In this video I go over the benefits of using Azure Proximity Placement Groups and Accelerated networking with Azure IaaS VM’s. I start by explaining what Proximity Placement Groups are and how they work, then go over the basics of Accelerated Networking. After that, I deploy a Proximity Placement Group and accelerated networking and compare results with and without the features enabled.
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This video shows how I created a VPN connection between my home lab and Azure Subscription. I used a Routing and Remote Access role on a Windows Server 2019 as the local endpoint. This provides the ability to setup a VPN connection without special firewall hardware. This is useful for home labs and small offices that need connectivity to an Azure subscription. It also is helpful to walk through the setup to prepare for Azure certifications such as the AZ-103.
Continue reading “Site-to-Site Azure VPN with a Windows RRAS Server”
Azure Spot Virtual Machines are an IaaS server option offered at a deep discount compared to pay-as-you-go and Reserved Instance pricing. This video walks through deploying the new Azure Spot VM’s with the Azure Portal. The video also gives an overview of what Azure Spot VM instances are and some considerations to using them.
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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”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)”