What has made Azure so popular over the years
is the range of differentiated workloads and capabilities it offers to our customers.
Our goal with Azure Stack HCI is to bring to you
many of the same benefits that you associate with Azure.
Starting with 21H2, the team is excited to announce:
Azure benefits on Azure Stack HCI.
Azure benefits is an optional feature on Azure Stack HCI
and is what makes it possible for these
Azure-exclusive workloads to function outside of the cloud,
like running Windows Server Azure Edition VMs,
free Extended Security Updates (ESU),
free Azure Policy guest configuration services,
and more to come!
And the best part is,
turning on Azure benefits comes at no additional cost.
The way Azure benefits works under the hood
is that it sets up a host attestation service on your cluster.
VMs using Azure benefits will first reach out to the host service
and validate that hey, am I running on Azure right now?
The host attestation service will then respond saying
yes, you are in Azure.
As the VM now believes that it is running on Azure,
it is able to unlock Azure-exclusive workloads on Azure Stack HCI.
So how do you turn on Azure benefits?
There are 2 steps involved.
First, turn on the Azure benefits feature on your host cluster.
Second, enable VM access to Azure benefits on the host.
Before you begin, you will need to install at least
the December security update or later for your Azure Stack HCI cluster,
and then use either PowerShell or Windows Admin Center
to turn on and manage Azure benefits.
Let me show you how you can do this through Windows Admin Center.
First, connect to an Azure Stack HCI cluster in Windows Admin Center.
Under the settings menu, navigate to the ‘Azure benefits’ tab.
This will bring you to the Azure benefits setup screen.
When you click on the button ‘Turn on’,
this will set up the attestation service on your cluster,
as well as select ‘Turn on for all existing VMs’ by default,
or, manually enable benefits for VMs later.
Select ‘turn on’, and wait for the process to complete.
When Azure benefits has been successfully turned on,
you can now view the status of Azure benefits on your host cluster,
as well as the VMs with Azure Benefits turned on.
On the cluster tab, you can see the status
of Azure benefits for each server, as well as the expiry date.
Sync with Azure at least once every 30 days
to keep Azure benefits updated.
Next, let me check on the list of VMs with Azure benefits turned on.
As I have earlier checked the box for adding all existing VMs,
you can see that all my VMs in this table
down below for ‘VMs with Azure benefits’.
But perhaps I am growing my business,
and now I have just deployed a new VM on my cluster.
When I check the status for VMs with Azure benefits turned on,
I can see that not all of my VMs have been enabled.
To add the new VM, I can navigate back to the ‘VM’ tab,
and view the top table for ‘VMs without Azure benefits’.
I can select individual VMs, or simply the whole table.
I can then click on ‘Turn on Azure benefits for VMs’.
With the new VM successfully added,
any of these VMs can now use Azure benefits
and you are now ready to enjoy the best of
Azure-exclusive workloads on your Azure Stack HCI cluster.
Good luck!