Generally Available: Windows Server 2016 Extended Security Updates enabled by Azure Arc
Today, the Azure Arc team is pleased to announce that Extended Security Updates (ESUs) enabled by Azure Arc is now generally available for Windows Server 2016. By connecting your Windows Server 2016 machines to Azure Arc-enabled servers, you can enroll in ESUs and receive security updates. Enroll machines into ESUs through the Azure portal, a streamlined, cloud-connected experience that protects your on-premises and multicloud workloads while you plan your upgrade or migration journey. Extended Security Updates give you access to Critical and Important security updates for Windows Server 2016 for up to three years after end of support, covering January 12, 2027 through January 2030. They provide a supported bridge for business-critical applications that need more time to migrate, without new features or non-security fixes, and without leaving systems exposed while you plan your move. Extended Security Updates enabled by Azure Arc Once your servers are connected to Azure Arc, ESUs enabled by Azure Arc provide flexible pricing and simpler delivery. Key benefits include: Pay-as-you-go billing means a monthly subscription you can stop when a server is migrated or decommissioned, so you only pay for the coverage you use. Azure-billed pricing draws down from your existing Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC) and lets you analyze spend with Microsoft Cost Management and Billing. Built-in asset inventory shows the coverage and enrollment status of your machines directly in the Azure portal, highlighting gaps at a glance. Keyless delivery removes the need to acquire, install, or activate keys on each server. Access to Azure management services When you enroll eligible Azure Arc-enabled servers in Windows Server 2016 ESUs or you have Windows Server Software Assurance, you also gain free access to a set of Azure services that help you manage and secure those machines from the Azure portal: Azure Update Manager is a unified service which provides assessing, scheduling, deploying and managing OS updates across Azure and hybrid machines, including visibility into ESU patch compliance for your Windows Server 2016 estate. Change Tracking and Inventory provides a centralized asset inventory and tracks changes to servers hosted in Azure, on-premises, and other public cloud environments. Azure Policy guest configuration helps define, enforce, and audit compliance rules for Azure resources and guest OS settings across hybrid environments. It includes out of the box policy rules to help meet standards like CIS Benchmark. How to get started Everything starts by connecting your servers to Azure Arc, whether they run on-premises or in other public clouds. Getting started takes only a few steps: Connect your Windows Server 2016 machines to Azure Arc by installing the Azure Connected Machine agent. Enroll eligible servers in Extended Security Updates from the Azure portal, or at scale using Azure Policy (no keys required). Check out our click through demo to see how to apply Extended Security Updates using the Azure portal. Deliver ESU patches through Azure Update Manager or your existing patching solution once servers are enrolled. Extended Security Updates support the Standard and Datacenter editions of Windows Server 2016 and generally require Software Assurance through a Volume Licensing program (machines licensed through SPLA or a Server Subscription do not). For larger estates, you can onboard at scale using Configuration Manager, a Group Policy scheduled task, or VMware vCenter and SCVMM integration with Azure Arc. Beyond Extended Security Updates Enrolling in ESUs is often a customer's first step into Azure Arc — and it opens the door to more. Because your Windows Server 2016 machines are now attached to Azure Arc, you can manage, secure, and govern them alongside your wider hybrid and multicloud estate with Azure Policy, Azure Update Manager, and Microsoft Defender for Cloud. That same Arc foundation makes your next step easier when you are ready: upgrading to Windows Server 2025 or migrating to Azure. Learn more To plan for Windows Server 2016 end of support, explore these resources: Extended security updates enabled by Azure Arc guide Planning ahead for Windows Server 2016 end of support Windows Server and SQL Server End of Support | Microsoft Prepare to deliver Extended Security Updates through Azure Arc Join the Azure Arc customer and engineering virtual meetup Fill in this short intake form to join the quarterly Azure Arc and Windows Server customer meetup: https://aka.ms/arcserverforumsignupAzure Arc Server June Forum
