Overview of Desktop Images

Applies to: Nerdio Manager for MSP (NMM)

Overview

The "Desktop Images" module allows you to manage desktop images in your NMM customer accounts. You can view a list of desktop images and perform critical operations such as "Power on", "Power off & set as image", "Restart", "Delete" images, "Add from Azure VM" or "Add images from Azure library".

The screenshot below highlights various aspects of "Desktop images" module:

To view more options on a specific desktop image, simply expand the options next to it:

You can either "Power on" / "Power off", "Restart" or "Delete" an existing image from this dropdown control. In the first column you will see the name of the image and an icon representing if the image is powered ON or OFF:

A green icon indicates the server is up and running
A red icon indicates the server has been shutdown

Add an image from an existing VM

Click the "Add from Azure VM" button:

and enter the required details:

Name: Type a name for your image (Note: This is a mandatory field)

Description: Type a short description for your image

Network: Select network that VM will be connected to. The selected network will also determine the Azure region of the VM.

OS: Select the OS installed on the source VM being imported. EVD = Enterprise Virtual Desktop (aka Windows 10 multi-session).

VM SIZE: Select size of the Desktop Image VM. This does not impact the size of session host VMs created based on this Desktop Image in the future.

OS SIZE: Select OS Disk type and size. This does not impact the OS Disk type of session host VMs created based on this Desktop Image in the future.

Resource Group: Select resource group that will contain the VM.

Create image VM as Gen2: By default, desktop image VMs are created as Gen1. Learn more about differences between Gen1 and Gen2 VMs

Join to AD: Join the image VM to Active Directory

Nerdio Tip NMM doesn't allow you to create desktop images that are joined to Azure Active Directory (Azure AD).

Do not create image object: Create Desktop Image VM only but do not create an image object.
You will need to create the image object by clicking the "Power off and set as image" button after the VM is created before this Desktop Image can be used for session host creation. Skipping image creation allows for changes to be made to the VM before it is converted to an image.

Enable time zone redirection: Enabling time zone redirection on the image allows each user to see their local device's timezone inside of their AVD desktop session.

Set time zone: Set the time zone on the image VM

Uninstall FSLogix app: Use this option if FSLogix app is already installed in the base image and you want to remove it in order to allow Nerdio Manager to manage FSLogix.

Uninstall AVD agent: Use this option if you’re creating an image from an existing AVD session host where the AVD agent has been previously installed.

Provide custom credentials for a local administrator user: Enable this option to specify local admin credentials to be created on the image VM

Click OK to create the image VM from your source os disk.

Add an Image from the Azure library

Click "Add from Azure library" button and enter the required details

Name: Type a name for your image (Note: This is a mandatory field)

Description: Type a short description for your image

Network: Select network that VM will be connected to. The selected network will also determine the Azure region of the VM.

Azure Image: Select Azure Marketplace Library image based on Windows operating system supported by AVD. EVD = Enterprise Virtual Desktop (aka Windows 10 multi-session). Office ProPlus contains a pre-installed Office 365 version of ProPlus that will be activated as users with appropriate licensing log into the desktop.

VM SIZE: Select size of the Desktop Image VM. This does not impact the size of session host VMs created based on this Desktop Image in the future.

OS SIZE: Select OS Disk type and size. This does not impact the OS Disk type of session host VMs created based on this Desktop Image in the future.

Resource Group: Select resource group that will contain the VM.

Join to AD: Join the image VM to Active Directory

Enable time zone redirection: Enabling time zone redirection on the image allows each user to see their local device's timezone inside of their AVD desktop session.

Set time zone: Set the time zone on the image VM

Provide custom credentials for a local administrator user: Enable this option to specify local admin credentials to be created on the image VM

Click OK to create the image VM.

Note: When desktop images are powered OFF, NMM automatically changes the OS disk configuration to standard HDD which is the most cost-effective storage option available. When they are powered back ON from the NMM portal, the OS disk size is reverted back to its original configuration.

Exploring tasks related to desktop images

The "Desktop images tasks" section captures an audit trail of all operations performed on desktop images:

You can search for tasks based on name/resource name or filter tasks based on status. You can refresh tasks by clicking the "refresh" icon or download them as JSON by clicking on the "download" icon:

For each task, you can perform the following operations:

Details: View job details of each task as shown below:

Hide: Hide a specific task from the UI
Restart: Restart a task if in error.

Staging images at account level

To enable image staging for your desktop images, log into your account and from the main menu , select "Desktop Images" tab. Select a desktop image say "testclonesp3". You will notice that the current active version of the desktop image is 1.0.0 (northcentralus) as shown below:

Expand the "Power on" drop-down on the selected image "clonetestsp3". On "Set as image" pop-up select "Stage new image as inactive" checkbox:

Note:

Selecting this option will create the new image but NMM will keep it as inactive with an older version number. To start using this version you will need to manually make this image have the highest version in SIG. This can be done by deleting the existing image version in the Azure portal.
When you select the "Set new image as inactive" checkbox, the "Save current image as a backup" checkbox also gets selected by default.
The "Save current image as a backup" option will create a copy of the current image and retain it for a specified duration. This will provide an option to "restore" the image and revert any changes, in case of any issues.

When you click "OK" button, "Power off & set as image" task will be triggered. You can view the status of the task under "Desktop Images tasks" section. The following set of tasks are executed automatically:

You will be able to view two versions of desktop image clonetestsp3; the current active version 1.0.0 and the staged inactive version 2.0.0 as shown below: