Dec 31 2017 10:58 AM
Hello Azure Team,
My challenge:
- i want to provide access to Virtual Desktops (VDI) deployed in Azure
- i have 3 regions: us, emea, apac
- in each region i have 3 shifts (10h each, with 2h overlap), so each region provides 24/7 support
- i need to reinitialize each VDI every 24h (redeploy new Windows Terminal Server to make sure no customer data is there for more then 24h)
What would be the right design ?
I was thinking to use Traffic Manager (DNS loadbalancing) nested profiles:
- global profile
- nested emea profile
- nested us profile
- nested apac profile
Then another layer of nested profile inside each region (3 shifts per region). But the challenge is in overlaps. I need to make sure my shift2 from emea starting 2 hours before shift1 in emea is finished can work correctly. If i will switchover on the beginning of overlap my shift1 will get a new DNS A responses and their RDP session could be redirected to a new VDI (they would lost all data). I was thinking to increase DNS TTL timer to 2 hours - but that looks like a can of worms (i would not have failover if specific VDI is going down).
Another option is not to do DNS loadbalancing but application Load Balancing (using LoadBalancer). But i do face similar challenges - how to plan overlapping shifts (each region is having all 3 shifts).
I would like to use Load Balancing with sticky option - this way existing RDP sessions would be redirected to the same VDI, at the beginning of the overlap i would change the weight of the VDI for all new sessions to be redirected to a new VDI, while old sessions would stick with old VDI. Would that work ?
Any recommendations ?
Thanks,
Michal
Jan 02 2018 10:39 AM
Have you investigated WSMAN https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.wsman.management/providers/wsman-provid...
Jan 02 2018 10:44 PM
Hi Cliff,
Thank you - that is interesting option. It would not work for me (i need to destroy VM, not to manage it centrally/clear home folders). To solve my problem i am also considering other set of solutions, for virtual desktops: not to use Windows Terminal Server but Linux with LXC containers and x11 apps. This way i will have separation on container level and would not have to destroy the machine (but container instead).
Would love to see similar solution from Microsoft.
Thanks,
Michal