Azure Connected Machine agent

In the Ultra Transcenders books

AZ-305AZ-104SC-500AZ-802

Each book explains Azure Connected Machine agent in context, with comparison tables and the common traps.

Terms in this definition

• Agent

  A specialised form of Microsoft Copilot set up for one particular job, pairing instructions with knowledge and skills. You can create one in Copilot Studio, SharePoint or Agent Builder, and administrators control them from the Microsoft 365 admin center.

• Azure Arc

  Azure service for managing servers that live outside Azure without moving them, by installing the Azure Connected Machine agent; it does not migrate anything.

• Real-time streaming semantic model

  Covers live-fed push, streaming and PubNub models, plus streaming dashboard tiles. Microsoft now steers people towards Real-Time Intelligence in Fabric, as these are being retired and new ones can only be made until 31 October 2027.

Related terms

• azcmagent

  CLI that ships with the Azure Connected Machine agent. Running azcmagent connect registers a server with Azure Arc, and supplying a service principal ID plus a secret or certificate makes that onboarding unattended.

• Azure Arc-enabled servers

  Servers running Windows or Linux outside Azure that become Azure resources once the Azure Connected Machine agent is installed; data collection rules can then drive the Azure Monitor agent on them.

• HIMDS

  Part of the Azure Connected Machine agent; on a server connected through Arc, it offers instance metadata and tokens for the managed identity through a local endpoint.

• Monitor mode

  Restricts the Azure Connected Machine agent to security or monitoring extensions only; it also switches off machine configuration and remote connectivity, and stops anyone editing the extension allowlist.

• MSI

  Windows Installer packages carry an installation database inside. The Azure Connected Machine agent, among others, is distributed in this format.