Additional Best Practices for Image Creation in Amazon WorkSpaces

Creating and managing custom Windows OS images in Amazon WorkSpaces requires adherence to requirements and using best practices to ensure a seamless and efficient workflow.

Below are key recommendations to consider, along with examples, case studies, and troubleshooting tips to illustrate these practices:

1.Follow the Requirement to Create Windows custom images

The first and most important recommendation is to follow and adhere to the requirements to create Windows custom images as defined by AWS doc. AWS published best practices outlined in the documentation, but these specific practices can help avoid errors.

2. Utilize a Separate Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)

To maintain security and isolation, it is advisable to use a separate VPC that is not connected to your production environment. This approach helps prevent unintended interactions and potential security breaches.

Example: A financial services company implemented Amazon WorkSpaces Personal and required a test and quality assurance environment to validate all changes to Production. In this case a separate AWS account and VPC was created for image creation within their Amazon WorkSpaces environment. This separation ensured that sensitive customer data remained secure and isolated from other parts of their infrastructure, reducing the risk of data breaches.

3. Avoid Configuring Group Policy Objects (GPOs) Prior to Image Creation

For Windows WorkSpaces, it is recommended to avoid configuring any GPOs before creating the image. This practice helps reduce potential conflicts and ensures a cleaner image creation process.

Example: A healthcare organization was trying to create a custom Window OS WorkSpaces image faced issues with conflicting GPOs during image creation, leading to deployment failures. The specific GPO required a logon banner to be displayed at logon. After hours of troubleshooting and reviewing logs, the solution was to avoid GPO configurations prior to image creation, they were able to streamline the process and achieve successful image creation.

4. Employ a Dedicated AD Connector and Organizational Unit (OU)

Using a dedicated AD Connector and a dedicated OU in the Active Directory for image creation can streamline the process and minimize the risk of errors. This is particularly important for successful BYOL (Bring Your Own License) image creation.

In practice, using a dedicated AD Connector and OU for the Amazon WorkSpaces deployment simplified the management of user accounts and permissions, resulting in a more efficient and error-free image creation process.

5. Troubleshooting Common Issues During Image Creation

Despite following best practices, you may encounter issues during the image creation process. Here are some common problems and their solutions:

5.1 User Profile Errors

• Issue: The Image Checker Tool fails due to user profile errors.
• Solution: Ensure that there is only one WorkSpaces user profile (D:\Users\username) on the WorkSpace. Delete any additional user profiles that do not belong to the intended user. Refer to the advanced system properties in the Windows Control Panel to manage user profiles. For image creation to work, your WorkSpace can have only three user profiles on it: The user profile of the intended user of the WorkSpace (D:\Users\username) The default user profile (also known as Default Profile) The Administrator user profile

5.2 Application Conflicts

• Issue: Conflicts between installed applications cause image creation failures.
• Solution: Incrementally uninstall applications and attempt image capture. Start with applications known to cause conflicts, such as AntiVirus and Firewall app.

Conclusion

By adhering to these best practices, learning from real-world examples, and troubleshooting common issues, you can ensure a more efficient and error-free image creation process in Amazon WorkSpaces. Whether working with dedicated BYOL or shared tenancy images, these guidelines will help navigate the complexities and achieve successful deployments.