Optimize Your Cloud Environment Using Agentic AI
In today’s cloud-first world, optimization is no longer a luxury—it’s a strategic imperative. As IT professionals and developers navigate increasingly complex environments, the need to reduce costs, improve sustainability, and accelerate decision-making has never been more urgent. At Ignite 2025, Microsoft is introducing a new wave of agentic capabilities within Azure Copilot—one of the key capabilities includes the optimization agent, designed to help you identify, validate, and act on opportunities to streamline cloud operations. For FinOps teams, this agent becomes especially powerful, enabling cost governance, carbon insights, and actionable recommendations to maximize financial efficiency at scale. From Complexity to Clarity For users familiar with Azure’s cost and performance tools, the new operations center experience in the Azure Portal provides a unified agentic experience to monitor spend and carbon emissions side by side, surface the most critical optimization opportunities, and seamlessly trigger actions by invoking the Optimization agent—bringing governance, efficiency, and sustainability into one streamlined experience. What’s New in Optimization The optimization agent in Azure Copilot empowers teams to: Identify top actions prioritized by impact, cost savings, and ease of implementation. Evaluate cost and carbon impacts side-by-side, helping you make informed decisions that align with financial and sustainability goals. Validate recommendations with supporting evidence, current / projected utilization trends, and alternative SKU choices. Accelerate implementation with step-by-step guidance and agentic workflows that reduce toil and increase confidence. These capabilities are designed to scale FinOps impact, enabling collaboration across engineering, finance, procurement, and sustainability teams—all within a unified experience. A Day in the Life: FinOps in Action Let’s step into the shoes of a FinOps practitioner at a large enterprise navigating the complexities of cost management. It’s Monday morning. Over the weekend, a set of development VMs were left running, quietly accumulating costs. The optimization agent—a capability within Azure Copilot—surfaces a top action: resize or shut down the idle resources. With a few clicks, the practitioner reviews the supporting evidence, including usage trends, cost impact, and carbon footprint. The agent offers visibility over alternative SKUs and guides the practitioner through a step-by-step implementation—all within the same interface. But it doesn’t stop there. For teams that prefer automation or scripting, the agent also generates Azure CLI and PowerShell scripts tailored to the recommended action. This gives practitioners flexibility: they can execute changes directly in the portal or integrate scripts into their existing workflows for repeatability and scale. The experience is seamless—every recommendation is actionable, verifiable, and aligned with enterprise policy. By midweek, the practitioner has implemented multiple optimizations without leaving the console or writing custom code. Each action is logged for audit visibility, ensuring compliance and transparency across the organization. What used to take hours of manual investigation and coordination now happens in minutes, freeing the team to focus on strategic initiatives rather than firefighting cost overruns. Why It Matters These aren’t just features—they’re answers to the pain points customers have been voicing for years. Cost visibility and predictability: Azure Copilot centralizes insights across subscriptions, helping teams avoid surprise bills and understand where every dollar goes. Resource inefficiencies: The optimization agent proactively identifies underutilized resources and guide teams to act before costs escalate. Scalability and complexity: Azure Copilot’s unified experience simplifies operations for even the most complex setups. Azure Copilot isn’t just simplifying cloud operations—it’s transforming how teams collaborate, govern, and optimize. Get Started at Ignite At Ignite 2025, you’ll get hands-on with Azure Copilot’s optimization capabilities. Explore how intelligent assistance can help you: Reduce cloud costs Improve sustainability metrics Strengthen governance and compliance Drive better outcomes—faster Azure Copilot: turning cloud operations into intelligent collaboration. Sign up for the Agents in Azure Copilot Limited (Preview) and try the experience today.[Public Preview] Introducing Customizable Security Baseline Policies in Machine Configuration
