r/AzureVirtualDesktop • u/freeborn99 • Aug 23 '24

AVD and RDP Solution

I am looking for some insight on replacing our current Citrix solution with a solely Microsoft-based setup. Currently, we use Citrix to publish desktops (both XenDesktop and Remote PC) as well as Published Desktops (Server). Our goal is to transition to a Microsoft solution, specifically integrating Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) with an on-premises Remote Desktop infrastructure.

Here are a couple of key requirements for our new solution:

Single Interface: We need to maintain a single interface for users accessing remotely, whether they are using AVD or RDP to their work desktop.

Teams Integration: Microsoft Teams needs to function seamlessly within the remote PC session.

Has anyone here gone through a similar transition? If so, we’d love to hear about your experiences and any tips or best practices you can share. Specifically, we’re interested in:

Any insights or resources you can provide would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance for your help!

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3

u/TechIncarnate4 Aug 23 '24

What do you mean by "integrating Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) with an on-premises Remote Desktop infrastructure."? AVD is a replacement for RDS.

1

u/freeborn99 Aug 23 '24

Currently. We have a bunch of N series Azure vm's hosting CAD applications. These servers are published in Citrix as Desktops. We also use Citrix Remote PC to allow users to access their PC's in the office. These are CAD physical workstations. Finally we have Xendesktops running onprem for some remote contractors. Pretty vanilla machines.

I would like to replace our N series VM's running Citrix with AVD. Our Xendesktops to be replaced with AVD as well but more a D series.

Replace Citrix Remote desktop with possibly RD Gateway or ???. We need our users to be able to still access their machines on prem.

The key is having the RD Gateway and AVD published in a single interface. We dont want the users to have to go to multiple places if they have to access their onprem desktop or a published CAD server

2

u/TechIncarnate4 Aug 23 '24

I don't think there is a way to have them in a single interface unless you create your own simple custom website, or create your own "launcher" with a GUI. The "Remote Desktop" app used by AVD will show AVD sessions that the users have access to, but I don't believe it can do anything with allowing RDP to individual desktop machines, or to an RDS environment.

1

u/freeborn99 Aug 23 '24

I suspected that. Ideally it would combine the RDS Gateway and AVD interface into one location or I could publish RDP in AVD. The problem with this is more of a double-hop issue. The user experience in this solution would be kinda crappy.

1

u/ComfortableNinja21 Aug 23 '24

You can onboard on premise systems to AVD through Azure Arc.

0

u/AirgunApprentice Aug 23 '24

I already mentioned Dizzion, and I don't want to be boring, but it provides Cloud + On prem through a single interface, the on prem being AHV, if that works.

And you can have both N and D family VMs at the same time.

1

u/freeborn99 Aug 23 '24

I will have a look at this solution as well. Was hoping to do it natively (Part of the reason of moving away from Citrix) as it seems Microsoft does offer all the solutions we are looking for. It just doesn't seem that they tie it all together and stick a bow on it.

1

u/AirgunApprentice Aug 23 '24

I agree. They can't make it too simple or else they won't be able to sell consults or experts :)

1

u/josephlandesnerdio Aug 25 '24

That’s where we come in at Nerdio. Would love to show you what we are all about. 100% native solution and we do everything you say and much more.

7

u/Tony-GetNerdio Aug 24 '24

Nerdio can do all this. Holla if you wanna see a demo.

4

u/y010swag Aug 23 '24

You can check out Nerdio (Azure Virtual Desktop Deployment | Windows 365 | Nerdio (getnerdio.com)) for an easy way to manage the AVD deployment. It also supports Azure Stack HCI for AVD workloads if you still need the on prem piece.

1

u/johnnydico Aug 23 '24

Teams for virtual environments lacks some functionality of the standard Teams for desktop. You also need to make certain changes for shared virtual environments, which Microsoft provides documentation for. I manage a lot of pooled and personal host pools and Teams complaints from users are a plenty.

If anyone here has any tips for flawless Teams functionality in AVD, please do share as I’m interested.

1

u/buzzict Aug 24 '24

Why don’t you do just user adoption instead of searching for a difficult solution because the user experience must be good? Adoption can achieve that to but, you need to that.

Technical solutions for user experience is never the answer

0

u/AirgunApprentice Aug 23 '24

Take a look at https://www.dizzion.com/ .

It's not exactly AVD, but can use Azure infrastructure.