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Complete the following steps to prepare for your Agentic Retrieval deployment.
To try Agentic Retrieval without the need for local hardware, see Quickstart: Install Agentic Retrieval.
Important
Agentic Retrieval in Foundry Local is currently in PREVIEW. See the Supplemental Terms of Use for Microsoft Azure Previews for legal terms that apply to Azure features that are in beta, preview, or otherwise not yet released into general availability.
Prerequisites checklist
Use this checklist to prepare your environment before deploying Agentic Retrieval on Azure Arc. Each step links to detailed instructions or supporting documentation.
| Step | Task | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Verify your environment meets requirements | Before you begin, review What you need for Agentic Retrieval. |
| 2 | Choose your deployment mode | Decide which deployment mode you need: All (default, full platform), agentic (agents only, no local data ingestion), or knowledge (data ingestion and RAG only, no agents). Your choice affects which prerequisites apply. For example, agentic mode doesn't require GPUs or a network files system (NFS) data source. |
| 3 | Verify you have the Contributor role | Verify that you have the Contributor role at the subscription level. This role is required to register providers and enable features. |
| 4 | Choose your language model | Agentic Retrieval requires you to choose a language model and set up an OpenAI API-compatible endpoint . |
| 5 | Create an endpoint | Set up an OpenAI API-compatible endpoint for your language model. This step is mandatory for all deployments. If you use Foundry Local, install the Foundry Local on Azure Local extension first and then use its model endpoint URL. |
| 6 | Verify file share access | Make sure your documents and images are hosted on a supported and reachable NFS server. Required for combined and knowledge modes only. Skip this step if deploying in agentic mode. |
| 7 | (Optional) Set up NFS with Kerberos authentication | If you use NFS with Kerberos (krb5p) authentication for disconnected on-premises deployments, complete the Kerberos setup before deployment. Optional — skip if you use AUTH_SYS authentication. See NFS with Kerberos overview. |
| 8 | Set up SharePoint Server-to-Server authentication | If you use SharePoint Server as a data source, configure High-Trust Server-to-Server (S2S) authentication before deployment. Required when using SharePoint data sources. See SharePoint Server-to-Server overview. |
| 9 | Prepare an Azure Kubernetes (AKS) cluster on Azure Local | Create an AKS Arc cluster on your Azure Local instance with a node pool that meets minimum requirements. |
| 10 | Configure authentication | Configure access to Agentic Retrieval for AI application developers and for end users of the chat endpoint. |
| 11 | Install networking and observability components | Deploy required components for network routing, monitoring, and logging. |
| 12 | Configure DNS | Make sure DNS is properly configured so that you can reach the local portal domain for Agentic Retrieval. |