Question
You have an Azure subscription that contains a hybrid Microsoft Entra tenant and two domain-joined Azure virtual machines. The virtual machines run Windows Server 2019 and contain managed disks.
You plan to deploy an Azure Virtual Desktop host pool that will use a Storage Spaces Direct Scale-Out File Server to host user profiles.
You need to ensure that the virtual machines can host the Storage Spaces Direct deployment. The solution must meet the following requirements:
- Ensure that the user profiles are available if a single server fails.
- Minimize administrative effort.
What should you do?
Explanation
On each virtual machine, install: Storage Spaces Direct and a Scale-Out File Server run on a Windows Server failover cluster, so every node needs the Failover Clustering feature. File Server Resource Manager handles quotas and file screening and the Remote Desktop Services role is for session hosts; neither is needed for Storage Spaces Direct.
Create: a two-node cluster needs a witness to keep quorum when one node fails, and a cloud witness stored in an Azure storage account is the simplest option in Azure. A third virtual machine as a file share witness adds more to manage, shared disks are not used because Storage Spaces Direct pools each node's local managed disks, and an Azure NetApp Files share would replace Storage Spaces Direct rather than support it.
