Update a desktop image and hosts

Nerdio Manager allows you to update a desktop image. In addition, you can re-image all the hosts in all the host pools that use a specific desktop image.

Update a Desktop Image

The following procedure shows you how to update a desktop image.

To update a desktop image:

1. In Nerdio Manager, at the Account level, navigate to Desktop Images.

2. Locate the desktop image you wish to work with and power it on.

3. Locate the IP address for the desktop image VM.

   

4. RDP to the desktop image VM in one of the following ways:

   • Download the RDP file:

     1. From the action menu next to your desktop image, select Generate RDP file.

        

     2. In the new dialog box, in the Duration field, define the period for the RDP file to stay active. Keep in mind that you will not be able to connect to that RDP file after the selected period expires, and will have to generate a new file if new connection is needed. Select Download.

        

     3. Double-click the downloaded file to launch the remote desktop connection, and then in the new dialog box, select Connect.

   • Use an active Windows Server in your network:

     1. Go to the Servers blade, and then locate the IP address of the server that you want to use for a remote connection to your desktop image VM.

     2. RDP to your server using the mstsc command.

     3. From the server, RDP to the desktop image VM using the mstsc command.

        In the Remote Desktop Connection dialog box, enter the IP address of your desktop image VM, and then select Connect.

     Notes:

     • You can often use a session host or other Azure VM that is connected to the same VNet to do this.

     • Ensure there are no pending OS update installations, and all apps are updated as desired. Pending installations are a common cause for unhealthy images.

5. Depending on whether your image is domain-joined, sign in to your desktop image VM as the domain or local admin:

   1. In the Enter your credentials dialog box, select More choices > Use a different account.

   2. In the User name field, specify the domain admin or local admin user name with which you want to sign in. Provide the corresponding password, and then select OK.

      Note: If signing in as a local admin:

      • Ensure the user name you enter is the host name of the desktop image VM you want to connect to, plus your local admin user name.

      • Provide the custom password that you created when adding the desktop image you are connecting to. If you don't remember the password, you can reset it in the Azure portal.

      

6. Make the required changes on your image VM.

7. Sign off the VM and leave it powered on if you plan to set the image immediately.

8. In Nerdio Manager, at the Account level, navigate to Desktop Images.

9. Locate the desktop image you wish to work with and, if it is powered on, select Power off and set as image. If it is powered off, from the action menu, select Set as image.

   

10. Enter the following information:

    • Azure Compute Gallery: From the drop-down list, select the Azure Compute Gallery where to store the image.

    • Azure Regions: From the drop-down list, select the Azure Regions where the image should be replicated.

    • Storage Account Type: From the drop-down list, select the storage account type for the managed disk.

    • Stage new image as inactive Select this option to create the new image version without setting it as active.

      Note: Any existing configurations continue to use the current version of the image. See Update a desktop image and hosts for details about activating a staged image.

    • Run the following scripted actions: Toggle this option On to specify the scripts that run during creation.

      • Target VM: Select whether the scripted actions run on the Clone VM or the Source VM.

        Note: Applying scripted actions to the Source VM retains the changes during future image maintenance or staging.

    • Applications Management: Toggle this option On and select the applications to manage during creation.

    • Error Handling: Toggle this option On and configure the retry thresholds and cleanup options should the process fail.

      • Retry Threshold: Type the number of of attempts to retry the set as image task before failing.

      • Cleanup after failure: Select this option to shutdown and remove the resources created during the set as image process after the Retry Threshold has been met. In addition, type the number of hours to wait before the cleanup process begins.

    • Retain current image object: This option is automatically selected when you select Set new image as inactive.

      Note: This option creates a copy of the current image and retains it for a specified duration. This provides an option to restore the image and revert any changes, in case of any issues.

      • Versions to keep: Type the number of image versions to retain.

    • Install certificates: Select this option to install all stored certificates on the desktop image, if any.

