Microsoft Azure Update Management Center
Microsoft Azure Update Manager (preview) is a unified service to help manage and govern updates for all your machines. You can monitor Windows and Linux update compliance across your deployments in Azure, on-premises, and on the other cloud platforms from a single dashboard. Important: It’s still in Preview but GA is coming Soon
To support management of your Azure VM or non-Azure machine, Update Manager (preview) relies on a new Azure extension designed to provide all the functionality required to interact with the operating system to manage the assessment and application of updates. This extension is automatically installed when you initiate any Update manager (preview) operations such as check for updates, install one time update, periodic assessment on your machine. The extension supports deployment to Azure VMs or Arc-enabled servers using the extension framework. The Update Manager (preview) extension is installed and managed using the following:
- Azure virtual machine Windows agent or Azure virtual machine Linux agent for Azure VMs.
- Azure arc-enabled servers agent for non-Azure Linux and Windows machines or physical servers.
The extension agent installation and configuration are managed by the Update Manager (preview). There’s no manual intervention required as long as the Azure VM agent or Azure Arc-enabled server agent is functional. The Update Manager (preview) extension runs code locally on the machine to interact with the operating system, and it includes:
- Retrieving the assessment information about status of system updates for it specified by the Windows Update client or Linux package manager.
- Initiating the download and installation of approved updates with Windows Update client or Linux package manager.
In my case I’m updating Windows Server Insider version which is Azure Arc enabled in the following steps :
Here you see my Azure Arc enabled Domain Controller with Windows Server Insider.
Here you Click on Check for Updates
Go to Update Management Center
When you Click on Machines you will get a Nice Overview of your Servers
When you Click on History, you will see the assessment and keeps all activity history in one place.
Update reports are Important and you can make your Own reports or download
Public Templates.
In the following steps we are going to install the three updates on the Azure Arc Enabled Server :
Select the machine(s) for the One-time updates.
Click on Next
here you see the Updates.
You can select your reboot Options and the Maintenance Window in Minutes.
If everything is correct you can click on Install.
In History you see your job in progress
Update Management Overview
In Progress
This is what I like most, when you have to manage more then 100 Servers and they are in your Own Datacenter On-premises but also at Multi Cloud vendors Like in Azure, AWS, Google Cloud or are not Domain Joined Servers then here you can see your Update Compliance in a Single point of Dashboard Overview in the Microsoft Azure Cloud.
Create your Own Maintenance Configuration.
Click on Next DynamicScopes
Add a Dynamic Scope
Select the Filter(s)
Filter for Arc Servers and OS type Windows.
Then you see the Azure Arc Servers by your Filter.
Dynamic Scope is set.
select.
Machines.
Include Update Classification
Azure Update Management Center Overview with Updates Completed 🙂
Updates completed on Windows Server Insider Domain Controller.
Conclusion
Microsoft Azure Update Management Center is still in Preview but is a Great Single Dashboard Overview for managing your Updates on Windows Servers and Linux at any Place. It gives you Great Overview and you can see the status in one view. GA is coming soon, but you can now test and experience it before you go in production with this Awesome product.
Follow Microsoft Azure Update Manager here on X
More information on Microsoft Azure Update Management Center (Preview) here
Cloud and Datacenter Management Blog 