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Hydra 2.1.1.0

Hydra 2.1.1.0 by LoginVSI is released 28th January 2026.

Let’s dig in what’s new in Hydra 2.1.1.0 by LoginVSI, I will also share my experiences after I upgraded my Hydra tenant to latest release and show how does it looks and what is important to be aware of.

Whats new in Hydra 2.1.1.0

Following new features and improvement are in Hydra 2.1.1.0

  • Update engine in Hydra redesigned
  • New Windows 365 capability
  • Script Collection new action feature
  • Hydra in Azure Market place updates
  • Hydra community edition limits

Update engine in Hydra redesigned

Hydra have been redesign before you could only upgrade to newest version. This feature is something I have waited years, so I am happy to see the feature is final here. With newest version Hydra 2.1.1.0 its now possible to control upgrade releases of the Hydra engine. This gives Hydra customers more confidence to test, validate, and move at their own pace—without being forced into change.  Customers can also go back to a previous version this bring in version control of Hydra.

Hydra updates will be retrieved from an Azure Storage Account, allowing flexibility for updates and rollbacks

Whitelist url for the new Hydra engine

IMPORTANT:
The new update engine in Hydra requires you to whitelist these 3 URL in your firewall/security.

https://itpcupdateweu.blob.core.windows.net
https://itpcupdateeus2.blob.core.windows.net
https://itpcupdatesea.blob.core.windows.net

How it looks the new update engine

The Update Center will tell you which version is currently installed and whether it is a “Stable” or “Preview” version.

Pre-Update Checks and Considerations

  • Please only run an update when no deployments, scripts, or imaging processes are running, so plan a maintenance window around the update. Updates typically take around 5 minutes.
  • Refer to the Release Notes to ensure there aren’t any known issues that may impact your deployment, and familiarize yourself with any new features or changes introduced.
  • Have a test Hydra deployment and update it first.
  • Ensure the App Service and SQL backups are working as expected, and you have a relatively recent rollback point.
  • Typical AVD operations, such as brokering and active AVD sessions, will continue as normal.
  • Full administrator permissions are needed in Hydra to conduct the update.  

Updating Hydra

  • After starting the update, it is normal to see API or communications-related errors pop up as the engine goes offline.  
  • After a few minutes, reload the Hydra Portal website. 

Source (whitelist url for hydra update engine)

https://docs.loginvsi.com/hydra/2.1.1/updating-hydra

New Windows 365 capability in Hydra

Hydra continues to close the gap between AVD and Windows 365 device management.
In Hydra 2.1.1.0 LoginVSI have implemented 2 new Windows 365 features. Under Windows 365 you now see Cloud PC Configurations and Network Connections

Cloud PC Configurations 

The Cloud PC configuration page lets you view and manage Cloud PC configurations in Windows 365, including creating, editing, assigning, and deleting configurations.

This functionality is from Intune taking into Hydra

Cloud PC Configuration Table

The table lists the Cloud PC Configuration with the following columns:Enlarges the table by opening it in a full screen dialogOpen

TenantShows the tenant associated with the Cloud PC configuration. You can sort the column in ascending or descending order and filter by tenant.
NameShows the name of the Cloud PC configuration.
AssignedIndicates whether the Cloud PC configuration is assigned. You can filter the list by assignment status.
Last updatedShows the date and time of the most recent update.
PriorityIndicates the order in which Cloud PC configurations were added, represented by a numeric value.
EditOpens the Cloud PC configuration for editing.

This is how it looks in Intune

Intune – > Devices – Windows 365 -> Settings -> Cloud PC configuration

Network Connections

This new feature gain visibility into Azure network settings used by Windows 365, making troubleshooting and validation easier across teams. 
#Note this will NOT show Microsoft managed networks

The Network Connections page provides an overview of all Windows 365 network connections across tenants where the feature is enabled. It allows administrators to search, filter, and review key details for each connection. This page is primarily for reviewing and locating policies; no direct actions (like edit or delete) are available from this page.

Network Connections Table

The table lists all provisioning policies with the following columns:Enlarges the table by opening it in a full screen dialogOpen

TenantThe tenant where the network connection is applied.
NameName of the network connection.
Virtual networkThe Azure virtual network associated with the network connection.
StatusThe current status of the network connection.
Created byThe administrator who created the network connection.
Join typeThe directory join type used by Cloud PCs that use the network connection
SubscriptionThe Azure subscription that contains the virtual network.
DomainThe domain associated with the network connection.
RegionThe Azure region where the network connection is hosted.

Script Collections new Action feature

In Script Collection (Action) there is added a newer function which allows tasks sequences to automatically quit the collections on hosts with active sessions. This prevents disruption to connected users while keeping automation safe and predictable.

First you goto Scripts and Collections -> Collections.

Then you can modify an existing collection or create a new collection. Add an Action and you will see Others – Quit on hosts with sessions

Example:

In below example I modify a collection “OS Install Windows Update” Which is based on builtin in Hydra and I add the new action “Others – Quit on hosts with sessions“
This means I am now making my collection intelligent which I run each Saturday and if any users are on the hosts this new action will not make the session hosts updated because the new action “Others – Quit on hosts with sessions” prevents that it runs because it identifies users are on active session hosts.

Hydra in Azure Market place updates

Hydra by LoginVSI is now certified by Microsoft in the Azure Marketplace

The Microsoft Solutions Partner with certified software designation recognizes ISVs that demonstrate strong technical integration with Microsoft Cloud, marketplace readiness, and proven customer success. Benefits include increased visibility, software quality validation, and access to Microsoft co-sell opportunities.

Hydra offering in Azure Marketplace

The Hydra can be installed in 3 ways in Azure Marketplace.

