Maintenance Mode / Exclude hosts from 'Auto-scale'

I had the same issue this AM.   I had to pause the Auto-Scale to stop it from reactivating a test host.   For me that was quicker as i didn't need auto scale the rest of the day anyways...

If I understand this correctly, we have 3 features we're discussing that can work together but can also fight each other. (See below for a more detailed explanation of each feature.)

What you're describing, sounds like you're wanting a single button/task/option to exclude a host from autoscale (or pause autoscale) when you are deactivating a host, am I right?

If you had to pick one, which would you find most useful, Troy Casper/George Zajakovski?
Or do you have use-cases where both would be used? 🤔
I'm not saying both aren't a possibility.
But our Product team likes to have options in case the level of difficulty on one way is considerably easier than another. 🙂

From Exclude from Auto-Scale

From Deactivate/Activate

Activate/Deactivate (Drain Mode)

Drain Mode is a native Azure feature that prevents users from being able to be logged-in to a host.
We (Nerdio Manager) call it Activate and Deactivate because it makes more sense to us than "Drain Mode On/Off" 🙂
Because it's a native feature (like Start on Connect), we're limited on what we can do with it.

Auto-Scale

Auto-Scale is one of our "secret sauce" features that helps create margin for you on your customer's AVD environment.
It's a bit complicated, but the high-level way it works is that based on the schedule (either default or alternate) it makes sure the Host Pool Sizing is met based on the scaling logic.

It also has the feature to Pause Autoscale so you can temporarily pause autoscale for a set timeframe and not accidentally forget to turn it back on.

Exclude from Auto-Scale

This feature excludes a host from Auto-Scale so that it will remain in the same state that it's in (if you choose the Exclude from scale IN and OUT operations option)

Hey Dave Stephenson

You’re absolutely right—a single button to place a host in drain mode and simultaneously exclude it from auto-scale would be ideal.

The core issue lies in Nerdio reactivating hosts that were placed in maintenance mode as it tries to meet auto-scale requirements. Auto-scale should indefinitely ignore any hosts in drain mode (deactivated) until they are manually reactivated.

It would also be helpful to have a clear visual indicator, like an icon on the host or changing the power icon to yellow, to show that the host is excluded from auto-scaling and power management because it’s in drain mode.

As an alternative, I considered having an option to spin up additional hosts temporarily when a host is deactivated and excluded from auto-scaling. However, this approach isn’t viable since building new VMs would take significantly longer.

Edit 1: I think NME does the same - it would be good to implement there also.

Edit 2: 'From Deactivate/Activate' menu would be best 

Cheers,

George

George Zajakovski, I agree with Edit #2, from the deactivate menu that pops up would be amazing!

I had it happen this morning again.   If i deactivate a host i don't want it automatically activated again after a few minutes.  If it could be set so that when deactivation automatically excludes it from scale in/out and then in/out re-included when activated would be ideal for me.  Less clicks then above rendering...

If someone is manually deactivating a host is there a scenario where they would want it automatically reactivated by the auto scale process?

I'm loving the conversation we have going on this!
It sounds like that (so far) adding an "Exclude Host from Autoscale" option as part of the Deactivate/Activate task is the most popular.

Great insight, George Zajakovski. It looks like Martijn Van Braeckel asked for a similar thing (Visualize "Exclude from autoscale" – Nerdio Help Center) that hasn't gotten much traction, yet. A visual indicator sounds like an easy way to know there's something different about the host(s).
I'll also loop in our NME Product Team to see if they are seeing a use-case for this feature in their product as well.

Troy Casper, I can't speak for everyone, but most of the time when I'm putting a host in drain mode, it's for a short time so I can force people to get logged-in to a different host. There are a few times where I'll need a host to be deactivated longer, but if that's the case, I'm usually spinning-up a replacement host (and pausing Autoscale) so that I can get the users working as quickly as possible.
As far as the ability to auto exclude from Autoscale, I know there were/are technical/logic issues around that (see Scripted Action to Exclude from Autoscale – Nerdio Help Center), but something may have changed since that original request came through. Hopefully, that has changed, but it's definitely something our Product team can look into as a possibility.

Dave,

It might also be a good idea to include a yellow box with a statement explaining that if you don’t exclude the host from auto-scale, it will automatically reactivate during the next auto-scale run.

Ooo. Awesome call out, George!

I love the idea of a warning so the NMM User is aware of the "consequence" of not enabling the Exclude from Autoscale function during the Deactivate/Activate task.

Hey Everyone, loving this feedback and this is now in our development queue.  While I wouldn't have an ETA on release as this will go through our development process and extensive QA, I would encourage you to follow our release notes HERE.  Than you and Happy Holidays!

Chuck M