Nerdio Manager for Enterprise: Lab Host Pool Student Sign-on Experience (est. ~5 minutes)

Consider the following sign-on options for Students accessing the Lab host pool:

1. Students can sign in to Azure Virtual Desktop using one of the following apps:

   • Windows HTML client app or Azure Virtual Desktop HTML client: Recommended for testing and ease of use.

     • Windows HTML client app: Available at https://windows.cloud.microsoft.

     • Azure Virtual Desktop HTML client: Available at https://aka.ms/avdweb.

     Students should first sign in with Microsoft Entra ID user credentials to see the resource feed. Once signed in, they need to select a Lab host pool to launch. If the pool is running, or if Start on Connect is enabled, they are prompted for Windows sign-in credentials.

     Note: For Active Directory or Microsoft Entra Domain Services, Entra-joined directory should provide single sign-on (SSO) for the virtual machine authentication.

   • Azure Virtual Desktop Remote Desktop client application: Available for most modern OS workstations, and is recommended for best performance and functionality. This method requires an application install (no admin rights needed for Windows devices), that can be downloaded from https://aka.ms/avdclient.

     Students should subscribe to the resource feed using Entra ID credentials. Then, they should launch a Lab host pool by following a similar process as the one described above for Active Directory or Entra Domain Services. Entra-joined directory does not use SSO, so Students must enter their same Entra ID credentials (full email address), or use AzureAD\{username} in place of their User Principal Name.

     Note:

     • Closing or signing out of the Lab host pool does not unsubscribe from the Azure Virtual Desktop Remote Desktop client resource feed. When using shared machines, the Student must also select the options menu and unsubscribe from their resources to allow the next Student to sign in.

     • If a Student remains subscribed to their resource feed, and a different Student attempts to launch the same Lab host pool, they will not connect successfully (the user subscribed to the resource feed must match the user authenticating to the host pool).

2. If End-User Self Service Portal is enabled in NME, and Students are assigned the End-User RBAC Role in NME, they may also sign in to NME directly to manage their own virtual machines.

   • Students should sign in to NME at the same portal URL (available from the App Service).

   • Instead of the primary administrative interface, they should see a dedicated host pool view that displays all the session hosts the user is assigned to. Depending on the options selected above, Students may have additional access such as Start, Restart, Stop, Re-image, or other.

   Note: Students should not see an entry for Lab host pools where they are not assigned a desktop. To be dynamically assigned a new virtual machine, a Student must either complete their first Azure Virtual Desktop sign-in, or an administrator must directly assign them to a specific virtual machine in the Lab host pool.