Where to find the machine token refresh timestamp for Azure Virtual Desktop session hosts?

Question

Where to find the machine token refresh timestamp for Azure Virtual Desktop session hosts?

Mathew 0

We have several AVD Windows 10 session hosts that are currently unassigned but will be eventually (There is a reason they are pre-deployed which can't be avoided). We don't want them to lose their host pool registration in the meantime so I'm working on automating powering them on/off to refresh their machine tokens.

During testing, I want to verify that the VM was up long enough for the machine token to refresh before powering it off again. The final automation will be set up with sufficient time between power-on and power-off based on the tests.

Is there somewhere on the VM or in Azure that I can look for a timestamp of when the machine token was last refreshed?

1 answer

Your answer

Answer 1

Sai Krishna Katakam 1,725 Microsoft External Staff

Hi Mathew,

Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A Platform! Thank you for asking your question here.

To find the machine token refresh timestamp for Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) session hosts, you can check the Windows Event Logs on the session host VMs. Specifically, the machine token refresh events are logged in the "Microsoft-Azure-Desktop-SessionHost" event log.

Steps to Check Machine Token Refresh Logs

Log in to the Windows 10 session host VM.
Open the Event Viewer by typing eventvwr in the Run dialog (Win + R).
In the Event Viewer, expand the Applications and Services Logs.
Navigate to Microsoft > Windows > Azure-Desktop-SessionHost > Operational.
In the Operational log, look for events that indicate the machine token has been refreshed.
You can check the timestamps of these events to determine when the last refresh occurred.
You can also automate the retrieval of these logs using PowerShell scripts to check for the last refresh timestamp programmatically.

For more details, please refer to the below documentation:
Update session hosts using session host update in Azure Virtual Desktop (preview)

If an answer has been helpful, please consider accept the "Answer" and "Upvote" to help increase visibility of this question for other members of the Microsoft Q&A community.

User's image

Sai Krishna Katakam 1,725 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2025-01-06T09:16:17.6033333+00:00

Hi Mathew,

Just checking in to see if you had a chance to review my answer on your question. Please let us know if it was helpful and feel free to reach out if you have any further queries.

If you found the information useful, please click "Accept Answer" and "Upvote" on the post to let us know.

Thank You.
Sai Krishna Katakam 1,725 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2025-01-07T03:03:25.65+00:00

Hi Mathew,

I wanted to check if you had the opportunity to review the information which was provided in my previous posted answer.

If it was helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and "Upvote" on his post to let us know.

Thank You.
Mathew Snyder 0 Reputation points

2025-03-13T17:46:30.47+00:00

Hello @Sai Krishna Katakam ,

I was redirected to other tasks during the last couple months so I apologize for not responding sooner.

I looked for Microsoft > Windows > Azure-Desktop-SessionHost in Event Viewer on my own session host. I don't have it. I scanned through all of the Event Viewer folders for anything that might be related to Azure Virtual Desktop. I found nothing.

I do have Microsoft>Windows>WindowsAzure. Below this are two additional folders: Diagnostics and Status. The Diagnostics folder contains four logs: Bootstrapper, GuestAgent, Heartbeat, and Runtime. Bootstrapper and Runtime are both empty. GuestAgent contains entries for doing background updates and metrics, but I haven't found anything about the machine token. Likewise with Heartbeat.

Share via

Where to find the machine token refresh timestamp for Azure Virtual Desktop session hosts?

1 answer

Your answer