Request - Refresh image from Azure Marketplace

As an MSP I want to have the option that my images are always based on the latest Azure Marketplace images.

From a MSP perspective I would like to have the option to select the "Refresh image from Azure Marketplace" for the Global Images. Similar as available in "Nerdio Manager for Enterprise".
Refresh Desktop Images from the Azure Marketplace – Nerdio Manager for Enterprise (zendesk.com)

From a MSP Account perspective I would like to have the options to select either "Refresh image from Azure Marketplace" or "Refresh image from Global Image".

Context: all adjustments to our images are always fully scripted via scripted actions, no actions are executed on the images manually

What we envision is the following process:

  • We create a global image, the image should be recreated from scratch every month, from a Azure Marketplace image.
  • The global image set to be staged, a VM is deployed to validate the global image
  • After validation the staged image is set to active.
  • After being set to active the global  image is made available to the customer accounts.
  • Within the customer account it should be set to “staged”.
  • Within the customer account two images should exist, one production (based on the active global image) and one acceptance (based on the staged global image).
  • On a schedule the customer image should be fully recreated from the “fresh” global (staged) image. The new global image should be taken, scripted actions are to be executed with custom scripts for app installations e.d. This should result in a new staged image.
  • Within the customer account two hostpools should exist, one production and one acceptance.
    The production hostpool should be linked to active production image,
    The acceptance hostpool should be linked to staged image,
  • By reimaging the acceptance hostpool the staged image is made available to the acceptance users.
  • After acceptance of the updated image, the staged image is to be set as active.
    The hostpools in production should then be reimaged based on the updated image.
  • Except for the acceptance testing , the steps in this process should be automated or schedule as much as possible.
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Comments (4 comments)

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DStephenson

We did use only the Azure Images and had success with deploying all Software/Settings with Intune/Scripted Actions.

Our only "issue" with deploying hosts this way was the ~4hour turnaround to have the host finish provisioning.

What you're proposing sounds great!

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Nerdio Support

Hi John Eijgensteijn. I really appreciate your level of detail in your suggestion. Some parts will be easier to implement compared to others, but I understand the value that this full image lifecycle management would bring. I've included your suggestions to an already existing backlog item we have.

The only question I currently have is, is there a specific reason why you would want to refresh the image from the marketplace every month. I understand doing this for a OS feature update or when resolving specific issues with the image, but I would like to understand your use case better. Is it about having the latest Windows quality updates as well?

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John Eijgensteijn

Nerdio Support we want to ensure that we always use a fresh market place image as the base of our images. This prevent the inheritance of garbage which might be added to the image in one way or another. By using the latest marketplace image we can prevent that we need to create complex clean-up scripts to remove inherited software packages. This way we can focus on fresh build scenario's reducing complexity and technical debt.

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Michel van Eeuwen

Great to find out that this feature is implemented in NMM version 4.6.0. Thanks for you effort to help us make things easier:-)

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