Question around joining Windows Server VMs to Azure AD

mrizzi2 

Hi, Mass.

You might want to consider Azure Active Directory Domain Services (AAD DS), rather than just the baseline Azure Active Directory (AAD). It's not exactly what you asked for in being a singular replacement using AAD (read the commentary about one-way replication and that the identities are separate to AAD), but it will allow you to achieve your stated goal of not running Active Directory on-premise.

This will allow you to run the infrastructure you quoted (noting RDS in particular) without having to actually run Active Directory on-premise.

There are more options - technical and commercial, but in the interest of starting out simple, AAD DS may be worth your while looking into.

Edited to include the following article that specifically discusses RDS in an AAD DS context:

Azure AD Domain Services and Remote Desktop Services | Microsoft Docs

Cheers,

Lain