Windows Server 2025 – Part 3 (Azure Arc)
Andreas Hartig
Microsoft MVP Windows Server | Azure Hybrid & Migration, RCDA Trainer, CGI Luminary, Director Consulting Expert
To connect Windows Server 2025 with Azure Arc is the next step for my HomeLab includes configuring the existing Windows Server 2025, the 3 Windows Server 2025, my Linux VM and for using the current supported OS (End of April 2024) we will also add a Windows Server 2022.
Table of Contents
Windows Server 2022 – Azure Arc
With the?Cumulative Update of 10/10/2023?for Windows Server 2022 we did get a new Azure Arc system tray icon.
With Cumulative Update of 10/10/2023 a new Server Manager entry for Azure Arc Management has also been added.
From the Azure Arc Sys Tray and from the Server Manager you can now quickly configure your server using a GUI.
Windows Server 2025 – Azure Arc
Windows Server 2025 comes with the Systray icon per default.
There is also an Azrue Arc Management Option available in Server Manager with the current preview (April 2024).
Configuring Azure Arc using the Setup GUI
For a manual setup just click the Icon in the Taskbar and click Launch Azure Arc Setup.
The Azure Arc Setup Wizard will walk you through the process of adding your machine to Azure Arc and show you the benefits of doing so. Click Next to continue.
The Setup Agent will perform a quick connectivity and requirements check and download the latest updates before beginning the installation of the Azure Connected Machine Agent. Once the check is complete, click Configure.
To start configuring the Azure Connected Machine agent select Next.
You will have to sign in to your Azure environment by choosing the appropriate Azure cloud, and then selecting?Sign in to Azure. Yozu will now need to enter your sign-in credentials for Azure.
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At this point you should configure your Azure Active Directory Tenant, subscription, resource group and Azure region. As you can see from the below screenshot, there is an issue with my Azure Environment or this test setup. I did get the "The given key was not present in the dictionary." on all servers and even a fresh created new Azure Entra ID Tenant and Subscription in all Azure Regions i tried. This is a more common issue as you can see here and I have opened an incident with Microsoft.
The next screen would finalize the setup and the only image of it i could find, is available here on the blog by Thomas Maurer.
To continue with my setup i used the powershell command as a workaround.
azcmagent connect --subscription-id "your Azure subscription ID"
--resource-group "your Azure resource group" --location "the Azure location"
Verifying your Azure Arc Connection
The Azure Arc Taskbar icon will now show the connection status for you.
The azcmagent command tool will give you significantly more details about your now Azure Arc enabled server.
azcmagent show
Azure Arc configuration for Linux
For some of us incl. myself Linux is not the daily work environment, but luckily configuring Azure Arc for Linux is also easy.
Open the "Add Servers with Azure Arc" blade, configure it for the desired resource groups. Azure region and choose Linux. You can now download a "ready to execute script". Copy this to your Linux System using i.e. WinSCP and execute it on Linux.
The DeviceLogin option from Microsoft makes this a very simple process.
For higher quality pictures click here
Summary
This completes Azure Arc enabling all of our Hosts and virtual machines. If you followed this guide and used the same naming convention, then you should see this result.
Additional Links - Recommended to read
If you missed the start of the journey to setup my home lab you can start here.