{"id":14905,"date":"2020-01-03T17:13:46","date_gmt":"2020-01-03T17:13:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.clouddesktoponline.com\/blog\/?p=14905"},"modified":"2025-11-13T15:30:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T15:30:12","slug":"rds-vdi-migration-to-windows-virtual-desktop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clouddesktoponline.com\/blog\/rds-vdi-migration-to-windows-virtual-desktop\/","title":{"rendered":"RDS and VDI migration to Windows Virtual Desktop: Why Consider?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>We will try to explore here, when is it the time to think of moving to Azure Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) which comes as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clouddesktoponline.com\/hosted-desktop-service\">hosted desktop as a service (DaaS)<\/a> and its advantages; in case you are using Remote Desktop or Virtual Desktop service. We will also understand how Azure Migrate service with all its features helps to make the migration process smooth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Remote Desktop Services or RDS denotes the collective features of\nMicrosoft Windows Server, with which the users can access Windows desktops and\napplications remotely. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whereas, Virtual desktop infrastructure or VDI is a technology of\ndesktop virtualization that helps Microsoft Windows desktop operating system (OS)\nto manage and run in a situation like on-premise environment or cloud data\ncenter. Here, the desktop image is delivered to an endpoint device (could be a\ntraditional PC, mobile or thin client), along with the OS and apps as though\nthey are running locally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can think Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) as the successor of\nRDS or VDI. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even some time back VDI was taken as a magic cloud revolution that helps in reducing costs, saves deployment time, standardizes application experience and takes away all the expense and management issues of user devices completely. Because everything would be available in the datacenter on secure servers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yet, companies still had to worry about the endpoints to ensure that\nproper security is maintained. The savings got used up in keeping\ninfrastructure and expertise to give support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Windows Virtual Desktop on Azure, on the other hand, comes with new\nfeatures, capabilities that help you to migrate your existing virtual desktop\nworkloads to Azure; irrespective of whether you are building a new environment\nground up or trying to transform your RDS\/single session Windows 10 virtual\nmachines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Advantages of\nWindows Virtual Desktop over RDS\/VDI &nbsp;<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>WVD comes as\na Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) meaning, it is Microsoft which runs the show\ncompletely without the need of end-user involvement.<\/li><li>Windows 10\nEnterprise multiple session capabilities come as the unique feature of WVD.<\/li><li>Free <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clouddesktoponline.com\/blog\/windows-7-virtual-desktop-support\">Windows 7 Extended Security Updates<\/a> for the next three years\ntill 2023.<\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.clouddesktoponline.com\/blog\/windows-virtual-desktop-profile-management\">FSLogix<\/a> Profile Container\nintegration helps in flawless user profile management, which was so challenging\nearlier, and also the optimized support for Office365 ProPlus.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Azure Migrate <\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nAzure Migrate helps you in planning your cloud migration like moving personal\ndesktops, on-premise infrastructure, applications and data to Azure cloud. It\nwill help you to assess how your on-premise workloads will perform along with\nthe costs. &nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Features of Azure Migrate<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Unified migration platform<\/strong> enabling you to commence, run and finally track you Azure migration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Azure Migration Tool Hub <\/strong>along with <strong>Azure Migrate: Server Assessment<\/strong> and <strong>Azure Migrate: Server Migration.<\/strong> It also helps to integrate with other Azure services. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Azure Migrate: Server Assessment <\/strong>helps to assess any\non-premise server (e.g. Hyper-V) and physical servers whether they are ready\nfor Azure migration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Azure Migrate: Server Migration<\/strong> onthe other hand helps in actual migration of on-premise, physical server, other virtual machines or public cloud virtual machines to Azure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Azure Databases Migration Assistant<\/strong> <strong>(DMA)<\/strong> for assessing your on-premise SQL Server databases to Azure SQL DB, Azure SQL Managed Instance or Azure VMs running SQL Server.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Azure Databases Migration Service (DMS) <\/strong>helps in the migration of your on-premise databases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Web application Assistant <\/strong>for assessment and migration of the on-premise web apps to Azure App Service with the help of Azure App Service Assistant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Virtual desktops <\/strong>for moving your on-premise VDI to Azure Windows Virtual Desktop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Azure Data Box <\/strong>provides fast and cost-effective solution to migrate all your data on Azure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Movere, <\/strong>the Microsoft acquired SaaS platform helps you to gain visibility and control over the environments irrespective of geo-location, application or platform used.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Azure Migrate also integrates\nwith a number of independent software vendor (ISV) offerings (for example, Lakeside,\nRackware and others).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Migration Scenarios<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nfollowing could be the migration scenarios which you can consider moving your\nworkload from on-premise to Azure\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>If your lease of data center is\nexpiring, then you may consider it to be a good time for migration.<\/li><li>Software\nreaching the end of support then it is the time to use cloud.<\/li><li>Hardware\nrefreshing cases.<\/li><li>Application\ninnovation.<\/li><li>Security,\ncompliance requirements.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"624\" height=\"288\" src=\"https:\/\/www.clouddesktoponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Migration-Scenarios.