Does Can enable Arc on non arc vm? - Azure Stack HCI

Question

I have an HCI cluster running, and I've set up Commvault. I backed up an Azure Arc-enabled VM that was running on Azure Stack HCI. After the backup, I deleted this VM and performed a restore in the same location. The VM was successfully restored, but it appears as a non-Arc VM. I can only see it on Windows Admin Center (WAC), not the Azure portal.
Now, I want to enable Azure Arc on this non-Arc VM that I restored. Is there a workload scenario to enable Arc on a non-Arc VM? If yes (provide link how does can enable?),

Can I get this VM under virtual machines in Azure Stack HCI?" is to clarify the connection between enabling Azure Arc and its visibility within Azure Stack HCI.

Answer 1

Hi Demo,

Thank you for the clarification. As noted in my previous answer, as the VM in question was an Arc-managed VM, unfortunately, there is not a process currently to get the restored VM added back into the portal. The only method to get any VM to show within the portal is to deploy the VM using the steps described in this article series. This is also noted in this article (first Note). We hope to bring this capability into a future release.

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

Hello Demo,

welcome to microsoft Q&A, Thankyou for posting your query here.

Azure Arc-enabled servers is designed to help you connect servers running on-premises or in other clouds to Azure.

Normally, you wouldn't connect an Azure virtual machine to Azure Arc because all the same capabilities are natively available for these VMs.

Azure VMs already have a representation in Azure Resource Manager, VM extensions, managed identities, and Azure Policy.

If you attempt to install Azure Arc-enabled servers on an Azure VM, you'll receive an error message stating that it is unsupported.

While you cannot install Azure Arc-enabled servers on an Azure VM for production scenarios, it's possible to configure Azure Arc-enabled servers to run on an Azure VM for evaluation and testing purposes only.

Please refer this link for more detail information.

azure-arc on-azure-virtual-machine

Hope this helps you.

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Answer 3

Hi Demo,

Can you provide a little more clarity, please? Was the VM above a standard Arc-enabled server (i.e. you built the VM manually and connected it via Arc), or was it created directly as an Azure Arc VM? If it was created directly as an Azure Arc VM, unfortunately, there is not a process currently to get this VM added back into the portal. We hope to bring this capability to a future release.

Hope this helps!

Answer 4

Hi @Anveshreddy Nimmala @Trent Helms - MSFT
let me explain. I have an Azure Stack HCI cluster set up. Within this cluster, I created a VM and I attempted to back up this VM using Commvault, performing a full VM backup. After the backup, I deleted this VM from the Azure Stack HCI cluster and then tried to recover it using Commvault to the same location (on the Azure Stack HCI cluster).

I successfully recovered the VM, but it appeared as a non-Arc VM, which I can only see in Windows Admin Center (WAC) and not in the Azure portal. Now, I want to convert this non-Arc VM back to an Arc VM, but it should appear under Azure Stack HCI virtual machines in the Azure portal.

Note: This VM is running on Azure Stack HCI, which is operating on-premises, not on Azure VM.

For more information, you can refer to these links:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure-stack/hci/manage/manage-arc-virtual-machines
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure-stack/hci/manage/vm