Windows Server Labs

Lab 2: Azure Arc onboarding and Azure benefits (75 min)

In this lab your on-premises VM shows up in the Azure portal, next to cloud VMs, and you manage its updates from there. That's the core of every hybrid conversation.

What is Azure Arc? Azure Arc projects a server that runs outside Azure into Azure as a resource. A small agent, the Azure Connected Machine agent, runs on the server and talks to Azure over HTTPS (port 443). Think of it as giving your server an Azure passport: it stays at home, but Azure now knows it, can tag it, apply policy to it and update it.

Steps

Part A — Generate the onboarding script (Azure portal)

  1. Sign in to the Azure portal and create a resource group named rg-presales-<yourname>.
  2. Search for Azure Arc > Machines > Onboard/Create > Onboard existing machines.
  3. On Basics: - Pick your subscription and rg-presales-<yourname>. - Region: France Central. It supports Windows Admin Center in Azure (Lab 8). - Operating system: Windows. - Connectivity method: Public endpoint. - Authentication method: Authenticate machines manually.
  4. On Tags, add Owner = <yourname> and Purpose = presales-lab.
  5. On Download and run script, select Register if the resource providers aren't registered yet, then Download the script.

Part B — Run it on your VM

  1. Copy the script to your VM (RDP clipboard works for text) and run it in PowerShell as administrator.
  2. When prompted, sign in with your Azure account. The script installs the agent and connects the server.
  3. Check the connection from the VM:

azcmagent show

Agent Status should be Connected. You also see the resource name, resource group and region.

Part C — Manage it from Azure

  1. In the portal, open Azure Arc > Machines and select your server. Look at Overview and Properties: OS version, cores, memory, IP addresses — an inventory with no extra tool.
  2. Open Updates (Azure Update Manager) > Check for updates. After a few minutes you see the missing updates. Don't install them — Lab 3 needs them.
  3. Open Extensions. This is how Azure pushes extra capabilities to the server (monitoring, Defender, scripts) without logging in.

Part D — Activate Azure benefits (Windows Server Management enabled by Azure Arc)

Why does this matter? A customer with Software Assurance or subscription licences gets a set of Azure management services for their Arc servers at no extra cost — but only after they attest it, server by server. Arc doesn't guess it from the licence.

What the attestation unlocks:

Service Used in lab
Azure Update Manager 2, 3
Azure Machine Configuration 4
Change Tracking and Inventory 6
Windows Admin Center in Azure 8
Best Practices Assessment 8
Remote Support 8
Azure Site Recovery configuration, Network HUD, Azure File Sync discount —

This checkbox is a legal statement. In our lab, the instructor confirms the licences qualify before anyone ticks it. With customers, never tick it for them.

  1. On your VM, check the agent version. Benefits need 1.47 or later:

    azcmagent version 13. In the portal, open your machine > Licenses > Windows Server. 14. Under License details, check that License status is Licensed and Arc agent status is Connected. Only licensed, connected servers are eligible. 15. Under Azure benefits, tick Activate Azure benefits and select Confirm. Within about 10 minutes the benefits show as Activated. 16. Look at Pay-as-you-go on the same page. It's greyed out with "machine must be unlicensed to be eligible". Pay-as-you-go is the other route to the same benefits, for servers without a licence: Windows Server is billed monthly on the Azure subscription. 17. To activate many servers at once, use Azure Arc > Licenses > Azure Benefits - Windows Server, select the servers and Activate benefits.

Still billed after activation: Log Analytics ingestion (Change Tracking, Best Practices Assessment, Azure Monitor), the Azure Site Recovery service itself, storage and networking. Hotpatch isn't part of this programme — it's available to every Arc-enabled Windows Server 2025, with or without SA.

Check yourself

Customer talking points