Add Test VM to existing Host Pool but exclude from autoscale

[Denise Child]

Is there a way to add a Test VM in the existing host pool, have it use the same image as the Prod VM and exclude it from the auto scale settings so that it can be brought up and down as needed manually in Azure?

This would be the equivalent to having a Test Citrix Server in the same Farm and only allowing certain Users to connect.

Our Dev team is wanting to test new versions of an application before deploying to Production and troubleshoot an existing app outside of Production environment.

Otherwise we have to create a whole new Host Pool and use that image for just one machine.

Thanks,

Denise

[#2]

Hi Denise,
This can be achieved by modifying the auto scale Logic app for your AVD deployment.
You need to apply a maintenance tag on the VM that you want to omit from the autoscale app.

$MaintenanceTagName = Read-Host -Prompt "Enter the name of the Tag associated with VMs you don't want to be managed by this scaling tool"

Refer to this article: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-desktop/set-up-scaling-script#create-the-azure-logic-...

Regards,
Mawanda

[#3]

Thank you for the quick response @MawandaH. I will confirm and test this out.

[#4]

Reading the article by using a maintenance tag is like putting the host in Drain Mode. I want to be able to publish applications to just one machine and specific users and not have it use autoscale. Is that possible in the same Pool? It seems like I would have to create just one machine in a new Pool to achieve this solution.