Azure Virtual Desktop Technical Assessment

Logon and performance must be optimised for all AVD Session Hosts. Please keep in mind that simply implementing an AVD Image in a Session Host does not imply that the Session Hosts have been optimised to run in an AVD Environment. In order to achieve maximum performance, Microsoft recommends that important settings be applied to Session Hosts. It should be noted that two important components in an AVD environment are the Windows Operating System and the FSLogix Service.

There are more than 400 Microsoft Recommended settings when you run Windows 10 or Windows 11 Operating System in an AVD Environment. Once you perform the AVD Assessment using either SmartProfiler or DynamicCloud Admin, the process is going to check all Microsoft Recommended settings for each host pool and then show the optimization status for each setting.

To ensure that the environment is private, most AVD environments require Windows Privacy settings to be configured. Essentially, all of the Windows Privacy settings must be blocked or disabled. We have several Windows Privacy items spread across various AVD Categories. One of the Privacy items checked during the AVD Assessment, for example, is “Privacy: Test Disable Allow unpaired devices to communicate with Windows apps”. In addition, “Privacy: Test Disable Continue Experiences on This Device” would be another item that is checked during assessment.

In the AVD environment, user experience is a major concern. It should be noted that not all AVD deployments consider user experience. When analysing parameters related to User Experience, we must keep a few important points in mind.

Many AVD environments are still not taking full advantage of FSLogix’s capabilities. FSLogix includes a large number of registry entries that have a direct influence on the performance of your Session Hosts. FSLogix is a critical component that, if set wrong, can cause performance concerns. Many AVD environments, for example, just use FSLogix Profile Container, but they have also enabled Office Container, which may not be required for their AVD environment. Some parameters in FSLogix have a direct influence on the performance of an AVD environment.

Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop Environment should be protected. Nowadays, security is a major concern. When it comes to checking security in an AVD environment, we run a series of tests for Session Hosts, Host Pools, and some Windows Operating System settings. There are many tests that are performed in “AVD Security” category.

The first question is whether your configuration is consistent across host pools. Assume you have ten host pools and have deployed some settings to all of them. How do you know that the settings for all ten host pools are consistent? Some AVD environments have inconsistent settings across host pools, as we’ve seen. As a result, some host pools suffer from poor performance while others operate normally. SmartProfiler runs a test across all host pools to validate all recommended settings and determine whether or not the settings configured across host pools are consistent.

For each AVD Host Pool, there are numerous RDP properties that may be configured. For each host pool, a few essential RDP settings must be specified. Although if Microsoft configures some RDP parameters when you deploy a Host Pool, it is still advised that you utilise a tool to obtain all RDP properties from each host pool and display them in a console. Certain RDP settings, such as permitting device redirections, might lead to data theft by logged-in AVD users.

Please keep in mind that the AVD Environment necessitates antivirus exclusions since the FSLogix Service conducts multiple read/write operations to VHD/VHDX and the local Windows Operating System. If AVD Antivirus exclusions are not enabled, Antivirus software will interfere with FSLogix operations, potentially resulting in performance concerns.