Overview of Pools

Tenants can also have multiple pools assigned to it. Pools are used to manage machine provisioning and user assignment. Provisioning as well as user assignment depends on the type of site (Windows 365 or VMware) that the pool is associated to. Multiple pools can be created within a site.

The concept of pools differs slightly, depending on the tenants.

Windows 365 Pools

For Windows 365 sites, a pool refers to a group of users who share compute resources, such as machines. Using a pool, you can grant access and permissions to a group, instead of individual users, simplifying user access management.

In Windows 365 deployments, a pool is assigned during tenant creation or after. User—machine assignment (one-to-one relationship) is managed in Microsoft Azure. The availability of Windows 365 licenses purchased by the organization determines the number of possible assignments. User access to the pool in the case involves associating Microsoft Entra Groups with the pool.

VMware Pools

For VMware sites, a pool refers to a set of shared compute resources, such as machines. Pools allow you to assign machines to users in a one-to-one relationship. In VMware deployments, a vSphere resource pool is created and assigned to the tenant after the tenant is set up. During pool creation, users are assigned to the pool. User—machine assignment is managed by VMware.

Registered Device Pools

For registered devices, a pool refers to a set of workstations that are already set up in customer environments, and are assigned to users in a one-to-one relationship. Anyware Manager Enterprise does not provision these resources, but instead, only manages remote access using Anyware Agents.

Once Anyware agents are installed on the devices in the pool, they are populated in the machines list of the pool page, from where user—machine is controlled.