Important change released for Guest Configuration audit policies
An important change has been released to policies in category Guest Configuration. The policy format has been updated to address customer feedback, to simplify the experience of auditing settings inside machines. Existing policies that were assigned prior to this release will continue to display accurate results and will not be deleted in the near future. For new policy assignments, only the updated definitions are available. In the new experience, a single initiative handles all prerequisite requirements. Once the prerequisites are completed, Audit policies may be added/removed without needing to run remediation tasks. Switching to the new experience requires assigning the new definitions.
Announcing Public Preview of Update management center
We are excited to announce the Public Preview of the Update management center (UMC), the next iteration of the Azure Automation Update Management solution. Along with zero onboarding steps, UMC offers new capabilities such as flexible scheduling options and on-demand assessments that help you manage a patch workflow that is best suited for your needs. Ongoing management of operating system and application patches is critical in order to ensure your machines remain secure and meet compliance policies. With the increasing size and diversity in IT estates, this could be a complex process. UMC eases this process of managing and automating patching of Windows and Linux Operating systems, and central management of patching on Azure virtual machines and devices in on-premises or other public clouds (via Azure Arc). It facilitates you to assess and install patches on a single VM or at scale. What’s new in the UMC? The “overview” tab offers a wide range of filters, charts and categories and provides a unified view of patching status of all Windows and Linux machines on Azure and Azure Arc-enabled servers. UMC leverages native functionality on Azure Compute and Azure Arc for Servers platform to provide a zero-step onboarding and a simplified user experience. UMC offers granular access control at individual VM instead of that at an account or workspace level. RBAC and roles based off ARM enable fine grained control on who can manage, assess and update a machine in Azure. The enhanced flexibility in UMC allows deployment of patches on a flexible schedule. UMC provides on-demand assessment and installation of patches, customizable scheduled patching, periodic assessment, and offers patching methods such as automatic VM guest patching in Azure, hotpatch or custom maintenance schedules and more. Getting Started You can find the Update management solution in the “updates” option on your Azure VMs or Azure Arc-enabled servers. You can also navigate to the Update management center using the search bar on the Azure portal. The overview tab for UMC enables you to view the patching compliance and status for all your Azure and Non-Azure machines. You can use the filters on top to drill down to a specific set of machines, view a breakdown of machines and their statuses based on multiple categories, and identify the machines that are non-compliant to quickly take corrective action. The “No updates data” status tells you the count of machines that have not been assessed in the past 7 days or do not have Periodic assessment setup. The machines tab shows the list of all VMs under a given subscription. You can access the features of UMC from the menu on the top. Broadly, “Check for updates” allows you to assess updates on-demand while “One-time update” allows to install patches on-demand. The Scheduled updates and Updates Settings options allow you to enable customised patching schedules. Overall, Update management center offers an easy to use one-stop location for all operating system and application patching scenarios for a single VM or VMs at scale. Overall, Update management center offers an easy to use one-stop location for all operating system and application patching scenarios for a single VM or VMs at scale. What’s next in UMC? Extend patch management to all Azure supported distros & OSes, and all Arc workloads such as Azure Arc-enabled private clouds. Provide additional controls for configuration of patching workflows and orchestration of patch schedules. Stay tuned for more announcements! Additional Resources You can try the experience at Update management center (Preview) - Microsoft Azure. Read more on the capabilities of UMC ACOM Product page and Public Preview documentation Assess now/ check for updates now and check compliance Patch now/One-time update and track results Enable Periodic assessment at scale through Policy Schedule updates on machines(s) Change or manage update settings If you have suggestions and feedback, reach out to us here Follow us on Twitter (@AzureUpdateMgmt) to interact and get updates.
