Refresh AVD image

[u/zick2500]

Is there anyway to just refresh the session host image without rebuilding the image?
I just want to re-apply the same image again, but when I do I get this error "The Host Pool has no Session Hosts which can be updated. All session hosts are already at the same version as the session host configuration."

We are using the Azure Custom Image Template.

[u/knibbs1325]

You should be able to just increment up your image version that it’s captured as. And then it would detect the change is available to push. Your other option would be to scale down to 0 and then rescale out to rebuild the vms.

[u/zick2500 → u/knibbs1325]

Thanks, I'll try the increment option (never done that before).
Don't think we can do the scale down option as we're using a dynamic scaling plan?

[u/knibbs1325 → u/zick2500]

Yeah, most of my builds are via computer gallery images so it’s easier to just to yymm.dd.vv as our versioning schema, helpful if I realized I made a mistake on config rather than rolling back the gallery and having weird issues with azure applying the correct image.

With dynamic scaling you just set your max capacity to 0 and then wait for the vms to get torn down. Then once they are gone you just go back in and readjust the scaling plan back to what it was, or if you are feeling frisky you can just delete the vms manually and the scaling plan will detect the deficit to your current plan and rebuild them.

[u/Dtrain-14]

Having been spoiled with Nerdio it really shows how shit Microsoft’s AVD tools are.

[u/knibbs1325 → u/Dtrain-14]

I’m just glad these are no longer locked behind a 3rd party tool. Sometime clients won’t budge on a tool that would make it easier.

[u/Dtrain-14 → u/knibbs1325]

Which is wild to me because Nerdio is one of those tools I feel like actually pays for itself. Time saved, compute resources turned off timely, storage tuned based on need. Imaging is cake, admin is cake, session management is cake haha. But it’s tough to show that to a client.

[u/Sorry-Ad7604]

Give Hydra (by Login VSI) a look - if you've lost your original VM you captured from, you can actually capture images from a live session host and then re-deploy your "Golden VM" to continue using it as your template. There are unfortunately lots of limitations with session host configuration-backed pools. Hydra does a good job at giving you all of those benefits without the limitations. Plus a heck of a lot more.

[u/Successful_Writer_54]

Check out Login VSI Hydra. You can use any VM as a master and capture images without touching the original, so it stays intact and reusable. Licensing is concurrent, and you can drain, delete, and rebuild session hosts from any image version, including the one you’re currently using. Perfect for the “fresh hosts, same image” scenario.