in this video I review Windows virtual desktop validation host pools hello
everyone I'm Travis and this is Ciraltos in this video i review Windows
virtual desktop validation host pools what they are and how you can use them
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I've had validation host pools on my list of topics to cover for a while I
have to admit when I started digging into it I almost passed on the whole
thing before I get to that though let's go over what a validation host pool is
Microsoft pushes monthly updates to Windows virtual desktop
although these updates are probably safe for most environments any change
represent a risk and because Windows virtual desktop can host a wide variety
of applications there's no way Microsoft could test
updates to every application running on it to help minimize the impact an update
may have Windows virtual desktop service updates are applied first to the
validation pool acting as a canary in the coal mines of sorts the idea is to
create a small host pool identical to your production host pool to validate
the updates a subset of users log in and use the validation pool if there is a
problem with the service update you'll become apparent in the validation pool
before it rolls to production as a side note host pools are deployed to
availability sets by default this means that servers are deployed in different
update and fault domains if you're new to availability sets check out my video
on the topic the update domain is specific to Azure service fabric
updates not necessarily the Windows virtual desktop updates here's what I
know from the Microsoft documentation service updates go to the validation
host pool first use the validation host pool to ensure applications work with
the updates service updates happen monthly more frequently for major issues
or critical updates use the Windows virtual desktop tech community site to
stay informed with service updates I'll add a link to that site below that
leaves some questions unanswered for example how do we know when service
updates went to the validation pool what is the time between updates going
to the validation pool and the production pool here we pause updates
from going to the production pool if we find a problem what do we do if when
update causes an issue I couldn't find the answer to these questions if anyone
out there knows please add it to the comments below a lack of detail is one
of the reasons I almost passed on this topic but the more I thought about it I
started to realize that the validation pool is just a small part of the overall
Windows virtual desktop lifecycle strategy if you're just using the
marketplace image validation pools may not have much value but odds are you're
dealing with other applications maybe third party applications that are
industry specific or custom applications deployed through Windows virtual desktop
these applications likely need updates and patching a validation host pool is
not limited to testing Windows virtual desktop updates they can also be used
for validating new images and application updates in your Windows
virtual desktop environment looked at from that angel validation pools are
part of an application and Windows virtual desktop life cycle adding value
beyond simply testing Windows virtual desktop service updates with that in
mind here is how validation pools are created first there are two important
factors when using validation pools the validation pool should be as close to
production as possible to be effective it really needs to be the exact same as
production also the validation pool should be used frequently by users if it
sits unused it's not going to be effective I recommend using a variety of
users not just IT or group of testers a validation pool is simply a host pool
with a validation environment flag set to true this is done with the update a Z
wbd host pool command with the spring 2020 update or the set RDS host pool
command in the fall 2019 version start by creating a production host pool and
the validation pool with the same base image this could have all the
applications as part of the image or use a tool like SCCM to push the
applications out create a group for production and a subset of users for the
validation pool this is easier with spring update as you can use Azure ad
groups to sign users to host pools now when you have a new updated image to
you can first deploy to the validation pool then to the production once it's
verified if you're pushing updates directly to the host with an application
management program you can use the validation pool in the same way pushing
there first and vet the applications before implementing them to the
production pool this way the validation pool helps identify potential issues
with Windows virtual desktop service updates and as part of your overall
testing process for new image versions and application updates let's walk
through the process of enabling validation on a host pool this assumes
you already have a host pool to use for validation deployed I'm going to walk
through setting up the validation pool in the current GA environment and then
in the new spring update twenty twenty I have two hosts pools I'm gonna set as
validation host pools the first is the current GA environment and the second is
the new public preview spring update so let's start with the GA fall 2019
version I'm gonna start by signing in as admin now that I'm logged in I'm going
to get the host pool information it looks like I have an issue with running
an older version of the PowerShell module but I'm just gonna ignore that
for now you can see that the validation environment is set to false I'm going to
change that with a set RDS host pool command I'm changing the validation env
to true and now you can see the validation environment is set to true so
now that host pool is set as a validation house pool next let's move on
to the spring update pool don't forget to install the new AZ wbd
PowerShell module to run these commands first I have to connect to a sure
and make sure you're connected to the correct subscription now that I'm logged
in I'll run the command to get information about my Windows virtual
desktop environment this uses the get AZ wbd host pool command giving it the
resource group name and the name of the pool and then I'm just returning the
name and the validation environment setting here you can see the name is wvd
validation and nothing is set for the validation environment to set that I'm
gonna run the update AZ wbb host pool command here again just targeting the
resource group and the host pool name and setting the validation environment
to true let's run that get command again and here you can see nothing happens
this is the other reason I almost skipped over this topic at the time of
this recording and spring update has an issue adding or removing validation
pools if we go to the documentation you can see this version is in public
preview and the issue is acknowledged in the documentation just imagine this
return to true and check back once it goes ga
hopefully the issue will be resolved by then I'll leave a link to this article
below that is how to enable a host pool as a
validation pool don't forget to subscribe like and click the bell icon
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