Forum Discussion
Chaffy
Mar 10, 2025Copper Contributor
Azure Arc, on-prem servers, and MDE
I've onboarded a handful of on-prem server into Azure Arc and I would like to rollout the MDE extension. Do I have to enable MDE on the resource group or subscription before I can install it? I don't see it listed as an available extension when I go here:
Azure Arc | Machines > server01 | Extensions > Install extension
1 Reply
Take this:
- Enable Defender for Servers Plan:
- Go to Microsoft Defender for Cloud in the Azure portal.
- Navigate to Environment settings and select the subscription containing your Azure Arc-enabled servers.
- Under Settings and monitoring, enable the Defender for Servers plan.
- Check Extension Availability:
- Once the plan is enabled, the MDE extension should become available for installation under Azure Arc | Machines > Extensions > Install extension.
- Manual Installation (if needed):
- If the extension still doesn’t appear, you can manually onboard the servers to Defender for Endpoint using the onboarding package from the Microsoft Defender Security Center.
- Enable Defender for Servers Plan: