Azure NVadsA10_v5, Windows 11 Enterprise Multi-Session, and NVIDIA GRID Driver Support Clarification

Question

Azure NVadsA10_v5, Windows 11 Enterprise Multi-Session, and NVIDIA GRID Driver Support Clarification

Doug R 0

Hi there,

I'm hoping someone from the community who has deployed GPU-enabled Azure Virtual Desktop environments can help me understand whether I'm interpreting the documentation correctly.

We are evaluating an AVD deployment using:

Standard_NV12ads_A10_v5
Windows 11 Enterprise multi-session
Azure Virtual Desktop

While reviewing driver requirements, I found documentation from both Microsoft and NVIDIA that appears to indicate that Windows Enterprise multi-session is not supported.

Microsoft's Azure N-series driver page currently states for the NVadsA10_v5 / vGPU18 driver:

Windows Enterprise multi-session isn't supported. [learn.microsoft.com]

Reference:

Azure N-series NVIDIA GPU driver setup for Windows

I also found similar wording in NVIDIA's vGPU 18 Product Support Matrix:

All Windows 11 releases supported by Microsoft up to and including this release are supported. Windows Enterprise multi-session is not supported.

Reference:

NVIDIA vGPU 18 Product Support Matrix

My confusion is that NVadsA10_v5 is commonly discussed as a GPU platform for Azure Virtual Desktop workloads, and Windows 11 Enterprise multi-session is a common AVD operating system.

I have already confirmed that a test VM reports:

DISM /Online /Get-CurrentEdition

Current Edition : ServerRdsh

which identifies it as Windows Enterprise multi-session.

For those who have deployed GPU-enabled AVD environments:

Am I interpreting these documents correctly?
Does the documentation indicate a supportability restriction, or is there some nuance that I'm missing?
If Windows 11 Enterprise multi-session is unsupported with the current NVadsA10_v5 driver branch, what operating system is generally being used for supported GPU-enabled AVD deployments?

I'm not looking for an official support determination here; I'm primarily trying to understand how others have interpreted these documents and whether there is additional documentation that clarifies the intended deployment model.

Thanks.

0 comments

1 answer

Your answer

Answer 1

Yes. The documentation indicates that Windows 11 Enterprise multi-session is not supported for NVadsA10_v5 when using the Azure-distributed NVIDIA GRID driver listed for that VM series.

The relevant Microsoft driver table for NVadsA10_v5 lists support for:

Windows 11 releases up to 25H2
Windows Server 2025
Windows Server 2022

It also explicitly states:

Windows Enterprise multi-session isn't supported

For Azure Virtual Desktop, the guidance is also clear that for NVIDIA GPU VM sizes, only Azure-distributed NVIDIA GRID drivers are supported and that GRID drivers, not CUDA drivers, provide GPU acceleration for most applications and the Windows user interface.

That explains the nuance:

NVadsA10_v5 is supported for Azure Virtual Desktop GPU acceleration
but the supported guest OS/driver combination still has to match the driver support matrix
and for the current Azure-distributed GRID driver shown for NVadsA10_v5, Windows 11 Enterprise multi-session is excluded

So the interpretation is:

AVD on NVadsA10_v5: supported scenario in general
AVD on NVadsA10_v5 with Windows 11 Enterprise multi-session: not supported by the listed GRID driver support matrix

Based on the supported OS list in the Microsoft documentation, the supported operating systems for NVadsA10_v5 with that GRID driver are:

Windows 11 (excluding Enterprise multi-session)
Windows Server 2025
Windows Server 2022

If a supported GPU-enabled AVD deployment is required on NVadsA10_v5, the documented supported choices are therefore the non-multi-session Windows 11 option or Windows Server 2025/2022, subject to the rest of the AVD design requirements.

A related AVD note is that for NVIDIA GPU session hosts, only Azure-distributed drivers are supported, and for most application/UI acceleration the required driver type is GRID.

References: