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AVD Monitoring: An Easy Step-By-Step Approach

October 5, 2022 By Andy Milford Leave a Comment

In need of monitoring for Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD)? We’ve got good news for you.

Remote Desktop Commander Suite and Remote Desktop Canary support monitoring multiple aspects of your AVD deployment.

We wrote this quick guide to assist you with setting up monitoring for your AVD environment via an easy, step-by-step approach . . .

Step 1: Provision a VM inside your AVD tenant or Azure resource group to run our software.

You may already have a VM deployed with management and monitoring tools on it, or you may wish to deploy a new one. All of our solutions work perfectly well on Server 2012 R2, Server 2016, Server 2019, Server 2022 or on Windows 10 Enterprise multi-session (EVD). You can always elect to place this VM in its own separate host pool, and then publish it as a desktop to your help desk and admin team so they can connect in and run tools when needed via the Azure Virtual Desktop client.

The key thing to remember is that this VM should be located on the same VNet and joined to the same Active Directory + Azure Active Directory domain as the AVD hosts you will be monitoring.

Step 2: Install SQL Server Express or use Azure SQL to store the AVD monitoring data collected by our solutions.

If you have a very small AVD deployment, with 3 or fewer hosts, you can most likely install SQL Server Express on the VM you created in Step 1 above. The Remote Desktop Commander Suite installer will prompt to do this for you automatically.

If you have a larger AVD deployment, you should leverage an Azure SQL database to store the AVD monitoring data instead. We find the most cost effective way to utilize Azure SQL is to opt for a single database, per-DTU model (as opposed to vCore). Using this approach, Azure SQL database costs for 90% of our customers have in the past run somewhere between $30 and $150 USD per month, depending on the number of AVD hosts they are monitoring. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to provision Azure SQL for our solutions.

To help defray these infrastructure costs for our AVD customers, we offer very cost effective pricing for the Remote Desktop Commander Suite and Complete AVD Monitoring and Management Bundle. Be sure to take a look.

Step 3: Define a service account in your domain for monitoring, and make Windows firewall and registry adjustments.

You may need to make a few adjustments on your Azure Virtual Desktop hosts to allow them to be monitored correctly, especially if they are running Windows 10 Enterprise multi-session. Also, you might decide to define a GPO in your Active Directory that adjusts these settings for you.

Step 4: Install the Remote Desktop Commander Suite and Remote Desktop Canary to the VM.

Install the Remote Desktop Commander Suite on the VM you created in Step 1. Link it to SQL Server Express or Azure SQL, and set its service account.

Then, add the AVD hosts via the Remote Desktop Commander Configuration Tool, using the Import From AVD Broker wizard.

Optionally, if you would like to collect rich, detailed information on performance per user session and per application, install the agent service on each AVD host.

Importing WVD hosts
Importing AVD hosts into RDPSoft solutions is a snap.

Next, install our Remote Desktop Canary solution on the same VM. Set up a synthetic login test workflow against one of your AVD hosts, then clone that workflow against the rest of your AVD hosts.

Now, Remote Desktop Canary can begin to continuously monitor your AVD hosts, verifying their responsiveness all the way through the login sequence into the desktop presentation. In AVD (as compared to RDS), Microsoft now handles the infrastructure roles of the Gateway and Broker. This means that determining login problems, slow login times, and user profile/black screen issues requires a close eye on the AVD hosts themselves.

Step 5 – Launch your AVD client, connect to the VM, and prepare to be amazed!

Again, note that you are connecting to the VM you created in Step 1 above.

And now, you can marvel at the rich analytics and AVD monitoring tools available at your fingertips.

Track user productivity in AVD via AVD user activity monitoring
Test RDP Connectivity on Multiple WVD Hosts At Once
Remote Desktop Canary can perform a routine RDP connectivity check on multiple AVD hosts at once.

Easy, huh? And, if you got stuck anywhere in this process or have questions about your new monitoring capabilities, just reach out. We’re happy to help.

Updated: December 2022.

Filed Under: Azure Virtual Desktop Tagged With: avd, avd host monitoring, avd login times, avd monitoring, avd reporting, avd user activity, avd user activity monitoring, azure virtual desktop, azure virtual desktop monitoring

About Andy Milford

Andy Milford is the CEO and Founder of RDPSoft, and is a Microsoft MVP in the Enterprise Mobility / Remote Desktop Services area. Prior to starting RDPSoft, Andy was the CEO and Founder of Dorian Software, a log management company acquired by Ipswitch in late 2009. He loves creating easy-to-use yet powerful software solutions for SMBs and emerging enterprise companies.

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From the RDPSoft Blog

  • Remote Desktop Commander v6.5 Now Available!
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