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Move on-premises Remote Desktop Services to Azure Virtual Desktop scenario

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  • 11 minutes to read

This article focuses on using Azure Virtual Desktop to move an on-premises RDS environment to Azure. With Azure Virtual Desktop, you can bring your existing Remote Desktop Services (RDS) and Windows Server desktops and apps to any computer.

Migration options Outcome
Azure Migrate Assess and migrate on-premises RDS environments.

Run workloads in an Azure Virtual Desktop environment.

Manage Azure Virtual Desktop with Azure Virtual Desktop management UX.

Business drivers

Working closely with business partners, the Contoso IT team defines the business drivers for a VDI migration to Azure. These drivers might include:

  • Current environment end-of-life: A datacenter is out of capacity when it reaches the end of a lease or is closing down. Migrating to the cloud provides virtually unlimited capacity. Current software might also be reaching its end of life where it's become necessary to upgrade the software running Contoso's current VDI solution.
  • Multi-session Windows 10 VDI: Provide Contoso users with the only multi-session Windows 10 desktop virtualized in the cloud that's highly scalable, up to date, and available on any device.
  • Optimize for Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise: Deliver the best Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise experience, with multi-session virtual desktop scenarios providing the most productive virtualized experience for Contoso's users.
  • Deploy and scale in minutes: Quickly virtualize and deploy modern and legacy desktop applications to the cloud in minutes with unified management in the Azure portal.
  • Secure and productive on Azure and Microsoft 365: Deploy a complete, intelligent solution that enhances creativity and collaboration for everyone. Shift to Microsoft 365 and get Office 365, Windows 10, and Enterprise Mobility + Security.

RDS on-premises to Azure Virtual Desktop in the cloud goals

With the business drivers in mind, Contoso pins down goals for this migration:

  • Modernize the virtual desktop environment for the cloud.
  • Take advantage of existing Microsoft 365 licenses.
  • Improve security of corporate data when users work remotely.
  • Optimize the new environment for cost and growth.

These goals support the decision to use Azure Virtual Desktop and validate it as the best migration method for Contoso.

Benefits of running Azure Virtual Desktop

Using Azure Virtual Desktop, Contoso can now seamlessly run, manage, and scale its VDI solution quickly and easily. The company can also provide an optimized multi-session Windows 10 environment to its users.

Contoso capitalizes on existing Microsoft 365 licenses while using the scale, performance, security, and innovation of Azure.

Additional benefits might include:

  • Access to Azure Virtual Desktop from anywhere.
  • Optimized Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise environment.
  • Azure Virtual Desktop for dev/test environments.

Solutions design

After pinning down goals and requirements, Contoso designs and reviews a deployment solution and identifies the migration process.

Current architecture

RDS is deployed to an on-premises datacenter. Microsoft 365 is licensed and in use by the organization.

Proposed architecture

  • Sync Active Directory or Azure Active Directory Domain Services (Azure AD DS).

  • Deploy Azure Virtual Desktop.

  • Migrate on-premises RDS servers to Azure.

  • Convert user profile disks (UPDs) to FSLogix profile containers.

    Diagram shows the proposed architecture. Figure 1: Proposed architecture.

Solution review

Contoso evaluates the proposed design by putting together a list of pros and cons.

Consideration Details
Pros Windows 10 Enterprise multi-session environment.

Cloud-based, allowing access from anywhere.

Take advantage of other Azure services like Azure Files within the Azure Virtual Desktop environment.

Optimized for the Microsoft modern desktop.
Cons To fully optimize for Azure, Contoso will have to rebuild Windows 10 images optimized for multiuser sessions.

Azure Virtual Desktop doesn't support user profile disks, so UPDs must be migrated to FSLogix profile containers.

Migration process

Contoso moves VMs to Azure Virtual Desktop by using the Lakeside assessment tool and Azure Migrate. Contoso needs to:

  • Run the assessment tool against its on-premises RDS infrastructure to establish the scale of the Azure Virtual Desktop deployment in Azure.

  • Migrate to Azure Virtual Desktop via either Windows 10 Enterprise multi-session or persistent virtual machines.

  • Optimize the Azure Virtual Desktop multi-session by scaling up and down as needed to manage costs.

  • Virtualize applications and assign users as needed to continue to secure and manage the Azure Virtual Desktop environment.

    Diagram shows the migration process. Figure 2: The migration process.

Scenario steps

  1. Assess the current RDS environment.
  2. Create the VDI and new images in Azure and migrate and persist VMs to Azure.
  3. Convert UPDs to FSLogix profile containers.
  4. Replicate any persistent VMs to Azure.

Step 1: Assess the current on-premises environment

Contoso provisions the Azure Virtual Desktop service in the East US 2 Azure region. With Azure Virtual Desktop, Contoso can provision virtual machines, host pools, and create application groups. Azure Virtual Desktop also configures an availability set for all of the servers in the Azure Virtual Desktop solution. With Azure Virtual Desktop, Contoso can create a high-available VDI environment and to scale up and down quickly as needed.

