Backup for Azure Virtual Desktop Pooled VMs

[lctimcoles]

Hi there,

We have created a specific multi-session Virtual Deskop host and pool for our Sage Account/Payroll 50 users. In order to allow the shared data to be accessed by all users on the host, we have stored it in a managed disk that has been attached to the host,

We have a requirement to back all this data up for DR purposes and we were planing to use the native Backup option for an Azure VM. This seems to make sense to me but in the following FAQ it says that Microsoft only recommend this for a Personal VM. Is this because Pooled VMs don't normally have static data?

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-desktop/faq#how-does-azure-virtual-desktop-handle-ba...

We are aware that there is a risk that by having the managed data disk attached we do loose some resilience options (i.e. we cannot expand the pool to multiple hosts) but we've also discovered that the performance gains from this approach make it an attractive option.

Thanks,

Tim

[#2]

Will this be an active-active scenario or an active-passive scenario? Recommended disaster recovery methods The disaster recovery methods we recommend are: Configure and deploy Azure resources across multiple availability zones. Configure and deploy Azure resources across multiple regions in either active-active or active-passive configurations. These configurations are typically found in shared host pools. For personal host pools with dedicated VMs, replicate VMs using Azure Site Recovery to another region. Configure a separate "disaster recovery" host pool in the secondary region. During a disaster, you can switch users over to the secondary region. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-desktop/disaster-recovery-concepts

[#3]

Okay thanks for the info. Will take a look at that.

I guess what I was asking is why it's okay to use the Azure Backup option for Peronsal VMs but not Pooled. I know I'm not strictly using the Pooled VMs within best practices, but just wondered if there was any reason why the backup wouldn't work on a Pooled VM. I think I'll just give it a try and see if it works.

[#4]

Ictimcoles how did your testing work out?

We are interested in this solution as well for when speedy recovery to the previous day is desirable/necessary and ASR isn't really helpful as it will have replicated the corruption to the alternate zone or region.

Malcom, is there a reason that Microsoft discourages backing up shared AVD pools with Azure Backup?

Thanks

[#5]

@lctimcoles 

Can clarify you would like to backup data or DR AVD environment, with data?

[#6]

We wanted a Backup solution for the data.

[#7]

We used the native backup and it seems to work really well. We also tested the file level restore and we were able to restore individual files from the backed up Managed disk.

[#8]

@lctimcoles 

Pooled session hosts are most of the time not backuped since normally no data is on here and it's faster to deploy a new host rather than to perform a restore.

Also why not just create a storage account and do a drive mapping on your session host?

[#9]

@lctimcoles Thanks for sharing your experience -- we will be setting up backups and testing restores ourselves.

@Johan Vanneuville our reason for not just creating a new host is the number of software installs and the configuration that those need to make the virtual desktops ready for our data analyst users.  Restore time is much lower than the 5 hours it takes us to recreate from scratch.