AVD Templates

Overview

Using this feature you can define a set (aka template) of applications. This set of applications can then be applied to a computer in a headless / unattended fashion using RealmJoin Client.

This is intended for creating golden images for Azure Virtual Desktop multi-session pooled hosts.

Permissions

To enable the feature, you must define a custom role and assign the role to a group or user.

Copy the following definition and make sure to change the GroupID accordingly.

{
  "Rules": [
    {
      "Name": "Allow admins to access the templating feature",
      "Groups": [
        "<Group ID of Admin Group>"
      ],
      "Permissions": [
        "CanReadTemplateTable",
        "CanReadTemplateDetails",
        "CanEditTemplate",
        "CanDeleteTemplate",
        "CanChangeTemplatePackages",
        "CanChangeTemplateTokens"
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Managing templates

Creating a template

• Click on the "templates" icon or open the Templates section by entering the url: https://portal.realmjoin.com/templates

Templates List

• Hit the icon (1), enter a meaningful name (2) and hit "Save" (3).

Create a template

Add Applications to a Template

• Open the template by clicking on its name.

• To add packages to the template, hit the icon.

Add packages to a template - 1

• The following list represents all RealmJoin Client packages you have subscribed to in your environment. Just search for a package and hit the icon to add it to your template. When you are done, hit Close.

Add packages to a template - 2

Intune Packages can not be assigned using AVD templates.

Remove Applications from a Template

• Open the template by clicking on its name.

• If you want to remove applications, click on Unassign. If you want to define arguments overwriting those set on the package level, you can do so by clicking on Settings.

Remote packages from a template

Create a Token

• To use the template via RealmJoin Client, you also need a token. To create a token, click on the Tokens tab.

• Hit the icon (1), enter a meaningful name (2) and hit Save (3).

Create a token

Please handle the token with care. If you think the token might have been leaked, revoke it by hitting the Revoke button next to the token.

Using a Template

AVD / headless provisioning

Collect the template ID and the token you want to use for deployment.

Find template ID and token

Run the following command from inside your system/VM you want to prepare as golden image:

1. Download RealmJoin: Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://gkrealmjoin.s3.amazonaws.com/win-release/RealmJoin.exe" -OutFile "C:\temp\RealmJoin.exe"

2. Install RealmJoin: Start-Process -FilePath "C:\temp\RealmJoin.exe" -ArgumentList "-install" -Wait

3. Run headless deployment. Make sure to enter your individual template ID and token: Start-Process -FilePath "C:\Program Files\RealmJoin\RealmJoinService.exe" -ArgumentList " -avdprovision <Template ID> <Template Token>"

Logging and traces

For both, RealmJoin installation and headless deployment, you can add an additional argument -trace to extend logging. To check the status/logs during headless deployment, open and periodically refresh realmjoin.log which can be found under C:\Windows\Logs\