Microsoft has released a tool to make it easy for organizations to manage their Windows Virtual Desktop environments. Called Azure Monitor, Microsoft says the tool is now generally available from this week.
The big benefit of Azure Monitor for Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) is the ability to gain betting insights into virtual desktop environments.
Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) allows users to create a virtualization of Windows 7, Windows 10, Office 365 ProPlus apps and third-party apps. With WVD, customers receive remote desktop sessions by running virtualizations in Azure virtual machines.
While WVD provides a secure way to run Windows on the cloud, it has some complex components. The aim of Azure Monitor is to make the complexities of the service less of a problem.
“With Azure Monitor for Windows Virtual Desktop, you can find and troubleshoot problems in the deployment, view the status and health of host pools, diagnose user feedback and understand resource utilization,” Microsoft’s announcement points out.
Improvements
As Azure Monitor moves to general availability, it comes with the following improvements over the preview version:
- Improved data collection and new guidance to help you optimize for cost
- Updated setup experience with easier UI, expanded support for VM set-up, automated Windows Event Log setup, and more
- Relocated Windows Virtual Desktop agent warnings and errors at the top of the Host Diagnostics page to help you prioritize issues with the highest impact
- Accessibility enhancements
- Workbook versioning: GA release is Version 1.0.0
Azure Monitor is not free, so it’s worth checking out Microsoft’s pricing page here. The company recommends customers start with pay-a-you-go pricing and adjust to scale once more usage information is known.
Azure Monitor only works with the latest version of Windows Virtual Desktop of newer. Interestingly, Microsoft does not specifically say which version this is.
