Enable Azure Virtual Desktop for a Modern Work account

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Nerdio Product Support

This article provides steps to enable Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) in Nerdio Manager for customers transitioning from a Modern Work-only setup.

Note

Enabling AVD in Nerdio Manager automatically triggers per-user billing for any user assigned to a host pool. For details on AVD billing, contact your Partner Success Manager.

Prerequisites

Ensure the following prerequisites are met:

  • An Azure subscription exists in the customer’s Azure tenant.

  • (Optional) The company has a defined naming scheme. For details, see Define your naming convention.

Step 1: Link an Azure subscription

You can link multiple Azure subscriptions to an account. This allows you to create VMs, desktop images, Azure Files shares, and more, in any of the linked Azure subscriptions. For example, you can create desktop images in various resource groups that are associated with different subscriptions, thus allocating the costs to those subscriptions.

Note

  • You need an Entra ID user that has Global Administrator and Subscription Owner roles.

  • You can only link Azure subscriptions that the Entra ID user account has the required permission to.

  • You can only link Azure subscriptions that are part of the same customer tenant.

To link an Azure subscription to an account:

  1. At the Account level, navigate to Settings > Azure.

  2. In the Primary Entra ID tenant area, under Azure subscriptions, select Link.

  3. Enter the following information:

    • Select Connect and sign in as the Entra ID user with Global Administrator and Subscription Owner roles.

    • Select subscription: From the drop-down list, select the subscription.

      Note

      If you see the message "These resource providers must be registered in the subscription," register them before you proceed.

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

    The Azure subscription is linked to the account.

Step 2: Link a resource group

Once you added an Azure subscription, the next step is to link a resource group. You can either create a new resource group and link it, or link an existing resource group.

To create and link a resource group:

  1. At the account level, navigate to Settings > Azure.

  2. In the Linked Resource Groups area, a list of existing linked resource groups is displayed for each Azure subscription.

  3. Select Create and link.

  4. Enter the following information:

    • Azure subscription: From the drop-down list, select the Azure subscription.

    • Location: From the drop-down list, select the Azure region where you want to create your resource group.

    • Resource group name: Type the resource group name.

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

Note

You can create resource groups under all available Azure subscriptions in your account and link them to your customer account.

To link an existing resource group:

  1. At the account level, navigate to Settings > Azure.

  2. In the Linked Resource Groups area, a list of existing linked resource groups is displayed for each Azure subscription.

  3. Select Link.

  4. Enter the following information:

    • Select resource group: From the drop-down list, select the resource group.

  5. Select OK.

Note

  • You can link resource groups under all available Azure subscriptions in your account.

  • You can also perform the following operations on existing linked resource groups:

    • re-link: Select this option to reestablish the link between an existing linked resource group and your account.

    • set as default: Select this option to mark an existing linked resource group as default.

    • unlink: Select this option to unlink an existing linked resource group from your account. The unlink operation does not remove any Azure objects from the resource group. There must be no session host VMs or desktop images in this resource group to unlink it.

Step 3: Link a network

Once you have at least one resource group linked in Nerdio Manager, you can proceed with linking an Azure network.

You can either create a new network, and then link it, or link an existing network.

To create a VNet:

  1. At the account level, navigate to Azure > Network > VNet.

  2. Select Add VNet.

  3. Enter the following information:

    • Name: Type the name of the VNet.

      Note

      The name must be between 2 and 80 characters. The name can contain letters, numbers, underscores, periods, and hyphens. The name must begin and end with a letter or a number.

    • Region: From the drop-down list, select the Azure region for the VNet.

    • Resource Group: From the drop-down list, select a linked resource group.

      Note

      You can link to additional resource groups from Settings > Azure > Linked resource groups.

    • Address Space: Type the IPv4 address space in CIDR notation. At least one address space is required.

    • Subnet: Type the name for subnet and CIDR block. At least one subnet is required.

    • Additional Address Space: Select Add address space to add another non-overlapping address range for this VNet.

    • Custom DNS Servers: Select this option to use custom DNS servers. Unselect this option to use Azure's DNS servers.

      • Select Add custom DNS server to specify the custom DNS servers.

  4. Once you have entered all the desired information, select Save.

For more details, see Create a VNet.

To link an existing network:

  1. At the Account level, navigate to Settings > Azure.

  2. In the Linked networks area, select Link.

  3. In the Link network dialog box, from the drop-down list, select the network you wish to link.

  4. Select OK.

Step 3: Enable AVD functionality

Now that the Azure subscription, resource group(s), and network(s) are linked in Nerdio Manager, the last step is to enable the AVD functionality.

To enable AVD:

  1. At the Account level, navigate to Settings > Integrations.

  2. In the Desktop deployment model area, select the Azure Virtual Desktop option.

  3. In the confirmation dialog box, select OK.

Next steps

Now you’re ready to start creating an AVD environment for your customers. For this, complete the following steps:

  1. Add a desktop image. For details, see Overview of Desktop Images.

  2. Create a host pool. For details, see Create a Host Pool.

  3. Set the host pool properties. For details, see Overview of Host Pools.

  4. Test the environment.

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