Management baseline considerations for an Azure Virtual Desktop
Achieve operational excellence and customer success by properly designing your Azure Virtual Desktop environment with management and monitoring in mind.
Platform management and monitoring
Review the following considerations and recommendation for platform management and monitoring of Azure Virtual Desktop.
Design considerations
- Use Azure Monitor Log Analytics workspaces as the administrative boundary of logs.
- Collect telemetry from the following platform services:
- Workspaces
- Host pools
- Performance counters should be collected.
- Azure event logs should be collected.
- Create a dashboard from the platform logs to centralize visuals for reporting operations.
- Learn to use Azure Monitor for Azure Virtual Desktop to monitor your deployment.
Design recommendations
Use a separate dedicated Azure Monitor Log Analytics workspace for Azure Virtual Desktop.
Centralize your Azure Monitor Log Analytics workspace in the region of your Azure Virtual Desktop deployment.
Export diagnostic settings to a storage account if there's a need to go beyond the two-year retention period.
Enable the platform service diagnostic telemetry stated in the considerations to go to the Azure Monitor Log Analytics workspace.
The following Windows performance counters should be collected by Log Analytics for Azure Virtual Desktop monitoring:
Object name Counter name Instance name Interval ID LogicalDisk % Free Space C: 60 LogicalDisk, % Free Space, C: PhysicalDisk Avg. Disk sec/Read * 30 PhysicalDisk, Avg. Disk sec/Read, * PhysicalDisk Avg. Disk sec/Transfer * 30 PhysicalDisk, Avg. Disk sec/Transfer, * PhysicalDisk Avg. Disk sec/Write * 30 PhysicalDisk, Avg. Disk sec/Write, * Processor Information % Processor Time _Total 30 Processor Information, % Processor Time, _Total Terminal Services Active Sessions * 60 Terminal Services, Active Sessions, * LogicalDisk Avg. Disk Queue Length C: 30 LogicalDisk, Avg. Disk Queue Length, C: Terminal Services Inactive Sessions * 60 Terminal Services, Inactive Sessions, * Terminal Services Total Sessions * 60 Terminal Services, Total Sessions, * User Input Delay per Process Max Input Delay * 30 User Input Delay per Process, Max Input Delay, * User Input Delay per Session Max Input Delay * 30 User Input Delay per Session, Max Input Delay, * RemoteFX Network Current TCP RTT * 30 RemoteFX Network, Current TCP RTT, * RemoteFX Network Current UDP Bandwidth * 30 RemoteFX Network, Current UDP Bandwidth, * LogicalDisk Avg. Disk sec/Transfer C: 60 LogicalDisk, Avg. Disk sec/Transfer, C: LogicalDisk Current Disk Queue Length C: 30 LogicalDisk, Current Disk Queue Length, C: Memory Available MB * 30 Memory, Available MB, * Memory Page Faults/sec * 30 Memory, Page Faults/sec, * Memory Pages/sec * 30 Memory, Pages/sec, * Memory % Committed Bytes In Use * 30 Memory, % Committed Bytes In Use, * PhysicalDisk Avg. Disk Queue Length * 30 PhysicalDisk, Avg. Disk Queue Length, * Collect the following Windows event logs into the Azure Monitor Log Analytics workspace.
Windows Event Log name
SystemApplicationMicrosoft-Windows-TerminalServices-LocalSessionManager/OperationalMicrosoft-FSLogix-Apps/OperationalMicrosoft-Windows-TerminalServices-RemoteConnectionManager/AdminMicrosoft-FSLogix-Apps/Admin
Use Azure Monitor for Azure Virtual Desktop for ease of configuration.
Assign application groups to user groups to ease your administration overhead.
Application groups can be segregated in many ways. We recommend separating them based on which department or user type (for example, power, engineering, or general) the user is a part of.
For a glossary, data storage cost estimations, and additional troubleshooting guidance, see Azure Monitor next steps.
Infrastructure management and monitoring
Review the following considerations and recommendation for infrastructure management and monitoring of Azure Virtual Desktop.
Design considerations: Infrastructure
- Use the same Log Analytics workspace that's used for the Azure Virtual Desktop platform.
- The session host performance counters are collected and logged.
- Use network performance monitoring for user experience management.
- Set up an alerting model around the collected logs and metrics.
- Use Windows Update Management for the session hosts between feature updates.
Design recommendations: Infrastructure
- Use a centralized Azure Monitor Log Analytics workspace in the region of your session hosts.
- Set up the performance counters according to the documentation.
- Set up the Network Performance Monitor in the same region as your Azure Virtual Network and session hosts.
- Incorporate Azure policies and governance for enterprise-scale into the Azure Virtual Desktop landing zone.