Please find the recording for the monthly Azure Arc Server Forum on YouTube! During the June 2026 Azure Arc Server Forum, we discussed: Arc Server AI Agent assists with onboarding and troubleshooting through an integrated LLM with plans for surfacing the experience through Azure Copilot and in Azure Portal. Azure Arc Multicloud Connector Updates focused on both the Public Preview of the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Connector and Public Preview of Azure Arc-enablement of detected EKS Clusters. WS 2016 ESU Updates with planned changes versus WS 2012 ESUs and expected timelines anticipating the WS 2016 end-of-support date of January 2027. Note, WS 2012 ESUs will end in October 2026. SQL 2016 ESU Updates discussed enrollment processes, licensing basics, and overall guidance with end-of-support in July 2026. To sign up for the Azure Arc Server Forum and newsletter, please register with contact details at https://aka.ms/arcserverforumsignup/. For the latest agent release notes, check out What's new with Azure Connected Machine agent - Azure Arc | Microsoft Learn. We are skipping July and August, and will resume after summer holidays with the September forum to be held on Thursday, September 17 at 9:30 AM PST / 12:30 PM EST. Finally, I wanted to thank everyone for the attendance and community over the last few years, I will no longer be leading the community calls. Please stay in touch, and Mason Torres, Yunis Hussein, and Meagan McCrory from the Arc PM team will be taking the community forward. We look forward to you joining us, thank you!Build, deploy, and govern sovereign AI with Foundry Local on Azure Local
Not every AI workload can run in the cloud. For many of our customers, data needs to stay within defined boundaries, connectivity may be limited or absent, and latency, governance, and auditability are non-negotiable. With Foundry Local on Azure Local, you can use the same model catalog, developer workflows, and governance capabilities you know from Azure, while running AI entirely within your own environment where your data resides. Foundry Local provides the model catalog and developer experience. Azure Local provides the customer-managed infrastructure. Azure Arc provides unified policy, governance, and lifecycle management across cloud and local environments. This gives developers a consistent way to build, deploy, and operate AI. The same az commands, the same model catalog, the same Arc policies, all running on hardware you control. Expansion of Foundry Local on Azure Local We're expanding the Foundry Local model offering on Azure Local, with support for multi-node deployments and new agents and tools that run locally, in preview. Deploy and run AI models locally. Run models with Foundry Local in customer-managed environments on Azure Local, across sovereign, private, and edge scenarios, including fully disconnected operation. Choose from a flexible, high-performance model catalog. Access proprietary and community models through Foundry Local, now expanded with vLLM-optimized models alongside ONNX-based offerings. You explore and deploy through the same catalog API experience, then operate locally on Azure Local. Build for production realities. Bring governance, identity, and auditability into your applications while keeping execution inside your controlled boundary. See what’s new in Foundry Local on Azure Local in the Tech Community blog. From intelligence to action: agents and tools inside the enterprise boundary Most production AI use cases need two things: grounded answers and the ability to act on them, without sending data outside the environment. Here's how we're enabling that locally. Preview: Agentic retrieval with Foundry Local: Ground agents in enterprise data using retrieval-augmented generation across local Microsoft 365 services, including Exchange and SharePoint. Read the Tech Community blog to learn more. Preview: Agents and tools with Foundry Local: Build AI systems that reason, retrieve information, and take action within customer-controlled environments. Learn more. Preview: Developer acceleration templates: Jump-start local AI application development with new Foundry solution templates, including local chat experiences and video agents, powered by Azure AI Video Indexer. Read the Tech Community to learn more. GitHub Enterprise Local: Now available in public preview Sovereign AI is also about how systems are built and secured, not just where they run. With GitHub Enterprise Local on Azure Local, you can bring your full software development lifecycle on-premises: Source control and repositories CI/CD pipelines Security and DevSecOps workflows GitHub Enterprise Local deploys entirely within customer-owned infrastructure, so teams get the developer tools they expect without compromising on data residency or operational