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Enable Azure Virtual Desktop and add a provider

Azure Virtual Desktop integration must first be enabled in the RAS Farm. This can be done from two places in the RAS Console:

  • Using the Deploy Azure Virtual Desktop wizard in the Start category.
  • By going to Farm > Site > Settings and selecting the Features tab.

The instructions below are for enabling and deploying Azure Virtual Desktop from the Start category. The Features tab in Site > Settings has the same elements as the Enable Feature page described below.

Note: If you haven't enabled Azure Virtual Desktop in the RAS Farm yet, the wizard pages will open in the order described below. If Azure Virtual Desktop is already enabled (e.g. you ran the wizard before or enabled Azure Virtual Desktop from Site settings), the first two pages will be skipped and the first page you'll see is Add Azure Virtual Desktop Provider where you need to enter the provider information.

To begin the deployment:

  1. In the Parallels RAS Console, select the Start category and launch the Deploy Azure Virtual Desktop wizard.
  2. System and user requirements: On the first page, read system and user requirements. Click a link at the bottom of the page to read a Parallels KB article for more information. Click Next.
  3. Enable Feature: This page allows you to enable Azure Virtual Desktop in the RAS Farm. First, select where to store the Azure Virtual Desktop agent and bootloader from the following options:
    • Publishing Agent: Store on the RAS Publishing Agent server.
    • Network share: Specify or select a network share.
  4. Click the Download agent and bootloader button. Wait for the download to complete and examine the Status section, which should indicate "Available" and display the version number. When a new version of the Azure Virtual Desktop agent is available, "Needs update" is shown so new servers deployed from Parallels RAS will use the updated version.
  5. The Client feature set selection specifies which client features will be available when you open a published resource in Parallels Client. Select from the following options:
    • Standard: Standard feature set. This is identical to opening and running a published resource using the Microsoft Windows Desktop client, also known as Remote Desktop (MSRDC) client, which is the client used to access apps and desktops from Azure Virtual Desktop.
    • Advanced: This option also uses the Windows Desktop client but adds advanced Parallels Client features, such as RAS Universal Printing and Scanning, URL redirection, drag and drop, and others.
    • Advanced with fallback: This option first tries to open a published resource using the Advanced feature set. If Advanced doesn't work for any reason, it will try to open the resource using the Standard option.
  6. This completes the task of enabling Azure Virtual Desktop in the RAS Farm. Click Next to advance to the next page.
  7. Add Azure Virtual Desktop Provider: On this page you need to specify your Microsoft Azure Tenant ID, Subscription ID, Application ID, and a secret key. This is similar to setting up Microsoft Azure as a VDI provider in Parallels RAS. For the explanation of how to specify these properties, please see Add Microsoft Azure as a VDI provider. Please note that under subscription details, URIs/URLs may be edited during creation of a provider. The Feed URL setting, which by default is https://rdweb.wvd.microsoft.com/api/arm/feeddiscovery, may also be edited once an Azure Virtual Desktop provider is created.
  8. Click Next, review the summary and click Finish. Note that changing Microsoft Azure app permissions after a provider is created may require a restart of the Parallels RAS redundancy service so new permissions are loaded and used.

This completes the first wizard in the series. On the last page, the Launch Azure Virtual Desktop Workspace wizard option is enabled by default. This will automatically open the next wizard where you can add an Azure Virtual Desktop workspace.
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