Features
- Profile Container (User profile + Office Container)
- Cloud Cache
- Application masking
- Java redirection
- Windows search index roaming
Profile Container
User sign-in to Azure Virtual Desktop is much faster because user profiles are containerized using FSLogix profile containers. The user profile container is dynamically attached to the session host or VM in question at user sign-in. The user profile is made available and appears in the system exactly as a local user profile would.
Office Container
Office container is essentially a subset of profile containers. Office containers help the organizations to split the profile from office data.
The key differences between the two containers are that the office container is specifically for improving the performance of Microsoft Office within a non-persistent desktop virtualization environment. The benefit of using both allows you to segment office profile components on one office container disk and everything else on a profile container disk.
Storage Solution
There are multiple storage options available to use for storing your FSLogix Profile Containers. The most common option organizations use is Azure Files.
Microsoft recommends Azure Files for typical FSLogix profile container deployments
Azure Storage feature comparison
Azure Files tiers
Azure Storage platform comparison
FSLogix Performance requirements
FSLogix storage best practices
- Ensure that the chosen storage and host VMs are within the same data center location for
optimal performance.
- Set exclusions for antivirus scanning on VHD and VHDX disks to prevent antivirus-induced performance bottlenecks.
- Exclude the VHD(X) files for Profile Containers from antivirus scanning to avoid performance bottlenecks.
- Use separate Profile Containers per host pool when you want to use multiple active sessions.
Recommended Azure storage permissions for profile container
Required permissions for Azure files
Antivirus exclusions
Cloud cache
FSLogix Cloud Cache enables you to create a highly available desktop virtualization environment.
The technology works by placing a portion of the user profile on the host’s local disk. With Cloud Cache, you can also configure multiple remote profile locations, which protect users from network and storage issues/failures.
Profile Containers vs Cloud cache
App masking
Application masking enables organisations to hide applications on a central desktop image from users who have not been assigned permission via a security group
In Co-op’s current estate all applications are delivered by App-v to virtual desktops and there is no specific use case for App masking now
Java redirection
Java redirection feature helps us to specify a specific version of java used by an application or a web url
In App-v java pre-requisites are implemented using connection groups. Hence there is not much usage or dependency of this feature in AVD
Search Index redirection
FSLogix supports roaming of user’s search index database to provide a better user experience in indexing search (files/outlook)
Changes to enhance native search behavior in Windows 10/11 multi-session remove the need for FSLogix search functionality. FSLogix search functionality is not compatible with Windows 10 multi-session, and subsequent multi-session operating systems with enhanced native search capabilities.
Roam the windows search database with Profile Container – FSLogix | Microsoft Docs
Master Reference
Mastering Azure Virtual Desktop (oreilly.com)