[en] AVD for Azure Local: Enable dynamic host pool Auto-scaling

[en] Auto-scale timezone

[en] Drop-down list

[en] Select the time zone for the auto-scale process. The task always runs at the scheduled start time in the selected geography, regardless of the UTC offset shown; the timezone may appear inaccurate due to regional daylight saving time (DST).

[en] Name

[en] Text field / drop-down list

[en] Type the name of the newly added hosts, and from the drop-down list, select whether to use an Exact name, a Prefix, or a Pattern:

[en] Azure local network

[en] Drop-down list

[en] Select the Azure Local logical network that the session host VMs will be connected to.

[en] Desktop image (template)

[en] Drop-down list

[en] Select the desktop image used to provision session host VMs. Images must be replicated from Azure to your Azure Local location using Azure Compute Gallery before they can be used. Configure replication on the Desktop Images page.

[en] Use the "staged" image version

[en] Toggle

[en] When enabled, uses the staged (pre-production) version of the selected desktop image instead of the published version. Use this to validate a new image on a subset of hosts before promoting it to production. Only available for desktop images with Geographic distribution & Azure compute gallery enabled.

[en] VCPUs (template)

[en] Drop-down list

[en] Select the total number of virtual CPUs assigned to each session host VM.

[en] RAM (GB) (template)

[en] Drop-down list

[en] Select the amount of memory allocated to each session host VM, in gigabytes.

[en] RAM type

[en] Radio buttons

[en] Select Static or Dynamic for the new session hosts.

[en] Resource group (VMs)

[en] Drop-down list

[en] Select the Azure resource group where Arc-enabled machine resources for these session hosts will be registered.

[en] VM naming

[en] Drop-down list

[en] Select the VM naming mode to use. Host VMs that are created automatically by the scale out or auto-grow process use names based on the selected mode. See How Session Host VM Names are Generated for more information.

[en] Automatically re-image used hosts

[en] Drop-down list

[en] Select when hosts that have had at least one user log into them should be automatically re-imaged: Disabled, Always, or During scale-in restrictions only. For multi-session hosts, the host is re-imaged once the last user logs off. Hosts with active sessions are deactivated if the Spare (available) desktops trigger is selected.

[en] Schedule

[en] Toggle

[en] Toggle this option on to turn on the Alternative Schedule process.

[en] Days

[en] Drop-down list (multi-select)

[en] Select the off-peak day(s).

[en] Dates

[en] Date picker

[en] Select the specific off-peak date(s). Select + or - to add or remove off-peak dates.

[en] Auto-scale profile

[en] Drop-down list

[en] Select a shared auto-scale profile to use, or select Custom to create a custom auto-scale configuration. See Manage Auto-scale Profiles for details about creating and working with auto-scale profiles.

[en] Session limit per host

[en] Text field

[en] Type the maximum number of sessions per host. Once this session limit is reached, and there are no more available hosts, a new host is started automatically, if it exists.

[en] Load balancing

[en] Drop-down list

[en] Start VM on connect

[en] Checkbox

[en] Select this option to have Nerdio Manager start a stopped session host VM automatically when a user attempts to connect to it.

[en] Measure type

[en] Drop-down list

[en] Select how the Min active host capacity and Burst beyond base capacity values below are measured: by Count or by Percent.

[en] Active host defined as

[en] Drop-down list

[en] Base host pool capacity

[en] Text field

[en] Type the number of session host VMs to always be part of this host pool. These session hosts may be stopped or running.

[en] Min active host capacity

[en] Text field

[en] Type the minimum number of running session hosts that are always available. When this value is set to 0, the system stops all running hosts during the scale in period; be sure to configure a scale in period other than <any time> and enable Pre-Stage Hosts to turn VMs back on. Typically, a session host must be running for users to sign in, or the "Start on connect" feature must be enabled. Other VMs can be either stopped or turned on, as configured by the scaling logic.

[en] Burst beyond base capacity

[en] Text field

[en] Type the capacity to burst above the standard number of session host VMs when there is user demand. The system automatically creates up to this number of new session host VMs above the Base host pool capacity, when needed. These session hosts are the first ones to be removed when the system scales in after business hours.

[en] Auto-scale trigger type

[en] Drop-down list

[en] Select the auto-scale trigger for event-based scaling: Average active sessions, Available sessions, or User-driven. See the corresponding tab below for that trigger's specific fields.

