AVD multiregion BCDR: active-active vs active-passive vs personal host pool DR
Verdict: Active-passive with cloud cache has a 15 to 60 minute RTO. Active-active serves both regions but users must not use both at once. Personal host pools use Azure Site Recovery per VM. New pools should be regional.
| Criterion | Active-passive (cloud cache) | Active-active (cloud cache) | Personal host pool DR |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mechanism | Secondary pool warmed on failover; FSLogix cloud cache | Both pools serve users; cloud cache replication | Azure Site Recovery replicates each VM |
| RTO | 15 to 60 minutes | Near zero | Per-VM failover |
| Key caution | Compute warm-up and app-group reassignment | Users must not access both pools simultaneously | No cloud cache; VM stores state locally |
Rules
- Active-passive with cloud cache has a documented RTO of 15 to 60 minutes driven by compute warm-up and app-group reassignment.
- Personal host pools use Azure Site Recovery per VM; there is no cloud cache because state lives on the VM.
- For pooled pools, protect profile file shares with Azure Backup and App Attach packages with zone- or geo-redundant storage.
- A DR region must have redundant hybrid connectivity so hosts can reach on-premises file servers and domain controllers on failover.
- Create new host pools as regional so a control-plane problem stays contained to one region.
Traps
- In active-active, simultaneous use of both pools causes cloud cache write conflicts and profile corruption; restrict each user to one.
- Near-zero RTO describes active-active, not active-passive.
- Regional and geographical host pool objects are not interoperable, so the scope choice matters.