AVD Host Pools

 In our earlier articles we understood that AVD is a Azure service that give acesss to the Desktops and Applications in a more secure way.

To publish these Applications or Desktops we use Host Pools. Host Pool is a collection of Virtual Machines that are used to publish Applications or desktops to the users.The Virtual Machines (VDAs) in a Host Pool which are called as Session Hosts are created using a Image Templete/Master Image.

Session Hosts can be didicated i.e., one VDA for one user in azure terms we call it is as Personal or these can be shared in azure terms we call it as Pooled.

Benefits of Azure Virtual Desktop AVD

Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) offers several benefits for businesses and organizations looking for a secure, scalable, and cost-effective cloud-based virtual desktop solution. 

Why Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD)?

Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) is a cloud-based desktop and app virtualization service from Microsoft. Here’s why you might choose it:

What is Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD)

Before we understand what AVD (Azure Virtual Desktop) is let us understand a what VDI is...VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure)is a Desktop/Server OS Virtual Machine hosted on a hypervisor.

                                                                                                                                                                   

How to download/export Azure Active Directory Users and groups.

As an Azure Administrator you may have to download Users list or Groups in your Azure Active Directory. In this article let us see how to export AAD users amd groups to csv and downlaod them.

Azure Resource ID

In this article let us understand what is Azure Resource ID and where do we find it.

All the resources in Azure i.e., Azure Resource Manager Resources are assinged with an identifer called as ResourceID. You can carryout operations by using the Resourceid as well.

How Assign Azure AD Premium Licenses to users.

In our earlier article here we did see how to activate AAD  Free Premium P2 licenses. Let us know see how to assign Licenses to the users which is very straight forward.

How to Activate Azure Active Directory Premium P2 Trail Licenses.

Azure Active Directory (AAD) comes with free license, which means only basic feature of AAD are available. Based on the licenses you have the features available will differ. Organizations that require features like PIM (Previlaged Identity Management), SSPR (Self Service Password Rest), MFA (Multifactor Authentication) with OTP on Authenticator App, SMS, Dynamic Groups, etc will go with Premium licenses (P1 or P2).

What is Azure Active Directory

Before we get into understanding of Azure Active Directory (AAD), let us understand what is an Identity.

What is an identity?
An identity is an Object mostly userid with a password that is used for authentication / authorization.

What is Azure Active Directory?

Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) is a cloud-based identity and access management service. This service helps your employees access external resources, such as Microsoft 365, the Azure portal, and thousands of other SaaS applications.

Why do we need identities on Azure i.e., AAD?
Azure AD or Identies on azure are needed for
1)login to portal==>>portal.azure.com 
2)Get access to azure resources (RBAC) 
3)Get access to SaaS (Software as a Service) Applications.

Virtual Network Peering

Vnet peering enable communication between vnets, with in the same region, different regions, different subscriptions and ofcourse different Tenants. 

Vnets will helps with isolation which means resources accross vents will not communicate with each other, hence the need of Peering. 

Peering between the Vnets in the same Region is called Regional Vnet Peering. 

Peering between the Vnets in the different Regions is called Global Vnet Peering.

Vnet Peering traffic will go through private network of azure, which give you below advantages.
    *Secure
    *Reliability
    *Better performance

Peering should always two ways, If you create onway peering, two way communication will not work.

If you want allow traffic one way the other way to be bloked do it by Network Security Groups (NSG).

Here is the video which help you with the configuration of both Regional and Global Vnet Peering.

Creation of Azure Active Directory Guest Account

In this lab, you will learn how to create an Azure Active Directory Guest user ids.

Requirements: 

Global Administrator role or any of the limited administrator directory roles such as guest inviter or user administrator that allows guest user creation.

Log in to Azure portal and search for Azure Active Directory.

Navigate to the Users section under Manage in Azure Active Directory.

Azure Active Directory User(s) Creation using Powershell

Goal: 

In this lab, you will learn how to create an Azure Active Directory user id(s) using Azure Powershell.

Requirements: 

User should be part of Global Administration or User Administration Role.

Create AAD User(s) using Powershell:

Creation of user accounts using PowerShell on your local machine requires the following. However, you can also use Azure Powershell in Cloudshell step 1 is not required.
1) Azure Active Directory PowerShell Modules, here is the command that is required to install AAD PowerShell modules on your machine.
$AzureAdCred = Get-Credential
Connect-AzureAD -Credential $AzureAdCred
Install-Module AzureAD
2)Authentication to Azure Active Directory. Once installation of AAD PS modules is done run the following command for authentication.

How To reset User ID and Password of Azure Virtual Machine.

 Here is the video that talks about how to reset the user ID and password of Azure Virtual Machine.

Assign Custom DNS Servers Azure

In this article let us understand how to assign your organization's DNS servers IPs Addresses to  Azure hosted virtual machines. Before we see that couple of important points.

How to configure Static Private and Public IP Addresses on Azure.

In this post let us have a quick look at how to configure private and public IP addresses as static.

Setting Static Private IP Address:

As we know in Azure it is the network interface card associated with the VMs that get IP addresses, the default dynamic IPs can be changed to static.

As shown in the below image navigate to the networking section of the virtual machine to identify the network interface card(s) associated and move to network interface card settings by selecting the network interface card.

Azure Network Security Groups (NSG)

AZ-104 Moving Resources between Resource Groups in Azure

Below video talks about moving resources between Azure Resource Groups.

AZ-104 Azure VM Disk Addition and Extensions

Below video talks about how to add a new disk to an Azure Windows virtual machine and extension of existing volume by adding additional space to the disk.

Az-104 Azure Virtual Machine Creation

Here is the video which takes you through Windows Virtual Machine creation in Azure 

Azure Networking - Part 4 (Azure Virtual Network Peering)

In this article let us understand Virtual Network Peering (Vnet Peering).

We understood in our earlier articles that there is no communication between Virtual Networks in the same region or different regions/locations. What if there is a requirement to enable communication between Virtual Networks?









Azure provides us with two solutions.

• Virtual Network Peering
• VPN Gateway.