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Important
Regional host pools in Azure Virtual Desktop are currently in PREVIEW. See the Supplemental Terms of Use for Microsoft Azure Previews for legal terms that apply to Azure features that are in beta, preview, or otherwise not yet released into general availability.
Whilst in preview, Regional host pools will not support Session host update, Dynamic autoscaling, Private Link or App Attach.
Errors and checkpoints are not being reported into Log Analytics for regional session hosts. Public preview will start with just PowerShell support only. Support for the Azure portal will follow at a later date.
Azure Virtual Desktop now supports Regional host pools. These are new host pools where the metadata is stored in a more resilient manner that reduces the impact of any future database or Azure region outages. These host pools use a new and different set of backend infrastructure, and as such will coexist side by side with the existing "geographical" host pools. At a future date the ability to create new geographical host pools will be deprecated. During this coexistence period, both types of host pools aren't interoperable.
What are Regional host pools?
Regional host pools are a new type of host pool that uses a different set of underlying infrastructure provided by the Azure Virtual Desktop service. This infrastructure removes cross-region dependencies thereby reducing the impact of any Azure region or Azure Virtual Desktop database outages. They increase the resiliency and availability of customer connectivity to the session hosts running end user workloads. There are no functional differences between the two types of host pool.
What are the benefits of Regional host pools?
The main benefits of the new regional host pools are the increased resiliency inherent in the underlying infrastructure architecture. As well as the control provided allowing you to define your data sovereignty requirements by aligning your host pool metadata with each of the Azure regions supported. We strongly recommend that when this service becomes generally available that you create all new host pools as regional host pools to take full advantage of these benefits. As well as consider transitioning your existing geographical host pools over to regional.
Where can you use Regional host pools?
While in preview, two regions are supported: East US 2 and Central US. When this service reaches general availability, it commences a gradual rolling deployment across multiple Azure regions. The available regions supporting Regional databases will increase over time as more regional databases are deployed into those Azure regions.
Limitations of Regional host pools
As the metadata for new regional host pools exists within a separate set of infrastructure, Azure Virtual Desktop objects have a new -DeploymentScope parameter with values of either "geographical" or "regional", and only objects with the same deployment scope can be associated together. For example, it will not be possible to join new regional application groups to existing geographical workspaces or vice versa. Only objects of the same deployment scope can be associated together. Application groups created in regional host pools will automatically be regional, and only regional application groups can be associated with regional workspaces. Likewise, geographic application groups can only be associated with geographical objects.
Create a regional host pool
You need to opt in to this public preview to be able to create new regional host pools. You can do this via PowerShell or the Azure portal.
PowerShell
When connected to your Azure subscription run the following command:
Register-AzProviderFeature -ProviderNamespace Microsoft.DesktopVirtualization -FeatureName AVDRegionalResourcesPublicPreview
Once opted in, to create a regional host pool using Powershell:
The new DeploymentScope parameter has been added to the 5.4.5-preview version of the Az.DesktopVirtualization module. Once installed you just need to add the -DeploymentScope parameter to your PowerShell commands. When creating a new regional host pool your command would include:
New-AzWvdHostPool -DeploymentScope Regional....
If you're deploying a normal geographical host pool use the value of Geographical in place of Regional. This parameter isn't required, so if this is not set the deployment defaults to Geographical.
Azure portal
When signed into the Azure portal go to:
- Subscriptions - select your subscription.
- Go to: Settings > Preview Features
- Filter using: AVDRegionalResourcesPublicPreview
- Select AVDRegionalResourcesPublicPreview
- Click on Register
Important
The public preview commences with just support for PowerShell. Azure portal support will be added shortly, at which point you will be able to configure regional host pools via the portal.
Once you have opted in, you can continue to use the Azure portal to create a regional host pool.
There's only one new step required to create a new regional host pool. A new field called deployment scope has been introduced. This parameter controls whether the Azure Virtual Desktop objects being created are geographical or regional. This drop-down box has two options: geographical or regional. Selecting geographical will create existing geographical host pools. Selecting regional creates new regional host pools. This dropdown box is only active if you have selected an Azure region that also has the new regional infrastructure present, currently only East US 2, and Central US during preview.
To create a regional host pool using the Azure portal:
Sign in to the Azure portal.
In the search bar, enter Azure Virtual Desktop and select the matching service entry.
Select Host pools, then select Create.
