Install the Azure Connected Machine agent to enable Azure Arc

Article
10/14/2024

This article describes how to install the Azure Connected Machine agent.

Prerequisites

An Azure account with an active subscription. If you don't already have an account, create a trial subscription.
Administrator permissions to install and configure the Connected Machine agent. On Linux, you install and configure it using the root account, and on Windows, you use an account that's a member of the Local Administrators group.
Register the Microsoft.HybridCompute, Microsoft.GuestConfiguration, and Microsoft.HybridConnectivity resource providers on your subscription. You can register these resource providers either ahead of time or as you're completing the steps in this article.
Review the agent prerequisites, and ensure that:
- Your target machine is running a supported operating system.
- Your account has the required Azure built-in roles.
- The machine is in a supported region.
- If the machine connects through a firewall or proxy server to communicate over the internet, the listed URLs in Connected Machine agent network requirements aren't blocked.

Generate an installation script

Use the Azure portal to create a script that automates the downloading and installation of the agent and establishes the connection with Azure Arc.

In the Azure portal, search for Servers - Azure Arc, and then select it in the results list.
On the Servers - Azure Arc page, select Add.
On the Add a single server tile, select Generate script.
Review the information on the Prerequisites page, and then select Next.
On the Resource details page, provide the following:

a. Select the subscription and resource group where you want the machine to be managed within Azure.
b. For Region, select the Azure region in which the server's metadata will be stored.
c. For Operating system, select the operating system of the server you want to connect.
d. For Connectivity method, select how the Azure Connected Machine agent should connect to the internet. If you select Proxy server, enter the proxy server IP address, or enter the name and port number that the machine will use, in the format http://<proxyURL>:<proxyport>.
e. Select Next.
On the Tags page, review the default Physical location tags suggested and either enter a value or specify one or more Custom tags to support your standards.
Select Next.
On the Download and run script page, select the Register button to register the required resource providers in your subscription, if you haven't already done so.
In the Download or copy the following script section, review the script. If you want to make any changes, use the Previous button to go back and update your selections. Otherwise, select Download to save the script file.

Install the agent using the script

After you've generated the script, the next step is to run it on the server that you want to onboard to Azure Arc. The script downloads the Connected Machine agent from the Download Center, install the agent on the server, create the Azure Arc-enabled server resource, and associate it with the agent.

Follow the steps corresponding to the operating system of your server.

Windows agent
Linux agent

Sign in to the server.
Open an elevated 64-bit PowerShell Command Prompt window.
Change to the folder or share that you copied the script to, and then execute it on the server by running the ./OnboardingScript.ps1 script.

To install the Linux agent, run one of the following commands:

On the target machine that can directly communicate to Azure, run:
```
bash ~/Install_linux_azcmagent.sh
```

If the target machine communicates through a proxy server, run:

bash ~/Install_linux_azcmagent.sh --proxy "{proxy-url}:{proxy-port}"

Verify the connection with Azure Arc

After you install the agent and configure it to connect to Azure Arc-enabled servers, go to the Azure portal to verify that the server is successfully connected. View your machine in the Azure portal.

Connect hybrid machines to Azure by using PowerShell

For servers that are enabled with Azure Arc, you can take the previously mentioned manual steps to enable them for one or more Windows or Linux machines in your environment.

Alternatively, you can use the PowerShell cmdlet Connect-AzConnectedMachine to download the Azure Connected Machine agent, install the agent, and register the machine with Azure Arc. The cmdlet downloads the Windows agent package (Windows Installer) from the Microsoft Download Center, and it downloads the Linux agent package from the Microsoft package repository.

Refer to the linked document to discover the required steps to install the Azure Arc agent via PowerShell.

Connect hybrid machines to Azure from Windows Admin Center

You can enable Azure Arc-enabled servers for one or more Windows machines in your environment manually, or you can use the Windows Admin Center to deploy the Azure Connected Machine agent and register your on-premises servers without having to perform any steps outside of this tool. For more information about installing the Azure Arc agent via Windows Admin Center, see Connect hybrid machines to Azure from Windows Admin Center.

Next step

Install Azure Monitor Agent