Abdul Kazi Blog – Page 30 – All about Cloud

Windows Virtual Desktop – Host Pool Setup

Windows Virtual Desktop Spring 2020 is now generally available. I will walk you through setting up the Windows Virtual Desktop Host Pool.

**Login to the Azure portal and search for “Windows Virtual Desktop”**

Click “Create a host pool” to create your first host pool.

**Click either “Add” or “create host pool”**

There are (2) types of host pool; Persona & Pooled. The maximum number of users that have concurrent sessions on a session host. Breadth-first load balancing distributes new user sessions across all available session hosts in the host pool. Depth-first load balancing distributes new user sessions to an available session host with the highest number of connections but has not reached its maximum session limit threshold.

**The virtual machine size and number of virtual machines will depend on the use case. I recommend a minimum of 2 virtual machines.**

Windows Virtual Desktop does require either an on-premise Active Directory ( Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS)) or Azure Active Directory Domain Services (Azure AD DS) so the virtual machine(s) can be part of a domain.

**Workspace is the new name for Windows Desktop Tenant**

**Once the validation process is complete, click on “create” button to create the host pool.**

There you have it, the Windows Virtual Desktop host pool does take time to provision so be patient with the process.

Azure Solutions Architect Expert

Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification mainly focuses on compute, network, storage, and security. I recommend getting the Azure Administrator Associate & Azure Security Engineer Associate before pursuing the Solutions Architect certification, and the below document outlines the Solutions Architect certification journey.

Azure-Solutions-Architect-certification-journey

Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies (beta)
Exam AZ -303
Microsoft Azure Architect Design (beta)
Exam AZ – 304

Skills Outline Guide
AZ-303
AZ-304

Learning Path
Microsoft Azure Well-Architected Framework
Architect network infrastructure in Azure
Architect storage infrastructure in Azure
Architect compute infrastructure in Azure
Architect infrastructure operations in Azure
Architect a data platform in Azure
Architect infrastructure operations in Azure
Architect migration, business continuity, and disaster recovery
Architect modern applications in Azure
Architect secure infrastructure in Azure

Additional Resources
Azure Architecture Center
Microsoft Docs

Azure Certifications

After writing the Microsoft certification blog post, I have been asked a lot of questions about Azure certifications. I would recommend the below Azure certifications for Apps & Infrastructure focus.

Azure_Certification_poster-1

Azure Fundamentals
Exam AZ-900: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals

Azure Administrator Associate
Exam AZ-104: Microsoft Azure Administrator

Azure Solutions Architect Expert
Exam AZ-300: Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies
**A new version of the exam, AZ-303, became available on June 29, 2020. You will be able to take this exam until it retires on or around September 30, 2020.
Exam AZ-301: Microsoft Azure Architect Design
**A new version of this exam, AZ-304, became available on June 29, 2020. You will be able to take this exam until it retires on or around September 30, 2020.

Azure Security Engineer Associate
Exam AZ-500: Microsoft Azure Security Technologies