control. This extends modern DevSecOps practice into sovereign environments and pairs naturally with the AI development workflows above: build, secure, and ship your AI applications within the same boundary where they run. Read the tech community blog to learn more about GitHub Enterprise Local and how to join the preview. Accelerating High-performance AI at the Edge with NVIDIA We are expanding our collaboration with NVIDIA to deliver high-performance AI capabilities directly at the edge. At Build, we are bringing: Azure Local and Foundry Local on NVIDIA-powered GPUs, including NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server Edition, with expanded GPU support coming soon Integration with Nemotron models, optimized for enterprise performance A scalable foundation for data-intensive, low-latency workloads This partnership ensures that organizations can run advanced AI workloads where data is generated - without dependency on centralized cloud infrastructure. Hardware options: AI factory configurations are available now in the catalog Alongside our hardware partners, we’re bringing integrated solutions to customers building AI within sovereign environments. The Azure Local hardware catalog now includes AI factory configurations from our OEM partners, including NVIDIA-certified 8xH100 systems, with options from DataON, Dell, HPE, and Lenovo. These configurations are sized for the performance that model serving and agentic workloads require on customer-managed infrastructure. Together with Microsoft, we are advancing sovereign AI by bringing the open NVIDIA Nemotron model family to Microsoft Foundry Local on Azure Local. This collaboration gives organizations a production-ready AI platform that enables them to deploy AI where their data resides while maintaining the governance, control, and performance needed to scale AI across the enterprise.” Kari Briski, VP Generative AI Software Products, NVIDIA ”Sovereign AI is becoming increasingly important for governments, regulated industries, and enterprises that want to use AI while maintaining control of their data, location, and operations. Lenovo’s ThinkAgile MX Series delivers trusted, enterprise-grade infrastructure with global deployment expertise to help customers run AI wherever their data resides. Co-engineered with Foundry Local and Azure Local, this solution provides an optimized platform to deploy, run, and scale AI locally with greater simplicity, consistency, and control, while helping meet strict data residency, security, and compliance requirements." Scott Patti - VP Infrastructure Solutions Group (ISG), Lenovo From AI models to trusted, mission-critical systems: what this unlocks for developers and operators AI is evolving from systems that answer questions to systems that plan, reason, and take action across workloads. These capabilities move AI from a cloud-only assumption to something you can deploy where sensitive work actually happens, with governance and operational controls intact. For our customers, this means you can now: Keep data, identities, and audit trails inside your sovereign boundary. Run AI inference and agentic workloads in connected, intermittently connected, or fully disconnected modes. Apply consistent policy and governance across cloud and local environments through Azure Arc. Use the same Foundry catalog and developer experience you already know, on infrastructure you own. Build, secure, and ship your AI applications with GitHub Enterprise Local, keeping source control, CI/CD, and DevSecOps workflows inside the same sovereign boundary. Resources Join us at Build OD837 Shipping physical AI to the edge with Azure Local and Foundry Local https://github.com/microsoft/build26-OD837 OD839 Foundry Local: AI solutions for industrial and sovereign needs https://github.com/microsoft/build26-OD839 LTG425 Expanding horizons: Foundry Local for devices and on-prem https://build.microsoft.com/en-US/sessions/LTG425 Request to join the Foundry Local on Azure Local preview Hands-on walkthrough: Your first model deployment on Foundry Local on Azure Local: from catalog to inference in 10 minutes | Microsoft Community Hub Read our Tech Community blogs: Foundry Local announcing multi-node and vLLM support Agentic Retrival with Foundry Local blog: https://aka.ms/AgentsAndToolsBuildBlog2026 Code sample / model catalog blog: https://aka.ms/foundry-local-model-catalog-blog For more details on the expanded capabilities of Foundry Local for highly secure environments, contact your Microsoft account team Discover Microsoft Sovereign Cloud Explore product documentation at: Foundry Local models on Azure Local: https://aka.ms/FoundryLocalonAzureLocal_documentation Local Agentic retrieval with Foundry Local: https://aka.ms/edge-agentic-retrieval-docsPlan for Upcoming Changes to Extended Security Updates on Azure Local