    • Validate image: Select this option to apply the image to the virtual machine, gather boot diagnostics, and verify the virtual machine successfully boots before creating a Managed Image or publishing to Azure Compute Gallery.

    • Use Boot Diagnostics Insights: Select the this option to perform boot diagnostics. See Overview of Boot Diagnostic Insights for details.

    • Change log: Optionally, type the list of changes made to the desktop image.

    • Schedule: Toggle this option On and create the schedule when this task is run. Otherwise, the task is run immediately.

11. Once you have entered all the desired information, select OK.

    The re-image task starts. You can follow the task's progress in the Desktop Images Tasks section.

Re-image Hosts

The following procedure shows you how to re-image all the hosts in all the host pools that use a specific desktop image.

To re-image hosts:

1. In Nerdio Manager, at the account level, navigate to AVD > Host Pools.

2. Locate the host pool that uses the specific desktop image.

3. From the action menu, select Hosts > Resize/Re-image.

4. Select the Run now tab to execute the task immediately, or select the Schedule tab to schedule the task to run at a specified time and date.

   • If you select the schedule option, then from the Schedule drop-down list, select the schedule.

     

     Note: The schedule information is displayed at the bottom of the dialog box. It cannot be edited here.

5. Enter the following information:

   • Desktop image: From the drop-down list, select a desktop image to use to re-image all hosts in the pool. The OS disk of all hosts will be replaced with the new desktop image. Select No Change if you do not want to re-image the OS disk.

   • VM size: From the drop-down list, select a new VM size to use to re-size all hosts in the pool. The VM size will be changed but the OS Disk size and contents will be unaffected unless you also selected that option as part of this operation. Select No Change if you do not want to change the VM size.

   • OS disk: From the drop-down list, select a new OS Disk size to use for all hosts in the pool. Select No Change if you do not want to change the OS disk.

     Note: The disk size must be equal to or larger to the size of the desktop image used for all session hosts. Resizing the disk does not automatically extend the Windows volume on individual hosts. You must perform this action manually. It is recommended to re-size the desktop image OS disk and then use it to re-image session hosts.

   • Custom OS disk size (GIB): Enter a custom OS disk size.

     Note: The cost of the disk that is provisioned will be based on the standard disk sizes available in Azure. For example, if you enter a custom size of 200 GiB, you will be billed for the 256 GiB provisioned. The custom size is typically used if you want to provision a 4TiB OS disk. Enter 4095 GiB and the system will provision a 4096TiB disk.

   • Messaging: Toggle this option to On to send a message to users, warning them of potential interruption to service.

     • Delay: From the drop-down list, select the number of minutes delay before sending the message.

     • Message: Enter the message that is displayed to users.

   • Process hosts in groups of: Enter the number of concurrent operations when performing this bulk action.

     Note: Large number of concurrent operations will allow the process to complete quicker but if there is an issue with Azure many hosts may end up in an error state. There is a limit of 100 hosts per group.

   • Number of failures before aborting: Enter the number of failures before the bulk action is aborted.

   • After first group is done, set remaining hosts to drain mode: Select this option to set all hosts that haven't yet been resized/re-imaged to drain mode as soon as the first group of hosts completes the resize/re-image process.

     Note: This will ensure that users who connect to their desktop will only be directed to an already resized/re-imaged host VM.

   • This will ensure that users who connect to their desktop will only be directed to an already resized/re-imaged host VM.

    

6. Once you have entered all the desired information, select OK. See Create a Host Pool for details.

   

   Note: For several of the required parameters, you may filter the available choices by using the Resource Selection Rules. For example, you may filter the VM Size or OS Disk choices for Intel RAM-optimized VMs only. See Resource Selection Rules Management for details.

   The re-image task starts. You can follow the task's progress in the Host Pools Tasks section.

7. Repeat all of these steps for each host pool that uses the specific desktop image.

   Note: If you updated the desktop image, once individual VMs are re-imaged, the changes made to the desktop image are deployed to all users.