Running a Remote Desktop Session Host on Azure with Azure AD

Question

My company are using Office365 for our mail and shared files (SharePoint). Because of this we do not have any server.

But, we have one application that has to be run on a Remote Desktop Server. What I want to do is to set up a server on Azure, install Remote Desktop Host on it, and use that instead of buying a server.

Is this possible? Can I set up a Remote Desktop Session Host on an Azure server, and can I use the AD with Office365 as the AD needed for Remote Desktop?

Answer 1

You can easily check here if some Server Role or Application Software is supported on Azure Virtual Machine. According to the document, Remote Desktop Services is a supported Windows Server Role with some remarks - check the FAQ section for Remote Desktop Services related questions and answers .

Last, but not least - you will have to install Active Directory Services along with Active Directory Domain Services server roles on the Azure VM in order to have fully functional AD in the cloud. You will have then to enable DirSync with your Office365 tenant. Some articles about DirSync:

• http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ryansize/archive/2014/09/12/aad-connect-aad-sync-and-dirsync-oh-my.aspx
• http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn635310(v=office.15).aspx
• http://blogs.technet.com/b/ad/archive/2014/04/21/new-sync-capabilities-in-preview-password-write-back-new-aad-sync-and-multi-forest-support.aspx

Of course not all features of DirSync are available in all different pricing tiers of AAD , but I believe Basic tier will be OK for your needs.