Connect a Hybrid Server to Azure using Azure Arc

New week, new Azure tip video!. This week we are going to have a look at how you can connect a hybrid server to Azure using Azure Arc. Azure Arc enabled servers enables you to manage and govern your Windows and Linux machines hosted across on-premises, edge, and multi-cloud environments. You’ll learn how to deploy and configure the Connected Machine agent on your Windows or Linux machine hosted outside of Azure for management by Arc enabled servers.

You can also check out the following links to learn more about Azure Arc enabled servers and how you can connect a hybrid server to Azure using Azure Arc.

• Quickstart: Connect hybrid machine with Azure Arc enabled servers
• Microsoft Docs: Connect hybrid machines to Azure from the Azure portal
• Azure Arc enabled servers

Connect a Hybrid Server to Azure using Azure Arc

To connect a server running on-premises or at another cloud provider to Azure using Azure Arc, you can simply go to the Azure Portal to the Azure Arc Center and select Azure Arc enabled servers. Here you can click on the “Add” button.

Add Azure Arc Enabled Server

There are currently two different ways to onboard a server. You can use an interactive script or an adding servers at scale method. With the interactive script method, you will need to provide credentials when running the script on a machine. With the onboarding at scale method, you will need to create a Service Principal Name with the minimum set of Azure permissions to onboard your servers. I highly recommend that in production environments, you o for the service principal method.

Select a method

For demonstration purposes, we will go on with the interactive script method because this provides you with more details when you do it the first time. You will be provided with some of the prerequisites for Azure Arc enabled servers.

Add a server with Azure Arc.

You will need to provide some resources details, such as the Azure subscription, resource group, region for the metadata. You will also need to select the operating system type since the script you will get at the end will be a PowerShell script for your Windows machines and a shell script for your Linux servers.

Resource Details

You can now configure tags for your Azure Arc enabled server, or you can skip that step and do that later. In the end, you will be provided with a script, which you can run on the server you want to onboard to Azure Arc. This script will download the Azure Connected Machine agent, install the agent and register the server to Microsoft Azure.

Azure Arc Onboarding Script

This should provide you with a quick overview of how you can add a hybrid server to Azure using Azure Arc. Now the Azure Arc enabled server will show up as an Azure resource, and you can start using Azure management services for your on-premises server, like monitoring. If you want to learn more about Azure Arc, check out the recording of my session at Experts Live – Azure Hybrid Cloud Management.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave a comment below.