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Extensions for Cloud Services (extended support)

Important

As of March 31, 2025, cloud Services (extended support) is deprecated and will be fully retired on March 31, 2027. Learn more about this deprecation and how to migrate.

Extensions are small applications that provide post-deployment configuration and automation tasks on roles. For example, you can enable a Remote Desktop connection in your role during cloud service (extended support) deployment by using Remote Desktop Extension.

Key Vault Extension

The Key Vault Virtual Machine (VM) extension provides automatic refresh of certificates stored in an Azure Key Vault. Specifically, the extension monitors a list of observed certificates stored in key vaults, and upon detecting a change, retrieves, and installs the corresponding certificates. It also allows cross region/cross subscription reference of certificates for Cloud Service (extended support).

For more information, see Configure key vault extension for Cloud Service (extended support).

Remote Desktop extension

Remote Desktop enables you to access the desktop of a role running in Azure. You can use a remote desktop connection to troubleshoot and diagnose problems with your application while it's running.

You can enable a remote desktop connection in your role during development by including the remote desktop modules in your service definition or through the remote desktop extension.

For more information, see Configure remote desktop from the Azure portal.

Microsoft Azure Diagnostics extension

You can monitor key performance metrics for any cloud service. Every cloud service role collects minimal data: CPU usage, network usage, and disk utilization. If you apply the Microsoft.Azure.Diagnostics extension to a role in the cloud service, that role can collect more data points.

With basic monitoring, the system samples and collects performance counter data from role instances at three-minute intervals. This basic monitoring data isn't stored in your storage account and has no extra cost.

With advanced monitoring, the system samples and collects more metrics at intervals of five minutes, one hour, and 12 hours. The aggregated data is stored in a storage account, in tables, and is purged after 10 days. The role configures the storage account; you can use different storage accounts for different roles.

For more information, see Apply the Microsoft Azure diagnostics extension in Cloud Services (extended support).

Antimalware Extension

An Azure application or service can enable and configure Microsoft Antimalware for Azure Cloud Services using PowerShell cmdlets. Microsoft Antimalware is installed in a disabled state in the Cloud Services platform running Windows Server 2012 R2 and older, which requires an action by an Azure application to enable it. For Windows Server 2016 and above, Windows Defender is enabled by default, and so, these cmdlets can be used for configuring Antimalware.

For more information, see Add Microsoft Antimalware to Azure Cloud Services by using extended support (CS-ES).

To know more about Azure Antimalware, visit Microsoft Antimalware for Azure Cloud Services and Virtual Machines.

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