Mastering Azure Virtual Desktop

Mastering Azure Virtual Desktop

by Ryan Mangan
Released March 2022
Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
ISBN: 9781801075022

Read it now on the O’Reilly learning platform with a 10-day free trial.

O’Reilly members get unlimited access to books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.

Start your free trial

Book description

Learn how to design, implement, configure, and manage your Azure Virtual Desktop environment

Key Features

  • Learn everything about designing and deploying an Azure Virtual Desktop environment
  • Gain in-depth insights into Azure Virtual Desktop and prepare successfully for the AZ-140 exam
  • Explore best practices and expert tips on how to set up Azure Virtual Desktop

Book Description

Azure Virtual Desktop is a cloud desktop virtualization platform that securely delivers virtual desktops and remote apps. Mastering Azure Virtual Desktop will guide you through designing, implementing, configuring, and maintaining an Azure Virtual Desktop environment effectively. This book can also be used as an exam preparation guide to help you sit the Microsoft AZ-140 exam.

You’ll start with an introduction to the essentials of Azure Virtual Desktop. Next, you’ll get to grips with planning an Azure Virtual Desktop architecture before learning how to implement an Azure Virtual Desktop environment. Moving ahead, you’ll learn how to manage and control access as well as configure security controls on your Azure Virtual Desktop environment. As you progress, you’ll understand how to manage user environments and configure MSIX app attach and other Azure Virtual Desktop features to enhance the user experience. You’ll also learn about the Azure Active Directory (AD) join and getting started feature. Finally, you’ll discover how to monitor and maintain an Azure Virtual Desktop environment to help you support your users and diagnose issues when they occur.

By the end of this Microsoft Azure book, you’ll have covered all the essential topics you need to know to design and manage Azure Virtual Desktop and prepare for the AZ-140 exam.

What you will learn

  • Design Azure Virtual Desktop and user identities and profiles
  • Implement networking and storage for Azure Virtual Desktop
  • Create and configure session host images and host pools
  • Manage access and security for MS Azure Virtual Desktop
  • Implement FSLogix Profile Containers and FSLogix Cloud Cache
  • Configure user experience and Azure Virtual Desktop features
  • Plan and implement business continuity and disaster recovery
  • Automate Azure Virtual Desktop tasks

Who this book is for

If you are an IT professional, workspace administrator, architect, or consultant looking to learn about designing, implementing, and managing Azure Virtual Desktop, this book is for you. You’ll also find this book helpful if you’re preparing for the Microsoft AZ-140 exam.

