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Yandex Cloud Desktop
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  1. Step-by-step tutorials
  2. Desktop groups
  3. Creating a desktop group

Creating a desktop group

Written by
Yandex Cloud
Updated at May 13, 2025
Management console
Yandex Cloud CLI
API
  1. In the management console, select the folder where you want to create your desktop group.

  2. In the list of services, select Cloud Desktop.

  3. Click Create desktop group.

  4. Specify the desktop group name and description.

  5. Select Group type:

    • Personal: Desktops are assigned to users on their first sign-in and remain reserved for them.
    • Session: Desktops are automatically assigned to users with each new login and released upon logout (feature coming soon).
  6. Under Desktops, specify:

    1. Maximum desktop group size: Maximum number of desktops per group.
    2. Hot standby: Number of desktops kept always loaded for quick user access.
  7. Under Computing resources:

    • To select a standard configuration, navigate to the Standard tab and click:
      • Basic: 2 vCPUs, 4 GB RAM. You can use it for tasks involving office apps, simple documents, and web browsing.
      • Standard: 4 vCPUs, 8 GB RAM. It is well-suited for most office work with support for multitasking and moderately resource-intensive apps.
      • Advanced: 8 vCPUs, 16 GB RAM. It is ideal for developers, designers, and users running resource-intensive apps, e.g., multimedia editors.
      • Professional: 8 vCPUs, 32 GB RAM. It works best for engineers using CAD tools and big data analysts. This configuration provides maximum computing power and memory for complex and high-load applications.
    • To set a custom desktop configuration, navigate to the Custom tab and specify the following:
      • Number of vCPUs.
      • Guaranteed vCPU share.
      • Amount of RAM.
  8. Select a preinstalled or custom OS image.

  9. Under Disks:

    • Select the boot and working disk types.
    • Specify the boot and working disk size.
  10. Under Network settings, select the cloud network and subnets to host desktops.

    Note

    To enable internet access for your desktops, set up a NAT gateway in the relevant subnet.

  11. Under Desktop users, click Add users and specify the following:

    • User groups.
    • Individual users.
    • Any user's mail address. The user will be sent an invitation to your organization and assigned a role for desktop access.

    You can update the user list at any time after creating the desktop group.

    Warning

    Users from the list will see the desktops of this group in their showcase. To enable users to connect to desktops, assign them the vdi.viewer role.

  12. Click Create.

If you do not have the Yandex Cloud (CLI) command line interface yet, install and initialize it.

  1. See the description of the CLI command for creating a desktop group:

    yc desktops group create --help
    
  2. Select a folder:

    yc resource-manager folder list
    

    Result:

    +----------------------+------------+--------+----------+
    |          ID          |    NAME    | LABELS |  STATUS  |
    +----------------------+------------+--------+----------+
    | b1g681qpemb4******** | my-folder  |        | ACTIVE   |
    | b1ggmp8es27t******** | new-folder |        | ACTIVE   |
    +----------------------+------------+--------+----------+
    
  3. Select the desktop boot disk image. You can find the image ID in the management console.

  4. Select a cloud network and subnets:

    yc vpc subnet list
    

    Result:

    +----------------------+-------------+----------------------+----------------------+---------------+------------------+
    |          ID          |    NAME     |      NETWORK ID      |    ROUTE TABLE ID    |     ZONE      |      RANGE       |
    +----------------------+-------------+----------------------+----------------------+---------------+------------------+
    | e2lb1da2dd9v******** | my-subnet-b | enp0asmd9pr9******** |                      | ru-central1-b | [10.129.0.0/24]  |
    | e9bhhpeo3vmk******** | my-subnet-a | enp0asmd9pr9******** |                      | ru-central1-a | [10.128.0.0/24]  |
    | fl8rnqg0nb99******** | my-subnet-d | enp0asmd9pr9******** | enpajmdvphs7******** | ru-central1-d | [10.131.0.0/24]  |
    +----------------------+-------------+----------------------+----------------------+---------------+------------------+
    

    Where:

    • ID: Subnet ID.
    • NETWORK ID: Cloud network ID.
  5. Create a desktop group:

    yc desktops group create \
      --folder-id <folder_ID> \
      --image-id <image_ID> \
      --name <group_name> \
      --resource-spec memory=4G,cores=2,core-fraction=100 \
      --network-interface-spec \
        network-id=<network_ID>,subnet-id=<subnet_1_ID>,...,network-id=<network_ID>,subnet-id=<subnet_n_ID>
    

    Where:

    • --folder-id: Folder ID.

    • --image-id: Disk image ID.

    • --name: Desktop group name.

    • --resource-spec: Desktop group resource description:

      • memory: Amount of RAM.
      • cores: Number of vCPUs.
      • core-fraction: Guaranteed vCPU share.
    • --network-interface-spec: Desktop group network interface description:

      • network-id: Cloud network ID.
      • subnet-id: Subnet ID.

      You can specify one or more subnets from the same cloud network.

    Result:

    id: e3v80f10pc01********
    folder_id: b1g681qpemb4********
    created_at: "2024-10-09T18:58:17.357Z"
    status: ACTIVE
    name: my-desktop-group
    resources_spec:
      memory: "4294967296"
      cores: "2"
      core_fraction: "100"
    network_interface_spec:
      network_id: enp0asmd9pr9********
      subnet_ids:
        - e2lb1da2dd9v********
    

Use the create REST API method for the DesktopGroup resource or the DesktopGroupService/Create gRPC API call.

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