User profile management for Azure Virtual Desktop with FSLogix profile containers

A user profile contains data elements about an individual, including configuration information like desktop settings, persistent network connections, and application settings. By default, Windows creates a local user profile that is tightly integrated with the operating system.

A remote user profile provides a partition between user data and the operating system. It allows the operating system to be replaced or changed without affecting the user data. With a VDI solution, such as Azure Virtual Desktop, the operating system may be replaced for the following reasons:

• An upgrade of the operating system.
• A replacement of an existing session host.
• A user is assigned to a pooled host pool where they might connect to a different session host each time they sign in.

We recommend using FSLogix profile containers with Azure Virtual Desktop to manage and roam user profiles and personalization. FSLogix profile containers store a complete user profile in a single container. At sign in, this container is dynamically attached to the remote session as a natively supported Virtual Hard Disk (VHDX or VHD) file. The user profile is immediately available and appears in the system exactly like a native user profile. This article describes how FSLogix profile containers work with Azure Virtual Desktop.

FSLogix profile containers

Existing and legacy Microsoft solutions for user profiles came with various challenges. No previous solution handled all the user profile needs of a VDI environment.

FSLogix profile containers address many user profile challenges. Key among them are:

• Performance: The FSLogix profile containers are high performance and resolve performance issues that have historically blocked cached exchange mode.

• OneDrive: Without FSLogix profile containers, OneDrive is not supported in non-persistent VDI environments.

• Additional folders: FSLogix profile containers provides the ability to extend user profiles to include additional folders.

Best practices for Azure Virtual Desktop

Azure Virtual Desktop offers full control over size, type, and count of VMs that are being used by customers. For more information, see What is Azure Virtual Desktop?.

To ensure your Azure Virtual Desktop environment follows best practices:

• We recommend you use Azure Files to store profile containers. To compare the different FSLogix Profile Container storage options on Azure, see Storage options for FSLogix profile containers.

  • The storage account must be in the same region as the session host VMs.

  • Azure Files permissions should match permissions described in Configure SMB Storage Permissions for FSLogix.

  • Azure Files has limits on the number of open handles per root directory, directory, and file. For more information on the limits and sizing guidance, see Azure Files scalability and performance targets and Azure Files sizing guidance for Azure Virtual Desktop.

• Each host pool VM must be built of the same type and size VM based on the same master image.

• Each host pool VM must be in the same resource group to aid management, scaling and updating.

• For optimal performance, the storage solution and the FSLogix profile container should be in the same data center location.

• The storage account containing the master image must be in the same region and subscription where the VMs are being provisioned.

Next steps

• Learn more about storage options for FSLogix profile containers, see Storage options for FSLogix profile containers in Azure Virtual Desktop.
• Set up FSLogix Profile Container with Azure Files and Active Directory
• Set up FSLogix Profile Container with Azure Files and Microsoft Entra ID