Forum Discussion
Requirement to have an on-prem AD
HandA
on-prem AD is not required.
AD requirements:
Option 1: Domain controller that is synchronized with Azure Active Directory. The domain controller can be on-prem or in cloud. To synchronize with Azure Active Directory install Azure Active Directory Connect.
Option 2: Azure AD Domain Services domain in Azure (automatically synced with Azure Active Directory)
MicrosoftYes. This is possible. Josh was correct.
If you want cloud-only, you can either stand up a couple of DC's on VM's in the cloud, or use Azure Active Directory Domain Services, with either synced with Azure AD. Either will work.
Thanks, Mike.
Am I misunderstanding the documentation? Or is the documentation inaccurate or poorly worded?
- Mike Amox
A bit of both? :)
The documentation says:
A Windows Server Active Directory in sync with Azure Active Directory. This can be enabled through:
- Azure AD Connect
- Azure AD Domain Services
The first (AD connect) is on-prem or cloud DC's you build yourself.
The second is telling you can forgo that and use Azure AD Domain Services (and won't have to configure AD connect to boot)
Arguably, this isn't clear enough, as it does leave room for confusion, and doesn't explicitly spell out each option for hybrid and cloud-only.
What about this part?
The Azure virtual machines you create for Windows Virtual Desktop must be:
- https://docs.microsoft.com/microsoft-desktop-optimization-pack/appv-v4/domain-joined-and-non-domain-joined-clients or https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/active-directory/devices/hybrid-azuread-join-plan. Virtual machines can't be Azure AD-joined.
- Mike Amox
Hybrid-join means joining the machine to Active Directory, and then having those device objects synced with Azure AD Connect to Azure AD (with writeback). One of a few ways of accomplishing this is joining the machine to a domain created in Azure Active Directory Domain Services (AAD-DS) - as that is Active Directory as a service, which is automatically synced to an Azure AD that you configure when you set up AAD-DS.
Note: Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) is not the same thing as Azure Active Directory Domain Services (https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/active-directory-ds/).
While it is possible to join Windows 10 machines directly to Azure AD, and there are many great reasons to do that rather than joining or hybrid-joining with an Active Directory domain (particularly in a modern management environment), it is not supported for Windows Virtual Desktop. The Windows Virtual Desktop service specifically requires that the machine is joined to an Active Directory Domain.