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-14906\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.clouddesktoponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Migration-Scenarios.jpg 624w, https:\/\/www.clouddesktoponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Migration-Scenarios-300x138.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 624px) 100vw, 624px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Migration Journey-\nunderstanding the phases<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Assessment <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In assessment stage get the audit of all things on your on-premise environment that are ready to go to the cloud. You may need to fix few things before you migrate. Because not all workloads are readyto migrate to the cloud. Therefore, you need to find out the issues if they can be tweaked and fixed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Migration <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\nis where the actual migration starts with the help of migration tools that you\nchoose and the steps that you follow for migration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Optimize\n<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For\nthe cost management in Azure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Management\n<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Involves user and application management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"580\" height=\"126\" src=\"https:\/\/www.clouddesktoponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Migration-phases.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-14907\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.clouddesktoponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Migration-phases.jpg 580w, https:\/\/www.clouddesktoponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Migration-phases-300x65.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 580px) 100vw, 580px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Azure Migrate: &nbsp;Key Tools for the key migration Scenarios &nbsp;<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Azure\nMigrate helps you in all the process of Assessment and Migration stages. You\ncan use the ISV tools from Microsoft partners as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Azure\nmigrate also gives you end-to-end progress tracking which you can use to track\nyour migration journey across different workloads and steps of your migration. Azure\nMigrate also brings a center Data Depository for your migration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>There are different Azure tools\nfor different migration scenarios like\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>a) <strong>Server\nscenario<\/strong>&#8211; helps you to move Windows\/Linux servers to Azure<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>b) <strong>Database\nscenario<\/strong>&#8211; you can move your SQl\/non-SQL databases to Azure<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>c) <strong>Offline\nDatabase<\/strong> movement scenario<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>d) <strong>Virtual\ndesktop migration scenario<\/strong> \u2013 the available tools help to migrate your virtual\ndesktop environment to Azure Windows Virtual Desktop. (you can also use the\nMicrosoft partner tools for the purpose).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"605\" height=\"327\" src=\"https:\/\/www.clouddesktoponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Key-Tools-for-the-key-migration-Scenarios.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-14908\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.clouddesktoponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Key-Tools-for-the-key-migration-Scenarios.jpg 605w, https:\/\/www.clouddesktoponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Key-Tools-for-the-key-migration-Scenarios-300x162.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 605px) 100vw, 605px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>e) <strong>Web Application migration scenario<\/strong>&#8211; there are tools in Azure Migrate that help you to migrate your on-premise applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let us consider the migration\nscenarios of Virtual Desktop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Migration: The Considerations<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>When you want to migrate your\nvirtual desktop to WVD, there are a few things to consider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>i) <strong>Suitability of migration\nanalysis:<\/strong> there could be OS constraints to Azure and hence you need to\nunderstand whether the on-premise Operating Systems are compatible with Azure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ii)<strong>Sizing of CPU, Memory<\/strong>:\nto understand the sizes of vCPU and Memory you would require for shifting your\non-premise CPU, Memory size to Azure. Because often we over-allocate our on-premises\nresources and they remain unutilized. This assessment will help you to optimize\nyour resources on the cloud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>iii)<strong>Licenses &amp; Dependencies:<\/strong>\nto understand the license requirements and dependencies to ensure you are not\nleaving anything behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>iv)<strong>Collection of Users:<\/strong>\nthere would be users for pooled desktops and others needing stand-alone\ndesktops. Accordingly, you can understand the VMs you would be needing in WVD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>v) <strong>Application\nRationalization:<\/strong> there would be applications that are rarely used and those\nwhich are critical that must move to the cloud. The rarely used applications\nyou can leave off from migrating to cloud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>vi)<strong>User Density &amp; Segmentation:<\/strong> for the users using pooled desktops, the set of users that would be sharing a desktop and also those using the same kind of applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>vii)<strong>Cost Estimation:<\/strong> to\nhelp you know the cost of moving your desktop resources to Azure and running\nthem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Migration Assessment<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>You can access Azure Migrate from Azure Portal. There you will get a dashboard showing all the different migration scenarios as discussed above. You choose the one applicable to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.clouddesktoponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Migration-assessment-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-14909\" width=\"585\" height=\"415\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.clouddesktoponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Migration-assessment-1.jpg 643w, https:\/\/www.clouddesktoponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Migration-assessment-1-300x213.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 585px) 100vw, 585px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To get started with your\nassessment you need to start the <strong>Assess Virtual Desktop Infrastructure<\/strong>.