Azure Stack HCI: Host Pools and Session Hosts

Nerdio Manager allows you to manage host pools and session hosts with Azure Stack HCI.

Create a Host Pool with Azure Stack HCI

The following procedure allows you to create a new Azure Stack HCI host pool.

To create a new hybrid host pool:

1. Navigate to Workspaces.

2. Select the workspace you wish to work with.

3. Navigate to Workspaces > Hybrid host pools.

4. Select Add HCI host pool.

   

5. Enter the following information:

   • Name: Type the name of the static host pool.

   • Description: Type the host pool's description.

   • Desktop Experience: From the drop-down list, select the desktop experience.

     Note:

     • Multi user desktop (pooled): This is the full desktop experience. Users are not assigned to individual session hosts and are placed on a host based on its load. Multiple users are pooled together on a group of hosts.

     • Multi user RemoteApp (pooled): This is only published applications, not a full desktop experience. Published RemoteApps are visible to users as native apps running on their local computer. The RemoteApps are provided by a collection (pool) of session hosts.

     • Single user desktop (pooled): This is the full desktop experience. Users are placed on individual desktop VMs (one user per session host) and a preconfigured number of spare(available) desktops is maintained.

     • Single user desktop (personal): This is a personal (persistent) full desktop experience. A dedicated session host VM is assigned to each user.

   • Directory: From the drop-down list, select the directory.

     Note: Only Active Directory and Entra Domain Services directories are supported. Entra ID is not supported.

   • FSLogix: From the drop-down list, select the FSLogix configuration profile to be used when creating or re-imaging hosts in this host pool.

     Note: The FSLogix storage location should point at a local file server or use a Cloud Cache with Azure Blog Storage.

   • Quick Assign: From the drop-down list, select the users or groups to pre-assign to newly created desktops.

   • Apply tags: Optionally, type the Name and Value of the Azure tag to apply to the host pool.

     Note: You may specify multiple tags. See this Microsoft article for details about using tags to organize your Azure resources.

   • App group settings: Optionally, type the App group name of the host pool.

   • Application policies: Optionally, select the application policies to assign to the host pool.

6. Once you have entered all the desired information, select OK.

   The process of host pool creation begins. This may take some time to complete. You can see the task's progress in the Host Pool Tasks window.

   Once the host pool is created, you need to create session hosts. See below for details.

Add a New Session Host to a Hybrid Host Pool

Once a hybrid host pool is created, you can manually add session hosts.

To add a session host to a hybrid host pool:

1. Locate the hybrid host pool you wish to work with.

2. From action menu, select Manage Hosts.

3. Select Add session host.

   

4. Enter the following information:

   Warning:Nerdio Manager does not validate your input such as Image Path and VM Path when it is entered. You must monitor the job's progress in the Host Pool Tasks window. If there is a problem, you must correct the issue and try to add the session host again.

   • Host Count: Type the number of session hosts to add to the host pool.
   • Name: Type the name of the newly added hosts for the Exact name, a Prefix or the Prefix+Pattern.

     • Exact/Prefix/Pattern: From the drop-down list, select whether to use an Exact name, a Prefix, or a Pattern.

       Note:

       • Exact applies when adding a single host and specifying an exact name. For example, MYADVHOST.

       • Prefix can be used when creating multiple session hosts. The Prefix limit is 10 valid, Windows computer name characters. When using a Prefix, a unique suffix is automatically appended in the format "-xxxx", where xxxx are 4 random alphanumeric characters. For example: AVDHOST-s72h. Do not add a "-" to the Prefix.

       • Pattern can be used to specify an advanced naming convention for new hosts. Pattern characters must be enclosed in {} and can be # (for sequential numbers) and/or ? (for random alphanumeric characters). One # implies numbers from 0 to 9, two #s implies numbers of 0 to 99, etc.

         • Example 1: AVDHOST{###} (AVDHOST000..AVDHOST999).

         • Example 2: AVDHOST-{???} (AVDHOST-d83, AVDHOST-7sl, etc.).

   • vCPUs: Type the number of cores.

   • RAM (GB): Type the amount of RAM in GB.

   • RAM Type: Select Static or Dynamic.

   • Network: From the drop-down list, select the network.

   • Image: Type the local path to the generalized Image VHD file.

   • Resource Group: From the drop-down list, select the resource group where this VM is registered as an Azure Arc server.

   • Apply tags: Optionally, type the Name and Value of the Azure tag to apply to the session host.

     Note: You may specify multiple tags. See this Microsoft article for details about using tags to organize your Azure resources.

5. Once you have entered all the desired information, select OK.

   The task to add the session host to the host pool begins. This may take some time to complete. You can see the task's progress in the Host Pool Tasks window.