Table of contents

  1. Mastering Azure Virtual Desktop
  2. Foreword
  3. Contributors
  4. About the author
  5. About the reviewers
  6. Preface
    1. Who this book is for
    2. What this book covers
    3. To get the most out of this book
    4. Download the color images
    5. Conventions used
    6. Get in touch
    7. Share Your Thoughts
  7. Section 1: Introduction
  8. Chapter 1: Introduction to Azure Virtual Desktop
    1. Desktop virtualization
    2. Azure Virtual Desktop – what is it?
    3. Providing the best user experience
    4. Enhanced security
    5. Simplify management
    6. Managing Azure Virtual Desktop performance
      1. Multi-session Windows 10/11
      2. What licenses do I need?
    7. How does Azure Virtual Desktop work?
    8. What's managed by Microsoft and what you manage
      1. What Microsoft manages
      2. What does the customer manage?
    9. Summary
  9. Section 2: Planning an Azure Virtual Desktop Architecture
  10. Chapter 2: Designing the Azure Virtual Desktop Architecture
    1. Assessing existing physical and Virtual Desktop environments
      1. Assessing Azure Virtual Desktop deployments
      2. User personas
      3. Application groups
    2. Assessing the network capacity and speed requirements for Azure Virtual Desktop
      1. Applications
      2. Display resolutions
      3. Azure Virtual Desktop experience estimator
      4. Remote Desktop Protocol bandwidth requirements
      5. Estimating bandwidth utilization
      6. Estimating the bandwidth that's used by remote graphics
      7. Dynamic bandwidth allocation
      8. Limit network bandwidth use with throttle rate limiting
      9. Reverse connect transport
      10. Session host communication channel
      11. Client connection sequence
      12. Connection security
    3. Identifying an operating system for an Azure Virtual Desktop implementation
      1. Supported Azure OS images
      2. What is Windows 10 multi-session?
      3. Customizing the Windows 10 multi-session image for your organization
    4. Planning and configuring name resolution for Active Directory and Azure Active Directory Domain Services
    5. Planning a host pools architecture
      1. App groups
      2. End users
      3. Registering the DesktopVirtualization resource provider
      4. Registering the provider using Azure PowerShell (optional)
    6. Resource groups, subscriptions, and management groups limits
    7. Configuring the location for the Azure Virtual Desktop metadata
    8. Calculating and recommending a configuration for capacity and performance requirements
      1. Multi-session recommendations
      2. Recommendations on sizing VMs
      3. General recommendations for VMs
      4. Testing workloads
    9. Summary
    10. Questions
    11. Answers
    12. Further reading
  11. Chapter 3: Designing for User Identities and Profiles
    1. Selecting a licensing model for your Azure Virtual Desktop deployment
      1. Applying the Azure Virtual Desktop licensing to VMs
      2. Azure Files tiers
    2. Planning for user profiles
      1. User profiles
      2. Challenges with previous user profile technologies
      3. An introduction to FSLogix Profile Containers
      4. Azure Files integration with Active Directory Domain Services
      5. Planning for user identities
    3. Planning for Azure Virtual Desktop client deployment
      1. Installing the Windows Desktop client
      2. Subscribing to a workspace
      3. Access client logs
      4. Connecting to Azure Virtual Desktop using the Web Client
      5. Setting up email discovery to subscribe to the Azure Virtual Desktop feed
    4. Summarizing the prerequisites for Azure Virtual Desktop
    5. Summary
    6. Questions
    7. Answers
  12. Chapter 4: Implementing and Managing Networking for Azure Virtual Desktop
    1. Implementing Azure Virtual Network connectivity
      1. Azure Virtual Network
      2. Azure VNets
      3. Communication between Azure resources
      4. Communication with on-premises networks
      5. Filtering and routing Azure network traffic
      6. Understanding what virtual network integration is for Azure services
    2. Managing connectivity to the internet and on-premises networks
      1. Types of VPN available to you
    3. Implementing and managing network security
      1. Azure network security overview
      2. Understanding AVD network connectivity
    4. Managing AVD session hosts by using Azure Bastion
      1. What is Azure Bastion?
      2. Setting up Azure Bastion
      3. Connecting to a VM using Azure Bastion
    5. Monitoring and troubleshooting network connectivity
      1. Using Azure Monitor to diagnose network issues
      2. Confirming all required URLs are not blocked
    6. Summary
    7. Questions
    8. Answers
  13. Chapter 5: Implementing and Managing Storage for Azure Virtual Desktop
    1. Configuring storage for FSLogix components
      1. FSLogix Profile container storage options
      2. The different Azure Files tiers
      3. Best practices for Azure Files with AVD
    2. Configure storage accounts