Background: Azure Machine Configuration remains committed to enabling greater security and simplicity in at-scale server management for all Azure customers. Machine Configuration (previously known as Azure Policy Guest Configuration) enables both built-in and custom 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. We’re excited to announce Public Preview support for Customizable Security Baselines in Azure Policy and Machine Configuration. This feature empowers you to tailor industry security benchmarks—such as CIS benchmarks for Linux or Azure Security Baselines for Windows and Linux —to align with your organization’s unique compliance standards across both Azure and Arc-connected machines. This feature builds on top of our existing audit baseline capabilities for Windows and Linux. Now you can create, parameterize, and assign custom baselines at scale, enabling continuous compliance visibility across your entire environment. Learn more about how to get started here: Customize Security Baselines with Azure Policy and Machine Configuration. What's New? Customizable security baselines in Azure Policy and Machine Configuration bring a powerful new way to assess, monitor, and improve your security posture across both Windows and Linux servers. Built on industry benchmarks such as the Center for Internet Security (CIS) and Microsoft’s own Azure Compute Security Baselines, this capability enables you to adapt compliance frameworks to your organization’s specific needs — all while maintaining a consistent governance model across Azure and hybrid environments. By passing custom baseline parameters directly into Azure Policy, you can represent internal controls at scale, ensuring that compliance reflects your enterprise’s unique standards and regulatory requirements. This cloud-native approach embodies Microsoft’s Secure by Design and Secure by Default principles — ensuring your workloads stay compliant, wherever they run. Key Scenarios Baseline Customization Tailor your security standards through the Modify Settings wizard under Policy > Machine Configuration. You can: Enable, exclude, or adjust rules from existing benchmarks Apply organization-specific parameters Export your custom configuration as a downloadable JSON file Each baseline JSON file serves as a reusable, declarative artifact—ideal for policy-as-code workflows, version control, and CI/CD integration. Assign Audit Policies When you assign a baseline via Azure Policy, it automatically: Evaluates configurations against your defined standards Reports compliance in near real time Surfaces findings in Azure Policy, Azure Resource Graph, and the Guest Assignments view This integrated visibility helps IT administrators, security teams, and auditors track compliance status with minimal overhead. Integration and Automation Security baselines integrate seamlessly into your DevOps pipelines and configuration management workflows. Each baseline produces a declarative settings catalog (JSON) that can be versioned and deployed using: Azure CLI ARM templates Bicep CI/CD automation This ensures reproducible, traceable compliance configurations across environments. Supported Standards Standard Description CIS Linux Benchmarks Official CIS Benchmarks for Azure-endorsed Linux distributions, matching the latest CIS versions. Azure Compute Security Baseline for Windows Applies security controls for Windows Server 2022 and 2025, aligned with Azure Compute guidance. Azure Compute Security Baseline for Linux Enforces consistent controls aligned with Azure Compute recommendations. Availability Customizable security baselines are available in all public Azure regions. NOTE: Support for Azure Government and Sovereign Clouds will be added in a future release. These environments are not included in the current Public Preview. Getting Started Prerequisites Before you begin: Deploy the Azure Machine Configuration prerequisite policy initiative. (This installs the required Guest Configuration extension on supported VMs.) Ensure your Azure subscription or management group includes supported Windows or Linux VMs. Have sufficient permissions (Owner or Resource Policy Contributor) to create and assign custom policy definitions. Step-by-Step Guidance Select a baseline from the Machine Configuration tab in Azure Policy. Modify settings to enable, exclude, or parameterize rules to match your internal policies. Download JSON to export your customized baseline configuration file for programmatic and repeatable customization. Assign the policy which can be deployed through the Azure portal, CLI, or your CI/CD pipeline. Review compliance results to track outcomes in Azure Policy, Azure Resource Graph, or the Guest Assignments page. Learn More Azure Machine Configuration security baselines official documentation CIS Benchmark for Linux documentation Azure Windows Baseline and Azure Linux Baseline documentation Please note that the use of Azure Machine Configuration on Azure Arc-enabled servers will incur a charge.Empower Smarter AI Agent Investments