  • Hydra for AVD and Windows 365 Management – Trial
  • Hydra for AVD and Windows 365 Management – Private
  • Hydra for AVD and Windows 365 Management –

This is a little confusing so I will in this blogpost go into what each offering is in Azure Marketplace

If you goto the Azure Marketplace and search for Hydra LoginVSI you will see 3 below option.

  • Red is installation of hydra (this is used for doing a trial or installing for production) step 1.
  • Yellow is licensing of hydra (step 2 if you want to buy hydra and license you environment)
  • Blue is a private offer and must be whitelisted by LoginVSI, and get special offering by LoginVSI if you want example 10.000 licenses for a month or for 1-3 years.

Hydra Community edition

Updated Limits effective January 2026

LoginVSI continuing to invest and update the Hydra Community Edition to ensure it continues to serve its purpose — helping IT pros and admins explore Hydra in smaller lab environments and simple commercial use cases.  

Starting with the Release of Hydra 2.x, the Community Edition will include the following limits: 

  • 1 Azure tenant 
  • 5 host pools
  • 5 hosts per pool
  • Up to 100 user sessions shown in the User Sessions page (AVD and Windows 365/Cloud PC) 

All new installations of Hydra include a 30-day, unlimited, fully-function trial, after which the above limits automatically apply if you’re not on a paid plan. These changes help maintain fair use and performance for all Community Edition users. If your environment exceeds these limits or supports production workloads, please reach out — we’ll help you transition to a paid Hydra plan that fits your environment.  

NOTE: These Community Mode limits will not be applied if you are updating from an earlier version of Hydra to version 2.1.1.0. Beginning with Hydra next version, 2.2.0.0, Community Mode updated limits will apply to existing installs

Source

https://docs.loginvsi.com/hydra/2.1.1

FSLogix 26.01

Microsoft have 13th January 2026 released a new version of FSLogix.

version 3.26.102.18413

This release focuses on stability, reliability, and quality fixes rather than introducing new features.

Recommendation if you are using FSLogix in your End User Computing (EUC) anything from Microsoft RDS, AVD, Citrix, Omnissa, Parallels RAS or other EUC platform, I would highly recommend you plan upgrading your environment and test properly before rolling out the release to production.

Fixed issues

  • Updated the default identity exclusions as defined in Device identity and desktop virtualization | Microsoft Learn.
  • Fixed the registry exclusions.
  • Fixed logging when a user is excluded using local exclude groups.
  • Fixed FRX.exe copy-profile utility.
  • Updated default redirections in Outlook for Windows.
  • Fixed an issue where a disk may not detach correctly after a compact operation.
  • Fixed a potential logon hang when a profile does not unload successfully during a timeout operation (< 30 sec).
  • Fixed extended status of SupportedSize for VHD compact operations.
  • Fixed an issue where package registration could fail due to missing authentication context.

Download

You can download FSLogix 26.01 (3.26.102.18413) here

Source

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fslogix/overview-release-notes

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fslogix/overview-what-is-fslogix

Microsoft Azure – NVadsA10 v5-series

Microsoft have released a new instance powered by NVIDIA A10 GPUs and AMD EPYC 74F3V(Milan) CPU with a base frequency of 3.2 Ghz, all cores peak frequency of 4.0Ghz.  With NVadsA10v5-series Azure is introducing virtual machines with partial NVIDIA GPUs. Pick the right sized virtual machine for GPU accelerated graphics applications and virtual desktops starting at 1/6th of a GPU with 4-GiB frame buffer to a full A10 GPU with 24-GiB frame buffer.

The preview is currenty availabe in Azure – US South Central and Azure – West Europe regions.

Prices are now GA (21th March 2022) for North Europe, US East 2, US West3

Sign up for preview to get early access to the NVadsA10v5-series.

NVIDIA Ampere GPU (A10) is supporting GPU-P (SR-IOV) which is why its a big step for partitioning the GPU and making the price dramatically cheaper in Azure. *note there have not been released any prices yet of the instances (its unknown) 

Blogpost last updated: 21th March 2022

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Findings Video conference with Azure Virtual Desktop using Zoom

 

 

 

Introduction

Over the last couple of years, there has been an impressive flux with many businesses and institutions adopting and relying on large-scale remote working and remote learning environments to maintain workforce and learning continuity. During this time, it’s generally been recognised that this type of remote working/learning has been quite successful, with many businesses and institutions continuing remoting working/learning practices or introducing hybrid models with a combination of remote and office work for their staff. 

One of the reasons why remote working/learning has been successful is the availability of supporting technologies that have delivered a high standard of human communication and engagement across large numbers of workers or students/faculty in remote environments. Video conferencing applications, which includes video conferencing, screen sharing, IMs and more, are such technologies that have contributed to viable remote working/learning environment success.  

But to use these applications to their fullest potential, a robust IT infrastructure is also a must. Many large enterprise companies, as well as SMB and other institutions have centralised their IT environment into virtualized desktop infrastructure (VDI), either as an on-premises solution or as a managed-service by cloud service providers (CSP). Centralizing resources, applications and data into a single infrastructure allows for better IT management and security of vital resources and data which can help improve workforce productivity, data security and IT efficiencies.

Investigation overview

This blog details a recent technical investigation where popular video conferencing applications are deployed on AMD-based Azure instances to determine the performance of each application, the number of deployable users in a multi-session environment, and the user experience each person would receive. The AMD-based instances includes both CPU-only based instances and CPU+GPU based instances to understand the impact of GPU-enabled resources to the density and experience of the users.

So next let’s look at the various parameters for the investigation.  

The Lab: 

For the investigation, we had three areas of consideration: 

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1) Azure session host 2) Application3) End-point devices

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