What is Azure Arc ?
Tags: azure, azurearc, kubernetes, governance
Published: 2022-05-27 13:11:21

Companies struggle to control and govern an increasing number of complex environments that extend across data centers, multiple clouds, and edge. Each environment and cloud possesses its own set of management tools that can be difficult to enforce across resources.

It is possible to `simplify governance and management` with the aid of delivering a consistent `multi-cloud and on-premises management platform`.

There is a centralized, unified way to:

- If you want to manage your entire environment, you can project your existing non-Azure and/or on-premises resources into Azure Resource Manager.
- Virtual machines, clusters, and databases can be managed as if they are in azure.
- If they live in a different area, use familiar Azure services and management capabilities.
- Continue using traditional ITOps while introducing DevOps practices to support new cloud native patterns in your environment.
- On top of the Arc-enabled Kubernetes clusters and cluster extensions, you can create `custom locations`.


You can manage the resource types hosted outside of azure.

**[Servers: ](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-arc/servers/overview)**

Virtual machines are hosted outside of azure.

**[Kubernetes clusters: ](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-arc/kubernetes/overview)**

Attach and setup Kubernetes clusters with multiple distributions.

**[Azure data services:](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-arc/data/overview)**

You can run Azure data services on-premises, at the edge, and in public clouds using the infrastructure of your choice. There are currently two services available.

**[SQL Server: ](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/sql-server/azure-arc/overview?view=sql-server-ver16)**

It is possible to extend azure services to SQL server instances that are hosted outside of azure.

**Virtual machines (preview):** 

Provision, resizing, deletion, and management of virtual machines based on [VMware vSphere](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-arc/vmware-vsphere/overview) or [Azure Stack HCI](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure-stack/hci/manage/azure-arc-enabled-virtual-machines) can be done through role-based access.

## Key points and benefits

- Some of the key situations that Azure Arc supports are:
- Consistency in inventory, management, governance, and security is important for your environment.
- You can use azure management services to monitor, secure, and update your server.
- At scale, govern and manage Kubernetes clusters.
- GitOps can be used to deploy configuration across multiple clusters.
- Zero-touch compliance and configuration for clusters.
- If you want to run [Azure data services](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-arc/kubernetes/custom-locations) on any Kubernetes environment, make sure they run in the same way as if they were in the same place. Even without continuous connection to azure, use elastic scale and apply updates without downtime.
- You can use [custom locations](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-arc/kubernetes/custom-locations) on top of your [Arc-enabled Kubernetes clusters](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-arc/kubernetes/overview) to deploy Azure services instances. If you want to deploy extensions for [azure Arc-enabled Data Services](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-arc/data/create-data-controller-direct-azure-portal), [App Services on azure Arc](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/app-service/overview-arc-integration), and [event grid on Kubernetes](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/event-grid/kubernetes/overview), you need to deploy them.
- Virtual machine lifecycle and management operations can be performed in the [vSphere](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-arc/vmware-vsphere/overview) and [Stack](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure-stack/hci/manage/azure-arc-enabled-virtual-machines) environments.
- Whether you are using the azure portal, the azure cli, or the azure PowerShell, you will get a unified experience viewing your Arc-enabled resources.


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