One value proposition of any cloud service is consumption-based pricing, only paying for services when used. Consumption-based pricing is an advantage of Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD), Microsoft Azure-hosted remote desktop service. Or at least it would be if there was an easy way to start and stop session hosts based on demand.
Continue reading “Automatically Start and Stop WVD VM’s with Azure Automation”
In this video, I go over the two options for WVD Load Balancing, Depth-First and Breadth-First. I also demonstrate how each distributes new connections and how to change Load Balancing options and set the maximum number of connections per session host.
Continue reading “Azure Windows Virtual Desktop Load Balancing”In this video, I go over how to create application groups in Windows Virtual Desktop. Once created, I add start menu applications to the application group. After that, I publish the applications to users by adding them to the Application Group. I also demonstrate a script that will add users to a WVD Application Group based on a Windows AD Application Group.
Continue reading “Create Application Groups, Publish Applications and Set Access in WVD”
In my first post, I made the bold statement that I would leave Branch and Fork out of this series because as a Sysadmin and loan scripter, I simply don’t need that functionality. However, I didn’t feel that this would be a complete series on Git if I didn’t spend some time on Git Branch and Fork. At a minimum, it is helpful to understand what it is and how it works.
Continue reading “Git for the Lone Scripter – Fork, Branch & Merge”One unfortunate aspect of working with Windows Virtual Desktop is the inability to assign users to an Application Group based on group management. Microsoft has heard this complaint and an upcoming version of WVD portal management will include App Group access based on group membership. Until that is available, I created a script that should help.
Continue reading “Update an WVD Application Group Based on a Windows AD Security Group”Over the past few months I’ve created and removed many Windows Virtual Desktop Host Pools for testing. Removing a WVD Host Pool can be a little tedious so I crated and shareing a script that walks through selecting and removing a Host Pool. GitHub link below.
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I spent hours this week trying to design a Windows Virtual Desktop solution that stores FXLogix profiles in Azure Files. This should be a simple task, but once I got into the details it proved anything but simple. The first consideration was a note on the overview page of the WVD documentation “What is Windows Virtual Desktop” :
Continue reading “Windows Virtual Server and Active Directory Requirements (and Azure Files While I’m At It)”
In this video, I set up a free SendGrid account in Azure and send email with the Rest API and PowerShell. I walk through the reusable function that builds the header and body of the message. This function is helpful for anyone who needs to send email from a PowerShell script that doesn’t have access to an SMTP relay or are behind a firewall that blocks outbound SMTP traffic.
Continue reading “Send Email with SendGrid and PowerShell”