Is it possible to set-up and test Microsot Azure Terminal Services (Remote Desktop) environment for ~200 users? Maybe I should purchase on-demand Cloud service for 3 day period?

Tom Rhodes 1 Reputation point
2022-12-06T14:05:52.907+00:00

We are considering the move to the Azure Cloud Terminal Services. Currently we are running our client-server desktop program (we have several such particular programs) on 200 local workstations. But we have idea to set up Azure Cloud Terminal Service for 200 users/profiles and put this program in this Terminal Service, so, that all 200 users use their local workstations to access Terminal Services/Remote Desktop window and run their program instances in the Terminal Services environment.

We are unsure about the costs and about the possible performance benefits or losses of such move. Our program has particular performance characteristics, e.g., it can consume lot of CPU resources (it is doing intensive local computations) and we are unsure about the behaviour of the database if all 200 program instances connect to the one database (currently we have several local databases).

So, we would like to perform tests that are as close as possible to the real environment which we are planning to achieve.

Our users are very dedicated and they are very excited about the opportunity to try such move and to participate in such tests. They are willing to devote some 1-2 hours of their time during 1-3 day period and they are willing to generate the load (prepre documents, view documents, prepare reports, print reports) that resembles they daily activities. So, we can measure the performance, the cost (which is very important factor if one-deman subscription to the cloud services is used) and so we can get the feedback about the overall user experience.

All that is fine. That leads me to my question - is it possible to set up Azure Cloud Terminal Services environment for 200 users/profiles for 1-7 day trial period? I guess/imagine that it should be easy - I just reserve the service, then I should automatically generate 200 profiles with some random usernames and passwords, then I can put my database and program in the terminal service and distribute accounts to our users? And they can peform tests. This is how I can imagine such test set-up. It can be even some 1-7 day on-demand subscription service for which we can pay full price. Such price can be worth the insights and assurance we can get. But these are just my thoughts. How it is in reality? Are the Azure Terminal Services available for short term subscription or trial evaluation? And is it possible to generate some 200 profiles automatically (without the need to establish them one by one manually)? I can also imagine that we can prepare the Excel/CSV/Txt/XML list of 200 test accounts and that we can upload such file to the Microsoft and Microsoft can generate accounts from such instructions?

So - this is our situation and we are just seeking the ways to make some tests? What are the opportunities for us?

Remote Desktop
Remote Desktop
A Microsoft app that connects remotely to computers and to virtual apps and desktops.
4,783 questions
0 comments No comments
{count} votes

Your answer

Answers can be marked as Accepted Answers by the question author, which helps users to know the answer solved the author's problem.