Before you begin
- A Super Administrator or platform operator, to decide in Review settings or to change the Global value
- Tenant administrators can still turn it on or off for their own tenant or host pool in the Configuration Matrix
What changes if you choose the new default
With the setting on, every new session host, and every host rebuilt by Re-Image All, Rolling Replace, Automatic Re-Image or a full host pool, gets a network interface with accelerated networking turned on, as long as:
- The VM size supports accelerated networking (most current general-purpose and compute sizes do)
- The image does not declare that it doesn't support accelerated networking
Sizes without support are always built without it, whatever the setting says, so turning it on never makes a build fail on the VM size.
Before you turn it on
Accelerated networking needs the image to carry the Mellanox (or, on newer sizes, Microsoft Azure Network Adapter) driver. Azure Marketplace Windows 10, Windows 11 and Windows Server images include it. Check first if you use:
- A custom or older image that may not include the driver: hosts built from it can come up with no network connection
- A network virtual appliance or third-party firewall agent on the host that does not work with accelerated networking
What stays the same
- Existing session hosts are not changed. Switch an existing host's network interface on or off from the VM page's Network Interfaces card
- A host pool or tenant that already has its own value keeps it
- Turning it off leaves new network interfaces on Azure's default, which is off
How to decide
- Open Settings → Matrix. If the update left settings for you to review, the Review settings page opens on its own (or follow the banner at the top of the app).
- Under Accelerated Networking, choose Keep current behavior to keep building hosts with it off, or Use the new default to turn it on wherever the VM size supports it.
- Click Save decisions. The choice is saved at Global, so every tenant and host pool that inherits picks it up. Tenants and pools with their own value keep it.
Not sure every image is ready? Keep it off at Global, then turn it on for one host pool in the Configuration Matrix and rebuild a single host to confirm it connects.