Beginning April 1 2026, Microsoft introduced a consistent pricing model for Extended Security Updates (ESU) for SQL Server and Windows products, including SQL Server 2016, Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB 2016 and Windows Server 2016. This update aims to simplify the Extended Security Update pricing so that customers pay the same list price for ESUs regardless of deployment location (Azure, on-premises, or other public clouds) or purchasing channel (Microsoft Customer Agreement, Enterprise agreements, Cloud Solution Provider program, or other licensing programs). ESUs on Azure Local This pricing change affects any new Extended Security Update offerings starting on or after April 1, 2026, including Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB 2016 (reaching end of support October 13, 2026) and Windows Server 2016 (reaching end of support January 12, 2027). Existing ESU offerings, including Windows Server 2012 or Windows 10 version 22H2, are not affected by this pricing change. This means that customers who already leverage ESUs will continue to have them available on Azure Local at no cost through Azure Verification for VMs. Next Steps As products reach end of support, it is recommended to upgrade your servers to the latest release available. For customers needing to remain on older versions after the end of support date has passed, further guidance on pricing and availability of ESUs will be shared in the coming months. Keep an eye on Extended Security Updates on Azure Local for more details. For More Information Microsoft Services: Pricing Consistency Update | Microsoft Licensing Resources Plan for Windows Server 2016 and Windows 10 2016 LTSB end of support - Windows IT Pro BlogAzure Arc Server May 2026 Forum
Please find the recording for the monthly Azure Arc Server Forum on YouTube! During the May 2026 Azure Arc Server Forum, we discussed: Private Preview of Windows Server 2016 Extended Security Updates (ESUs): Customers with Windows Server 2016 Servers with an NDA and willingness to provide feedback can sign up at https://aka.ms/WS2016ESU-PrivatePreview Special Announcement: Windows Server Hotpatch enabled by Azure Arc is now available at no additional cost for Windows Server 2025 machines connected to Azure Arc Feedback opportunity to product group on Azure Arc + RDP Capability: Customers can sign up at https://aka.ms/arc-rdp To sign up for the Azure Arc Server Forum and newsletter, please register with contact details at https://aka.ms/arcserverforumsignup/. For the latest agent release notes, check out What's new with Azure Connected Machine agent - Azure Arc | Microsoft Learn. Our June 2026 forum will be held on Thursday, June 18 at 9:30 AM PST / 12:30 PM EST. We look forward to you joining us, thank you!Ansible + Azure Arc: Use Ansible modules to deploy and manage Azure Arc machine extensions at scale
We are making Azure Arc extensible and increasing the flexibility of the tooling you can use to operate your machines using Azure’s control plane. We are excited to announce new modules in Ansible Galaxy that make it easier to manage Azure Arc machine extensions at scale. With the latest updates to the azure.azcollection on Ansible Galaxy, you no longer need to switch between existing tools. You can now deploy and manage Azure Arc extensions using familiar, declarative Ansible workflows. These new modules include: Azure Arc machine extensions module Azure Arc extensions info module Together, they enable infrastructure and platform teams to automate extension lifecycle management across their hybrid estate—bringing consistency, security, and efficiency to Azure Arc-enabled servers. Why this matters Azure Arc machine extensions power critical scenarios such as security, monitoring, update management, configuration and compliance. Until now, managing these Azure Arc extensions across hybrid estates often required Azure CLI scripts, ARM templates, or manual operations. With these new Ansible modules, you can: Integrate Azure Arc extension management into existing Ansible playbooks Enforce consistent configuration across hybrid servers Reduce operational overhead through declarative automation Align extension deployment with broader configuration management workflows What’s included azure_rm_arcmachineextensions This module allows you to manage the full lifecycle of Azure Arc machine extensions, including: Creating and deploying extensions Updating extension settings Removing extensions when no longer needed You can define extension state declaratively, ensuring consistent enforcement across your Azure Arc-enabled servers. azure_rm_arcmachineextensions_info This