      1. Step 1 – create a new storage account
      2. Step 2 – configure the basics
      3. Step 3 – configure advanced settings
      4. Step 4 – configure networking
      5. Step 5 – configure data protection
    3. Configuring file shares
    4. Configuring disks
      1. Ephemeral OS disks
      2. Creating a VHD image
      3. Creating a VM
      4. Creating a local image
      5. Dynamic disks versus fixed disks
    5. Summary
    6. Questions
    7. Answers
    8. Further reading
  14. Section 3: Implementing an Azure Virtual Desktop Infrastructure
  15. Chapter 6: Creating Host Pools and Session Hosts
    1. Creating a host pool by using the Azure portal
      1. Host pool creation
      2. Workspace information
    2. Automating the creation of AVD hosts and host pools
      1. Setting up PowerShell for AVD
      2. Creating an AVD host pool with PowerShell
    3. Summary
    4. Questions
    5. Answers
  16. Chapter 7: Configure Azure Virtual Desktop Host Pools
    1. Windows Server session host licensing
    2. Configuring host pool settings
      1. Customizing RDP properties
      2. Using PowerShell to customize RDP properties
      3. Methods for configuring Azure Virtual Desktop load balancing
      4. Using PowerShell to configure load balancing methods
      5. Assigning users to host pools
      6. Assigning users to host pools via PowerShell
      7. Configuring automatic assignment
      8. Configuring direct assignment using PowerShell
      9. Applying OS and application updates on an Azure Virtual Desktop host
      10. Configuring a validation pool
      11. Applying security and compliance settings to session hosts
    3. Summary
    4. Questions
    5. Answers
  17. Chapter 8: Azure AD Join for Azure Virtual Desktop
    1. Prerequisites
    2. Deploying an Azure AD-joined host pool
    3. Enabling user access
      1. Connect to Azure AD-joined session hosts using the Remote Desktop client
    4. Configuring local admin access
    5. Summary
    6. Questions
    7. Answers
  18. Chapter 9: Creating and Managing Session Host Images
    1. Creating a gold image
      1. Creating a VM
      2. Connecting to the VM
    2. Modifying a Session Host image
      1. Disabling automatic updates
      2. Installing language packs in Azure Virtual Desktop
      3. Optimizing an image
      4. Capturing an image template
    3. Creating and using an Azure Compute Gallery (ACG)
      1. Creating your first Azure Compute Gallery
      2. Capturing an image in an Azure Compute Gallery
      3. Creating an image definition from the Shared Image Gallery
      4. Creating an image version
    4. Troubleshooting OS issues related to Azure Virtual Desktop
      1. VMs are not joined to the domain
      2. Azure Desktop Agent and Virtual Desktop Bootloader are not installed
      3. Azure Virtual Desktop Agent is not registering with the Azure Virtual Desktop service
      4. Basic performance troubleshooting in Azure Virtual Desktop
      5. Networking troubleshooting
    5. Summary
    6. Questions
    7. Answers
  19. Section 4: Managing Access and Security
  20. Chapter 10: Managing Access
    1. Introduction to Azure RBAC
    2. Planning and implementing Azure roles and RBAC for AVD
      1. The delegated access model
      2. Assigning RBAC roles to IT admins
      3. The PowerShell way to assign role assignments
      4. Creating a custom role using the Azure portal
    3. Managing local roles, groups, and rights assignments on AVD session hosts
      1. Configuring user restrictions by using Azure Active Directory Domain Service group policies
    4. Summary
    5. Questions
    6. Answers
  21. Chapter 11: Managing Security
    1. Introduction to MFA
    2. How does Azure MFA work?
      1. Security defaults
      2. Conditional Access
    3. Planning and implementing MFA
      1. Creating a conditional access policy for MFA
    4. Managing security by using Microsoft Defender for Cloud
      1. Securing AVD using Microsoft Defender for Cloud
    5. Using Microsoft Defender for Cloud and AVD
    6. Enabling enhanced security for AVD
    7. Configuring Microsoft Defender Antivirus for session hosts
      1. What is the difference between Microsoft Defender Antivirus and Microsoft Defender for Endpoint?
      2. Getting the latest updates
      3. Setting the scheduled task to run the PowerShell script
      4. Manually downloading and unpacking
      5. Configuring quick scans
      6. Suppressing notifications
      7. Enabling headless UI mode
    8. Summary
    9. Questions
    10. Answers
  22. Section 5: Managing User Environments and Apps
  23. Chapter 12: Implementing and Managing FSLogix
    1. Installing and configuring FSLogix
      1. License requirements for FSLogix profile containers
      2. FSLogix key capabilities
      3. FSLogix installation and configuration
    2. Configuring antivirus exclusions
      1. Configuring exclusions using PowerShell
      2. Configuring profile containers
    3. Configuring Cloud Cache
      1. Configuring Cloud Cache
    4. Microsoft Teams exclusions
