How to use Scaling Plans to optimize your Azure Virtual Desktop deployment
Azure Virtual Desktop is a cloud-based service that allows you to deliver virtual desktops and apps to your users from anywhere. With Azure Virtual Desktop, you can provide a secure, scalable, and cost-effective solution for remote work, hybrid work, and bring your own device (BYOD) scenarios.
One of the challenges of managing a virtual desktop environment is to balance the performance and availability of your virtual machines (VMs) with the cost and efficiency of your resources. You want to ensure that your users have enough VMs to access their desktops and apps when they need them, but you also want to avoid wasting resources and money on idle or underutilized VMs.
That’s where Scaling Plans come in. Scaling Plans is a new feature of Azure Virtual Desktop that allows you to automate the scaling of your VMs based on predefined schedules and metrics. With Scaling Plans, you can:
– Define when and how many VMs to start or stop based on time zones, working hours, and holidays
– Adjust the number of VMs based on the current or expected user load, session count, or CPU utilization
– Apply different scaling policies to different host pools or groups of VMs
– Monitor and troubleshoot your scaling operations using logs and alerts
Scaling Plans can help you optimize your Azure Virtual Desktop deployment by:
– Improving the user experience and satisfaction by ensuring that your VMs are always ready and responsive
– Reducing the operational overhead and complexity by automating the scaling process and eliminating the need for manual intervention
– Saving money and resources by minimizing the number of VMs running when they are not needed
How to create and apply a Scaling Plan
To use Scaling Plans, you need to have an Azure Virtual Desktop environment with one or more host pools and VMs. You also need to have the Azure Virtual Desktop agent and the Azure Virtual Desktop PowerShell module installed on your VMs.
To create and apply a Scaling Plan, follow these steps:
1. Sign in to the Azure portal and go to the Azure Virtual Desktop service.
2. In the left menu, select Scaling Plans under Manage.
3. Select Add to create a new Scaling Plan.
4. Give your Scaling Plan a name and a description, and select Next.
5. On the Schedule page, define the time zone, working hours, and holidays for your Scaling Plan. You can also add exceptions for specific dates or periods. Select Next.
6. On the Scaling page, define the scaling logic for your Scaling Plan. You can choose to scale based on a fixed number of VMs, or based on a metric such as session count or CPU utilization. You can also set the minimum and maximum number of VMs, and the buffer percentage to avoid over or under scaling. Select Next.
7. On the Review + create page, review your Scaling Plan settings and select Create.
8. After your Scaling Plan is created, go to the Scaling Plans page and select your Scaling Plan.
9. On the Scaling Plan page, select Assignments under Settings.
10. Select Add to assign your Scaling Plan to one or more host pools or VMs. You can also exclude specific VMs from your Scaling Plan if needed.
11. Select Save to apply your Scaling Plan.
How to monitor and troubleshoot a Scaling Plan
To monitor and troubleshoot your Scaling Plan, you can use the following tools:
– The Scaling Plan page in the Azure portal, where you can see the current status, history, and logs of your Scaling Plan
– The Azure Monitor service, where you can create alerts and dashboards for your Scaling Plan metrics and events
– The Azure Virtual Desktop PowerShell module, where you can use cmdlets such as Get-AzWvdScalingPlan, Get-AzWvdScalingPlanLog, and Get-AzWvdScalingPlanMetric to query and manage your Scaling Plan
Conclusion
Scaling Plans is a powerful and flexible feature of Azure Virtual Desktop that can help you optimize your virtual desktop environment and provide a better experience for your users. With Scaling Plans, you can automate the scaling of your VMs based on schedules and metrics, and save money and resources by reducing the number of VMs running when they are not needed.
To learn more about Scaling Plans and how to use them, check out the following resources:
– Scaling Plans overview – Autoscale scaling plans and example scenarios in Azure Virtual Desktop | Microsoft Learn
– Scaling Plans tutorial – Create an autoscale scaling plan for Azure Virtual Desktop | Microsoft Learn
– Scaling Plans glossary – Azure Virtual Desktop autoscale glossary for Azure Virtual Desktop – Azure | Microsoft Learn
– Scaling Plans FAQ – Azure Virtual Desktop autoscale FAQ – Azure | Microsoft Learn
