Global Pools allow administrators to group multiple Azure Virtual Desktop host pools under shared assignment and failover policies, so users are automatically assigned to the right host pool instead of being managed one host pool at a time.
Note
This feature is in Public Preview.
Global Pools is under active development, with additional capabilities and improvements planned in upcoming releases.
Key capabilities:
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Centralized, policy-driven user assignment based on Entra ID group membership and configurable priority if there is a duplicate member in the Entra ID groups
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Pool Groups that combine one or more host pools under a shared distribution mode
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Automatic sync every 15 minutes (plus an on-demand manual sync) that adds and removes users from host pool assignment groups to match policy
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Distribution across host pools within a Pool Group, with automatic rebalancing
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Percentage-based auto-scale sizing, in addition to standard count-based sizing
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Failover policies that redirect users from one Pool Group to another
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Support for multi-session desktop and RemoteApp experiences across multiple identity tenants
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A single RemoteApp catalog is defined once per Global Pool and is automatically available to every Pool Group -- including host pools added later -- so you can build out your RemoteApp catalog as a placeholder before creating any host pools.
Target users:
AVD/Nerdio Manager administrators managing large-scale or multi-region Azure Virtual Desktop environments who need centralized, policy-based user assignment instead of configuring assignments on individual host pools.
Typical scenarios:
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Large enterprise AVD deployments with many host pools, where manual per-host-pool assignment doesn't scale
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Staggered desktop image rollouts -- gradually moving users from a production Pool Group to a Pool Group running a newer image
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Failover between Pool Groups to redirect users during planned maintenance or an outage
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Organizations using multiple identity tenants that need a single, unified assignment approach
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Issue/limitation |
Impact |
Mitigation/planned fix |
|---|---|---|
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Single-session desktops aren't supported yet |
Global Pools can only be used for multi-session desktop experiences |
Use multi-session desktop experiences for Global Pools in Public Preview. |
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Only one host pool can be created at a time within a Pool Group |
Building out multiple host pools in a Pool Group requires repeating the process manually |
Create host pools individually within each Pool Group. |
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Assignment policies currently support Entra ID group matching only |
Percentage-based or Entra ID attribute-based assignment isn't available yet |
Use Entra ID group membership and policy priority to control assignment behavior. |
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No public API for Global Pools or policies |
Global Pools can't be configured or managed via API or automation yet |
Use the Nerdio Manager UI to configure and manage Global Pools. |
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Limited in-UI guardrails and validation |
Configuration issues (e.g., overlapping failover group membership) aren't proactively flagged in the UI |
Review policy and failover configuration carefully before activating them. |
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Not all host pool profiles are supported yet |
Only core profiles (e.g., Active Directory, VM, RDP/FSLogix) are available for Global Pool host pools in Public Preview |
Nerdio is working toward full feature parity with regular host pools; additional profiles are planned. |
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User action in the NME UI |
Required Azure / Microsoft Graph permissions |
|---|---|
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Open the Global Pools page |
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Create a Global Pool using an existing Entra ID group |
Microsoft Graph application permission |
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Edit Global Pool settings |
No direct Azure write permission. Some selected profiles may require read access to referenced Azure resources during validation. |
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Delete an empty Global Pool |
No direct Azure or Microsoft Graph permission. Host pools must be deleted separately first. |
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Create, edit, or delete a Pool Group |
No direct Azure or Microsoft Graph permission |
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Create, edit, activate, deactivate, or delete an Assignment Policy |
Microsoft Graph |
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Create, edit, activate, deactivate, or delete a Failover Policy |
No direct Azure or Microsoft Graph permission. Changes are applied to users during the next synchronization. |
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Preview generated host pool names |
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Create Host Pools with an existing Entra ID group |
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Create Host Pools and automatically create Entra ID groups |
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Delete a Host Pool, keeping its Entra ID group |
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Delete a Host Pool and its Entra ID group |
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Add, edit, or delete a RemoteApp in the Global Pool configuration |
No immediate Azure permission. The change is stored in NME and applied to Azure by Sync Global Pool . |
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Run Sync Global Pool for a desktop or personal pool |
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Run Sync Global Pool for a RemoteApp pool |
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Save Auto-scale settings |
Read access to the configured resource group, network, image, storage, encryption, capacity, and other resources referenced by the VM deployment profile |
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Select Force Start Auto-scale |
Azure Compute, Network, Storage, and related write permissions required by the configured VM deployment and auto-scale profiles |
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Enable Azure Capacity Extender |
Read and write access to the VM sizes, regions, subscriptions, and resources referenced by the selected Capacity Extender profile |
Note
When NME creates an Application Group, it attempts to grant its application User Access Administrator on that Application Group. If the NME application does not already have Owner or User Access Administrator, the interactive Azure user context must have Microsoft.Authorization/roleAssignments/write.
Group.ReadWrite.All is only needed when NME creates or deletes Entra ID groups. GroupMember.ReadWrite.All is required for Global Pool synchronization because NME reassigns users between host pool groups.
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Global Pool sync doesn't move users: Check Pool Group existence, active policy type/items, user eligibility (must be in both the Global Pool Entra ID group and a matching policy group), assignment group capacity, and whether a failover policy or priority order is redirecting the user elsewhere.
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Global Pool sync fails: Check Tasks for details, confirm Nerdio Manager can read/write the relevant Entra ID groups, confirm the host pool has application groups, and confirm the assignment group has the Desktop Virtualization User role assigned.
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Users assigned to an unexpected Pool Group: Check the active policy and priority order, overlapping Entra ID group membership, active failover policies, distribution mode, and assignment capacity.
Global Pools requires additional resources to be deployed to your Azure tenant.
The table below specifies supplementary resources used by Global Pools, including the following information for each resource:
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Whether the resource is required or optional
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Whether the resource is deployed automatically when the feature is enabled or requires manual configuration
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Any additional costs or subscriptions associated with the resource, and the billing method for these costs.
|
Resource name |
Required? |
Deployment |
Costs and billing |
|---|---|---|---|
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Entra ID security groups (pool-level eligibility group and per-host-pool assignment groups) |
✓ |
Auto or manual |
No direct cost beyond your existing Entra ID licensing tier |
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Azure Virtual Desktop workspace, host pool, and application group (per host pool in a Pool Group) |
✓ |
Manual |
Standard Azure Virtual Desktop/compute costs apply, same as a standalone host pool |
Considerations:
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Global Pools support percentage-based autoscale sizing (minimum active host capacity % and burst-beyond-capacity %) as an alternative to fixed host counts -- useful when capacity needs to scale with the overall size of the pool rather than a fixed number of hosts.
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Assignment sync runs automatically every 15 minutes; for large user populations or many policy changes, allow a full sync cycle before validating results, or trigger the manual sync button to sync on demand.
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Rebalancing requires more than one host pool assignment in a Pool Group, and honors the Pool Group's Distribution Mode (Depth-first or Breadth-first).
Recommendations:
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Pre-stage failover target Pool Groups (host pools and autoscale) ahead of time.
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Since RemoteApps and the desktop image are shared across an entire Global Pool (not per Pool Group), plan separate Global Pools for use cases that need different app sets or desktop experiences.
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