module provides visibility into extension state by retrieving: Installed extensions on Azure Arc-enabled machines Provisioning status and configuration details Extension metadata for reporting and validation This is useful for compliance validation, auditing, and conditional automation in playbooks. Scenario: Enforcing identity-based SSH access across a hybrid fleet Consider a regulated enterprise that must ensure all Linux servers—whether on-premises or in a multicloud environment—use Microsoft Entra ID for SSH access. The organization wants to: Eliminate local SSH credentials Enforce centralized identity and access controls Audit access consistently across all environments By combining Azure Arc with Ansible, the organization can deploy the Microsoft Entra SSH for Linux extension across all Azure Arc-enabled servers as part of a standardized playbook, ensuring compliance and reducing operational overhead. Example: Deploy Microsoft Entra SSH for Linux extension Below is an example of using Ansible to deploy the Microsoft Entra SSH extension to an Azure Arc-enabled server: - name: Deploy Entra SSH extension to Arc server hosts: localhost connection: local tasks: - name: Install Entra SSH extension for Linux azure_rm_arcmachineextensions: resource_group: myResourceGroup machine_name: myArcServer name: AADSSHLoginForLinux publisher: Microsoft.Azure.ActiveDirectory type: AADSSHLoginForLinux type_handler_version: "1.0" settings: {} state: present Example: Retrieve extension information Below is an example of using Ansible to retrieve details about your Azure Arc extensions: - name: Get Arc machine extension details hosts: localhost connection: local tasks: - name: Fetch extensions azure_rm_arcmachineextensions_info: resource_group: myResourceGroup machine_name: myArcServer Integrating with existing Ansible workflows If you’re already using Ansible for: OS configuration Patch and update management Application deployment You can now extend those workflows to include Azure Arc extension management—without introducing new tools or processes. This allows you to manage on-premises servers, Edge infrastructure and multicloud environments through a unified automation approach powered by Azure Arc and Ansible. Read more at Enable VM Extensions Using Red Hat Ansible - Azure Arc | Microsoft Learn What’s next These modules are part of our continued investment in making Azure Arc a first-class platform for managing Windows and Linux machines in hybrid and multicloud infrastructure. By bringing extension lifecycle management into Ansible, we’re enabling teams to enforce security, compliance, and operational consistency at scale—using the tools they already trust. Stay connected Join the Azure Arc Monthly Forum here: aka.ms/ArcServerForumSignup Let us know what you’d like to see next in the comments!Unlock On-Prem Productivity with Agentic Retrieval in Foundry Local
In today’s connected world, customers expect instant, context-rich interactions, even in environments where cloud connectivity isn’t guaranteed. That’s where Retrieval-Augmented Generation at the edge comes in. Since we launched into public preview, we’ve watched teams across regulated, disconnected, and mission-critical environments push this technology into places cloud GenAI simply couldn’t reach. What we heard back shaped everything in this release: customers don’t just want retrieval. They want reasoning, they want agency, and they want an end-user experience that feels as natural as the one they already use in the cloud. Today at Build 2026, we're excited to introduce Agentic Retrieval, the next evolution of our on-prem RAG platform, enabled by Azure Arc and powered by Foundry language models. Agentic Retrieval is part of Microsoft's Adaptive Cloud approach, which extends Azure capabilities to wherever customer data and workloads actually live, with Edge AI focused on bringing reasoning and grounding to on-prem, distributed, and disconnected environments. Together with Foundry Local, Agentic Retrieval continues to shape Microsoft's Foundry Anywhere commitment: flexibility, resilience, and intelligence wherever customers operate. What’s new at Build 2026 This release introduces three major pillars that work independently or together: Agentic Retrieval engine: a first-party orchestration runtime for planning, reasoning, conversation state, and tool calls over your local data Knowledge: a dedicated layer for organizing, curating, and governing your grounding data, exposed via MCP and connectable to any agentic retrieval layer Chat UI: a production-ready, polished conversational experience that ships as the default UX for Agentic Retrieval and can also be deployed standalone Alongside, we’re delivering the platform upgrades customers asked