How should AVD be setup for this situation?

crazycat 0 Reputation points
2024-09-01T14:40:36.85+00:00

I am not familiar with AVD other than being a user of it. I am working on submitting a ticket with my IT group to virtualize some software my team uses. The software is licensed individually per user and does not allow multiple installations on the same machine. It requires a fairly powerful laptop and specifically a dedicated graphics card such as an Nvidia type card as opposed to the intel versions. I want to virtualize to save costs on each laptop as they are pretty pricey.

What i have in mind is each user (up to 6 at the moment) could log into an AVD session and be able to run their copy of the software (licensed to them or i have a common license that works on up to 5 machines currently...this may be easier) that is licensed to them, all at the same time as the others. I know there is a personal desktop type provision as well as session based provision and allocate resources differently. Any idea on how this would need to be set up so i can intelligently talk to my IT people?

Am I thinking correctly that it could be done this way.

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An Azure service that is used to provision Windows and Linux virtual machines.
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Azure Virtual Desktop
A Microsoft desktop and app virtualization service that runs on Azure. Previously known as Windows Virtual Desktop.
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  1. Andreas Baumgarten 107.9K Reputation points MVP
    2024-09-01T15:20:11.3633333+00:00

    Hi @crazycat ,

    before you dig into the details how to implement the AVD environment (shared application, shared desktop, personal desktop) you should run some tests:

    • Does the software support the GPU accelerated/optimized VM sizes in Azure (GPU accelerated VM SKUs) at all and if so which VM SKU fits best. This will influence the decision if AVD is an adequate solution for your needs.
    • Does the software support multi-user support (starting the exe file in different user contexts at the same time on the same VM). This will influence the decision if you can use a shared desktop or personal desktop environment of AVD.
    • How does the software perform using RDP to connect to the VM.

    (If the reply was helpful please don't forget to upvote and/or accept as answer, thank you)

    Regards

    Andreas Baumgarten

  2. Prrudram-MSFT 24,366 Reputation points
    2024-09-05T16:37:21.4166667+00:00

    Hello @crazycat
    To answer your follow up questions under Andreas answer, It seems like the Avere vFXT software is compute heavy with some graphics requirements, so the NC family of VMs would be a good fit. However, it's important to note that the decision ultimately depends on your specific app workloads, desired quality of user experience, and cost.

    Regarding multi-user support, the software does not support multi-user and does not support multi installations on the same machine. This means that you would need to use a personal desktop environment in AVD. As for RDP performance, it would depend on the connection to the VM from the end user. If the graphics are handled on the VM and not on the local machine, it should work well as long as the connection is stable and has sufficient bandwidth. However, it's important to note that RDP performance can be affected by factors such as network latency and bandwidth, so it's recommended to test the performance before making a final decision.

    If I have answered your query, please click "Accept as answer" as a token of appreciation

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