[en] Stop or remove (scale in) hosts only from

[en] Drop-down list

[en] Perform the scale in operation at any time or only after the end of business hours. Select <any time> to allow scaling in to be performed at any time.

[en] Scale in aggressiveness

[en] Drop-down list

[en] Auto-scale first looks for hosts without sessions and scales them in. Once only hosts with sessions remain, it scales in hosts with the fewest active sessions first after notifying users and waiting according to the configuration below.

[en] Deactivate (drain mode) hosts

[en] Drop-down list

[en] Displayed only after a specific scale in time window is set in Stop or remove (scale in) hosts only from above (that is, not set to <any time>). Select No to leave this disabled, or select All but a number of hosts to have the auto-scale engine deactivate all hosts at the start of the scale in window except that many. This leaves at least the minimum number of hosts specified in Min active host capacity under Host Pool Sizing.

[en] Rolling drain mode

[en] Toggle

[en] Toggle this option on to enable rolling drain mode.

[en] Window name

[en] Text field

[en] Type the name for this drain window.

[en] Start time

[en] Drop-down list

[en] Select the start time when this drain window comes into effect. The last drain window remains in effect until 11:59 PM.

[en] % hosts in drain mode

[en] Text field

[en] Type the percentage of hosts in drain mode during this window. This setting applies to all hosts in the pool, not the current number of running hosts.

[en] Load balancing

[en] Drop-down list

[en] Optionally, override the host pool's default load balancing setting for this drain window.

[en] Scale in aggressiveness

[en] Drop-down list

[en] Optionally, override the host pool's default scale in aggressiveness setting for this drain window.

[en] Pre-stage hosts

[en] Toggle

[en] Toggle this option on to enable host pre-staging.

[en] Use multiple schedules

[en] Checkbox

[en] Select this option to enable multiple, non-overlapping pre-staging schedules to be used. This is not available for the Available Sessions trigger when the During Work Hours option is specified.

[en] Work days

[en] Drop-down list (multi-select)

[en] Select the work days when pre-stage tasks should be run.

[en] Start of work hours

[en] Drop-down list

[en] Select the starting hour when pre-stage tasks should be run.

[en] Measure type

[en] Drop-down list

[en] Select how to measure the number of hosts to be ready: by Count or by Percent.

[en] Hosts to be active by start of work hours

[en] Text field

[en] Type the number of session hosts that should be ready to accept user connections by this time.

[en] Scale in delay

[en] Drop-down list

[en] Select a delay to restrict scale in operations after the start of work hours. Pre-staged hosts are not scaled in during this time even if they are unused.

[en] Send a warning message to users on the host

[en] Drop-down list

[en] Select the number of minutes before scaling in that the message should be sent.

[en] Message content

[en] Text field

[en] Type the message to send to users before disconnecting them during a scale in operation.

[en] Auto-heal broken hosts

[en] Toggle

[en] Toggle this option on to enable auto-heal.

[en] Sign of a broken host

[en] Multi-select tags + drop-down list

[en] Select one or more AVD agent status values, and, using the and connector, select the corresponding session status (for example, Has no active sessions) that together define a broken host. The status is reported to the AVD service by the AVD agent installed on the session host VM; if something is wrong, the status is something other than "Available," though not every non-"Available" status indicates a problem. See this Microsoft article for more details. Hosts with active sessions may still be somewhat functional and are not treated as broken. Only hosts with no sessions at all, or only disconnected sessions, are considered broken by auto-scale.

[en] Select + to add another sign-of-a-broken-host rule.

[en] First action timeout

[en] Text field (minutes)

[en] Type the number of minutes to wait before running the first recovery action.

[en] Recovery actions

[en] Ordered list

[en] Select the recovery action(s) to run, in order: a VM action (for example, Restart VM or Delete VM (and re-create by auto-scale)), or a scripted action (for example, reinstall SxS, re-register host with AVD, etc.). By default, this list contains Restart VM, Restart VM, and Delete VM (and re-create by auto-scale) — that is, two restart attempts before the host is deleted and recreated. Select the x next to an action to remove it from the list, and drag and drop any action to change its place in the list, and therefore the order it is run.

[en] Timeout between recovery actions

[en] Text field (minutes)

[en] Type the number of minutes to wait after each recovery action before moving on to the next one. If the Auto-Heal operation requires deletion and re-creation of a broken host VM, a spare VM is powered on to replace the capacity, if available.