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Azure Arc agent on local machines
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Installing the Azure Arc agent on local machines lets you integrate these machines with Azure and manage them remotely. Neither a virtual private network (VPN) nor port sharing in the firewall are required for this kind of access, and this approach also supports remote PowerShell sessions and remote desktop protocol (RDP) connections. In this article, I look into how you can manage servers from wherever you are with Azure Arc.
The ability to leverage Azure cloud resources locally from the Windows Admin Center (WAC) has been around for quite a while now. It is particularly useful for backing up local data to the cloud with Azure Backup. Azure Arc takes the opposite approach and lets you manage your on-premises servers with WAC in Azure. If you connect WAC to Azure, you can use it to manage Azure virtual machines (VMs) and synchronize VMs from Hyper-V with the cloud as Azure VMs for failover purposes.
The most interesting functions in Azure for supporting local networks are Azure Backup, Azure Monitor, Security Center, Site Recovery, and much more, but local networks also benefit from these Azure services. For small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the advantage is that you can use Azure functions without having to run your own servers, and the services can be managed very easily from the Windows Admin Center.
Connecting to Azure
To connect the Windows Admin Center to Azure, you only need to set up the corresponding configuration on the computer with the Admin Center gateway. Once the connection has been established, when you connect to the gateway from a web browser, you also have access to the Azure functions if you are authorized to do so. To set it up, click the gear icon in the Windows Admin Center to call up the settings. When managing the gateways, you will find a wizard in Azure, which you can use to log in. The various Azure services are then available on the
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