This curated series of modules is designed to equip technical and business decision-makers, including IT, developers, engineers, AI engineers, administrators, solution architects, business analysts, and technology managers, with the practical knowledge and guidance needed to make cost-conscious decisions at every stage of the AI agent journey. From identifying high-impact use cases and understanding cost drivers, to forecating ROI, adopting best practices, designing scalable and effective architectures, and optimizing ongoing investments, this learning path provides actionable guidance for building, deploying, and managing AI agents on Azure with confidence. Whether you’re just starting your AI journey or looking to scale enterprise adoption, these modules will help you align innovation with financial discipline, ensuring your AI agent initiatives deliver sustainable value and long-term success. Discover the full learning path here: aka.ms/Cost-Efficient-AI-Agents Explore the sections below for an overview of each module included in this learning path, highlighting the core concepts, practical strategies, and actionable insights designed to help you maximize the value of AI agent investments on Azure: Module 1: Identify and Prioritize High-Impact, Cost-Effective AI Agent Use Cases The journey begins with a strategic approach to selecting AI agent use cases that maximize business impact and cost efficiency. This module introduces a structured framework for researching proven use cases, collaborating across teams, and defining KPIs to evaluate feasibility and ROI. You’ll learn how to target “quick wins” while ensuring alignment with organizational goals and resource constraints. Explore this module Module 2: Understand the Key Cost Drivers of AI Agents Building on the foundation of use case selection, Module 2 dives into the core cost drivers of AI agent development and operations on Azure. It covers infrastructure, integration, data quality, team expertise, and ongoing operational expenses, offering actionable strategies to optimize spending at every stage. The module emphasizes right-sizing resources, efficient data preparation, and leveraging Microsoft tools to streamline development and ensure sustainable, scalable success. Explore this module Module 3: Forecast the Return on Investment (ROI) of AI agents With a clear understanding of costs, the next step is to quantify value. Module 3 empowers both business and technical leaders with practical frameworks for forecasting and communicating ROI, even without a finance background. Through step-by-step guides and real-world examples, you’ll learn to measure tangible and intangible outcomes, apply NPV calculations, and use sensitivity analysis to prioritize AI investments that align with broader organizational objectives. Explore this module Module 4: Implement Best Practices to Empower AI Agent Efficiency and Ensure Long-Term Success To drive efficiency and governance at scale, Module 4 introduces essential frameworks such as the AI Center of Excellence (CoE), FinOps, GenAI Ops, the Cloud Adoption Framework (CAF), and the Well-Architected Framework (WAF). These best practices help organizations accelerate adoption, optimize resources, and foster operational excellence, ensuring AI agents deliver measurable value, remain secure, and support sustainable enterprise growth. Explore this module Module 5: Maximize Cost Efficiency by Choosing the Right AI Agent Development Approach Selecting the right development approach is critical for balancing speed, customization, and cost. In Module 5, you’ll learn how to align business needs and technical skills with SaaS, PaaS, or IaaS options, empowering both business users and developers to efficiently build, deploy, and manage AI agents. The module also highlights how Microsoft Copilot Studio, Visual Studio, and Azure AI Foundry can help your organization achieve its goals. Explore this module Module 6: Architect Scalable and Cost-Efficient AI Agent Solutions on Azure As your AI initiatives grow, architectural choices become paramount. Module 6 explores how to leverage Azure Landing Zones and reference architectures for secure, well-governed, and cost-optimized deployments. It compares single-agent and multi-agent systems, highlights strategies for cost-aware model selection, and details best practices for governance, tagging, and pricing, ensuring your AI solutions remain flexible, resilient, and financially sustainable. Explore this module Module 7: Manage and Optimize AI Agent Investments on Azure The learn path concludes with a focus on operational excellence. Module 7 provides guidance on monitoring agent performance and spending using Azure AI Foundry Observability, Azure Monitor Application Insights, and Microsoft Cost Management. Learn how to track key metrics, set budgets, receive real-time alerts, and optimize resource allocation, empowering your organization to maximize ROI, stay within budget, and deliver ongoing business value. Explore this module Ready to accelerate your AI agent journey with financial confidence? Start exploring the new learning path and unlock proven strategies to maximize the cost efficiency of your AI agents on Azure, transforming innovation into measurable, sustainable business success. Get started todayPublic network on NIC instead of domain network
On a Windows Server 2025 Standard Edition, I have 2 NICs: a 10Gbps NIC and 1Gbps NIC. Both NICs have a static IP address, but only the faster 10Gbps has a default gateway. The faster NIC correctly identifies as the domain network but the slower NIC says it is on a public network. The DNS settings and suffixes are the same for both cards. I have another Windows 2025 server with the same setup but both NICs identify as the domain network. Any ideas on how to fix this? Thanks.