for: flexible deployment modes (Agentic-only, Knowledge-only, or Combined), BYOM with pluggable backends, Foundry Local model catalog integration, Entra ID support, disconnected-ready, and hybrid search combined with agentic retrieval. Agentic Retrieval: From Answering to Reasoning Classic RAG retrieves, then generates. Agentic Retrieval plans, reasons, and acts, running multi-step retrieval and tool invocation under a first-party orchestration runtime, entirely on your infrastructure. Under the hood it manages query planning, iterative multi-hop retrieval, tool calls via MCP, conversation state, and mandatory grounding with citations and audit logging built in. What customers can achieve: Compliance, policy, and permit workflows for public sector, regulators, and defense operations, with data never leaving sovereign infrastructure Multi-document synthesis across standards, technical manuals, contracts, and field procedures for industrial operators An agentic chat experience for regulated and operational teams (engineers, inspectors, analysts) that reasons like a subject-matter expert Auditable AI for sovereign and mission-critical environments, with every answer traceable to its source Knowledge: A First-Class, Governed Data Layer Great answers start with great knowledge. Knowledge is now a standalone component customers can deploy on its own or alongside Agentic Retrieval, exposed through an MCP wrapper so it can connect to any agentic retrieval layer, ours or yours. This release brings Collections (segmented groups of indexed knowledge with granular access permissions), multi-source ingestion across documents, tables, images, and SharePoint (indexed source moving to public preview), high-fidelity parsing for complex enterprise content, Bring Your Own MCP to connect customer-owned data sources directly into Agentic Retrieval and the chat experience, and governance enforced at the data layer itself. ent view - collections, sources, and permission scopes What customers can achieve: Scope knowledge access to different slices of the same corpus, by plant, site, classification, or jurisdiction Enforce data sovereignty, residency, and regulatory compliance at the knowledge layer itself Ground both first-party Agentic Retrieval and BYO orchestration through a single governed source of truth across distributed sites Keep classified, proprietary, and operational data fully on-prem while delivering premium chat experiences Chat UI: Production-Ready Conversational Experience Agentic Retrieval now ships with a polished, production-ready Chat UI as its default experience, and the same component can be deployed standalone for customers building their own stack on Foundry Local. Highlights include Entra ID authentication (MSAL login, Bearer tokens, user identity display), pluggable backends across AI Foundry, BYOM, or mock mode with zero code changes, Chain-of-Thought visibility and inline citations that make grounding transparent to end users, standalone frontend deployment via Helm chart and container image, and disconnected-ready operation for air-gapped environments. What customers can achieve: Deliver a polished end-user experience to operators, inspectors, and analysts without building UI from scratch Build trust in regulated and industrial workflows through transparent, inspectable reasoning and grounding Run the same UI across air-gapped facilities, sovereign clouds, and connected industrial sites Accelerate rollout across public sector, defense, manufacturing, and other mission-critical environments Why This Release Matters Every update to our on-prem RAG platform has moved us toward a simple conviction: GenAI should be useful wherever customers operate, whether regulated or open, connected or disconnected, centralized or distributed. With Agentic Retrieval, Knowledge, and Chat UI coming together, backed by Foundry on Arc, BYOM, and fully disconnected support, this is no longer “cloud RAG, but local.” It’s an agentic knowledge platform purpose-built for the realities of enterprise data: on-prem, governed, and increasingly autonomous. Learn More Explore Agentic retrieval documentation Read Foundry Local on Azure Local model inferencing blog post For more information reach out to the team at FoundryLocalOnAzure@microsoft.com
Simplified access to Hotpatching enabled by Azure Arc for Windows Server 2025
