Assign Azure Virtual Desktop’s Multiple Personal Desktops for Single Users

In today’s dynamic work environment, the lines between roles and responsibilities are increasingly blurred. Many professionals find themselves context-switching frequently, needing distinct environments for different tasks – a developer moving between frontend and backend, a tester shifting from staging to production, or a consultant managing multiple client engagements. Previously, managing these diverse needs within a single Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) environment could be cumbersome.

The good news is that Azure Virtual Desktop has stepped up to the challenge with a game-changing feature: multiple personal desktops for a single user. This capability, now generally available, empowers users with unparalleled flexibility, allowing them to assign and access more than one personal desktop within a single host pool. This isn’t just a minor update; it’s a significant leap forward in optimizing productivity and streamlining complex workflows.

Why Multiple Personal Desktops? The Use Cases Unpacked

The value proposition of multiple personal desktops extends across a wide spectrum of professional scenarios. Let’s delve into some key use cases that highlight the power of this new feature:

1. Developer Agility: Frontend vs. Backend Isolation

Imagine a full-stack developer. Their frontend work might require specific SDKs, browser extensions, and development tools tailored for UI/UX. Their backend tasks, on the other hand, might demand different compilers, database clients, and server-side frameworks. Trying to cram all these disparate tools onto a single desktop often leads to:

• Tool Clashes: Conflicting versions of libraries or dependencies.
• Performance Degradation: A heavily loaded OS with too many background processes.
• Security Risks: Unnecessary attack surface by installing tools not needed for a specific role.

With multiple personal desktops, this developer can have a dedicated “Frontend Dev” desktop and a “Backend Dev” desktop, each meticulously configured for its specific purpose. This isolation enhances stability, improves performance, and reduces troubleshooting time.

2. Testing and Production Segregation: A Shield Against Errors

For QA engineers and DevOps teams, the distinction between testing and production environments is paramount. Accidental modifications or misconfigurations in a live production system can have severe consequences. By assigning a “Test Environment” desktop and a “Production Environment” desktop, users can:

• Prevent Accidental Deployment: A clear visual and functional separation minimizes the risk of deploying unfinished code or making unauthorized changes to production.
• Maintain Data Integrity: Testing activities remain confined to the test environment, safeguarding sensitive production data.
• Streamline Troubleshooting: If an issue arises, the environment where it occurred is immediately clear, simplifying diagnosis.

3. Consultant and Client Management: Dedicated Workspaces

Consultants often juggle multiple clients, each with their own unique applications, data, and security requirements. Traditionally, this might involve using different physical machines, complex virtual machine setups on a local device, or constantly reconfiguring a single environment. Multiple personal desktops offer a far more elegant solution:

• Client A Desktop: Tailored with specific client applications, VPNs, and data access.
• Client B Desktop: A completely separate environment for another client’s tools and data.
• Internal Tools Desktop: For the consultant’s own administrative tasks and internal systems.

This approach ensures data separation, adherence to client-specific policies, and eliminates the overhead of constant environment switching.

4. Role-Based Access and Security: Granular Control

Beyond specific job functions, multiple desktops can be leveraged for enhanced security and compliance. A user might have:

• High-Security Desktop: For sensitive tasks requiring stringent access controls, fewer installed applications, and enhanced monitoring.
• General Productivity Desktop: For everyday tasks with a broader set of applications.

This allows organizations to enforce more granular security policies, limiting the attack surface for critical operations.

How it Works: The Underlying Mechanics

At its core, this feature leverages the existing personal host pool model within AVD. The key differentiator is the ability to associate multiple desktop objects with a single user principal. When a user connects to the AVD workspace, they will now see multiple available personal desktops and can choose which one to launch. Each desktop maintains its own persistent state, allowing users to pick up exactly where they left off in any of their assigned environments.

Step-by-Step Tutorial: Implementing Multiple Personal Desktops with PowerShell

Let’s walk through the process of configuring multiple personal desktops for a single user using Azure . This assumes you already have an AVD host pool provisioned.

Prerequisites:

• An existing Azure Virtual Desktop personal host pool.
• At least two session hosts registered to that host pool.
• Azure module installed and connected to your Azure subscription.

Step 1: Connect to Azure and Select Subscription

First, ensure you’re connected to your Azure subscription.

Connect-AzAccount

# Select your subscription if you have multiple

# Select-AzSubscription -SubscriptionName “Your Subscription Name”

Step 2: Get Your Existing Host Pool and User Information

You’ll need the details of your host pool and the user you wish to assign multiple desktops to.

# Define your resource group and host pool name

Step 3: Identify Your Session Hosts

You need at least two session hosts available in your personal host pool to assign multiple desktops.

Make a note of the names of two available session hosts that are not currently assigned to the user in question. For this example, let’s assume we have sessionhost1.yourdomain.com and sessionhost2.yourdomain.com.

Step 4: Assign the First Personal Desktop to the User

If the user doesn’t already have a personal desktop assigned, you’ll assign the first one.

# Assign the first session host to the user

Step 5: Assign the Second Personal Desktop to the Same User

Now, for the magic! Assign a second session host from the same host pool to the same user.

# Assign the second session host to the same user

Step 6: Verify the Assignments

You can verify that both session hosts are now assigned to the same user.

You should see both sessionhost1.yourdomain.com and sessionhost2.yourdomain.com listed with user1@yourdomain.com as their AssignedUserPrincipalName.

User Experience: What the User Sees

Once configured, when user1@yourdomain.com logs into their Azure Virtual Desktop workspace (via the web client, Windows client, or other supported clients), they will now see two distinct personal desktops available to them. Each desktop will typically be represented by its session host name, allowing the user to identify and launch the specific environment they need easily.

For instance, they might see:

• sessionhost1.yourdomain.com (Personal Desktop)
• sessionhost2.yourdomain.com (Personal Desktop)

The user can then launch either desktop, and each will present a persistent environment, retaining its state independently.

Important Considerations and Best Practices

While multiple personal desktops offer incredible flexibility, it’s crucial to keep a few best practices in mind:

1. Naming Conventions: Implement clear naming conventions for your session hosts and, if possible, for the user’s perception of their desktops. This helps users quickly identify which desktop serves which purpose (e.g., “Dev-Frontend,” “Dev-Backend,” “Test-Env,” “Prod-Env”).
2. Resource Management: Each personal desktop consumes resources. Ensure your underlying infrastructure (VM sizes, storage, networking) is adequate to support the concurrent usage patterns of users with multiple desktops.
3. Application Installation Strategy: Decide whether applications are installed directly on each desktop or streamed via technologies like MSIX App Attach. For disparate environments, direct installation might be simpler, but MSIX App Attach can offer more centralized management.
4. User Training: Educate your users on how to identify and utilize their multiple personal desktops effectively.
5. Monitoring and Optimization: Regularly monitor the performance and resource utilization of your session hosts to ensure a smooth user experience.

The Future of Personalized Workspaces

The introduction of multiple personal desktops for single users in Azure Virtual Desktop is more than just a new feature; it’s a testament to Microsoft’s commitment to delivering highly personalized and efficient virtualized experiences.