How to update the Azure Linux Agent on a VM

Caution

This article references CentOS, a Linux distribution that is End Of Life (EOL) status. Please consider your use and plan accordingly. For more information, see the CentOS End Of Life guidance.

To update your Azure Linux Agent on a Linux VM in Azure, you must already have:

• A running Linux VM in Azure.
• A connection to that Linux VM using SSH.

You should always check for a package in the Linux distro repository first. It's possible the package available may not be the latest version, however, enabling autoupdate will ensure the Linux Agent will always get the latest update. Should you have issues installing from the package managers, you should seek support from the distro vendor.

Note

For more information, see Endorsed Linux distributions on Azure

Verify the Minimum version support for virtual machine agents in Azure before proceeding.

Ubuntu

1. Check your current package version

sudo apt list --installed | grep walinuxagent

2. Update package cache

sudo apt-get -qq update

3. Install the latest package version

sudo apt-get install walinuxagent

4. Ensure auto update is enabled.

• First, check to see if it's enabled:

sudo cat /etc/waagent.conf | grep -i autoupdate

• Find 'AutoUpdate.Enabled'. If you see this output, it's enabled:

AutoUpdate.Enabled=y

• To enable it, run:

sudo sed -i 's/# AutoUpdate.Enabled=y/AutoUpdate.Enabled=y/g' /etc/waagent.conf

5. Restart the waagent service

sudo systemctl restart walinuxagent

6. Validate waagent service is up and running

sudo systemctl status walinuxagent

Red Hat / CentOS

1. Check your current package version

sudo yum list WALinuxAgent

2. Check available updates

sudo yum check-update WALinuxAgent

3. Install the latest package version

sudo yum install WALinuxAgent -y

4. Ensure auto update is enabled

• First, check to see if it's enabled:

sudo cat /etc/waagent.conf | grep -i autoupdate

• Find 'AutoUpdate.Enabled'. If you see this text, it's enabled:

AutoUpdate.Enabled=y

• To enable it, run:

sudo sed -i 's/\# AutoUpdate.Enabled=y/AutoUpdate.Enabled=y/g' /etc/waagent.conf

5. Restart the waagent service

sudo systemctl restart waagent

6. Validate waagent service is up and running

sudo systemctl status waagent

SLES

1. Check your current package version

sudo zypper info python-azure-agent

2. Check available updates. The above output will show you if the package is up to date.

3. Install the latest package version

sudo zypper install python-azure-agent

4. Ensure auto update is enabled

• First, check to see if it's enabled:

sudo cat /etc/waagent.conf | grep -i autoupdate

• Find 'AutoUpdate.Enabled'. If you see this output, it's enabled:

AutoUpdate.Enabled=y

• To enable it, run:

sudo sed -i 's/AutoUpdate.Enabled=n/AutoUpdate.Enabled=y/g' /etc/waagent.conf

5. Restart the waagent service

sudo systemctl restart waagent

6. Validate waagent service is up and running

sudo systemctl status waagent

Debian

1. Check your current package version

sudo dpkg -l | grep waagent

2. Update package cache

sudo apt-get -qq update

3. Install the latest package version

sudo apt-get install waagent

4. Enable agent auto update.

• First, check to see if it's enabled:

sudo cat /etc/waagent.conf | grep -i autoupdate

• Find 'AutoUpdate.Enabled'. If you see this output, it's enabled:

AutoUpdate.Enabled=y

• To enable it, run:

sudo sed -i 's/AutoUpdate.Enabled=n/AutoUpdate.Enabled=y/g' /etc/waagent.conf

5. Restart the waagent service:

sudo systemctl restart walinuxagent.service

6. Validate waagent service is up and running

sudo systemctl status walinuxagent

Oracle Linux

1. For Oracle Linux, make sure that the Addons repository is enabled.

   • To validate if the repository is enabled, use the following command

   sudo yum repolist all | grep -i addons
   

   • In case the Addons repository is disabled, you can enable it using the following command:

     • Oracle Linux 6.x:

     sudo yum-config-manager --enable ol6_addons
     

     • Oracle Linux 7.x:

     sudo yum-config-manager --enable ol7_addons
     

     • Oracle Linux 8.x:

     sudo yum-config-manager --enable ol8_addons
     

     • Oracle Linux 9.x:

     sudo yum-config-manager --enable ol9_addons
     

   • If you don't find the add-on repository, you can simply add these lines at the end of your .repo file according to your Oracle Linux release:

     • For Oracle Linux 6 virtual machines:

     [ol6_addons]
     name=Add-Ons for Oracle Linux $releasever ($basearch)
     baseurl=https://public-yum.oracle.com/repo/OracleLinux/OL6/addons/x86_64
     gpgkey=https://public-yum.oracle.com/RPM-GPG-KEY-oracle-ol6
     gpgcheck=1
     enabled=1
     

     • For Oracle Linux 7 virtual machines:

     [ol7_addons]
     name=Oracle Linux $releasever Add ons ($basearch)
     baseurl=http://public-yum.oracle.com/repo/OracleLinux/OL7/addons/$basearch/
     gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-oracle
     gpgcheck=1
     enabled=1
     

     • For Oracle Linux 8 virtual machines:

     [ol8_addons]
     name=Oracle Linux $releasever Add ons ($basearch)
     baseurl=http://public-yum.oracle.com/repo/OracleLinux/OL8/addons/$basearch/
     gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-oracle
     gpgcheck=1
     enabled=1
     

     • For Oracle Linux 9 virtual machines:

     [ol9_addons]
     name=Oracle Linux 9 Addons ($basearch)
     baseurl=https://public-yum.oracle.com/repo/OracleLinux/OL9/addons/$basearch/
     gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-oracle
     gpgcheck=1
     enabled=1
     

Important

Keep in consideration Oracle Linux 6.x is already EOL. Oracle Linux version 6.10 has available ELS support, which will end on 07/2024.

2. Then install the latest version of the Azure Linux Agent using the following command:

sudo yum install WALinuxAgent -y

3. Enable agent auto update.

• First, check to see if it's enabled:

sudo cat /etc/waagent.conf | grep -i autoupdate

• Find 'AutoUpdate.Enabled'. If you see this output, it's enabled:

AutoUpdate.Enabled=y

• To enable it, run:

sudo sed -i 's/\# AutoUpdate.Enabled=y/AutoUpdate.Enabled=y/g' /etc/waagent.conf

4. Restart the waagent service:

sudo service waagent restart

5. Validate waagent service is up and running

sudo systemctl status waagent

• In case of issues, execute the following commands and validate the waagent status one more time:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl restart waagent
sudo systemctl status waagent

Typically this is all you need, but if for some reason you need to install it from https://github.com directly, use the following steps.

Update the Linux Agent when no agent package exists for distribution

For more information regarding updating the Azure Linux Agent when no package exists, see Azure Linux Agent README.