Among the various features that can be managed through Windows Admin Center, there is the possibility to simply drive the protection of virtual machines, present in a Hyper-V environment, with Azure Site Recovery (ASR). This article lists the necessary steps to follow and the possibilities offered by the Admin Center in this area.
Windows Admin Center, formerly known as Project Honolulu, allows through a web console, to manage the infrastructure in a centralized way. Thanks to this tool Microsoft has initiated a process of centralization in a single portal for all administrative console, allowing you to manage and configure your infrastructure with a user experience: modern, simple, integrated and secure.
Windows Admin Center requires no dependency with the cloud in order to function and can be deployed locally to gain control of different aspects of your local server infrastructure. In addition to the component Web Server, that allows access via browser to the tool, the Windows Admin Center consists of a component gateway, through which you can manage your server via Remote PowerShell and WMI over WinRM.
Figure 1 - Basic diagram of the architecture of Windows Admin Center
Connecting your Windows Admin Center gateway to Azure
Windows Admin Center also offers the opportunity to integrate with different Azure services, including Azure Site Recovery. In order to allow the Windows Admin Center gateway to communicate with Azure it is necessary to proceed with its registration process, by following the steps later documented. The wizard, available in the preview version of Windows Admin Center , making the creation of an Azure AD app in its own directory, which allows the Windows Admin Center communication with Azure.
Figure 2 - Start of the registration process from the Admin Center settings
Figure 3 - Generation of the code needed to log in
Figure 4 - Enter the code in the Device Login page
Figure 5 - Start the Azure authentication process
Figure 6 – Sign-in confirmation
Figure 7 – Selection of the Tenant where register the Azure AD app
Figure 8 - Guidance for providing permissions to the Azure AD app
Figure 9 – Assignment of permissions, from the Azure Portal, to the registered app
Figure 10 - Azure integration configuration completed
ASR environment configuration for protecting Hyper-V VMs
After configuring the connection of Windows Admin Center with Azure you can, selecting the Hyper-V system that holds the virtual machines to be replicated to Azure, proceed with the entire configuration of the Recovery Services vault, directly from the web console of Windows Admin Center. The steps below illustrate the simplicity of the activation.
Figure 11 – Start the configuration necessary for protecting VMs
From the Admin Center you are asked to provide basic information for the ASR environment configuration and it provides the ability to create a new Recovery Service vault or select an existing one.
Figure 12 – Configuration of the Hyper-V host in Azure Site Recovery
In the form proposed by the Windows Admin Center are offered only some values, therefore I advise you to proceed before to the creation of the Recovery Service vault and, on the previous screen, select an existing one, created with all configuration parameters at will and to suit your needs.
This step performs the following actions:
- Install the ASR agent on the Hyper-V host or on all nodes in a cluster environment.
- If you select to create a new vault it proceeds to the creation in the selected region and places it into a new Resource Group (assigning a default name).
- It registers the Hyper-V system with ASR and configures a default replication policy.
Figure 13 - Site Recovery Jobs generated by the configuration
Virtual machine protection configuration
After the configuration of the previously reported activity is possible to activate the protection of virtual machines.
Figure 14 - Activation of the VM protection process
Figure 15 - Selection of the storage account and start of protection
At the end of the process of replication, you can validate the replication process by activating the test failover procedure from the Azure Portal.
Conclusions
Being able to interact with certain Azure services directly from Windows Admin Center can facilitate and speed up the administration of an hybrid datacenter. At the moment the possibility of integration with Azure Site Recovery are minimal and not suitable for complex scenarios. However, Windows Admin Center is constantly evolving and will be more and more enriched with new features to better interact with Azure services.