Note

Contoso reviews two scenarios during the assessment: multi-session (shared) instances of RDS and persistent (or user-dedicated) virtual machines.

  1. Make sure that domain services, either Active Directory or Azure AD DS, are synchronized with Azure Active Directory (Azure AD). Ensure the domain service is accessible from the Azure subscription and virtual network to be connected where you deploy Azure Virtual Desktop.

    Note

    Learn more about Azure AD Connect for synchronizing Active Directory on-premises with Azure AD.

    Note

    Learn about provisioning Azure AD DS and synchronizing Azure AD to it.

  2. In Azure Migrate, select Discover, assess and migrate.

    Screenshot that shows the overview page and Get Started tab for Azure Migrate. Figure 3: Getting started.

  3. Select Create project.

    Screenshot that shows the Create Project button. Figure 4: Creating a new Azure Migrate project.

  4. Set the subscription, resource group, project name, and geography for the migrate job data, and then select Create.

    Screenshot of adding job data to the Azure Migrate project. Figure 5: Adding job data to the migration.

    Important

    This location isn't where the new Azure Virtual Desktop environment will be deployed. Only the data related to the Azure Migrate project will be stored here.

  5. Select VDI, and then select Click here under Assessment tools.

    Screenshot that shows adding an assessment tool on the VDI page. Figure 6: Adding an assessment tool

    Note

    The migration tool Azure Migrate: Server Migration is automatically added during the project creation.

  6. Select Lakeside: SysTrack as the assessment tool, and then select Add.

    Screenshot that shows adding the Lakeside:SysTrack tool to the project. Figure 7: Adding tools to the migration.

  7. Start the assessment of the current environment by selecting Register with Azure Migrate in the Lakeside tool.

    Screenshot that shows Lakeside registration with Azure Migrate. Figure 8: Register with Azure Migrate.

  8. Contoso connects Azure Migrate and Lakeside, and accepts any requested permissions.

    Screenshot of signing in to connect Azure and Lakeside. Figure 9: Connecting Azure to Lakeside.

  9. Contoso continues with the Lakeside tool to create a new tenant and start assessing the current on-premises RDS environment. From the dashboard, Contoso can access the deployment guide, download the assessment client to deploy to the current environment, and review the data collected from these agents.

    Screenshot of the Lakeside dashboard. Figure 10: The Lakeside dashboard.

  10. After an adequate amount of data is captured, Contoso reviews the assessment data to determine the best migration path. This assessment data includes the raw assessment data from the desktops data and the data broken into different user personas. This information includes the:

  • Number of users in each persona.

  • Applications in use by users.

  • Resource consumption by user.

  • Resource utilization averages by user persona.

  • VDI server performance data.

  • Concurrent user reports.

  • Top software packages in use.

    Screenshot of Lakeside dashboard reports. Figure 11: Lakeside dashboard reports.

The data is analyzed by Contoso to determine the most cost-effective use of both pooled Azure Virtual Desktop resources and personal Azure Virtual Desktop resources.

Note

Contoso will also need to migrate application servers to Azure to get the company closer to the Azure Virtual Desktop environment and reduce network latency for its users.

Step 2: Create the Azure Virtual Desktop environment for pooled desktops

Using the Azure portal, Contoso will create an Azure Virtual Desktop environment to use for pooled resources. Later, it will go through the migration steps to attach personal desktops to the same environment.

  1. Contoso selects the correct subscription, and creates a new Azure Virtual Desktop host pool.

    Screenshot that shows creating a host pool in Azure Virtual Desktop. Figure 12: A new Azure Virtual Desktop host pool.

  2. Specify the subscription, resource group, and location. Then select the name for the host pool, host pool type, and max session limit. Desktop type is set to Pooled because Contoso is starting with a new shared environment for some of its users. Based on the personas of the users from the Lakeside assessment, Contoso sets the max session limit to 150.

    Screenshot that shows the configuration for host pool basics. Figure 13: Prerequisites for configuring virtual machines.

  3. Select Next: Virtual Machines, and then configure the virtual machines.

    • Contoso configures the VM and chooses a custom size by selecting Change size or using the default.
    • Azure Virtual Desktop is chosen as the VM name prefix for these pooled desktops.
    • Because Contoso is creating the pooled servers to use the new Windows 10 Enterprise multi-session functionality for the virtual machine settings, leave the image source set to Gallery. This option enables Contoso to select the Windows 10 Enterprise multi-session image for the VMs.
    • Other settings include the disk type, an Active Directory domain join UPN field, an admin password, an optional OU path to which machines are added, the virtual network, and a subnet for adding servers.

    Screenshot that shows configuring the virtual machines. Figure 14: Configuring virtual machines.

