azure Virtual Desktop

Click on Create a host pool to continue.

Create a host pool - WVD v2 Admin Experience Create New Host Pool | Workspace | Session Host
Create a host pool – AVD v2 Admin Experience Create New Host Pool | Workspace | Session Host
  • From Project details Select Subscription from the drop-down menu.
  • Create a new Resource Group – Click on Create New – AVD A-48.
  • Host pool name – Enter the name of the Host Pool Name – AVDv2.
  • Location – Select the Azure region to store Metadata – East US2.

Select Host pool typePersonal.

If you select pooled (shared), users will still be able to access their personalization and user data, using FSLogix.

Adaptiva

Assigned Type – Direct

Automatic assignment – The service will select an available host and assign it to a user direct assignment – Admin selects a specific host to assign to a user.

NOTE! – You have to use the PowerShell command to assign a user to a personal host pool. PS Command 👉 Update-AzWvdSessionHost -HostPoolName $hostpoolname -Name $sessionhostname -ResourceGroupName $resourcegroupname -AssignedUser $userupn. More details here.

WVD v2 Admin Experience Create New Host Pool | Workspace | Session Host
AVD v2 Admin Experience Create New Host Pool | Workspace | Session Host

Create Virtual Machines and Add to AVD Host Pool

Let’s add virtual machines to the new host pool with a new AVD admin experience. Host pools are a collection of one or more identical virtual machines within Azure Virtual Desktop environments.

  • Here you give details to create a resource group with virtual machines in an Azure subscription.
  • Add virtual machines 👉 Yes.
  • Select Resource Group 👉 AVD A-48.
  • Select Virtual Machine Location 👉 East US 2
    • You can choose a different region for virtual machines than the host pool, especially if you want metadata to be stored in a particular geography but you want the virtual machines closer to the user.

Select Machine size 👉 Standard D2s v3 – 2 vCPUs, 8 GiB memory.

Select a virtual machine size to support the workload that you want to run. The size that you choose then determines factors such as processing power, memory, and storage capacity. Azure offers a wide variety of sizes to support many types of uses. Azure charges an hourly price based on the virtual machine’s size and operating system.

Select the Number of VMs you need to add to the new Host Pool 👉 2

Select the Host Name Prefix for the VM 👉 1WVDACN1

Select Image Type from Azure Image Gallery.

Choose the base image to create virtual machines 👉 Windows 10 Enterprise 2004.

OS Disk Type – Standard SSD.

Use Managed Disks – Yes.

Create Virtual Machines and Add to AVD Host Pool
Create Virtual Machines and Add to AVD Host Pool

Network & Security Configurations for AVD Session Hosts

Now, let’s create network and security configurations for AVD session hosts.

  • Select the already created Virtual Network 👉 WVD_PoC_VLAN1.
  • Select the Subnet from the drop-down 👉 Default.
  • Select Public IP 👉 NO.
  • Select Network Security Group (NSG) as per your organization standard 👉 Basic.
  • Select the Public inbound ports option 👉 No

Specify domain or unit to YES

Select yes to join virtual machines to a specific domain or organization unit (OU).

Select no to not join the virtual machines to an OU.

If you select no, the domain name will use the suffix of the Active Directory domain join UPN by default. For example, the user “[email protected]” would get the default domain name “contoso.com”.

Enter the Domain name for Domain to join – HTMD.Local (where HTMD.local is my domain name).

Enter the OU path 👉 OU=WVD,OU=AAA UK,OU=Org,DC=HTMD,DC=local

Enter the AD Domain join UPN 👉 [email protected].

Enter the password 👉 ********

Click on the NEXT Workspace button.

 Create Virtual Machines and Add to AVD Host Pool
Create Virtual Machines and Add to AVD Host Pool

Create New Workspace for Azure Virtual Desktop

To save some time, you can register the default desktop application group from this hosted pool, with a new or pre-existing workspace.

NOTE! – The wizard creates a display name for this workspace, which you can always edit later.

  • Register desktop app group 👉 Yes.
    • To register the desktop app group from this hosted pool to an existing workspace, select the name of the workspace you want to register.
  • To register the app group to a new workspace, select Create new.
  • Enter the Workspace name 👉 AVDv2.
  • Click OK to continue.
Create New Workspace for Azure Virtual Desktop
Create New Workspace for Azure Virtual Desktop

Let’s learn more about Tags. Tags are name/value pairs that enable you to categorize resources and view consolidated billing by applying the same tag to multiple resources and resource groups Learn more.

Note that if you create tags and then change resource settings on other tabs, your tags will be automatically updated.

  • Click on Next: Review + Create> button.
  • Validation passed.
  • Click on Create button to start the deployment.
Create button to start the deployment
Create New Workspace for Azure Virtual Desktop
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Deployment is underway – AVD Admin Experience Create New Host Pool | Workspace | Session Host
WVD v2 Admin Experience Create New Host Pool | Workspace | Session Host
Deployment Complete – AVD v2 Admin Experience Create New Host Pool | Workspace | Session Host

Results – AVD v2 Admin Experience | | Session Host

Login to portal.azure.com

Search with “Windows Virtual Desktop“.

Click on the Windows Virtual Desktop icon to check the

New Host Pool

Now, let’s create a new host pool from the Azure Virtual Desktop portal.

  • Click on the Host pools node to check the new AVD v2 host pool that got created.
    • Name 👉 WVD2.
    • Resource Group 👉 WVD A-48.
WVD v2 Admin Experience Create New Host Pool | Workspace | Session Host
AVD V2 New Host Pool

Application Groups

Now you will have to create the application group or select one application group for the AVD host pool assignment.

  • Select Application Groups 👉 Name 👉 WVD2-DAG.
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AVD V2 – Application Groups

Click on Application Group 👉 WVD2-DAG.

Click on Assignments 👉 +Add

Search for Azure AD Users or Groups to assign Desktop Application Group created through the Hostpool.

WVD v2 Admin Experience Create New Host Pool | Workspace | Session Host
AVD v2 Admin Experience Create New Host Pool | Workspace | Session Host

Workspace

Click on Workspace 👉 WVD2.

WVD v2 Admin Experience Create New Host Pool | Workspace | Session Host
AVD V2 Workspace

Session Host for AVD

Click on Host Pools 👉Select the host pool👉 WVD2.

Click on the Session Hosts button.

Check the Session Host Available for Host Pool WVD2.

Session Host for AVD
Session Host for AVD

Client-Side Access of AVD Session Host

Logon to https://rdweb.wvd.microsoft.com/arm/webclient/index.html with Azure AD user name and password.

Click the Remote Desktop Session host available.

Log in to Remote Desktop with the same Azure user name and password used above.

Client-Side Access of AVD Session Host
Client-Side Access of AVD Session Host

Resources

Author

Anoop is Microsoft MVP! He is a Solution Architect in enterprise client management with more than 20 years of experience (calculation done in 2021) in IT. He is Blogger, Speaker, and Local User Group HTMD Community leader. His main focus is on Device Management technologies like SCCM 2012, Current Branch, and Intune. He writes about ConfigMgr, Windows 11, Windows 10, Azure AD, Microsoft Intune, Windows 365, AVD, etc……………

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