Azure Virtual Desktop - Automating image creations\updates?

Question

Hi,

I am trying to find the most optimal way of creating\updating Azure virtual desktop images.

I am currently creating a custom image in Azure, installing all required apps, snapshotting prior to sysprepping, sysprepping and then using the shared image gallery to distribute.

Updating the image is also too manually for my liking and I have to convert the before sysprepped image to disk, attach to a VM, update the image, snapshot before sysprepping, sysprep and shutdown, upload to share image gallery.

On our on-prem Citrix environment, we have used SCCM task sequences to create our "Golden image". This was streamlined and did not require too much manually input. I am looking for a similar method to this.

Would like to know how others are managing their builds for Azure virtual desktop images.

Answer 1

@Mcguire, Daniel

More and more customers are switching over to CI/CD approach, for example using HashiCorp Packer or our very own Azure Image Builder.

The following blog post (Streamline your custom image building process with Azure VM Image Builder service) gives you a quick primer on the AIB. The resulting images can then be replicated and versioned using Shared Image Gallery.

By embracing automation, customers gain greater AVD deployment flexibility and ease master image management. With automation, the configurations each layer is responsible for can also be adjusted or reconfigured at any point. This ensures that the automated image creation system evolves along with its users' needs and allows you to adjust your methodology in a blink of an eye.

Hope this helps.

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