On the Basic tab, complete the following information:
| Parameter | Value/Description |
|---|---|
| Subscription | In the dropdown list, select the subscription where you want to create the host pool. |
| Resource group | Select an existing resource group, or select Create new and enter a name. |
| Host pool name | Enter a name for the host pool, such as hp01. |
| Location | Select the Azure region where you want to create your host pool. During the preview only East US 2 and Central US support regional host pools. Select either of these regions. When selecting any other region the Deployment Scope field is not shown. |
| Deployment scope | Select Regional to create a regional host pool. This drop-down box is only active when selecting either East US 2 or Central US. Selecting geographical will result in a normal geographical host pool |
| Validation environment | Select whether you want this host pool to be a validation host pool or not. |
| Preferred app group type | Select the preferred application group type for this host pool: Desktop or RemoteApp. A desktop application group is created automatically when you use the Azure portal. |
| Host pool type | Select whether you want your host pool to be Pooled or Personal. If you select Pooled, two new options appear for Load balancing algorithm and Max session limit. Expand this section for the pooled options.- For Load balancing algorithm, choose either breadth-first or depth-first, based on your usage pattern. - For Max session limit, enter the maximum number of users that you want load-balanced to a single session host. For more information, see Host pool load-balancing algorithms. If you select Personal, two new options appear for Assignment type and Assign multiple desktops to a single user. Expand this section for the personal options.For Assignment type, select Automatic for the service to assign any personal desktop not already assigned to a user, or select Direct to assign a specific personal desktop to a user. With the Direct assignment type you can also check the box to Assign multiple desktops to a single user. For more information, see Assign multiple personal desktops to a single user. |
Once you complete this tab, select Next: Session hosts.
- On the Session hosts tab, complete the following information, which is captured in a session host configuration and used to create session hosts.
| Parameter | Value/Description |
|---|---|
| Add virtual machines | Select Yes. This action shows several new options. |
| Resource group | This value defaults to the resource group that you chose to contain your host pool on the Basics tab, but you can select an alternative. |
| Name prefix | Enter a name prefix for your session hosts, such as hp01-sh. Each session host has a suffix of a hyphen and then a sequential number added to the end, such as hp01-sh-0. This name prefix can be a maximum of 11 characters and is used in the computer name in the operating system. The prefix and the suffix combined can be a maximum of 15 characters. Session host names must be unique. |
| Virtual machine type | Select Azure virtual machine. |
| Virtual machine location | Select the Azure region where you want to deploy your session hosts. This value must be the same region that contains your virtual network. |
| Availability options | Select from availability zones, availability set, or No infrastructure redundancy required. If you select availability zones or availability set, complete the extra parameters that appear. |
| Security type | Select from Standard, Trusted launch virtual machines, or Confidential virtual machines. - If you select Trusted launch virtual machines, options for secure boot and vTPM are automatically selected. - If you select Confidential virtual machines, options for secure boot, vTPM, and integrity monitoring are automatically selected. You can't opt out of vTPM when using a confidential VM. |
| Image | Select the OS image that you want to use from the list, or select See all images to see more. The full list includes any images that you created and stored as an Azure Compute Gallery shared image or a managed image. |
| Virtual machine size | Select a size. If you want to use a different size, select Change size, and then select from the list. |
| Number of VMs | Enter the number of virtual machines that you want to deploy. You can deploy up to 400 session hosts at this point if you want (depending on your subscription quota), or you can add more later. For more information, see Azure Virtual Desktop service limits and Virtual Machines limits. |
| OS disk type | Select the disk type to use for your session hosts. During preview, only Standard SSD is supported and is automatically selected once ephemeral OS disks are configured. |
| OS disk size | Select a size for the OS disk. If you enable hibernation, ensure that the OS disk is large enough to store the contents of the memory in addition to the OS and other applications. |
| Boot Diagnostics | Select whether you want to enable boot diagnostics. |
| Network and security | |
| Virtual network | Select your virtual network. An option to select a subnet appears. |
| Subnet | Select a subnet from your virtual network. |
| Network security group | Select whether you want to use a network security group (NSG). - None doesn't create a new NSG. - Basic creates a new NSG for the VM network adapter. - Advanced enables you to select an existing NSG. You don't need to open inbound ports to connect to Azure Virtual Desktop. Learn more at Understanding Azure Virtual Desktop network connectivity. |
| Public inbound ports | You can select a port to allow from the list. Azure Virtual Desktop doesn't require public inbound ports, so we recommend that you select No. |
| Domain to join | |
| Select which directory you would like to join | Select from Microsoft Entra ID or Active Directory, and complete the relevant parameters for the selected option. |
| Virtual Machine Administrator account | |
| Username | Enter a name to use as the local administrator account for the new session hosts. For more information, see What are the username requirements when creating a VM? |
| Password | Enter a password for the local administrator account. For more information, see What are the password requirements when creating a VM? |
| Confirm password | Reenter the password. |
| Custom configuration | |
| Custom configuration script URL | If you want to run a PowerShell script during deployment, you can enter the URL here. |
Once you complete this tab, select Next: Workspace > to continue configuring your Workspace and other optional configuration or select Review + Create.
On the Review + create tab, ensure validation passes and review the information that is during deployment.
Select Create to create the host pool.