Step-By-Step: Managing an Azure VM via Windows Server Manager

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AzureServerManager

Interest in cloud adoption has been notably increasing rapidly. Organizations of all sizes are researching its possibilities in enabling further growth and resiliency capabilities. What more, many organizations are looking at their existing infrastructure and are planning for the upcoming retirement of support for Windows Server 2003. So should today’s business be all in with the cloud?

The capabilities of Windows Server 2012 R2 has been explored at length amidst this blog. The enablement it provides on premise makes it easier for companies to create balance in enabling in cloud solutions concluding in a hybrid solution. This Step-By-Step will detail this balance in detailing the ability to manage in cloud or Azure VMs with traditionally implemented on premise tools. Namely the Server Manager offering found in Windows Server 2012 R2.

Step 1: Adding an Azure Virtual Machine to Server Manager

  1. On your desired management server, client notebook/tablet or admin VM, open PowerShell as an Administrator.
     
  2. Type the following command (Replacing <ID> with your Unique ID value) and hit Enter:
     
    Set-Item wsman:\localhost\client\trustedhosts itcservice<ID>.cloudapp.net –concatenate –force
     
  3. Run Server Manager on the assigned management server, client notebook/tablet or admin VM.
     
  4. In Server Manager, click All Servers.
     
  5. Click Manage.
     
  6. Click Add Servers.
     
  7. On the DNS tab, in Search, type ITCService<ID>.cloudapp.net and hit Enter.
     
    Note: Remember to replace <ID> with the unique value of your Azure VM. This is required at every instance this is mentioned in these steps.
     
  8. Right-Click ITCService<ID> and select Manage as.
     
  9. In the Windows Security dialog box, enter your assigned Administrator username and password and hit Enter.
     
    Note: It may take a few minutes to allow for Server Manager to connect to the Azure VM to enable management capability.
     

Step 2: Creating a Server Group to Manage Azure VMs

While not entirely necessary, it does provide a cleaner instance in managing Azure VMs.

  1. In Server Manager, click Manage.
     
  2. Click Create Server Group.
     
  3. In the Server group name field, type Azure VMs.
     
  4. Add ITCService<ID> then click OK.
     
  5. In Server Manager, select Dashboard.
     

Once completed, monitoring the health of your Azure VM from your Server Manager console is now enabled.