How to deploy and manage Windows Virtual Desktop “Spring Release”

After a long wait the next version of Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) is now in public preview. This next version is also known as “WVDv2” and “Spring Release” and there are a lot of changes since the first GA release back in 2019 of WVD. To begin, it is now fully integrated with the Microsoft Azure portal, meaning, there is now an official supported management UI, you can now assign applications to Azure AD Groups, there are Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) possibilities, Integration with Log Analytics Workspaces, and many more new features.
In today’s blog I want to focus on how the new Windows Virtual Desktop Management Console (UI) looks like, how you deploy Windows Virtual Desktop “Spring Release” with it, and how you manage your environment after deployment.
//
Requirements
Before we start I want to walk you through the requirements that are needed for Windows Virtual Desktop.
General

Azure Tenant
Azure Subscription
Azure Active Directory
Azure AD Connect or Azure AD DS
Admin account(s)

Global Admin
Subscription Contributor Rights
Join VM’s to (local) domain

Licensing
Client OS

Microsoft 365 E3/E5
Microsoft 365 A3/A5/Student Use Benefits
Microsoft 365 F1
Microsoft 365 Business
Windows 10 Enterprise E3/E5
Windows 10 Education A3/A5
Windows 10 VDA per user

Server OS

RDS CAL license with active Software Assurance (SA)

Network

Hub-Spoke network (recommended) – https://bit.ly/3aRs9mg

Enough free address
DNS is configured properly
Access to local DC’s or Azure AD DS

Network Ports for Session Hosts
For the session hosts, make sure that at least the following outbound TCP ports are allowed in the firewall:

Next to the required ports, consider to open the following optional ports:

Windows Virtual Desktop Console components
Since this new version of Windows Virtual Desktop there are some difference in components in relation to the previous version, let’s explain this a little more.
Workspace
The Windows Virtual Desktop Workspace replaces the old WVD “v1” tenant. You don’t have to create a tenant with this new version anymore. Creating a Workspace and link the Application Groups to it will show the published resources (Desktop or Applications) in the end user Windows Virtual Desktop client.
Application Groups
There are two types of Applications Groups, one for Desktop (DAG, Desktop Application Groups), and one for Applications itself. You can have multiple application groups from a single Hostpool, and now can publish a Desktop and Applications from the same Hostpool to the same user at the same time (that’s new with this release).
Hostpools
Just like with the previous...