Moving Cloud PC from One Datacenter Region to Another - Summer 2023 Edition

As i have mentioned in an earlier post, moving a cloud pc from one datacenter location from another was not possible. This activity was basically a deprovisioning and reprovisioning of the existing cloud pc in the target datacenter. However, due to increasing customer demand, this behavior is being changed right now. Moving cloud pc from one datacenter location to another is currently in preview (June 2023) and probably it will be GA in the coming fall. Let’s take a look at how it is done.

Existing Environment

In my lab environment i have three cloud pc’s that is provisioned and being used by users in my tenant. As you can see statuses for these cpc’s are listed as “Provisioned” and they are provisioned using provisioning policy named “MS Hosted – EU North”

I also have two main provisioning policies, one named as “MS Hosted – EU North” being an MS Hosted network that is on the European Union region – EU North DC and the other is named as “MS Hosted – West US”; which happens to use MS Hosted network that is on Western US region.

Snippet from Intune Console, Windows 365 Node, Provisioning Policies View

When i log in on a cloud pc that is currently in use, and browse to a site to Show my existing IP address, i’m able to see the details about my network connection. This network happens to be in Dublin, Ireland and the organization this IP is tied to Microsoft Azure Cloud (northeurope).

Snippet from Cloud PC, Showing External IP Address Information

Moving Cloud PC (Preview)

Admins will be able to move an existing cloud pc by changing the provisioning policy details that was used to provision the cloud pc. For this demo i’ll be editing the provisioning policy that is using EU North network to UK South and we’ll see how that works.

Snippet from Provisioning Policy - Editing Provisioning Policy Properties

To edit the existing policy, we’ll need to click on the policy name and click on “edit” option for editing the required section. I’ll be changing the Geography, Region and name to reflect the changes in the name of the policy.

It is also possible to change Network / Join type as well. Meaning you can change from one Azure Network Connection to another Azure Network Connection or move from MS Hosted Networking to Azure Network Connection.

Snippet from Provisioning Policy, Editing Provisioning Policy

After doing the changes in Geography, Region and names accordingly, I’ll go ahead click next and save the policy. What happens next is a notification pops up that highlights the policy update is completed successfully.

Snippet from Intune, Policy Update Notification

After policy update is completed, there will be an option to Apply region change to existing Cloud PC’s which does the trick of moving the cloud pc from one region to another.

Snippet from Intune, Apply Region Change to Existing Cloud PCs

Once you click on this task to apply region change to existing Cloud PC’s, there will be a confirmation notification for the region change which also mentions cloud pc’s will be shut down in the next couple of minutes.

Snippet from Intune, Apply Region Change Admin Approval

Once this button is clicked, Cloud PC’s will start to migrate from one region to another. You can see this from the cloud pc status in the intune console as the statuses for those devices that were provisioned by using provisioning policy we edited changes from “provisioned” to “Moving region or network.”

Snippet from Intune Console, Windows 365 Node, All Cloud PCs View

At the same time, users can see a notification in Windows 365 portal regarding an admin is updating the cloud pc and CPC can be used after updating is finished.

Snippet from Windows 365 Portal, End User View

Once the changes are done, we will be seeing these devices as “Provisioned” in the intune portal.

Snippet from Intune Console, Windows 365 Node, All Cloud PCs View

When logged on to the device and browsed to a website to show external ip address, we will see the location of the CPC has changed to London, United Kingdom and the organization that is tied to the IP address is listed as “Microsoft Azure Cloud (uksouth)”

Snippet from Cloud PC, Showing External IP Address Information

Wrap-up

It is now possible to move a cloud pc from one location to another by editing provisioning policy that was used to provision the CPC. It is great to see the product improving by the feedbacks from customers and the field. So if you believe there is a feature that would be beneficial to resolve one of your pains, feel free to share it. People are listening your feedbacks.

Continue reading...