VDI and virtual desktops
Plan desktop-pool coverage with distinct clone identities and endpoint and session-host evidence. Session monitoring is pending release and validation.
A virtual desktop adds another place to investigate: the user’s physical device, the path it uses, and the host running the desktop. The VDI workflow keeps those observations separate while helping you compare available measurements during a connection interval.
Availability: VDI session monitoring is pending release and live-environment validation. Plan a pilot with an updated server and a compatible agent build that advertises the required capabilities.
Plan coverage that survives desktop replacement
- A distinct identity for every clone
- Prepare a stopped, unenrolled golden image. Each correctly customized clone enrolls with its own identity and credentials, so a replacement desktop does not inherit another instance’s measurement history.
- Checks assigned to the desktop pool
- Use the pool agent label to select matching clones dynamically. Pool membership groups hosts for coverage; it does not merge their identities or create a network scope.
- Observed desktop sessions
- Enable Windows desktop session reporting for observed users, hosts, and connection states. Configure Desktop Sessions checks separately for Microsoft RDP/AVD, Citrix ICA, or Horizon using each source’s documented detection method.
- Endpoint and session-host measurements
- Install an agent on the physical endpoint as well as the host. When the Windows history reporter’s client name uniquely matches a recently reporting private agent in the same tenant, the view can compare their existing tests for the observed interval.
Pilot one desktop pool from both sides
Prepare and validate the image
Keep enrollment state out of the source image. Verify that your clone workflow gives each machine a unique identity, then confirm independent enrollment on a small set of replacement desktops.
Assign collection deliberately
Target host checks using the pool label. Enable the Windows session-history reporter when needed, and configure the Desktop Sessions check independently. Install and configure endpoint checks for the other side of the connection.
Review one connection interval
Check whether endpoint identification is inferred, ambiguous, or unavailable. Compare the selected host and endpoint tests during that interval, and retain observation gaps when either side stopped reporting.
What the evidence can tell you
Name matching is inferred
A matching client name is not verified pairing. Missing or duplicate names remain unresolved. Selecting Citrix or Horizon in a check does not feed that check’s metadata into the Windows history reporter’s endpoint matcher.
Host health is not screen responsiveness
Host resources describe the whole machine, not one user’s share. Service checks do not run as the signed-in desktop user or measure screen responsiveness. Windows supports session reporting; Linux and macOS image preparation does not add desktop logon history.
Plan the evidence you need from a desktop pilot
Bring a recent incident or the environment you want to cover. We can walk through where to place agents and which measurements answer your questions.