Azure Update Manager to support CIS hardened images among other images
What’s coming in by first week of August: Azure Update Manager will add support for 35 CIS hardened images. This is the first time that Update Management product in Azure is supporting CIS hardened images. Apart from CIS hardened images, Azure Update Manager will also add support for 59 other images to unblock Automation Update Management migrations to Azure Update Manager. What’s coming in September: After this release, another batch of 30 images will be added support for. Please refer to the article below to check the details of which images will be supported. Below 35 CIS images will be supported by Azure Update Manager by first week of August. Please note Publisher for all these images is center-for-internet-security-inc. Offer Plan cis-windows-server cis-windows-server2016-l1-gen1 cis-windows-server2019-l1-gen1 cis-windows-server2019-l1-gen2 cis-windows-server2019-l2-gen1 cis-windows-server2022-l1-gen2 cis-windows-server2022-l2-gen2 cis-windows-server2022-l1-gen1 cis-windows-server-2022-l1 cis-windows-server-2022-l1 cis-windows-server-2022-l1-gen2 cis-windows-server-2022-l2 cis-windows-server-2022-l2 cis-windows-server-2022-l2-gen2 cis-windows-server-2019-v1-0-0-l1 cis-ws2019-l1 cis-windows-server-2019-v1-0-0-l2 cis-ws2019-l2 cis-windows-server-2016-v1-0-0-l1 cis--l1 cis-windows-server-2016-v1-0-0-l2 cis-ws2016-l2 cis-windows-server-2012-r2-v2-2-1-l2 cis-ws2012-r2-l2 cis-rhel9-l1 cis-rhel9-l1 cis-rhel9-l1-gen2 cis-rhel-8-l1 cis-rhel-8-l2 cis-rhel8-l2 cis-rhel-7-l2 cis-rhel7-l2 cis-rhel cis-redhat7-l1-gen1 cis-redhat8-l1-gen1 cis-redhat8-l2-gen1 cis-redhat9-l1-gen1 cis-redhat9-l1-gen2 cis-ubuntu-linux-2204-l1 cis-ubuntu-linux-2204-l1 cis-ubuntu-linux-2204-l1-gen2 cis-ubuntu-linux-2004-l1 cis-ubuntu2004-l1 cis-ubuntu-linux-1804-l1 cis-ubuntu1804-l1 cis-ubuntu cis-ubuntu1804-l1 cis-ubuntulinux2004-l1-gen1 cis-ubuntulinux2204-l1-gen1 cis-ubuntulinux2204-l1-gen2 cis-oracle-linux-8-l1 cis-oracle8-l1 Apart from CIS hardened images, below are the other 59 images which will be supported by Azure Update Manager by first week of August: Publisher Offer Plan almalinux almalinux-x86_64 8_7-gen2 belindaczsro1588885355210 belvmsrv01 belvmsrv003 cloudera cloudera-centos-os 7_5 cloud-infrastructure-services rds-farm-2019 rds-farm-2019 cloud-infrastructure-services ad-dc-2019 ad-dc-2019 cloud-infrastructure-services sftp-2016 sftp-2016 cloud-infrastructure-services ad-dc-2016 ad-dc-2016 cloud-infrastructure-services hpc2019-windows-server-2019 hpc2019-windows-server-2019 cloud-infrastructure-services dns-ubuntu-2004 dns-ubuntu-2004 cloud-infrastructure-services servercore-2019 servercore-2019 cloud-infrastructure-services ad-dc-2022 ad-dc-2022 cloud-infrastructure-services squid-ubuntu-2004 squid-ubuntu-2004 cognosys sql-server-2016-sp2-std-win2016-debug-utilities sql-server-2016-sp2-std-win2016-debug-utilities esri arcgis-enterprise byol-108 byol-109 byol-111 byol-1081 byol-1091 esri arcgis-enterprise-106 byol-1061 esri arcgis-enterprise-107 byol-1071 esri pro-byol pro-byol-29 filemagellc filemage-gateway-vm-win filemage-gateway-vm-win-001 filemage-gateway-vm-win-002 github