Azure Stack HCI and Nerdio Manager
Warnings and Disclaimers:
Starting with version Nerdio Manager v5.7, we only support Azure Stack HCI with 23H2. Nerdio Manager v5.6 and earlier continues to support Azure Stack HCI with 22H2.
Microsoft has outlined additional limitations for 22h2 and 23h2. See this Microsoft article for details. Because of these limitations, upgrading and changes in the Resource Bridge ARM object model, Azure Stack HCI instances linked to Nerdio Manager must be relinked. Due to these limitations all AVD on Azure Stack HCI objects must be recreated. See this Microsoft article for details.
Azure Stack HCI Prerequisites
To link an Azure Stack HCI Cluster, you must first meet the following prerequisites:
Install Nerdio Manager . See Nerdio Manager Installation Guide for details.
Fully functional Azure Stack HCI cluster, with a minimum of 1 node, must be registered with an Azure subscription that is linked to Nerdio Manager. See Link Azure Subscription Using App Credentials for details.
HCI Cluster nodes must be registered in Azure as Arc servers. See this Microsoft article for details.
HCI Cluster must use Resource Bridge.
Obtain local shared storage path on the HCI cluster to be used for FSLogix profiles.
Link the HCI network and resource group where the HCI cluster is registered. See Azure Environment: Linked Networks and Resource Groups for details.
Getting Started
Before we start, we need to consider a few things, because HCI is an on-premises solution. We need to take the following into consideration:
Identity & Active Directory
FSLogix Profiles
Application repositories
Images
Cloud Considerations
The purpose of this document is to help you through the Nerdio Manager configuration with Azure Stack HCI. The assumption is that you already have your HCI environment up and running. However, referenced below are some links that may help you with your knowledge and setup of HCI.
Microsoft Documentation
Cloud Considerations
Firewalls & Communications
As mentioned earlier in this document, any reference to Azure Stack HCI is not in scope of this document. However, if you want to know more about the firewall requirements needed for HCI, this Microsoft article is a good starting point.
Identity
Active Directory
Because HCI is on-premises, you need to consider what profile your HCI host pool communicate with. Ideally, the closer they are the more performant they will be.
Entra ID
Entra ID-joined VMs are not supported. You must use Active Directory or Entra Domain Services for session host VMs.
Unsupported Features
The following feature are currently out-of-scope for Azure HCI with Nerdio Manager.
Winget is currently out-of-scope for HCI.
Cost management is not supported.
Auto-scaling is not supported.
Link an Azure Stack HCI Cluster
Once you have configured and obtained all the prerequisites, you can link an Azure Stack HCI Cluster.
To link an Azure Stack HCI Cluster:
Navigate to Settings > Azure environment.
In the Linked networks tile, select Link Hybrid Network.
From the drop-down list, select a subnet that is linked to the Azure Stack HCI and then select OK.
The Stack HCI Cluster entry is linked to Nerdio Manager.
Create an Image on the Azure Stack HCI On-premises Instance
To create a host pool, an image must be present on the Azure Stack HCI on-premises instance. This can be done any of the following ways.
Note: With HCI, we have no method to create images directly on HCI, so those images need to come from desktop images. We can copy them to our custom locations as part of the Nerdio Manager Set Image Process. In addition, we need to have a local repository to store these images.
Create a Custom Location
See this Microsoft article for more information about concepts and terminology related to Azure custom locations.
Custom HCI Locations
Troubleshoot Issues
See Troubleshoot Issues with Resource Bridge in Azure Stack HCI for details.
Related Topics
Azure Stack HCI: FSLogix Profiles Storage (Optional)
Azure Stack HCI: Application Repositories (Optional)
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