Tutorial: Deploy a sample Azure Virtual Desktop infrastructure with a Windows 11 desktop

Azure Virtual Desktop enables you to access desktops and applications from virtually anywhere. This tutorial shows you how to deploy a Windows 11 Enterprise desktop in Azure Virtual Desktop using the Azure portal and how to connect to it. To learn more about the terminology used for Azure Virtual Desktop, see Azure Virtual Desktop terminology and What is Azure Virtual Desktop?

You'll deploy a sample infrastructure by:

Prerequisites

You need:

• An Azure account with an active subscription. If you don't have an Azure subscription, create a Trial before you begin.

• The Azure account must be assigned the following built-in role-based access control (RBAC) roles as a minimum on the subscription, or on a resource group. For more information, see Assign Azure roles using the Azure portal. If you want to assign the roles to a resource group, you need to create this first.

  Resource type	RBAC role
  Host pool, workspace, and application group	Desktop Virtualization Contributor
  Session hosts	Virtual Machine Contributor

  Alternatively if you already have the Contributor or Owner RBAC role, you're already able to create all of these resource types.

• A virtual network in the same Azure region you want to deploy your session hosts to.

• A user account in Microsoft Entra ID you can use for connecting to the desktop. This account must be assigned the Virtual Machine User Login or Virtual Machine Administrator Login RBAC role on the subscription. Alternatively you can assign the role to the account on the session host VM or the resource group containing the VM after deployment.

• A Remote Desktop client installed on your device to connect to the desktop. You can find a list of supported clients in Remote Desktop clients for Azure Virtual Desktop. Alternatively you can use the Remote Desktop Web client, which you can use through a supported web browser without installing any extra software.

Create a personal host pool, workspace, application group, and session host VM

To create a personal host pool, workspace, application group, and session host VM running Windows 11:

1. Sign in to the Azure portal.

2. In the search bar, type Azure Virtual Desktop and select the matching service entry.

3. From the Azure Virtual Desktop overview page, select Create a host pool.

4. On the Basics tab, complete the following information:

   Parameter	Value/Description
   Project details
   Subscription	Select the subscription you want to deploy your host pool, session hosts, workspace, and application group in from the drop-down list.
   Resource group	Select an existing resource group or select Create new and enter a name.
   Host pool name	Enter a name for the host pool, for example hp01.
   Location	Select the Azure region from the list where you want to create your host pool, workspace, and application group.
   Validation environment	Select No. This setting enables your host pool to receive service updates before all other production host pools, but isn't needed for this tutorial.
   Preferred app group type	Select Desktop. With this personal host pool, you publish a desktop, but you can't also add a RemoteApp application group for the same host pool to also publish applications. See Next steps for more advanced scenarios.
   Host pool type
   Host pool type	Select Personal. This means that end users have a dedicated assigned session host that they always connect to. Selecting Personal shows a new option for Assignment type.
   Assignment type	Select Automatic. Automatic assignment means that a user automatically gets assigned the first available session host when they first sign in, which is then dedicated to that user.

   Once you've completed this tab, select Next: Virtual Machines.