With Windows Server 2025, we introduced hotpatch enabled by Azure Arc, delivering security updates to Windows Server across hybrid and multicloud environments – minimizing downtime (no reboot), accelerating protection, and unifying patch management. We know that keeping your servers updated with the latest patches is one of the critical tasks that IT teams perform day-to-day. We want to make it simpler to install the latest operating system (OS) updates without rebooting machines after every installation. The resounding feedback we have received from you underscored the criticality of this feature in the lifecycle management and security of your infrastructure. We are now taking it one step further to reduce the friction to deploying these critical updates: hotpatch enabled by Azure Arc is now available at no additional cost for Windows Server 2025. Which machines are eligible for this offer? To use hotpatch for Windows Servers running on-premises or in multicloud environments, you must be using Windows Server 2025 Standard or Datacenter, and your server must be connected to Azure Arc. With this announcement, enabling and usage of the hotpatching service is available at no additional charge. Please take note that there are no charges for customers running on Azure IaaS, or Azure Local, wherein hotpatching is available as part of the functionality of Windows Server Datacenter: Azure Edition. This feature is already included both with Windows Server 2022 Datacenter: Azure Edition and Windows Server 2025 Datacenter: Azure Edition. How do I manage hotpatches enabled by Azure Arc for Windows Server 2025? If your Windows Server 2025 machines aren't already connected to Azure Arc, install the Azure Connected Machine agent — it takes just a few minutes per server and supports at-scale rollout via Group Policy, service principal, or Terraform. Once connected, enable Hotpatch from the Azure portal, Azure PowerShell, Azure CLI, or the REST API — just confirm Virtualization-based security (VBS is enabled) first. From there, use Azure Update Manager to schedule and monitor rollouts at scale. For instructions on how to enable hotpatch for Azure Arc-enabled machines using group policy or scripts, learn more here: https://aka.ms/ws-hotpatch For patch orchestration at scale, you can use Azure Update Manager to deliver hotpatches enabled by Azure Arc for Windows server 2025 machines. This enables greater uptime with fewer reboots and faster deployment of updates with easy patch orchestration. Alternatively, you can use APIs or other management tools to manage hotpatches. Centralized management of hotpatch updates across hybrid and multicloud environments enabled by Azure Arc Once your machines are connected to Azure Arc, you can also use the cloud-native services from Azure to manage your windows machines running on-prem. Azure Arc enables you to standardize security and governance across a wide range of resources so you can easily organize, govern and secure Windows, Linux, SQL servers, and Kubernetes clusters running across data centers, edge, and multi-cloud environments – using Azure services such as Azure Policy, Azure Monitor, Microsoft Defender and more. At no additional cost for machines attached to Azure Arc Basic inventory across on-prem and multi-cloud Tag your resources, organize them into resource groups, subscriptions, and management groups, and query at scale with Azure Resource Graph to unify your environments. Infra as Code (Bicep, Terraform) Infra as code for provisioning and management of resources. VM Self Service Perform lifecycle management such as (create, resize, update and delete) and power cycle operations such as (start, stop, and restart on VMware vCenter and System Center Virtual Machine Manager Virtual Machines. Hotpatch for Windows Server 2025 NEW Windows Server hot patching enables you to apply security updates without rebooting, keeping systems secure while maintaining continuous uptime. VM Management Administrate your servers anywhere using SSH for Azure Arc, Run Command, and Custom Script Extension. Mgmt. Services included for no additional costs with Windows Server Software Assurance or Extended Security Updates Azure Update Manager Provides a unified, centralized service to monitor, orchestrate, and automate patching across Azure, on‑prem, and multi‑cloud environments ensuring security, compliance, and minimal downtime at scale. Azure Machine Configuration (Policy) Policy‑driven auditing and enforcement of OS and application settings as code across Azure and hybrid machines—ensuring consistent, compliant state at scale. Including compliance policies like CIS Benchmark and WinRE Change Tracking & Inventory Real‑time visibility into configuration changes and system state across your fleet enabling faster troubleshooting, improved security, and continuous compliance at scale. VM insights from Azure Monitor Delivers a unified, pre‑built observability experience that provides real‑time performance, health, and dependency visibility across VMs—enabling faster troubleshooting, optimization, and capacity planning at scale. Windows Admin Center Unified, browser‑based