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What's new with Azure Connected Machine agent

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The Azure Connected Machine agent receives improvements on an ongoing basis. To stay up to date with the most recent developments, this article provides you with information about:

  • The latest releases
  • Known issues
  • Bug fixes

This page is updated monthly, so revisit it regularly. If you're looking for items older than six months, you can find them in archive for What's new with Azure Connected Machine agent.

Version 1.40 - April 2024

Download for Windows or Linux

Known issues

The first release of the 1.40 agent may impact SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc when configured with least privileges on Windows servers. The 1.40 agent was re-released to address this problem. To check if your server is affected, run azcmagent show and locate the agent version number. Agent version 1.40.02664.1629 has the known issue and agent 1.40.02669.1635 fixes it. Download and install the latest version of the agent to restore functionality for SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc.

New features

Fixed

  • Improved error handling when a machine configuration policy has an invalid SAS token
  • The installation script for Windows now includes a flag to suppress reboots in case any agent executables are in use during an upgrade
  • Fixed an issue that could block agent installation or upgrades on Windows when the installer can't change the access control list on the agent's log directories.
  • Extension package maximum download size increased to fix access to the latest versions of the Azure Monitor Agent on Azure Arc-enabled servers.

Version 1.39 - March 2024

Download for Windows or Linux

New features

  • Check which extensions are installed and manually remove them with the new azcmagent extension command group. These commands run locally on the machine and work even if a machine has lost its connection to Azure.
  • You can now customize the CPU limit applied to the extension manager and machine configuration policy evaluation engine. This might be helpful on small or under-powered VMs where the default resource governance limits can cause extension operations to time out.

Fixed

  • Improved reliability of the run command feature with long-running commands
  • Removed an unnecessary endpoint from the network connectivity check when onboarding machines via an Azure Arc resource bridge
  • Improved heartbeat reliability
  • Removed unnecessary dependencies

Version 1.38 - February 2024

Download for Windows or Linux

Known issues

Windows machines that try and fail to upgrade to version 1.38 manually or via Microsoft Update might not roll back to the previously installed version. As a result, the machine will appear "Disconnected" and won't be manageable from Azure. A new version of 1.38 was released to Microsoft Update and the Microsoft Download Center on March 5, 2024 that resolves this issue.

If your machine was affected by this issue, you can repair the agent by downloading and installing the agent again. The agent will automatically discover the existing configuration and restore connectivity with Azure. You don't need to run azcmagent connect.

New features

Fixed

  • The hybrid instance metadata service (HIMDS) now listens on the IPv6 local loopback address (::1)
  • Improved logging in the extension manager and policy engine
  • Improved reliability when fetching the latest operating system metadata
  • Reduced extension manager CPU usage

Version 1.37 - December 2023

Download for Windows or Linux

New features

Fixed

  • Restored access to servers with Windows Admin Center in Azure
  • Improved detection logic for Microsoft SQL Server
  • Agents connected to sovereign clouds should now see the correct cloud and portal URL in azcmagent show
  • The installation script for Linux now automatically approves the request to import the packages.microsoft.com signing key to ensure a silent installation experience
  • Agent installation and upgrades apply more restrictive permissions to the agent's data directories on Windows
  • Improved reliability when detecting Azure Stack HCI as a cloud provider
  • Removed the log zipping feature introduced in version 1.37 for extension manager and machine configuration agent logs. Log files are still rotated automatically.
  • Removed the scheduled tasks for automatic agent upgrades (introduced in agent version 1.30). We'll reintroduce this functionality when the automatic upgrade mechanism is available.
  • Resolved Azure Connected Machine Agent Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

Version 1.36 - November 2023

Download for Windows or Linux

Known issues

The Windows Admin Center in Azure feature is incompatible with Azure Connected Machine agent version 1.36. Upgrade to version 1.37 or later to use this feature.

New features

  • azcmagent show now reports extended security license status on Windows Server 2012 server machines.
  • Introduced a new proxy bypass option, ArcData, that covers the SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc endpoints. This enables you to use a private endpoint with Azure Arc-enabled servers with the public endpoints for SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc.
  • The CPU limit for extension operations on Linux is now 30%. This increase helps improve reliability of extension install, upgrade, and uninstall operations.
  • Older extension manager and machine configuration agent logs are automatically zipped to reduce disk space requirements.
  • New executable names for the extension manager (gc_extension_service) and machine configuration (gc_arc_service) agents on Windows to help you distinguish the two services. For more information, see Windows agent installation details.

Bug fixes

  • azcmagent connect now uses the latest API version when creating the Azure Arc-enabled server resource to ensure Azure policies targeting new properties can take effect.
  • Upgraded the OpenSSL library and PowerShell runtime shipped with the agent to include the latest security fixes.
  • Fixed an issue that could prevent the agent from reporting the correct product type on Windows machines.
  • Improved handling of upgrades when the previously installed extension version wasn't in a successful state.

Next steps

  • Before evaluating or enabling Azure Arc-enabled servers across multiple hybrid machines, review Connected Machine agent overview to understand requirements, technical details about the agent, and deployment methods.
  • Review the Planning and deployment guide to plan for deploying Azure Arc-enabled servers at any scale and implement centralized management and monitoring.