1. On the Virtual machines tab, complete the following information:

   Parameter	Value/Description
   Add Azure virtual machines	Select Yes. This shows several new options.
   Resource group	This automatically defaults to the resource group you chose your host pool to be in on the Basics tab.
   Name prefix	Enter a name for your session hosts, for example hp01-sh. This name prefix is used as the prefix for your session host VMs. Each session host has a suffix of a hyphen and then a sequential number added to the end, for example hp01-sh-0. The prefix can be a maximum of 11 characters and is used in the computer name in the operating system. The prefix and the suffix combined can be a maximum of 15 characters. Session host names must be unique.
   Virtual machine location	Select the Azure region where you want to deploy your session host VMs. It must be the same region that your virtual network is in.
   Availability options	Select No infrastructure redundancy required. This means that your session host VMs aren't deployed in an availability set or in availability zones.
   Security type	Select Trusted launch virtual machines. Leave the subsequent defaults of Enable secure boot and Enable vTPM checked, and Integrity monitoring unchecked. For more information, see Trusted launch.
   Image	Select Windows 11 Enterprise, version 23H2.
   Virtual machine size	Accept the default SKU. If you want to use a different SKU, select Change size, then select from the list.
   Number of VMs	Enter 1 as a minimum. You can deploy up to 500 session host VMs at this point if you wish, or you can add more separately. With a personal host pool, each session host can only be assigned to one user, so you need one session host for each user connecting to this host pool. Once you've completed this tutorial, you can create a pooled host pool, where multiple users can connect to the same session host.
   OS disk type	Select Premium SSD for best performance.
   Boot Diagnostics	Select Enable with managed storage account (recommended).
   Network and security
   Virtual network	Select your virtual network and subnet to connect session hosts to.
   Network security group	Select Basic.
   Public inbound ports	Select No as you don't need to open inbound ports to connect to Azure Virtual Desktop. Learn more at Understanding Azure Virtual Desktop network connectivity.
   Domain to join
   Select which directory you would like to join	Select Microsoft Entra ID.
   Virtual Machine Administrator account
   Username	Enter a name to use as the local administrator account for these session host VMs.
   Password	Enter a password for the local administrator account.
   Confirm password	Reenter the password.
   Custom configuration
   Custom configuration script URL	Leave this blank.

   Once you've completed this tab, select Next: Workspace.

2. On the Workspace tab, complete the following information:

   Parameter	Value/Description
   Register desktop app group	Select Yes. This registers the default desktop application group to the selected workspace.
   To this workspace	Select Create new and enter a name, for example ws01.

   Once you've completed this tab, select Next: Review + create. You don't need to complete the other tabs.

3. On the Review + create tab, ensure validation passes and review the information that is used during deployment. If validation doesn't pass, review the error message and check what you entered in each tab.

4. Select Create. A host pool, workspace, application group, and session host are created. Once your deployment is complete, select Go to resource to go to the host pool overview.

5. Finally, from the host pool overview, select Session hosts and verify the status of the session hosts is Available.

Assign users to the application group

Once your host pool, workspace, application group, and session host VM(s) have been deployed, you need to assign users to the application group that was automatically created. After users are assigned to the application group, they'll automatically be assigned to an available session host VM because Assignment type was set to Automatic when the host pool was created.

1. From the host pool overview, select Application groups.

2. Select the application group from the list, for example hp01-DAG.

3. From the application group overview, select Assignments.

4. Select + Add, then search for and select the user account you want to be assigned to this application group.

5. Finish by selecting Select.

Enable connections from Remote Desktop clients

To enable connections from all of the Remote Desktop clients, you need to add an RDP property to your host pool configuration.

1. Go back to the host pool overview, then select RDP Properties.

2. Select the Advanced tab.

3. In the RDP Properties box, add targetisaadjoined:i:1; to the start of the text in the box.

4. Select Save.

Connect to the desktop

You're ready to connect to the desktop. The desktop takes longer to load the first time as the profile is being created, however subsequent connections are quicker.

Select the relevant tab and follow the steps, depending on which Remote Desktop client you're using. We've only listed the steps here for Windows, and Web, but if you want to connect using one of our other Remote Desktop clients, see Remote Desktop clients for Azure Virtual Desktop.

Next steps

Now that you've created and connected to a Windows 11 desktop with Azure Virtual Desktop there's much more you can do. For a more in-depth and adaptable approach to deploying Azure Virtual Desktop, see Deploy Azure Virtual Desktop, or for suggestions of what else you can configure, see:

• Add session hosts to a host pool.

• Publish applications.

• User profile management for Azure Virtual Desktop with FSLogix profile containers.

• Understand network connectivity.

• Learn about supported identities and authentication methods

• Set up email discovery to subscribe to Azure Virtual Desktop.

• Configure single sign-on for Azure Virtual Desktop using Microsoft Entra authentication.

• Learn about session host virtual machine sizing guidelines.

• Use Microsoft Teams on Azure Virtual Desktop.

• Monitor your deployment with Azure Virtual Desktop Insights.