Step-by-step guide to setting up Azure Arc for an on-prem Windows Server

Azure Arc, introduced at Microsoft Ignite 2019, extends Azure management tools to on-premises infrastructure. I’ll go over how to set up the agent in this guide.

Head over to the Azure Arc pane (https://aka.ms/hybridmachineportal). Click the +Add icon in the topleft, then Add machines using interactive script > Generate Script.

On the Generate script pane, select the appropriate resource group:

Register for the preview and then you can download the script!

Once you download the script, run it as an admin on the server of your choice:

Soon there will be a prompt to authenticate, so open a browser and enter the code in the PowerShell window:

And now the device shows up in Azure!

From what I can tell, the most useful (and only) features of Azure Arc for on-prem Windows Servers would be controlling access via Azure AD and monitoring using Log Analytics. Let me know if you’re interested in exploring these topics and I can set up another guide!