Quickstart: Enable Azure Change Tracking and Inventory using Azure portal

Applies to: ✔️ Windows VMs ✔️ Linux VMs ✔️ Windows Registry ✔️ Windows Files ✔️ Linux Files ✔️ Windows Software ✔️ File Content Changes

This article describes how you can enable Azure Change Tracking and Inventory for single and multiple Azure Virtual Machines (VMs) from the Azure portal.

Prerequisites

Before you enable Azure Change Tracking and Inventory (CTI), ensure you meet these prerequisites:

• An Azure subscription. If you don't have one yet, you can activate your MSDN subscriber benefits or sign up for a free account.
• A virtual machine configured in the specified region.

Enable Azure CTI for single and multiple Arc-enabled VMs from Azure portal

This section provides detailed procedure on how you can enable change tracking on a single Azure VM and Arc-enabled VM.

Enable Azure CTI for a single Azure VM using portal

This section provides detailed procedure on how you can enable change tracking on a single Azure VM and Arc-enabled VM.

Enable Azure CTI for a single Azure VM using portal

To enable Azure CTI for a single Azure VM using Azure portal, follow these steps:

1. Sign in to the Azure portal and go to Virtual machines.

   

   Select the virtual machine for which you want to enable Change Tracking.

2. In the search bar, enter Change tracking. Select Change tracking to view the Change Tracking and Inventory pane.

   

3. In the Stay up-to-date with all changes pane, select Enable using AMA agent (Recommended) option and Enable.

   Deployment of Azure CTI gets initiated with a notification at the top right corner of the pane.

   

Note

It usually takes up to two to three minutes to successfully onboard and enable the virtual machine(s). After you enable a virtual machine for change tracking, you can make changes to the files, registries, or software for the specific VM.

Enable Azure CTI for a single Azure Arc-enabled VM using portal

To enable Azure CTI for a single Azure Arc-enabled VM using portal, follow these steps:

1. Sign in to the Azure portal. Search for Machines-Azure Arc.

   

2. Select the Azure-Arc machine for which you want to enable Change Tracking.

3. Under Operations, select Change tracking to view the Change Tracking and Inventory pane.

4. In the Stay up-to-date with all changes pane, select Enable using AMA agent (Recommended) option and select Enable.

   

   Deployment of Azure CTI gets initiated with a notification at the top right corner of the pane.

Enable Azure CTI for multiple VMs using Azure portal and Azure CLI

This section provides detailed procedure on how you can enable Azure CTI on multiple Azure VMs and Azure Arc-enabled VMs.

Multiple Azure VMs using portal

To enable Azure CTI for multiple Azure VMs using portal, follow these steps:

1. Sign in to the Azure portal and go to Virtual machines.

   

2. Select the virtual machines to which you intend to enable change tracking, and select Services > Change Tracking.

   

   Note

   You can enable CTI on up to 250 virtual machines at a time.

3. On the Enable Change Tracking pane, select the banner at the top of the pane, Click here to try new change tracking and inventory with Azure Monitor Agent (AMA) experience.

   

4. On the Enable Change Tracking pane, you can view the list of machines that are enabled, ready to be enabled and the ones that you can't enable. You can use the filters to select the Subscription, Location, and Resource groups. You can select a maximum of three resource groups.

   

5. Select Enable to initiate the deployment. This step initiates the setup because, during enablement, the customer assigns a DCR, which defines the logging rules required to begin data collection.

A notification appears on the top right corner of the pane indicating the status of Azure CTI deployment.

Multiple Arc-enabled VMs using CLI

To enable the Azure CTI on Arc-enabled servers, ensure that the custom Change Tracking Data collection rule is associated to the Arc-enabled VMs.

To associate the data collection rule to the Arc-enabled VMs, follow these steps:

1. Create Change Tracking Data collection rule. You can also use an existing DCR that collects data for Change Tracking and Inventory. These rules are part of Azure Monitor, which helps you manage and monitor your systems.

2. Sign in to the Azure portal and go to Monitor and under Settings, select Data Collection Rules.

   

3. Select the data collection rule from the listing pane.

4. On the Data Collection Rules pane, under Configurations, select Resources and then select + Add.

   

   On the Select a scope, from Resource types, select Machines-Azure Arc that is connected to the subscription and then select Apply to associate the ctdcr to the Arc-enabled machine.

   

5. Install the Change Tracking extension based on the OS type for the Arc-enabled VM by running the following commands:

   Linux

   To enable Change Tracking on a Linux machine using Azure Connected Machine extension, use Azure CLI syntax for the below command:

   az connectedmachine extension create  --name ChangeTracking-Linux  --publisher Microsoft.Azure.ChangeTrackingAndInventory --type-handler-version 2.20  --type ChangeTracking-Linux  --machine-name XYZ --resource-group XYZ-RG  --location X --enable-auto-upgrade
   

   Windows

   To enable Change Tracking on a Windows machine using Azure Connected Machine extension, use Azure CLI syntax for the below command:

   az connectedmachine extension create  --name ChangeTracking-Windows  --publisher Microsoft.Azure.ChangeTrackingAndInventory --type-handler-version 2.20  --type ChangeTracking-Windows  --machine-name XYZ --resource-group XYZ-RG  --location X --enable-auto-upgrade
   

Next steps

• To create data collection rule (DCR), see Create data collection rule.
• To track changes on both Windows and Linux, see support matrix and regions.