Azure Arc overview: detailed explanation of functions, management and application scenarios, AZ900 test site examples

Outline of this article

The main contents outlined in this article’s mind map:

1. What is Azure Arc?

One of the high-profile announcements at Microsoft's Kindle Conference 2019 was Azure Arca new operations tool designed for hybrid cloud applications and infrastructure.

Today, companies are actively responding to an increasingly complex business environment. These environments span multiple data centers, multi-cloud and edge deployments. Each environment and cloud platform is equipped with independent management tools, and adapting to new DevOps and ITOps operating models can face resource spanning challenges.

Azure Arc helps organizations manage and scale their resources, applications, and data, whether they're in the cloud, on edge devices, or in on-premises data centers . The main goal of Azure Arc is to provide a centralized management platform that enables organizations to manage their computing resources and applications across multiple environments (multi-cloud, multi-location, and multiple technology stacks).

It can be summed up in one sentence : Azure Arc simplifies governance and management by providing a consistent multi-cloud and on-premises management platform.

If you are preparing for the AZ-900 exam, you only need to know what Azure Arc is used for. The keywords to pay attention to are, managing multi-cloud and local resources (On-Premises). Basically there is only one test point in AZ900, you know what it is used for.

2. What operations can be done using Azure Arc?

Azure Arc provides a centralized and unified way to:

• Manage the entire environment by projecting existing non-Azure and/or on-premises resources into Azure Resource Manager.
• Manage virtual machines, Kubernetes clusters, and databases as if they were running in Azure.
• No matter where your resources are located, you can use familiar Azure services and management capabilities.
• Continue to use traditional ITOps while introducing DevOps practices to support the new cloud-native model in your environment.
• Configure a custom location as an abstraction layer on Azure Arc-enabled Kubernetes clusters and cluster extensions.

(How to view the large picture: A new window will open with the picture, and then click to enlarge the picture)

3. What resources can be managed using Azure Arc?

• On-premises data center servers : Manage Windows and Linux physical servers and virtual machines hosted outside of Azure.
• Kubernetes Clusters : Attach and configure a Kubernetes cluster running anywhere with multiple supported distributions.
• Azure Data Services : Run Azure Data Services in on-premises, edge, and public cloud environments using Kubernetes and the infrastructure of your choice. SQL Managed Instance and PostgreSQL (Preview) services are currently available.
• SQL Server Database : Extend Azure services to SQL Server instances hosted outside of Azure.
• Virtual Machines (Preview) : Provision, resize, delete, and manage virtual machines based on VMware vSphere or Azure Stack HCI and enable VM self-service with role-based access.

3.1 How to use Azure Arc and server?

Here is a practical example, such as using Azure Arc to manage a local server. You first need to install an Azure Arc Agent in your local server or a virtual machine in the data center. Then the Agent in your server will be real-time Collect some status and information of your server and feed it back to Azure, so that you can see your local server status and some information in the Azure Portal, and you can manage some of your servers, such as status, patching, updates, etc. .

Servers managed by Azure Arc can be virtual machines and not necessarily physical servers. This means you can preload the agent in the virtual machine's base image rather than having to wait to add it during installation. As part of the service setup, Azure Arc generates custom configurations that run on different servers before downloading and installing the agent to each server, thereby adding those servers as resources.

4. Main scenarios supported by Azure Arc

If you have the following usage or demand scenarios when managing multi-cloud or local infrastructure, then you may consider using Azure Arc.

• Enable consistent inventory, management, governance, and security for servers across your environment.
• Configure the Azure VM extension to monitor, protect, and update servers using Azure management services.
• Manage and govern Kubernetes clusters at scale.
• Use a GitOps deployment configuration across one or more clusters of Git repositories.
• Use Azure Policy for zero-touch compliance and provisioning of Kubernetes clusters.
• Run Azure Data Services on any Kubernetes environment (specifically Azure SQL Managed Instance and Azure Database for PostgreSQL Server, which includes benefits such as upgrades, updates, security, and monitoring) just like running in Azure. With Elastic Scaling, updates are applied without causing any application downtime, even without ongoing connectivity to Azure.
• Create custom locations on your Azure Arc-enabled Kubernetes cluster and use them as destinations for deploying Azure service instances. Deploy Azure Service Cluster extensions for Azure Arc-enabled data services, App Services on Azure Arc (including Web, Function, and Logic Apps), and Event Grid on Kubernetes.
• Perform virtual machine lifecycle and management operations for VMware vSphere and Azure Stack HCI environments.
• Whether you're using the Azure portal, Azure CLI, Azure PowerShell, or the Azure REST API, you can see a unified experience for Azure Arc-enabled resources.

5. Examples of test points in AZ900

Here is a sample question about Azure Arc:

5.1 Sample question 1

Question: Which Azure service can you use to manage your local Windows servers?

Correct answer: Azure Arc

Explanation: Azure Arc allows organizations to extend the Azure Resource Manager control plane from the public cloud to their on-premises environments so that they can manage these resources as if they existed locally in Azure and leverage services like Automanage.

5.2 Sample question 2

question:

What services extend Azure compliance and monitoring to hybrid and multi-cloud configurations?

Answer: Azure Arc

According to the above explanation, you should be able to choose the answer as Azure Arc. The interference answer here is Azure Policy. Azure Policy also involves Azure compliance, but other OP resources need to be included in Azure before management. Not what the title says 扩展.

[ 本文作者 ]   bluetata
[ 原文链接 ]   https://bluetata.blog.csdn.net/article/details/133325998
[ 最后更新 ]   09/29/2023 23:30
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