    Note

    Contoso can't create a new virtual network at this step. Before reaching this step, Contoso should have already created a virtual network that has access to Active Directory.

    Note

    Contoso can't use a user account that requires multifactor authentication in this step. If Contoso plans to use multifactor authentication for its users, it will need to create a service principal for this purpose.

  4. Contoso performs one more validation of the Azure Virtual Desktop settings, and creates the new environment of pooled Azure Virtual Desktop virtual machines.

    Screenshot that shows reviewing and creating virtual machines. Figure 15: Reviewing and creating virtual machines.

Step 3: Convert the UPDs to FSLogix profile containers

Because Azure Virtual Desktop doesn't support user profile disks (UPDs), Contoso needs to convert all the UPDs to FSLogix via the FSLogixMigration PowerShell module.

After Contoso imports the FSLogixMigration module, it runs the following PowerShell cmdlets to migrate from UPDs to FSLogix.

Important

The PowerShell modules for Hyper-V, Active Directory, and Pester are prerequisites to running the cmdlets to convert UPDs to FSLogix.

A UDP conversion:

Convert-RoamingProfile -ParentPath "C:\Users\" -Target "\\Server\FSLogixProfiles$" -VHDMaxSizeGB 20 -VHDLogicalSectorSize 512

A roaming profile conversion:

Convert-RoamingProfile -ProfilePath "C:\Users\User1" -Target "\\Server\FSLogixProfiles$" -VHDMaxSizeGB 20 -VHDLogicalSectorSize 512 -VHD -IncludeRobocopyDetails -LogPath C:\temp\Log.txt

At this point, the migration has enabled using pooled resources with Windows 10 Enterprise multi-session. Contoso can begin to deploy the necessary applications to the users who will use Windows 10 Enterprise multi-session.

But now Contoso must migrate the persistent virtual machines to Azure.

Step 4: Replicate and persist VMs to Azure Virtual Desktop

The next step in the migration process for Contoso is to migrate its persistent virtual machines to Azure Virtual Desktop. To do this, Contoso goes back to the Azure Migrate: Server Migration job it created at the beginning of the process.

  1. Contoso starts by selecting Discover in the Azure Migrate: Server Migration tools.

    Screenshot of the Azure Migrate: Server Migration discover option. Figure 16: Discovering a server migration.

  2. Contoso converts an appliance in its environment that's going to manage the replication of the machines to Azure Virtual Desktop. Ensure that the target region is set to East US 2, where the Azure Virtual Desktop environment was created.

    Screenshot that shows creating an appliance for managing the replication. Figure 17: Converting an appliance.

  3. Contoso downloads, installs, and registers the replication provider to the Azure Migrate project to start the replication to Azure.

    Screenshot that shows downloading and configuring replication. Figure 18: Prerequisites for replicating to Azure.

  4. The replication of the hosts into Azure Blob Storage starts. Contoso can continue to let the replication occur until it's ready to test the VMs and then migrate them into production.

    • As machines start running in Azure, Contoso installs the Azure Virtual Desktop VM agent on each machine.
    • As a part of the installation, enter the registration token for the Azure Virtual Desktop environment to associate the server with the correct environment.

  5. The registration token can be obtained by using the following commands:

    Export-RDSRegistrationInfo -TenantName "Contoso" -HostPoolName "ContosoWVD" | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Token > .\registration-token.txt

    Note

    Contoso can also automate this process by using msiexec commands and passing in the registration token as a variable.

  6. As the last step before the final migration, Contoso selects the Users item in the Azure Virtual Desktop settings to map the servers to their respective users and groups.

    [Screenshot that shows assigning Azure Virtual Desktop resources to users and groups. Figure 19: The last step prior to the final migration.

After host pools are assigned to users, Contoso finalizes the migration of those machines and continues to gradually migrate the rest of the on-premises VDI hosts to Azure.

Review the deployment

With the virtual desktops and application servers now running in Azure, Contoso now needs to fully operationalize and secure the deployment.

Security

The Contoso security team reviews the Azure VMs to determine any security issues. To control access, the team reviews the network security groups (NSGs) for the VMs. NSGs are used to ensure that only traffic allowed to the application can reach it. The team also considers securing the data on the disk by using Azure Disk Encryption and Azure Key Vault.

For more information, see Security best practices for IaaS workloads in Azure.

Business continuity and disaster recovery

For business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR), Contoso backs up the data on the VMs by using Azure Backup to keep data safe. For more information, see An overview of Azure VM backup.

Licensing and cost optimization

  • Microsoft 365 licenses are used for the desktop deployments.
  • Contoso will enable Azure Cost Management + Billing to help monitor and manage the Azure resources.
  • Contoso has existing licensing for its VMs and takes advantage of the Azure Hybrid Benefit for application servers. Contoso converts the existing Azure VMs to take advantage of this pricing.

Conclusion

In this article, Contoso moved its RDS deployment to Azure Virtual Desktop hosted in Azure.