Azure Arc Monthly Forum Recap – November 2025

Key Highlights 

Auto Agent Upgrade 

• Status: Public Preview
• Capability: Automatically updates AZCM Agent
• Support: Email arcautoupgradefeedback@microsoft.com for feedback or issues. 

Essential Machine Management (EMM) 

• Status: Private Preview
• Capability: Enables simple and unified machine management experience.
• Link: https://aka.ms/operationsCenterLab
• Support: Email machineEnrollmentSupport@microsoft.com for feedback and issues. 

Machine Configuration – CIS Baseline Compliance  

• Status: Public Preview
• Capability: Filter, search, exclude and modify baseline settings in Azure Policy.
• Link: aka.ms/machine-config-insiders
• Support: Email machineconfig@microsoft.com for feedback and issues. 

November 2025 FAQs 

Essential Machine Management (EMM) 

• Does EMM cover Azure Local? Yes, Azure Local is supported.
• Optimizations vs. Recommendations? Recommendations come from Azure Advisor (security, observability, configs). Optimizations focus on cost and emissions for now.
• Is Arc being rebranded as Operations Center? No. Operations Center is a new unified management experience.
• Training material for Operations Center? We have published official documentation (link) which provides an overview of Operations Center.
• Setup costs for Log Analytics & Monitor? The Azure Monitor Workspace is free with the metrics that are configured through EMM. The Log Analytics Workspace logs are still charged separately and the only service that is configured to send logs is Change Tracking and Inventory   

Machine Configuration – CIS Baseline Compliance 

• Will other baselines be added? Yes.
• DeployIfNotExists Policy for Security Baseline? Audit policies available; remediation is on the roadmap.
• What about Windows Security Baseline? Planned for WS2025.
• Override local GPO policies? Audit-only for now; no overrides yet. 

Machine Configuration – OS Settings Inventory Platform 

• Are there any plans to give us custom classes we can build and ingest the data we want? Not at the moment.
• Is it just Windows, or do you have Linux support in Guest Configuration resources? Linux support will be available soon.