The adoption of cloud solutions has helped to reduce operating expenses (Opex) and the management costs in numerous areas of IT. In fact,, many systems that previously ran on-premises and were complex to maintain are now simple managed services in the cloud.. At the same time though, the execution of systems located in different environments; and the wide range of new Azure services, can make operational management articulated. Microsoft, to better manage the various services and their configuration, provides the solution Azure Automanage, which appropriately integrated with Azure Arc, allows you to automate various operations during the entire life cycle of the machines, regardless of where they reside. This article lists the characteristics of the solution, showing how Azure Automanage, together with Azure Arc, can facilitate the day-to-day tasks of system administrators and ensure optimal adherence to Microsoft best practices.
Simplify the configuration and management of systems wherever they reside
Azure Automanage Automatically implement best practices in machine management while ensuring security compliance, corporate compliance and business continuity. Furthermore, Azure Arc for servers extends the possibilities offered by Azure in the field of governance and management also to physical machines and virtual systems that reside in environments other than Azure. To learn more about the implementation guidelines, Microsoft's proven best practices and tools designed to accelerate your cloud adoption journey should be referenced Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework.
Quickly configure Windows and Linux server
By adopting this solution, you can detect, integrate and configure different Azure services during the entire life cycle of the machines, making a distinction between Production environments and DevTest environments. Azure services automatically managed by Azure Automanage and related specifications are available in this Microsoft documentation:
Figure 1 – Overview of services managed by Azure Automanage
The inclusion of machines in the service can take place on a large scale or individually, with the certainty that if the systems do not comply with the best practices imposed, Azure Automanage will be able to detect and correct them automatically.
The service can be activated directly from the Azure portal and requires a few simple steps.
The choice of configuration profiles
Azure Automanage uses configuration profiles to determine which Azure services should be enabled on the selected systems. Two configuration profiles are currently available by default, one for the DevTest environment and one for the Production environment. The two profiles are distinguished by the types of services to be enabled on the different workloads. Furthermore, in addition to the standard profiles it is allowed to configure some custom profiles with a certain subset of preferences regarding the various services.
After you enable the service Azure Automanage The process that leads the machines back to the best practices specified in the chosen configuration profile is started.
The status of the VMs after activation of the service can be of different types, here described.
Azure Automanage also recently introduced new profile customization options and more supported operating systems, including Windows 10/11, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Canonical Ubuntu and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.
Configure Windows and Linux servers in Azure environments, hybrid or multi-cloud through Azure Arc
Azure Automanage can be enabled on both Azure VMs and Azure Arc-enabled servers. Furthermore, Azure Automanage for Windows Server offers new features specific to Windows Server Azure Edition, that improve the uptime of Windows Server VMs in Azure and Azure Stack HCI environment. These features include:
- Hotpatch
- SMB over QUIC
- Azure Extended Networking
Advantages of the solution
The adoption of Azure Automanage involves several advantages for the customer that can be summarized in the following points:
- Cost reduction, automating machine management
- Optimize workload uptime by performing tasks in an optimized way
- Control over the implementation of security best practices
Conclusions
Machine life cycle management, especially in heterogeneous and large environments, can be very expensive in terms of time and costs. Furthermore, activities that are repeated frequently can be prone to errors, leading systems to a non-optimal configuration. Thanks to this integration between Azure Automanage and Azure Arc it is possible to simplify and automate all the operations necessary to ensure that the systems adhere to the desired requirements.
