Windows Admin Center for Hybrid IT Management
As an Administrator, I like to work with Microsoft Windows Admin Center, It’s a locally deployed, browser-based app for managing Windows servers, clusters, hyper-converged infrastructure, as well as Windows 10 PCs. You can download Windows Admin Center here and use it for Free in your Production environment. What is Windows Admin Center? What are my benefits? Here you see Windows Admin Center Architecture how it works.
Windows Admin Center Architecture.
So you can use Windows Admin Center everywhere, you can Install it on a Server on-premises without any internet connections, or in a hybrid way with a internet connection for Cloud
services integrations like Azure Backup, Azure Security Center, Azure Monitor or Azure File Sync and to manage your Virtual Machines in the Cloud.
Microsoft is now busy with Windows Admin Center in the Azure Portal in Preview to manage your Hybrid Datacenter. Here you find a blogpost about it in the Microsoft Tech Community.
Manage Internet Access in Windows Admin Center.
Datacenter Administrators want to manage Windows Servers in an Easy way but it must be secure. Microsoft has some user access options for using Windows Admin Center.
The one I like most is Microsoft Azure MFA (Two-Factor-Authentication) on your Windows Admin Center environment. Here you find more information about User Access WAC.
Choose the right Windows Admin Center installation for your environment:
Windows Admin Center Installation types.
These are Production Ready.
But don’t forget the Microsoft Windows Admin Center in the Azure Portal Preview :
Windows Admin Center in the Azure Portal Preview.
Windows Admin Center | Management | Azure Security Center Integration.
The Power of a Modern Management tool like Windows Admin Center is the Extensions feature to integrate with external Services like Azure Cloud Services, or third party vendors like Dell EMC or HP, Fujitsu, Data-On with great management solutions. An other example of a Windows Admin Center Extension are Containers.
In the following steps you will see how easy it is to manage and integrate Azure Security Center into Windows Admin Center for your Servers.
When you have installed Windows Admin Center, you have to add your Microsoft Azure Subscription into WAC.
Azure Registration in Windows Admin Center.
In the upper right you have the settings icon of Windows Admin Center, from there you can select Azure and do the registration. What it will do is making a API with your Microsoft Azure subscription:
Here you see the Registration in Microsoft Azure.
When that is completed successfully, you can add the Microsoft Azure Services via Extensions in Settings. We are going to Select Azure Security Center.
Install the Microsoft Azure Security Center Extension.
From here you have installed the basics for your Servers, now the Microsoft Azure Security Center feature is added in the left management bar at each Server in Windows Admin Center.
Now we only have to register the Servers into Azure Security Center with Windows Admin Center.
Here you see my MVPLAB Machines.
I have two Azure Stack HCI virtual Machines and I like to know if they are secure. ( Skywalker01 and Skywalker02) I start with the Azure Security Center Installation on Skywalker01 VM.
Azure Stack HCI VM called Skywalker01.mvplab.cloud
Sign into Azure.
Select your Azure Subscription, Create or Use existing workspace.
Select Region, and Create or use existing Resource Group.
Click on Setup.
The Virtual Machine will be added to Azure Security Center.
From here it need some time to do the job with doing assessments, getting the metadata of the server with log analytics. Microsoft Azure Security Center will come with security recommendations like:
Here you can do a Quick Fix and do Remediation.
After a view minutes the Security issues are also coming into Windows Admin Center.
Here I get some Security advice in Windows Admin Center for Skywalker01 VM
Here you see the Power of the Azure Cloud with Log Analytics and the
Azure Security Center baselines for Skywalker01 Azure Stack HCI VM.
I forgot Skywalker02 VM to do the monthly security updates and that is a Security Risk too of course :
Skywalker02 Azure Stack HCI VM at High Security Risk.
(No updates)
Of course we have Windows Updates in Windows Admin Center, Just have to select and approve the updates for Skywalker02 to solve this high Risk issue.
Skywalker02 Azure Stack HCI VM Security Risk Solved 😉
Conclusion
In a Hybrid IT world today is Better Together my motto with Windows Admin Center and Microsoft Azure Security Center you have a Great solution. You can make your own Azure Security Center Baseline policy to deploy on your Windows Servers to make them more Secure. Get a High Security Score ! And don’t worry you can add all your Windows Servers into Windows Admin Center if they are on-premises or in the Cloud.
With Azure MFA Two-Factor access authentication, you make your Management tool Windows Admin Center more Secure for your environment. If you don’t use Windows Admin Center yet, start Today !
More Information :
Windows Admin Center on Twitter : @servermgmt
Follow The Windows Admin Center Blog on Microsoft Tech Community
Join the Windows Admin Center Community
Cloud and Datacenter Management Blog 