\nThere you will be able to create a <strong>Migration Project<\/strong> for you. It is\nassociated with your subscription, resource group, geo-location to store your\ndata (in case you do not wish your data to move out of your geographic\nlocation) and project name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Next, you will be allowed to\nselect an <strong>Assessment Tool<\/strong> (e.g. Server migration). And once you add a tool,\nit will create a project for you and the required tools will be added to your\nproject and start assessing your project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"652\" height=\"441\" src=\"https:\/\/www.clouddesktoponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Migration-assessment-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-14910\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.clouddesktoponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Migration-assessment-2.jpg 652w, https:\/\/www.clouddesktoponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Migration-assessment-2-300x203.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 652px) 100vw, 652px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>First, it will assess your\nentire on-premise environment as we have discussed in the virtual desktop\nmigration scenario above. The data will then be pushed to Azure Migrate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There you will get an exhaustive report on the entire assessment journey including the tools you have used for the purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"698\" height=\"448\" src=\"https:\/\/www.clouddesktoponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/The-Report.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-14911\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.clouddesktoponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/The-Report.jpg 698w, https:\/\/www.clouddesktoponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/The-Report-300x193.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 698px) 100vw, 698px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Migration process to\nWindows Virtual Desktop<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>a) The Paths<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are 2 paths that can be\ntaken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>1. <strong>Migration Path1<\/strong>\nfocused at operational efficiency which helps you to lift and shift your\ndesktop environment to Azure and modernize them later. The trigger here is\ninfrastructure oriented e.g. data center lease, expiry etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>2. <strong>Migration Path2<\/strong>\nfocused on innovation and efficiency. (The triggers are mostly app oriented\nlike legacy apps and if you wish to modernize them). If you are in greenfield\ncategory (building everything ground up) you can use this path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>b) The Journey<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It happens in the following\nsteps&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>1. Setup your virtual\nnetwork-connect to on-prem<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>2. Setup Active Directory<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>3. Syn Azure AD and Active\nDirectory<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Steps 2 &amp; 3 can be done interchangeably)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You will need a local domain\ncontroller set up in your virtual network and need to synchronize your user\ndetails to Azure Active Directory. You can first do the syn and later set up\nyour domain controller or vice versa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>4. Create objects in WVD and\ngenerate registration token. First, get into your windows virtual desktop\nenvironment and create objects like a) WVD tenant that connects your WVD to\nyour Azure Active Directory Tenant and b) setting up of host pool or the VM\nsets that you have decided to add to your WVD. Next, you will get a\nregistration token.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>5. Once you have your WVD you\ncan move your virtual machines (either migrate or create new VMs) and connect\nthem to WVD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>6. Migrate the user data to Azure. Keep in mind that WVD does not support User Profile Disks (UPDs-if you are using them) but supports FSLogix Profile Containers. So, you have to convert your UPDs to Profile Containers. If you are using Personal Desktops you need to assign the users directly to the virtual machines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.clouddesktoponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Migration-6-steps.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-14912\" width=\"580\" height=\"316\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.clouddesktoponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Migration-6-steps.jpg 654w, https:\/\/www.clouddesktoponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Migration-6-steps-300x164.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 580px) 100vw, 580px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Your journey doesn&#8217;t end after\nmoving things to Azure. You continue to optimize your virtual desktop workloads\nin Azure, for cost, latency issues and continue managing them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can consider Apps4Rent for\nany help as we are a Microsoft Gold partner offering managed Azure solutions. For\nover 15 years we have remained as the most reliable, cost-effective hosted\nsoftware service provider helping 10,000+ clients across 90 countries. Please feel\ncomfortable in reaching us any time via chat or call <em>1-646-506-9354.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We will try to explore here, when is it the time to think of moving to Azure Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) which comes as hosted desktop as a service (DaaS) and its advantages; in case you are using Remote Desktop or Virtual Desktop service. We will also understand how Azure Migrate service with all its [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":14925,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1167],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-windows-virtual-desktop"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clouddesktoponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clouddesktoponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clouddesktoponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clouddesktoponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clouddesktoponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14905"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.clouddesktoponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16999,"href":"https:\/\/www.clouddesktoponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14905\/revisions\/16999"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clouddesktoponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clouddesktoponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clouddesktoponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clouddesktoponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}