question

DavidSchrag-2162 avatar image
0 Votes"
DavidSchrag-2162 asked AmitaMenon-3691 edited

Best approach for small-environment WVD image management?

Goal: Provide a WVD environment for 5 users with the potential to scale up to 50 users. I need a production environment plus a way to prepare an updated image that can be pushed into production.

My understanding is that I should use the Shared Image Gallery. How should I create the image(s) that get added to the gallery? Should I start by creating a resource via https://portal.azure.com/#create/hub, or by creating an image via https://portal.azure.com/#create/Microsoft.Image? What's the difference between these approaches?

azure-virtual-machinesazure-virtual-desktop
· 1
5 |1600 characters needed characters left characters exceeded

Up to 10 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 3.0 MiB each and 30.0 MiB total.

@DavidSchrag-2162

Please 'Accept as answer' if the provided information is helpful, so that it can help others in the community looking for help on similar topics.

0 Votes 0 ·
vipullag-MSFT avatar image
0 Votes"
vipullag-MSFT answered

@DavidSchrag-2162

Apologies in delayed response.

There are different ways of creating an image for the Windows Virtual Desktop.

Using the link you shared. This link is essentially you going to the azure portal, searching for 'images' blade in 'All Services' and then creating the '+ Add' button to create a new image.
For the other link you mentioned and searching for 'image' will take you to the same menu.

Using Shared Image Gallery, use this if you are looking to make use of Versioning of Images. Please check this document for using the images with WVD.


Please 'Accept as answer' if the provided information is helpful, so that it can help others in the community looking for help on similar topics.


5 |1600 characters needed characters left characters exceeded

Up to 10 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 3.0 MiB each and 30.0 MiB total.

DavidSchrag-2162 avatar image
0 Votes"
DavidSchrag-2162 answered DavidSchrag-2162 commented

From https://portal.azure.com/#create/hub, I can search the Marketplace for "Windows 10 multi-session + Microsoft 365 Apps." This brings me to a "Create a virtual machine" wizard. This seems to be the process recommended for creating an image that will be imported into the SIG in this blog post: https://www.robinhobo.com/windows-virtual-desktop-wvd-image-management-how-to-manage-and-deploy-custom-images-including-versioning-with-the-azure-shared-image-gallery-sig/.

The process for creating an image at https://portal.azure.com/#create/Microsoft.Image looks completely different.

Which is better for use with WVD and SIG?

· 3
5 |1600 characters needed characters left characters exceeded

Up to 10 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 3.0 MiB each and 30.0 MiB total.

Also: If I go to the document you referenced (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-desktop/set-up-customize-master-image), it says "We recommend you use an image from the Azure Image Gallery ... Windows 10 Enterprise multi-session is available in the Azure Image Gallery. There are two options for customizing this image. The first option is to provision a virtual machine (VM) in Azure by following the instructions in Create a VM from a managed image, and then skip ahead to Software preparation and installation." That is the option I want to use; the second option requires local image creation, and I want to do this entirely through the portal.



0 Votes 0 ·

So the first step in the first option has a link to instructions for "Create a VM from a managed image" (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/create-vm-generalized-managed). Those instructions are from 2018 and don't make any reference to WVD, so it's hard to know exactly what to do when creating an image for use with WVD. It just says "select the image you want to use from the list" of images. But at https://portal.azure.com/#create/Microsoft.Image, I don't see any image selection option.

0 Votes 0 ·

There is a "Learn More" link from the image creation page at https://portal.azure.com/#create/Microsoft.Image-ARM. The link takes you to https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/capture-image-resource, which appears in the VM documentation immediately before https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/create-vm-generalized-managed. In that first article, titled "Create a managed image of a generalized VM in Azure," it suggests creating the managed image by first creating a VM and then capturing that VM to create an image. That sounds like I would start by creating the VM at https://portal.azure.com/#create/hub instead of creating an image at https://portal.azure.com/#create/Microsoft.Image. It feels like the documentation keeps pushing me back and forth between these two approaches.

0 Votes 0 ·
DavidSchrag-0732 avatar image
0 Votes"
DavidSchrag-0732 answered

Update: I went with the approach of creating a VM using the Windows 10 multi-session + Microsoft 365 Apps image from the Azure marketplace to start. I customized that VM and captured it to my Shared Image Gallery. I haven't tried creating an image from https://portal.azure.com/#create/Microsoft.Image, but starting from https://portal.azure.com/#create/hub seems to be the preferred approach.

5 |1600 characters needed characters left characters exceeded

Up to 10 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 3.0 MiB each and 30.0 MiB total.