Automatic VM guest patching for Azure VMs

Question

How to turn off Automatic VM guest patching for existing Azure windows VMs.

Got the below URL which shows how to turn off auto patching for Linux distros but not explained properly for Windows server. Can anyone helpw with the solution for windows server.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/automatic-vm-guest-patching#code-try-11

Answer 1

Hello @M, RAKESH ,
Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft QnA. Happy to answer your question.
May I know how are you creating the VMs?
While creating a VM from Portal, you can select the Management tab, and then under Patch orchestration options, select Manual updates.

If you are deploying the VM from an ARM template, then make sure you update the "osProfile" in the JSON as

"osProfile": {  
                    "computerName": "[parameters('virtualMachineComputerName')]",  
                    "adminUsername": "[parameters('adminUsername')]",  
                    "adminPassword": "[parameters('adminPassword')]",  
                    "windowsConfiguration": {  
                        "enableAutomaticUpdates": false,  
                        "provisionVmAgent": true,  
                        "patchSettings": {  
                            "enableHotpatching": "[parameters('enableHotpatching')]",  
                            "patchMode": "[parameters('patchMode')]"  
                        }  
                    }  
                }  

The parameter 'patchMode' will have a String value of "Manual", and the parameter 'enableHotpatching' will also have a boolean value of false.

Quick Note: Once you have created a VM with a certain patch orchestration mode, then you will not be able to switch to any other patch mode. To be more specific, switching between AutomaticByOS and Manual modes is not supported once the VM has been created.

Hope this helps.

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