github-enterprise github-enterprise matillion matillion matillion-etl-for-snowflake microsoft-ads windows-data-science-vm windows2016 windows2016byol microsoft-dsvm ubuntu-1804 1804-gen2 netapp netapp-oncommand-cloud-manager occm-byol nginxinc nginx-plus-ent-v1 nginx-plus-ent-centos7 ntegralinc1586961136942 ntg_oracle_8_7 ntg_oracle_8_7 procomputers almalinux-8-7 almalinux-8-7 procomputers rhel-8-2 rhel-8-2 RedHat rhel 8_9 redhat rhel-byos rhel-lvm79 rhel-lvm79-gen2 rhel-lvm8 rhel-lvm82-gen2 rhel-lvm83 rhel-lvm84 rhel-lvm84-gen2 rhel-lvm85-gen2 rhel-lvm86 rhel-lvm86-gen2 rhel-lvm87-gen2 rhel-raw76 redhat rhel 8.1 redhat rhel-sap 7.4 redhat rhel-sap 7.7 redhat rhel 89-gen2 southrivertech1586314123192 tn-ent-payg Tnentpayg southrivertech1586314123192 tn-sftp-payg Tnsftppayg suse sles-sap-15-sp2-byos gen2 suse sles-15-sp5 gen2 talend talend_re_image tlnd_re thorntechnologiesllc sftpgateway Sftpgateway veeam office365backup veeamoffice365backup veeam veeam-backup-replication veeam-backup-replication-v11 zscaler zscaler-private-access zpa-con-azure Below images will be supported in September: Publisher Offer Plan aod win2019azpolicy win2019azpolicy belindaczsro1588885355210 belvmsrv03 belvmsrv001 center-for-internet-security-inc cis-rhel-7-v2-2-0-l1 cis-rhel7-l1 center-for-internet-security-inc cis-rhel-7-stig cis-rhel-7-stig center-for-internet-security-inc cis-win-2016-stig cis-win-2016-stig center-for-internet-security-inc cis-windows-server-2012-r2-v2-2-1-l1 cis-ws2012-r2-l1 cloudrichness rockey_linux_image rockylinux86 Credativ Debian 8 microsoftdynamicsnav dynamicsnav 2017 microsoftwindowsserver windowsserver-hub 2012-r2-datacenter-hub 2016-datacenter-hub MicrosoftWindowsServer WindowsServer-HUB 2016-Datacenter-HUB ntegralinc1586961136942 ntg_cbl_mariner_2 ntg_cbl_mariner_2_gen2 openvpn openvpnas access_server_byol rapid7 nexpose-scan-engine nexpose-scan-engine rapid7 rapid7-vm-console rapid7-vm-console suse sles 12-sp3 suse sles-15-sp1-basic gen1 suse sles-15-sp2-basic gen1 suse sles-15-sp3-basic gen1 gen2 suse sles-15-sp4-basic gen2 suse sles-sap 12-sp3 15 gen2-15 suse sles-sap-byos 15 suse SLES-SAP-BYOS 15 suse sles-sap-15-sp1-byos gen1 Tenable tenablecorenessus tenablecorenessusbyolNow Open Source: nxtools, managing Linux IaC just got simpler using Automanage machine configuration
We are "nxcited" to announce the release of nxtools, an opensource collection of class-based DSC resources for commonly used Linux / Unix modules and built-in Machine Configuration packages for customers. Azure Automanage Machine Configuration (previously known as Azure Policy Guest Configuration) enables configuration as code allowing you to audit and configure OS, app, and workload level settings at scale, both for machines running in Azure and hybrid Azure Arc-enabled servers.Upgrading your server and client TLS protocol just got easier using Automanage Machine Configuration
Ensuring secure communication protocols across server environments has been a clear requirement for IT admins, operators, and developers for the past two decades. What wasn’t clear was how to set a desired communication protocol and maintain this at scale, until now. Tech Community
