Microsoft Azure Arc

Microsoft Azure Arc Services is a bridge that extends the Azure platform to help you build applications and services with the flexibility to run across datacenters, at the edge, and in multicloud environments. Develop cloud-native applications with a consistent development, operations, and security model. Azure Arc runs on both new and existing hardware, virtualization and Kubernetes platforms, IoT devices, and integrated systems. Do more with less by leveraging your existing investments to modernize with cloud-native solutions.

Azure Arc Control Plane

So with this Awesome Microsoft Feature Azure Arc, I have connected my Windows Insiders Domain mvplab.local servers like a Windows Server Insider Domain Controller, Windows Server Insider Cluster with a SQL Instance on it and Windows 11 Insider Preview Build in the Beta Channel domain joined. Here you can find how to install the Azure Arc Agent on your Servers

Microsoft Azure Arc comes with great features like Azure Security with Cloud Defender to keep your Azure Arc enabled Servers as secure as possible. Azure Policies is very handy to keep your IT governance on every Server the same. With inventory and Change tracking you are in control to get the right information of your machines. Monitoring your Azure Arc enabled servers with Insights and Log analytics is very powerful. But for now I’m going to use Updates feature of Azure Arc enabled Windows 11 Insider Preview Build machine.

Important :  I’m working with Windows Server Insider preview Build and Windows 11 Insider Preview Build.
They are for testing purpose only and not for production environments!
Of course you can use Windows Server 2019 / 2022 or Windows 10 / 11 Build with Azure Arc 

Here we have Windows 11 Insider Preview Build with new Updates in the Beta Channel.
Click on One time Update

I’m going to update this Azure Arc enabled Windows 11 Insider preview Build once manually but you can schedule updates also and use Update Management Center.

Select the Machine and Click on Next

Here you can select the updates or exclude updates.
Then Click on Next

Here you can set the Reboot option and
Maintenance Window in minutes.
Click on Next

Review and Click on Install

Install Updates Request is submitted.

At Updates of your Azure Arc enabled Machine you can open
Update Management Center

Here you can see the Complete Overview of the Updates on your Machines.
Left under you see the 3 updates for the Windows 11 Insider Beta Build.

When you click on History you will see the status in progress.

Updates are running on the Machine.

But with the Azure Resource Graph Explorer you can also
see when the updates are succeeded.

Update Management Center after successful running updates

Updates Done for Azure Arc enabled Windows 11 Insider Beta Build.

Now I have got the Newest Windows 11 Insider Preview Build in the Beta Channel at this moment

Conclusion

You have seen how easy it is to work with Microsoft Azure Arc services to manage your Virtual Machine with Updates, when you have lot of Virtual Machines / Servers to manage you can configure them once and do this automatically via schedule tasks for every month. Now I can manage my on-prem Servers / machines in the same way I do the Microsoft Azure Virtual Machines.
So this was only Updates, but you can do the same for Security and keep your machines secure by default with the same Azure policies on your machines for IT Governance. Hope you see the benefits of Azure Hybrid and please start your own journey.
When you have a test environment, please consider the Microsoft Windows Insider program for Windows 11 Insider Builds and for Windows Server Insider Build to work with the newest features and getting experience before GA becomes available.

Happy Microsoft Azure Week!

About the Author

Microsoft Architect and ICT Specialist and Microsoft MVP Cloud and Datacenter Management Microsoft MVP Windows Insider Microsoft Tech Community Insider Microsoft Azure Advisor.

Reference

Van den Berg, J., 2023, Azure Arc and Windows 11 Insider Preview Build Update #WindowsInsiders #WIMVP #AzureHybrid, Mountainss.wordpress.com, Available at: https://mountainss.wordpress.com/2023/04/16/azure-arc-and-windows-11-insider-preview-build-update-windowsinsiders-wimvp-azurehybrid/ [Accessed on 3 July 2023]