management plane to securely manage Windows servers, VMs, and hybrid infrastructure from anywhere—simplifying operations and improving efficiency at scale. Best Practices Assessment Continuously evaluation your server configurations against Microsoft-recommended standards to proactively identify risks and provide actionable remediation guidance—improving security, performance, and operational health at scale. Frequently Asked Questions What are hotpatch updates? Hotpatch updates are monthly security updates that take effect without requiring you to restart the device. They contain a full set of security updates equivalent to the standard updates released the same day. What is the hotpatch update cycle? All eligible Windows Server 2025 machines enrolled in hotpatch are offered up to 8 monthly hotpatch updates in a calendar year in a quarterly cycle: Baseline month: In January, April, July, and October, devices install the monthly cumulative security update and must restart for the update to take effect. This update includes the latest security fixes, cumulative new features, and enhancements since the last baseline. Subsequent two months: Devices receive hotpatch updates, which only include security updates and don't require a restart for the update to take effect. These devices will catch up on features and enhancements with the next cumulative baseline month (quarterly). Will billing be stopped for existing enrolled machines? Yes, as of 15 th May 2026 all billing for hotpatch has been stopped for all existing machines enrolled in hotpatch. What action do we need to take if we have machines enrolled in hotpatch already? There is no additional action needed for machines that are currently enrolled in hotpatch. These machines will remain enrolled in hotpatch and receive hotpatch updates when available. I want all my Windows Server 2025 machines to get hotpatches. How do I do it? If you have Windows Server 2025 machines on-premises or on cloud (other than Azure) then you can enable hotpatch on them. To do so, ensure these machines have Virtualization Based Security enabled and are connected to Azure Arc and then you can use Azure Arc portal, Azure Update manager or APIs to enable hotpatch. Learn more: https://aka.ms/ws-hotpatch Is anything changing for Hotpatching on Azure? Hotpatch continues to be available on Azure for your Windows Server 2022 and Windows Server 2025 VMs when using Azure Edition. There is no fee associated with Hotpatching on Azure. Learn more here. Is there a community forum for Arc? Yes, you can join the Azure Arc Monthly Forum here: aka.ms/ArcServerForumSignupAzure Arc Server April 2026 Forum
Please find the recording for the monthly Azure Arc Server Forum on YouTube! During the April 2026 Azure Arc Server Forum, we discussed: Public Preview of Essential Machine Management, learn more at aka.ms/EMM-blog and sign up at aka.ms/EMM-feedback Engage with product group on exploration of AI on bring your own Kubernetes by signing up at aka.ms/arc-ai-survey Product group is investing in extending the Multi-cloud Connector provide customers the ability to connect their MECM environments to Azure for inventory, monitoring, and management To sign up for the Azure Arc Server Forum and newsletter, please register with contact details at https://aka.ms/arcserverforumsignup/. For the latest agent release notes, check out What's new with Azure Connected Machine agent - Azure Arc | Microsoft Learn. Our May 2026 forum will be held on Thursday, May 21 at 9:30 AM PST / 12:30 PM EST. We look forward to you joining us, thank you!Azure Arc Server Mar 2026 Forum Recap
Please find the recording for the monthly Azure Arc Server Forum on YouTube! During the March 2026 Azure Arc Server Forum, we discussed: Deploying Ansible Playbooks through Machine Configuration as Azure Policy (Learn more: Announcing Private Preview: Deploy Ansible Playbooks using Azure Policy via Machine Configuration) and sign up at https://aka.ms/ansible-arc-signup New MECM (SCCM) connector supporting Cloud Native Server Management, sign up for Private Preview at aka.ms/arc-mecm/preview Automatic Agent Upgrade at Scale Enablement (Learn more: Run the latest Azure Arc agent with Automatic Agent Upgrade (Public Preview)) TPM-backed Identity for Secure Onboarding, sign up for Private Preview at https://aka.ms/arc-tpm-backed-identity/preview/ To sign up for the Azure Arc Server Forum and newsletter, please register with contact details at https://aka.ms/arcserverforumsignup/. For the latest agent release notes, check out What's new with Azure Connected Machine agent - Azure Arc | Microsoft Learn. Our April 2026 forum will be held on Thursday, April 16 at 9:30 AM PST / 12:30 PM EST. We look forward to you joining us, thank you!