    5. FSLogix profile container best practices
    6. Summary
    7. Questions
    8. Answers
  24. Chapter 13: Configuring User Experience Settings
    1. Configuring Universal Print
      1. Prerequisites for Universal Print
      2. Universal Print administrator roles
      3. Setting up Universal Print
      4. Registering printers using the Universal Print connector
      5. Assigning permissions and sharing printers
      6. Adding a Universal Print printer to a Windows device
    2. Configuring user settings using Microsoft Endpoint Manager
    3. Start Virtual Machine on Connect
      1. Configuring with the Azure portal
      2. Enabling screen capture protection for Azure Virtual Desktop
    4. Troubleshooting FSLogix profiles
    5. Troubleshooting Azure Virtual Desktop clients
      1. Testing connectivity
      2. Resetting the Remote Desktop Client
      3. Remote Desktop Client is showing no resources
    6. Summary
    7. Further reading
    8. Questions
    9. Answers
  25. Chapter 14: MSIX App Attach
    1. Configuring dynamic application delivery by using MSIX app attach
    2. What is MSIX?
    3. What does it look like inside MSIX?
    4. What is MSIX app attach?
    5. MSIX app attach terminology
    6. An overview on how MSIX app attach works
    7. Prerequisites
    8. Creating an MSIX package
      1. Packaging a simple application in an MSIX container
    9. Creating an MSIX image
    10. Configuring Azure Files for MSIX app attach
    11. Importing the code-signed certificate
    12. Uploading MSIX images to Azure Files
    13. Configuring MSIX app attach
    14. Publishing an MSIX app to a RemoteApp
    15. Troubleshooting
      1. Published MSIX app attach applications not showing in the Start menu
    16. Summary
    17. Further reading
    18. Questions
    19. Answers
  26. Chapter 15: Configuring Apps on a Session Host
    1. Application Masking
      1. Rule types available
      2. Deploying an application as a RemoteApp
      3. Implementing and managing OneDrive for Business for a multi-session environment
      4. Implementing and managing Microsoft Teams AV redirection
      5. Implementing and managing multimedia redirection
      6. Managing internet access for Azure Virtual Desktop sessions
    2. Summary
    3. Questions
    4. Answers
  27. Section 6: Monitoring and Maintaining an Azure Virtual Desktop Infrastructure
  28. Chapter 16: Planning and Implementing Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery
    1. Designing a backup strategy for Azure Virtual Desktop
    2. Planning and implementing a disaster recovery plan for Azure Virtual Desktop
      1. Virtual network
      2. Virtual machines
      3. Managing user identities
      4. Configuring user and app data
      5. Disaster recovery considerations for MSIX app attach
      6. Application dependencies
    3. Configuring backup and restore for FSLogix user profiles, personal virtual desktop infrastructures (VDIs), and golden images
      1. Virtual machine backup and restore
      2. Zone-redundant storage
      3. Azure file backup and restore
      4. Replicating virtual machine images between regions
    4. Summary
    5. Questions
    6. Answers
  29. Chapter 17: Automate Azure Virtual Desktop Management Tasks
    1. Creating an automation account for Azure Virtual Desktop
      1. Automating the management of host pools, session hosts, and user sessions using PowerShell
      2. Implementing autoscaling for host pools
      3. Autoscale – scaling plans
    2. Summary
    3. Questions
    4. Answers
  30. Chapter 18: Monitoring and Managing Performance and Health
    1. Configuring Azure Monitor for AVD
      1. Creating a Log Analytics workspace
      2. Configuring the monitoring of AVD
      3. Configuring performance counters
      4. Configuring events
    2. Using AVD Insights
    3. Setting up alerts using alert rules
    4. Introduction to Kusto
      1. Connecting Log Analytics to Kusto Explorer
      2. Creating queries for AVD using Kusto Explorer
    5. Using Azure Advisor for AVD
    6. Summary
    7. Questions
    8. Answers
  31. Chapter 19: Azure Virtual Desktop's Getting Started Feature
    1. How the Getting started feature works
      1. Prerequisites
    2. Using the Getting started feature with Azure AD DS and AD DS
    3. Using the Getting started feature without an identity provider
    4. Post-deployment cleanup
    5. Troubleshooting the Getting started feature
    6. Summary
    7. Questions
    8. Answers
  32. Appendix: Microsoft Resources and Microsoft Learn
    1. Azure Virtual Desktop Community shout-outs!
    2. Cool vendors
    3. Other resources written by Ryan Mangan
    4. Summary
  33. Final Assessment
    1. Questions
    2. Answers
    3. Why subscribe?
  34. Other Books You May Enjoy
    1. Packt is searching for authors like you
    2. Share Your Thoughts

Product information

  • Title: Mastering Azure Virtual Desktop
  • Author(s): Ryan Mangan
  • Release date: March 2022
  • Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
  • ISBN: 9781801075022