Deploying Multiple NPS Servers
I have been working on ditching our password-based WiFi with WPA2-Enterprise. On DC1 I deployed internal CA, NPS, and group policies that auto-request certs and deploy wireless network settings. Cisco AP is pointed to DC1 as the radius server. NPS has been registered in AD and wireless network policy has been created. Test laptops get their cert and connect just fine. It's working. For redundancy, I installed NPS on DC2. This NPS instance has also been registered in AD, and I imported the NPS config from DC1 to DC2 NPS. Cisco AP has DC1 as first radius server and DC2 as second radius server. If I stop NPS on DC1 to force the Cisco AP to authenticate against DC2, test laptops won't authenticate and connect. What am I missing? They're configured exactly the same (except DC1 hosts the CA...I was under the assumption the CA is AD integrated).
Problems to join Debian/Ubuntu machines to a domain
Is not posible to join Debian/Ubuntu machines to a domain based on Windows Server 2025 (using realm at least) this is the error: ! Couldn't set password for computer account: XXXX$: Message stream modified adcli: joining domain xxxx.local failed: Couldn't set password for computer account: XXXX$: Message stream modified ! Failed to join the domain realm: Couldn't join realm: Failed to join the domain Domain is discoverable vía realm: root@lnms01:/home/administrator# realm discover xxxx.local xxxx.local type: kerberos realm-name: XXXX.LOCAL domain-name: xxxx.local configured: no server-software: active-directory client-software: sssd required-package: sssd-tools required-package: sssd required-package: libnss-sss Tested on WS2025 build 26227 and Linux 6.1.0-21-amd64 x86_64, Linux 6.6.31+rpt-rpi-v8 aarch64 and Linux 6.8.0-31-generic x86_64. Those 3 versions of Linux joined to another doman based con Windows Server 2022 without issues.Hyper-V live mig failing from 2025 host to 2022 host
I'm having an issue with my one hyper-v cluster. I have 4 Server 2022 hosts, and 1 Server 2025 host. Live migration works INBOUND to the 2025 host, but live migrations fail OUTBOUND from the 2025 host. I have tried everything I can think of to make sure settings are ok. I have tried both setting it to use all networks, and the specific network. I've matched the live migration NIC settings to mirror what the 2022 hosts have. I've made sure the Hyper-V Live Migration settings all match. They use CredSSP and compression. Nothing seems to be working. Is there some really subtle 2025 bug that doesn't allow for live migrations to lower OS version hosts?
Windows Server 2016 and internet issues
Hello everyone, I'm relatively new here and hoping for some help. I'm IT at a school in Manhattan that has an old Dell tower running Windows Server 2016 in the basement that is not in use any more with the school as they have transferred over everything to digital. This was set up before my time working here and the person who set it up unfortunately did not leave any notes. We are ready to disconnect the machine as all of it's functions have been moved elsewhere. But, every time it is turned off or disconnected from our network patch, the internet in the entire building goes dead. I do not have previous experience with these kinds of servers and am trying to figure out what could possibly be causing this. I am concerned because the machine is old and feels like it's being held together by duct tape, and if it goes down, I hoping internet doesn't go with it. Looking for any advice or knowledge about these servers and what I can try to do to disconnect it.
