I'm building an Azure Virtual Desktop host pool with around 10 session hosts and need a reliable process for updating an application such as Sage 300. The usual recommendation seems to be updating a golden image and then deploying a new image version across the host pool. However, I'm unsure how to properly test or configure applications that require access to domain resources, SQL databases, file shares, licensing servers, or other infrastructure. Since I've also heard that golden images should not be domain joined, how do you handle application updates and testing in practice?
1 Answer
The image can be joined to the traditional Active Directory domain while you’re preparing and testing the application. The important distinction is to avoid Entra ID or hybrid Entra joining the image. Before capturing it, generalize the image so the existing domain and machine-specific information aren’t carried over to the new session hosts. Tools such as Hydra or Nerdio can simplify the image-capture and host-pool deployment process if you don’t want to automate all of those steps yourself.
I haven’t used Hydra or Nerdio before. Are they mainly graphical tools that automate the usual image-building process, or do they use a different deployment approach? Do they also handle the domain-join and generalization steps?